Democratic Palestine : 21 (ص 16)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 21 (ص 16)
- المحتوى
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and second-class citizens, deprived of the simplest legal rights to
a life of dignity and equality, about which the Zionist leaders
always boasted. Below we examine Israeli policy in six different
fields which most clearly manifest Zionism’s nature and goals,
as well as how the Palestinian Arabs have faced this policy.
1. JUDAIZATION AND LAND
CONFISCATION
It is known that the Palestinian Arab citizens are concen-
trated in three areas: the Galilee, Triangle and Naqab (Negev).
The population of the Galilee is almost 376,000, according to
the September 1985 census. In the Naqab, there are 110-120,000
Palestinian Arabs. In addition, Palestinians live in five cities:
Haifa, Jaffa, Acca, Lydda and Ramleh. Each area has its pro-
blems with the Judaization process and land confiscation
enacted in accordance with the laws declared by successive Zio-
nist governments. Notorious among these is the Absentee’s
Property Law which authorized the Zionist state to confiscate
the property of all those who were not present at any time after
November 29, 1947. Besides being used to confiscate the pro-
perty of those Palestinians driven out by Zionist aggression in
1948, this law was in practice accompanied by much cheating
and fraud, like claiming land to be the property of an imaginary
name. Accordingly the owner or owners of the land were absent,
and the land was confiscated by the Zionist state. There was also
confiscation of land whose owners lived in another city of
occupied Palestine and couldn’t reach their property at the time
of land being classified, due to various reasons, among them
Zionist aggression.
There is also the Environment Protection Law under which
all forests were considered state property (i.e., reserved for
Jewish use), as was all land where the rock content exceeds 40%,
or where trees are scarce. Extensive areas of land were closed off
or confiscated on the pretext of «security» and Israeli military
training. Large areas of cultivated land have been confiscated
on the pretext that aerial photos showed that they were forests.
Between 1948 and 1953, the Zionist government confiscated
520 Palestinian Arab villages and established on that land 308
agricultural settlements. Of 1.5 million dunums of land owned
by Palestinians in the Galilee and Triangle, 1 million were con-
fiscated by 1972. In 1952, Palestinians were forbidden to enter
an area of 62,500 dunums designated as Area No. 9. After a
long struggle by the Palestinians, this area was divided into
three sections. Section A (5,000 dunums) could be cultivated
with no problems. In section B (50,000 dunums), Palestinians
were allowed to farm only with special licenses in certain sea-
sons. Section C(6,750 dunums) was closed totally, because it
was considered a military firing zone for the Israeli army. Ear-
lier, the residents of two villages, Ikrit and Kafr Berem, had
been expelled from their villages for the same reason. (Ikrit was
confiscated on November 5, 1948, and destroyed on December
20, 1951, while Kafr Berem was confiscated on February 4,
1949, and blown up on June 16, 1953.)
Land owned by Palestinians of the Druze faith did not escape
confiscation despite the Zionists’ claims that the Druze are not
Arabs, and the resulting imposition of obligatory military ser-
vice on them. Nonetheless the Druze have struggled fiercely
against land confiscation, declaring adherence to their Arab
identity and land. In 1975, the Zionist government declared its
intention to confiscate extensive areas of land from Druze vil-
lages, especially Kasra. The people of these villages held a mee-
ting and took decisions to be executed at all costs. The most
important of their decisions were:
- Infringement on any piece of land of any resident of the vil-
lage is considered an aggression against the whole village;
- resisting such aggression and preventing it by force, no
matter the consequences;
- anybody who fails to participate in defending the land is
considered an outcast; dealings with him and his family are
forbidden; and everything in his house is considered cursed;
- anyone killed while defending the land is considered a
martyr and will be buried on that land.
Two days after the meeting, the whole village went out armed
with sticks and iron bars, to resist the Israeli bulldozers which
were forced to withdraw.
The seventies witnessed a rise in the nationalist awareness of
the Palestinians in the area occupied in 1948, at the same time as
16
talk of a «peaceful» settlement increased, especially after the
October 1973 war and the mass movement it generated. The
seventies also witnessed a sharpening of the tone of the Zionists’
talk about a «pure Jewish state», the necessity of Judaization of
the Galilee and expelling its Palestinian Arab residents. This
was particularly clear with the issuing of the ill-reputed Koenig
report drawn up by Israel Koenig, governor of the northern
region. This report reflected the Zionists’ fear of the rise in the
Galilee residents’ nationalist aspirations, and the possibility of
their asking for independence, considering that they constitute
the majority in the Galilee. The report called for changing the
demography of the Galilee, i.e., Judaization. Zionist leaders
cried out about the «danger» and the «time bomb», and
declared the necessity of settlement in the Galilee, but under the
slogan of «improving the Galilee-and its inhabitants». Large
sums of money were channeled to this project. Al Hamishmar
newspaper, June 11, 1975, reported that the government and the
Jewish Agency had allocated 1.5 billion Israeli pounds to exe-
cute a settlement plan in the Galilee to accomodate 100,000
Jews. The plan also included the creation of agricultural and
industrial development projects on the edges of the Middle
Galilee. Haim Bar Lev, Trade and Industry Minister, declared
the existence of a program in his ministry for establishing six
large industrial centers in the Galilee, on which work had
already started. Shmuel Toledano, the prime minister’s advisor
on Arab affairs, declared on November 13, 1975, that the
government would soon study the confiscation of 20,000
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dunums to «develop» the Galilee in the areas of Carmel and
Nazareth, and that 32% of government construction would be
centered in the Galilee.
The Palestinians moved to defend their land and resist the
confiscation procedures. They held popular conferences and
formed the Regional Committee to Defend the Land, with
branches in many cities and villages. Then came the Day of the
Land on March 30, 1976, which climaxed the struggle against
land confiscation and expulsion. Demonstrators clashed with
the repressive enemy forces in many places. Six Palestinians
were martyred and scores were wounded. Since that date,
Palestinians everywhere celebrate this day yearly as an expres-
sion of their adherence to their rights and land, and their solli-
darity with their brothers living under occupation since 1948.
Though this struggle slowed down the confiscation process in
some areas, it could not stop the Zionists’ dream of Judaization,
of expelling the Palestinians from the Galilee and confiscating
their land. In mid-October 1986, Majd Al Kurum residents were
ordered to evacuate 17,000 dunums of their land. The occupa-
tion authorities claimed that there had been a decision to con-
fiscate this land since 1967, to add it to Carmel settlement in
order to «develop» the Galilee. On November 4, 1986, Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called for continuation of sett-
lement in the Galilee and allocating large sums of money for the
purpose. Speaking at the opening of a new factory in Safad, he
said, «There is no reason to make us give priority to settling in
the north of the West Bank; it is better to develop the Galilee.» - هو جزء من
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