Democratic Palestine : 31 (ص 24)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 31 (ص 24)
- المحتوى
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working. This was only 42% of the total labor force of the oc-
cupied territories, which was 152,700. Accordingly, there are
157 employers for every wage laborer, namely, less than three-
fourths worker per single employer. If we want to be more
precise, we will find that the majority of wage laborers in the
1967 occupied territories are civil servants. For instance, only
3,400 wage laborers are working in agriculture in the occupied
territories, which means that there is less than one agricultural
laborer for every 11 agricultural employers.
Thus, we are faced with a dangerous situation, 1.e., the
disappearance of Palestinian Arab wage labor from the pro-
ductive sectors, in particular from the agriculture of the 1967
occupied territories. So the outcome is dual: the decline of
production and a basic change in production relations. We will
take citrus fruit production in the Gaza Strip as an example.
During the last few years, it has averaged only 160,000 tons
annual produce, which is less than two-thirds of the production
in the 1975-76 season, which was 244,000 tons.
Concerning production relations, the employers didn’t lose
their positions in favor of an alternative Palestinian Arab
social group or class, but in favor of the Zionist exploiter. This
situation constitutes the base for the class unity which now ex-
ists in confronting the Israeli occupation. In this point lies the
main distinction between the Israeli occupation model, whose
interest lies in destroying the entire social and economic struc-
ture, and other colonial models.
After two decades, the Palestinian Arab labor force in the
Israeli economy realized the falsity of the prosperity provided
by working in Israel. Due to how the occupation functions, the
Palestinian worker has no personal or collective future. On this
level, he differs greatly from the immigrant labor force,
whether from the countryside to the city, or from one country
to another, for such an immigrant is in a cycle where he may be
able to return to his origin when he saves enough money to
reestablish himself and maybe even become an independent
producer or other possibilities. Palestinians working in Israel
are caught in a vicious circle. At best, they reinject (into the
Israeli economy) the money they get from Israel itself. In such
a situation, employers are changed into wage laborers, so it is
self-evident that those who are originally wage laborers have
no opportunity for a class or even functional advance.
LINKING POLITICS AND ECONOMY
This is an example of the extreme decline witnessed in the
occupied territories on various levels. There has been research
on the destruction of this field or that, but it is the all inclusive
form of destruction which deserves to be confirmed, in par-
ticular whenever politics are involved. Whatever has been said
in describing the Israeli exploitation, 1t cannot precisely express
the situation if it doesn’t go deeply into matters which are so
complex that the science of economy can only with difficulty
encompass them. Thus a relationship has emerged in which
politics are interlinked with economy to the extreme, as is the
present with the past, and nationalism with the class question.
All this occurred in a provocative form: For example, the
Palestinian and his crops are dying from thirst simply because
24
since the occupation of 1967, Israel has prevented the drilling
of new wells, and invents thousands of methods to prevent the
Palestinian from obtaining the limited amount of water which
he consumes. Perhaps he recently pulled up the citrus tree
planted with his sweat and blood, for there is no water to ir-
rigate the orchard. Perhaps he is the same employee who is
charged with opening the water tap as much as possible, not
only to irrigate the land of the settlement, but also to fill the
swimming pool which was needlessly emptied simply because
Mr. Settler likes swimming in clean water.
The case of those working in Israel is nearly the same. Not
only must they bear daily discrimination; they are working on
land which was originally theirs, not only in the collective
sense, but perhaps the very land they themselves owned. The
Palestinian is not only demanded to accept national and class
oppression, but also the displays of the Zionist racist ideology,
with its expressions of which the following is not the worst:
«Arabs are dogs, Arabs are dirty...»
Two decades of occupation wcre enough to return matters to
their point of origin. Those who did not understand Israel
through its policy, did so through its practice which has ex-
panded with the development of occupation and exploitation.
This was particularly clear with the settlement policy which
began to be applied more and morte intensely, affecting most of
the land of the territories, whereby the main Palestinian cities
began to slow down, while others that seemed to be secure are
hanging on the cliff, soon to be infringed upon. What is more
obvious than Sharon coming into the heart of the Arab quarter
in Jerusalem, or the Zionist settlers who infiltrated the heart of
Hebron?
These developments deeply affected the totality of the
underlying structure in the occupied territories, providing the
organized political movement there with the required objective
conditions. On the other hand, twenty years of experience
created a broad, solid organizational and political structure
with a flexible yet firm leadership. This leadership has not only
learned from the experience of others, but from its own ex-
perience. Whatever has been said about the causal factors of
the uprising, it should be kept in mind that the experience of
occupation and oppression served as a form of collective
education, not only for the leadership, but also for the masses.
This provides us with a picture of the economic background
of the uprising, as well as of the relationship between the
Palestinian and Israeli economies which are integrated in as
much as integration is possible between the exploiter and the
exploited, the top floor and the bottom one in a building. If
this picture is clear and needs no further explanation, then
what does need to be expanded upon is a point which is deeply
connected with our research, namely the structural importance
and the nature of the role the Palestinian economy in the oc-
cupied territories plays in the Israeli economic cycle. The full
importance of this point will only be apparent via a practical
example, namely the role of the Palestinian labor force in the
Israeli economy. Its importance lies not only in its numbers,
but by virtue of its being concentrated in certain fields, i.e.,
construction, agriculture and industry. Even this doesn’t - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 31
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- ديسمبر ١٩٨٨
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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