Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 21)
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- Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 21)
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and January, adding to fears that the
prison administration has a lot to hide.
There were reports of attacks on the
detainees on December 13th, when 30
were injured while protesting. Again, in
late January, after the escape of three
political prisoners from Megiddo, the
guards attacked the prisoners. Then on
February 8th, the 400 Palestinians who
had come to visit detained relatives
were harassed by the prison personnel;
they immediately staged a militant pro-
test. The soldiers cancelled visiting
hours and arrested 300 of the visitors,
meanwhile attacking others departing
in a bus, with tear gas. When word
spread in the prison that visits had been
cancelled, the detainees began a protest
that lasted two days, despite soldiers
opening fire and killing two of the
prisoners, while injuring a number of
others.
Protesting the killings, Megiddo de-
tainees began an open-ended hunger
strike. Protests spread to the Ansar III,
Al Fara and Dhahiriya detention
centers as well, and on February 15th,
Palestinian political prisoners in all
Israeli jails joined together in a one-day
hunger strike.
1989 IN THE STATE OF
PALESTINE THE RISE OF
THE POPULAR ARMY
Palestinians began the new year with
demonstrations celebrating the 24th
anniversary of Fatah’s first guerrilla
attack against the Zionist occupation.
In some places, there were quasi-
military parades by the strike forces
which in the recent period have begun
to assume the form of a people’s army.
In call no.32, issued in early January,
the United National Leadership hailed
the emergence of the Palestinian
Popular Army as «the army of the
PLO, the army of the uprising which
basically comprises our vanguards, is
subject to the UNL’s orders and in-
cludes all organizations of the PLO,»
calling on all youth to join.
The escalation continued, and in
mid-January, the Israeli newspaper
Yediot Ahronot quoted senior army
commanders as saying «the violence
was a return to the bloodshed earlier in
the 13-month Palestinian uprising after
several months of relative calm» (AP,
Democratic Palestine, March 1989
January 16th). The escalation was also
apparent in an increasing number of
strike days: To the five days of general
strike originally scheduled by the UNL
in January, were added three con-
secutive days of total commercial
strikes throughout the 1967 occupied
territories to protest the occupation
army’s increased killing of
demonstrators and children, as well as
local strikes to protest specific things,
ranging from expulsions, killings and
demolitions, to tax raids. In February,
in addition to the traditional two-day
general strike marking the monthly
anniversary of the intifada, the UNL
for the first time scheduled three con-
secutive strike days. The general strike
of February 19-2lst was not a protest
but an assertation of basic principles,
namely, Palestinian rights to repatria-
tion, self-determination and an _ in-
dependent state.
TARGETING
EXPLOITATION
Another noteworthy characteristic of
the struggle in 1989 has been the in-
creasingly precise focus on hitting the
institutions whereby the occupation
exploits Palestinian resources, whether
labor or income. Call no. 32 emphasiz-
ed burning the establishments of the
occupiers. In January, the Israeli labor
office in Jerusalem was set on fire,
while the Jenin and Nablus branches of
the Israeli Bank Leumi were attacked.
In February, the Israeli tax office was
burned in Qalqilia, as was the civil
administration’s financial department
in Nablus, and the Israeli labor
department office in Khan Younis. In
addition, the boycott of Israeli goods
(for which there is a Palestinian alter-
native) was substantially tightened. In
many places, the strike forces publicly
burned Israeli goods found on the local
market, in accordance with the war on
Zionist products declared in the UNL’s
calls.
These militant acts served to
highlight the success of the economic
boycott, which with call no. 21, has in-
cluded Palestinians’ withdrawing their
savings from Israeli banks. In mid-
January, the Israeli Discount Bank
permanently closed its branch in
Tulkarem, having earlier closed bran-
ches in Jericho and Ramallah. The
consumer boycott’s results were
reflected in a report issued by the Bank
of Israel on February 9th, according to
which Israel sold only $650 million in
goods to the West Bank and Gaza Strip
in 1988, compared to $928 million
worth of products in 1987.
The intifada inflicted new setbacks
on the Israeli civil administration ap-
paratus. On February 20th, seven
Palestinians who had been serving as
judges declared their intention to
resign. There was a renewed popular
offensive against appointed mayors and
other collaborators, with fifteen attacks
on such persons in January and
February.
The main focus of militant struggle,
however, continues to be against the
occupation itself. In addition to ongo-
ing mass confrontation of Israeli
soldiers and _ settlers, well-directed
firebombs were thrown against military
patrols, buses and posts, at a rate of
more than one every other day
throughout January and February. On
March Sth, Israeli radio reported that
two million shekels had been spent on
reinforcing Egged buses against such
attacks. Even more significant, in the
third week of February, two Israeli oc-
cupation soldiers were killed, while a
third is missing.
BUILDING UNITY AND IN-
DEPENDENCE
Alongside militant confrontation of
the occupation, Palestinians have con-
tinued building the infrastructure for its
alternative, the State of Palestine, with
ongoing efforts at collective self-
sufficiency, increased local production,
expanding cooperatives, social welfare
and medical care. Education has
received even more attention, especially
since the January 20th closure of all
West Bank schools, after a less than
two-month opening that was itself
marked by temporary closures of many
schools. Realizing that the Israeli policy
of enforcing ignorance is taking on a
permanent character, the UNL reem-
phasized its calls for organizing
popular education and for educators to
draw up a national curriculum worthy
of the students in the Palestinian state
in the making. The people of the in- >
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