Democratic Palestine : 20 (ص 19)
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- Democratic Palestine : 20 (ص 19)
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1948. Both parties agreed not to publi-
cize the agreement.(1)
Israeli officials had already declared,
on September 17th, that ‘Israel’ will
allow the reopening of the bank in the
West Bank in October. Needless to say,
the bank reopened within the frame-
work of the Israelis’ continous efforts
to increase their control and Jordanian
‘influence in the occupied West Bank at
the expense of the PLO. General
Shlomo Goren, head of the ‘civil’
administration of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, said: «This step will conso-
lidate relations with Jordan and will
create good political results.» At a press
conference, he added: «Israel will close
the bank if we discover that it finances
anti-Israel groups... Israel will have the
right to conduct security and monetary
inspections of the bank, to guarantee
that it will not finance guerrilla activi-
ties.» Meanwhile, he elaborated,
Jordan will take care of the adminis-
trative aspects.
It is worth mentioning that the Jor-
danian government owns 10% of the
bank’s shares; Cairo owns 12%, while
the rest are owned by individual Palest-
inians and Jordanians. Midhat Kana’n,
who will resume his position as the
manager of the branch after 19 years,
said that the bank will mainly supervise
the process of transferring money from
Jordan to the different institutions in
the West Bank.(2) This bank reopening
is obviously an attempt at giving the
Palestinians imaginary power in line
with the plan for ‘improving the quality
of life’. At the same time, it legalizes
Israeli inspection of the transfer of
funds. ‘Israel’ can use this condition as
vision of Functions Plan
a loophole for closing the bank at any
time it perceives that its functioning is
not to Israeli advantage. In the mean-
time, while only a limited strata of
Palestinians will derive any benefits
from this bank, the Israelis will use
their supervisory position for further
harassment of Palestinian national in-
stitutions.
APPOINTED MAYORS
Immediately after the Cairo-Amman
Bank step, ‘Israel’ appointed Palesti-
nian mayors in Al Bireh, Ramallah,
and Al Khalil (Hebron). Israeli army
officers had been administrating those
cities since 1982, when the elected
mayors were dismissed for refusing to
cooperate with the Israeli authorities.
On September 28th, ‘Israel’ appointed
Hassan Al Tawil as mayor of Al
Bireh, Khalil Musa Al Khalil as mayor
of Ramallah, and Abdul Majeed Al
Zeer as mayor of Al Khalil. These
appointments come six months after
the execution of Zafer Al Masri who
the Israeli authorities appointed mayor
of Nablus.
A spokesman for the Israeli Defense
Ministry said that «due to these
appointments, the last three cities of the
West Bank, that were still administered
by Israeli officers, will be now admi-
nistered by Palestinian per-
sonalities.»(3)
The occupation authorities are
expected to take similar steps to
appoint mayors in all West Bank and
Gaza Strip municipalities. These
appointments aim at achieving two
goals: first, to normalise relations
between ‘Israel’ and Jordan on the
political and economic levels, and con-
sequently normalise the Israeli occupa-
tion; and second, to prepare a delega-
tion from the West Bank and Gaza
Strip to participate, when the time
comes, in direct negotiations under an
international umbrella. The Israeli clo-
sure of Al Mithagq and Al Ahad papers
was one of the steps taken to pave the
way for the propaganda campaign by
pro-Jordanian papers, such as Al
Nahar, to support the two aims men-
tioned above.
The Israeli radio said that these
appointments were made immediately
after approval by the Jordanian
government. The Jordanian govern-
ment had taken a decision to invalidate
the signatures of eight legitimate
mayors of the occupied West Bank:
Bassam Shakaa of Nablus, Ibrahim Al
Tawil of Al Bireh, Hilmi Hannoun of
Tulkarem, Hamid Hamdallah of
Anabta, Amin Al Naser of Qalailya,
Hijazee Rasheed of Deir Debwan, the
mayor of Jenin, and the deputy mayor
of Ramallah.
Mr: Al Zeer, the appointed mayor of
Al Khalil, told reporters that he enjoys
the approval of Jordan, and he «will
work to improve the daily services of
the municipality of Al Khalil, and will
not interfere in politics.» (Zeer, inci-
dently, is a prominent member of the
Muslim Brotherhood with close links to
his counterparts in Jordan.) Mr.
Hassan AI Tawil, the appointed mayor
of Al Bireh, said: I accepted the post
solely to aid in the economic expansion
of Al Bireh, and will have no political
activities.» He also said that he enjoys
the approval of Jordan and «expected»
tacit endorsement from the PLO.»(4)
Even taking these statements at face —
value, «not interfering in politics» in an
occupied country is in itself a policy - at
best, acceptance of occupation, at
worst, collaboration. In reality, the
three who accepted to be appointed as
mayors have agreed to cooperate in
joint Israeli-Jordanian rule of the West
Bank, which is part of the attempt to
liquidate the Palestinian cause.
WOLF IN SHEEP’S
CLOTHING
With all of these steps, the features
of the Israeli-Jordanian plan are getting
clearer and clearer. The plan for
‘improving the quality of life’ is only a
new name for the self-rule plan, that
‘Israel? was unable to implement for
years. By taking Jordan as a partner,
the Zionists hope to break the united
Palestinian resistance that previously
blocked attempts to impose the ‘auto-
nomy’ plan. ‘Improving the quality of
life’ is really an effort to cultivate a
strata of the Palestinian bourgeoisie
willing to link its political and economic
future to Jordan’s monarchy. ‘Israel’ is
now calling on Jordan to take the final
step in the scenario for which it was
created: absorbing the independent
Palestinian identity in order to protect
Zionist occupation.
‘Israel? did not await an official
statement from Jordan declaring its
acceptance of this role. It is well
known that ‘Israel’ and Jordan have
had indirect, secret coordination, which
explains the Jordanian approval of the
mayorial appointments. ‘Israel’ focuses
on the Palestinian personalities that
reject armed struggle, and are con-
nected with the capitulationist Jorda-
nian policies.
After King Hussein decided to cease
coordination with the PLO in
February, Peres proposed the s6-called
Marshal plan for the Middle East. The
plan theoretically assumes a state of
comprehensive peace in the Middle East
and concretely entails an economic
development plan for the area,
financed by the US and _ western
Europe. Although the plan is suppo-
sedly drawn up for the whole Middle
East, if focuses on the West Bank as a
sample. Yet, the plan is costly and
would burden ‘Israel’.
The plan for ‘improving the quality
of life’ necessitates a huge sum of
money-150 million’ dollars, according
to the Jordanian prime minister, Zeid
19
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