Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 10)
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- Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 10)
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Assessing PalestinianArmed Struggle
July-December 1986
The article below assesses Palestinian military operations against the
Zionist occupation forces in Palestine in the latter half of 1986.
In the four decades of Palestine’s
occupation by the Zionists, a number
of basic facts have been established.
One of these is that the Palestinian na-
tional liberation struggle depends on
both the struggle of our people in the
occupied-homeland, and the struggle of
our people in exile. It is also an
established fact that the basic form of
struggle for confronting the Zionist
state is armed struggle, both based in-
side occupied Palestine and launched
across the borders, and at times attack-
ing specified targets in other parts of
the world. It is also clear that due to the
nature of the Zionist state and its
organic relation with world im-
perialism, the only solution to the con-
flict lies in the negation of this state.
In the light of these facts, one can
asses the revolutionary armed struggle
in occupied Palestine. Due to the par-
ticular nature of the Palestinian-Zionist
conflict, armed struggle is an essential
component of the liberation struggle at
all stages. The strategic aim of armed
operations is developing into a popular
liberation war which will culminate in
liberating Palestine. The last four
decades have definitively proven that
the vitality of the Palestinian cause is
directly related to the level of the armed
struggle.
Besides striking blows to the Zionist
military forces, the immediate effects
of armed struggle on the Israeli settler
society are apparent. Deteriorating
security is one of the main causes of
Zionist emigration from ‘Israel’, as has
been reflected in a number of polls. The
armed struggle also plays an important
role in reducing the Zionist state’s in-
come from tourism. In relation to the
Palestinian population under occupa-
tion, armed anti-occupation operations
have a visible effect on their morale.
Armed struggle plays a vanguard role
in relation to mass uprisings and daily
resistance.
In assessing armed _ operations
against the Zionist state in the last half
of 1986, one should bear in mind that
10
during much of this period the Palesti-
nian revolution outside the occupied
homeland was preoccupied with
defending the Palestinian people in
Lebanon, and their right to bear arms,
against Amal’s war on the camps. Of
course, this detracted from _ overall
military operations against the Zionist
forces, in terms of quantity and quality.
In reviewing the armed operations of
this period, we have used the figures
admitted by Israeli sources. It is im-
portant to note that these are conser-
vative figures, as ‘Israel’ constantly
plays down the effectiveness of the
Palestinian military struggle for ob-
vious reasons.
In the second half of 1986, there were
205 military operations in occupied
Palestine, resulting in the death of 26
Israelis and the injury of 243. This
compares with 220 operations in the
first half of the year, which resulted in
20 dead and 200 injured. These figures
reflect two facts: One, the reduction in
the number of operations reflects the
revolution’s preoccupation with self-
defense in Lebanon. Two, the increase
in Zionist casualties, despite a decrease
in the number of operations, points to
improvement in the quality of the
operations carried out by the Palesti-
nian freedom fighters.
METHODS OF STRUGGLE
In the second half of 1986, two new
methods were initiated. One was ram-
ming vehicles, especially trucks, into
gatherings of Zionists. The other was
that women revolutionaries started us-
ing their ‘charm’ to lure Zionists into
an attack. Four Zionists were stabbed
by women militants during this period.
Remote-control explosions became in-
creasingly common in this period; there
were seven such operations. Stabbing
Zionists became something of a mass
phenomenon; 18 such operations were
carried out. Table no. 1 lists the opera-
tions according to type.
Table 1
Type of operation
explosives
molotov cocktails
hand grenades
firearm attacks
attacks with hand
grenades, molotovs
ambushes
armed combat
attacks with tools
land mines under vehicles
stabbings
marine landings
burning Zionist property
abducting soldiers and settlers
hitting soldiers and injuring them
attempts to storm barricades
resisting soldiers with knives during
arrests
appropriating soldiers’ weapons
axe-killing
attempted bus hijacking
ramming soldiers with truck
execution of collaborators
Total
July Aug. Sept.
11
6
3
3
2
Oct. Nov. Dec. Total
13 9 14 9 7 63
10 14 13 7 5 55
4 ] 6 ] 3 18
3 3 9
2 2 7
] 2
1 ] 2
I
] I 2
2 4 4 5 3 18
J
] 2 4 3 14
I I 3
] l 2
J 2
I ]
1 1
1 1
I
1 1
34 36 50 30 24 - هو جزء من
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