Democratic Palestine : 15 (ص 18)
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- Democratic Palestine : 15 (ص 18)
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pressure of popular protest, only superficial changes were
made. Although it was boasted that works by Palestinian
national poets were included, they were all about love and
courtship, written in the early stages of the poets’ careers.
Everything on Palestinian culture or history was completely
excluded. Furthermore, all school programs and projects
specific to Palestinians are submitted for censorship not only to
the Zionist Ministry of Education, but to the Ministry of Defence
as well. There are textbooks dating back 20 years, while some
schools use Arabic grammer books printed 75 years ago. The
deliberate gross neglect is based on a policy of misinforming
the new generation of Palestinians growing up under occupa-
tion. Another aspect is the historical falsification in new books
introduced into the schools. Safad, in an eighth grade geog-
raphy book is called ‘Zfat’; lbn Amer plain is called ‘Emeq Yis-
rael’ and Wadi al Hawarith is called ‘Emeq Haifa’, in addition to
insinuations that Palestine was uninhabited before Jewish
immigration.
All the above factors aim at smothering anything Palesti-
nian, and at minimizing and eventually eliminating Palestinian
participation in higher education institutions. At present Pales-
tinians compromise less than 10% of the overall student body
in universities. Out of a total of 6000 university lecturers, only
6 are Palestinian Arabs. The aim is obvious — to eliminate
Palestinian competition from the job market and leave unchal-
leged the economic and cultural hegemony of the Zionist
entity.
Strangling culture
Palestinian culture, the mark of Palestinian national iden-
tity, has always been a thorn in the Zionists’ side. Cultural
expression is most often met with fascist measures of destruc-
tion and impediment. School books cover the culture of all
peoples in the world except that of the Palestinian people. To
hold national festivals or rallies means a constant struggle with
the Zionist authorities over otherwise trivial formalities like
obtaining permits to set up temporary structures. Even when
permits are procured, the Zionists have been known to cancel
permission or look the other way when incidents of vandalism
by Zionist settlers occur. In one instance, a settler tore up a
painting by a Palestinian artist because it enraged him to see
the colors of the Palestinian flag being used in the picture!
Seventy percent of the Palestinian towns and villages
have no cultural centres or youth centres. The 38 that do exist
were allocated only two-thirds the budget given to one Jewish
youth centre.
All attempts to establish a professional Palestinian theatre
have failed. Small theatre groups do perform, but any attempt
to develop or expand are always nipped in the bud. Many
groups receiving invitations to peform abroad are denied the
opportunity to travel because the authorities prohibit them.
The international conference held by UNESCO, devoted
to the discussion of Palestinian education, did not exaggerate
when it described the actions of the Zionist entity as a flagrant
violation of international law and human rights.
Operation Terror
the time the Zionists decided to halt the
operation on Saturday, February 22nd,
130 Lebanese citizens were still being
1986 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon
detained. According to confirmed re-
ports, 17 had been killed and 22 in-
jured, but the actual casualty toll may be
On Monday, February 17th, Lebanese patriots ambushed a joint
Israeli-South Lebanon Army motorized patrol, killing two SLA men
and capturing two Israeli soldiers. The attack occurred near Beit
Yanoun on the northern edge of the ‘security zone’ the Israeli
occupiers have imposed in South Lebanon. Almost immediately, the
Zionist army reinvaded Lebanon.
much higher.
Fierce resistance
The first day of the invasion, Israeli
planes dropped leaflets over southern
villages, promising not to enact collec-
tive punishment. Besides being alie, this
Three columns of over 1,000
mechanized infantry and air-bome
troops crossed the ‘security zone’ to
storm seven villages and arrest about
thirty persons. Israeli planes swooped
over all parts of Lebanon, breaking the
sound barrier to increase the atmos-
phere of terror. Each ensuing day
brought new reinforcements to the Zion-
ist invaders, swelling their ranks to
1,500.
The Israeli-occupied portion of
Lebanon was expanded by almost 200
square kilometers, in addition to the per-
manently occupied ‘security zone’. In
the newly reoccupied area, over twenty
villages were besieged and repeatedly
invaded by paratroopers dropping from
helicopters and tank-borne troops. An
average of 500 southerners were
detained for questioning each day. By
16
was based on the Zionists’ vain hope
that the population would acquiese and
even cooperate in the attempt to find the
captured soldiers. Quite the opposite
occurred. From the first day, the invad-
ers met stiff resistance, dodging patriots’
bullets as they moved from village to vil-
lage. On February 18th, an Israeli cor-
poral was killed when nationalist forces
fired on an Israeli gunboat off the coast
of Tyre. The next day, Israeli soldiers
were engaged in clashes with anti-occu-
pation resistors, and two SLA men were
killed by RPGs near Harris. On February
20th, there were more clashes, and an
Israeli soldier was killed in an ambush
near Srifa.
Search and destroy
The Zionist soldiers’ search for their
captured colleagues became a new
exercise in human rights violations.
Frustrated by lack of quick success, they - هو جزء من
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