Democratic Palestine : 17 (ص 5)
غرض
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- Democratic Palestine : 17 (ص 5)
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Destruction in Sabra
great steadfastness. Four Palestinians
were martyred and 18 injured. The
situation calmed down on June 7th,
although Amal continued sniping at the
camps. The next day, Amal unleashed a
heavy barrage of shelling, without
notice, against Bourj Al Barajneh and
Shatila, causing the death of seven and
the injury of 17, mostly civilians.
As we go to press, the camp war
remains unresolved. Yet whatever the
outcome, the cause of this war and the
reasons for its continuation are already
clear. As stated by Comrade George
Habash, General Secretary of the
PFLP, at a press conference on June
5th: Amal «aims to eliminate or subdue
the Palestinian armed presence in
Lebanon. Their fighters continue to
violate the ceasefire. Amal’s position
applies not only to the Palestinian
armed presence but to all nationalist
organizations that fought the Israeli
occupation.» Comrade Habash stressed
that the Palestinian revolution was only
engaging in self-defense in the battles
around the camps. He specified the cor-
rect basis for ending the fighting as fol-
lows: «an immediate, honest and strict
ceasefire, the withdrawal of Amal’s
forces from the areas around the camps,
increasing the presence of the Lebanese
nationalist forces to act as a buffer bet-
ween the camps and Amal’s positions,
and consolidating the Palestine
National Salvation Front’s presence in
the camps to maintain security and deal
with any Palestinian violations.»
The casualty figures mentioned above are not
necessarily comprehensive.
Jordan
Iron Fist in Steel Glove
On May 14th, the Jordanian regime’s forces viciously suppressed
student demonstrations at Yarmouk University in Irbid. It is esti-
mated that 18 students were murdered in cold blood.
The Jordanian and Palestinian
masses of the Hashemite kingdom are
not unfamiliar with the viciousness of a
regime which has long since used prac-
tices similar to those of its Zionist
neighbor. Any spontaneous expression
of the people’s solidarity with any
national cause has been crushed by
Hussein’s forces, using the most brutal
methods. No age group has been
spared-old people and school children
have fallen prey.
The recent massacre at Yarmouk
University is, however, unprecedented
in terms of the intensity and length of
the clashes between the authorities and
students, and in terms of the bloodiness
and number of victims. The iron fist
royalists have not only struck at Irbid.
Arrests, house searches and interroga-
tions have been going on in the capital,
as well as in other areas and villages of
the country. In mid-May, the Secretary
General of the Jordanian Communist
Party, as well as 16 cadres, including six
politbureau members, were arrested.
For the past several months, Irbid has
been the scene of mass arrests, interro-
gations and harassment of intellectuals,
unionists and nationalists. The regime’s
frenzied brutality shows the extent to
which it is prepared to go to smother any
form of democratic expression of dis-
content, regarding anything from stu-
dents’ academic demands to political
freedoms. It is also a reflection of
undercurrents of discontent born of an
acute economic crisis. Moreover, with a
population majority of approximately
70% Palestinians, Hussein is finding it
increasingly difficult to speed along
with his plans to wrench Palestinian
representation from the PLO. Even the
bloody extremes to which Hussein has
already resorted are not enough to
cower the people into accepting him as
their representative.
UNIVERSITY OF THE
UNDERPRIVILEGED ;
The majority ot Yarmouk’s 3000
students come from the underprivileged
sectors of society, who have been unable
to obtain acceptance at the more presti-
gious Jordanian University of Amman.
This is due to their inability to pay fees
designed to allow only the more privi-
leged to filter through, plus a rigid wall
of regulations engineered with loop-
holes which allow acceptance only for
some.
The acute differences of the past two
years, between students and the univer-
sity administration, revolve around
passing grade averages, fees anda
number of other academic issues.
Because of their continuous struggle to.
implement their academic rights, stu-
dent activists have been labeled as «des-
tructive elements». The university
administration, backed by the intelli-
gence, has taken this as a convenient
pretext for launching any number of
arbitrary measures, the latest of which
has been murder.
NATIONALIST CRESCENDO
The student uprising at Yarmouk
University was the culmination of a
series of events which began when a
sit-in hunger strike was organized in
solidarity with the Palestinian masses
commemorating Land Day on March
30th. University administration
employees, collaborating with the
general intelligence, supplied lists of the
names of student activists suspected of
leading activities. Not only were stu-
dents prohibited from organizing the
yearly Palestinian exhibition, but an
Islamic book fair was also stopped.
Ironically, the university brought in a
US pop band to play on Yarmouk Day
(the day of the university’s establish-
ment) instead of allowing the students to
organize their activities. In past years,
the administration has used this
method, hiring pop groups or television
celebrities to perform, instead of allo-
wing students to organize activities, for
fear of the dimensions which indepen-
dent student organization might take.
The new regulation giving the dean of
student affairs the right to dissolve any
student society without prior warning,
further portrays the administration’s
determination to exert dictatorial con-
trol.
Tension began to climb again with the-
spontaneous mass response to the US
attack on Libya. Demonstrations were
organized in Amman as well as Irbid,
but were not allowedto get very far
before the police clamped down and
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- Democratic Palestine : 17
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