And your death it comes soon
And I'll follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch as you're lowered
Down to our death bed
And stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead"
Bob Dylan wrote those words fifty years ago, about very different people, but they are appropriate today. Ariel Sharon, the man who was instrumental in the Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973; who was Minister for Defence (a laughable title in that country) when three and a half thousand people were massacred in the Sabra and Shutila refugee camps in 1982, an atrocity for which he was personally responsible; who was prime minister while Palestinians were killed in their thousands by Israeli troops; who was responsible for more outrages against the Palestinian people than I can enumerate; is dead. There are many people rejoicing at the news, and they have every right to - Sharon was a filthy criminal who ought to have been put down long ago. But that's the thing - he wasn't. It wasn't a bullet from a freedom fighter that killed, but organ failure. He did not die young, as he should have, but at the age of eighty-five. And, worse, the state of Israel is still there; the people of Palestine still face appalling conditions, violence from settlers and soldiers, and worse.
So by all means, celebrate; an evil man has left the earth. But the conditions that allowed him to perpetrate his crimes still exist, and others are doing what he no longer can.
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