Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 5)
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- Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 5)
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parent in other fields of life as well. The
occupation authorities decided to
demolish 35 houses of Jabalia camp on
the pretext that they are located near a
military camp. The Israeli magazine
Kutrachit reported that since 1967, the
occupation forces have arrested half a
million Palestinians, about one-third
the total population of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
On March 2nd, a Palestinian youth
was killed and two wounded during a
demonstration in Nablus. The martyr
was Fayez Faris Ya’ish who was shot
by Zionist soldiers in their attempt to
disperse the demonstration. In the Gaza
Strip, the occupation authorities
ordered 70 houses in Khan Younis
demolished under the pretext that they
were built without a license.
In Um AI Fahm in 1948 occupied
Palestine, over 4,000 people marched
through the streets, protesting the
closure of the town’s schools due to
lack of funds. While outright closing
educational institutions in the 1967 oc-
cupied territories, the Zionists adopt a
policy of starving the educational
system for Palestinians within the
borders of the Israeli state, both in an
attempt to keep the Palestinians sub-
jugated.
On March 3rd, the occupation forces
imposed a curfew on Balata camp, near
Nablus, after demonstrations in which
residents erected roadblocks and threw
stones at the Zionist soldiers. In
Ramallah, students at the female
teacher’s institute demonstrated, burn-
ed tires and put up roadblocks in the
streets leading to the institute.
In the Gaza Strip, the occupation
forces closed down Jabalia secondary
school for girls after the pupils had
participated in demonstrations. House
arrest was also imposed on several
Gaza residents who study at Bir Zeit
University.
In Jerusalem, the Zionist authorities
ordered the closure of Al Nuzha
Theater, the home cf Al Hakawati
theater group. A military court ex-
tended the detention of the progressive
Israeli Michel Warshawski who was
arrested in mid-February when the
authorities closed down the Alternative
Information Office which he directed.
On March Sth, the occupation forces
continued to blockade Al Amari camp
near Ramallah for the third consecutive
day, after a molotov cocktail was
thrown at an Israeli military vehicle.
The same day, settler thugs attacked
several houses and stores in Halhoul,
near Hebron, while it was under
curfew.
EDUCATION THREATENED
Frustrated with the active, vanguard
role of Palestinian students in the mass
uprising, the Zionist authorities
threatened to permanently close down
all Palestinian universities in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. The Zionist War
Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in an in-
terview with Israeli radio that those
universities and schools «had become a
locus for disorder and PLO influence
which incite student demonstrations.»
This can only be understood as a threat
to close down the Palestinian univer-
sities and secondary schools if the
demonstrations continue.
There are reports from occupied
Palestine that the Zionist authorities
are preparing a special educational
curriculum for Palestinian students in
the 1948 occupied territories, which is
totally contradictory to the goals and
historical rights of the Palestinian
people. Another element in the Zionist
de-education policy is enacted through
deliberate neglect. Although careful
studies have shown that Palestinian
Arabs in the Zionist state need almost
2000 additional classrooms, the
authorities have authorized the building
of only 90. Only a quarter of Palesti-
nian children attend kindergarten,
while 90% of Israeli Jewish children do
SO.
SMALLPOX THREATENS
PRISONERS
Due to the bad conditions in the
Zionist jails, there was an outbreak of
smallpox among the more than 500
Palestinian prisoners in Jnaid prison,
near Nablus. Sixty cases of smallpox
were identified. This is the direct result
of the occupation authorities’ persistent
refusal of the prisoners’ demands for
better living conditions, especially
health conditions and alleviating over-
crowding in the cells.
INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY
In protest of the Zionist iron fist
policy in the occupied territories, in-
ternational solidarity with the Palesti-
nian people intensified. In Geneva, the
UN Committee on Human Rights
condemned the Israeli authorities’
violation of the Geneva conventions by
denying the rights of the Palestinians in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and by
the continued occupation of the Golan
Heights. The document issued by the
43-member committee expressed deep
concern over the iron fist policy, and
condemned the arming of Israeli set-
tlers in the occupied territories. As
could be expected, the US rejected the
document.
No longer able to totally obscure the
facts, a US State Department report
about the human rights situation in 167
countries acknowledged that Palesti-
nians complain of mistreatment by the
Israeli occupation authorities. The US
report cited figures concerning the
number of Palestinians killed, wound-
ed, missing, arrested, under house ar-
rest or deported, and the number of
houses demolished and shops closed.
The US figures were, however, much
lower than those cited by Amnesty In-
ternational. For example, the US report
stated that in 1986, about 32 Palesti-
nians had been placed under ad-
ministrative detention, while Amnesty
International reported 144 Palestinians
arrested in this way in 1986.
COORDINATED STRUGGLE
The present uprising is a continua-
tion of the chain of mass uprisings since
the day the Zionists set foot in
Palestine. It encompasses all the towns,
villages and camps of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, attesting to our masses’
ability to organize and coordinate joint
action, despite the Zionist attempt to
disrupt this coordination by imposing
curfews and blockades. The masses’
resistance is reinforced by the inten-
sification of armed struggle, and the
creation of new forms of confronting
the Zionist enemy. The Zionist of-
ficials’ own words and _ hysterical
measures also serve to confirm the
magnitude of this uprising.
As we go to press, demonstrations
continue, heading towards the Day of
the Land on March 30th, the annual
occasion for Palestinians to manifest
their unified adherence to their land
and the PLO. The current demonstra-
tions have reinforced the unity of the
people in confronting the array of
dangers threatening their lives and
revolution, from the Israeli-Jordanian
division of functions plan, to Amal’s
war of attrition on the camps, from the
occupiers’ iron fist to imperialism’s
animosity to Palestinian rights. Daily
Our masses are confirming their ability
to confront and eventually defeat the
fiercest of the enemy’s plans to li-
quidate the Palestinian cause. °
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