Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 22)
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- Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 22)
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tifada have also found time to hold
cultural events, such as a major exhibi-
tion of paintings in December, and
folklore evenings in Al Hakawati
theater in Jerusalem. The reunification
of the Union of Palestinian Writers in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an-
nounced January 13th, will surely con-
tribute to increasing cultural efforts, in
addition to stengthening the drive to
close the remaining gaps in national
unity. A major step in this direction
had already occurred on December 8th,
with the declaration of a coordinating
committee for all the women’s
organizations in the occupied ter-
ritories, putting women on the
forefront of efforts to unite the popular
organizations.
1948 OCCUPIED PALESTINE
Events in the part of Palestine oc-
cupied in 1948 have also served to assert
the Palestinian cause. Palestinians here
have intertwined their historical strug-
gle against national oppression with
their struggle to support the intifada.
The Israeli authorities pointedly warn-
ed them against celebrating the
Declaration of Independence, fearing
reenactment of the December 21, 1987
nation-wide strike. Nevertheless, there
was a Strike in the 1948 occupied ter-
ritories at this time, protesting the
demolition of 15 houses in Taibeh, and
reports that the Zionist authorities in-
tended to demolish 50 homes in Um AI
Fahm.
Though less than the intifada in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, the struggle
of the Palestinians in the Zionist state is
at a level which alarms the occupation
authorities, as has been seen in increas-
ing repression in the Galilee where
special patrols harass and _ beat
villagers. This reached absurd propor-
tions in early February, when police
broke into a Nazareth elementary
school and arrested an 11-year old who
had drawn a Palestinian flag on his
ruler; five other youngsters were also
arrested, as was the principal when he
tried to protest the arrests. In the same
period, the village of Dabborya was
besieged by the police and border
guards who made arrests after
discovering that slogans signed by the
PLO were written on walls, and the cars
of four collaborators had been burned.
20
Moreover, Israeli radio has several
times reported the arrest of «terrorist
cells» involving cooperation between
Palestinians of the 1967 and 1948 oc-
cupied areas - something which they
appear to be very concerned about. In
the same period, the occupation
authorities have been faced by
demonstrations in the occupied Golan
Heights - one celebrating the first an-
niversary of the intifada, and the other
protesting on the seventh anniversary
of the annexation of the Syrian
Heights.
Aside from harassing the people at
large, Zionist repression has concen-
trated on two targets in particular: the
Sons of the Village, and the municipal
and village councils where the
Democratic Front for Peace and
Equality (DFPE) and Rakah (the Israeli
Communist Party) hold the majority of
seats.
In mid-January,- Israeli police broke
up a song festival in Sakhnin, spon-
sored by the Sons of the Village, where
700 Palestinians had gathered in sup-
port of the uprising; 11 were arrested,
including three of the singers. On
January 15th, the editor of the Sons of
the Village newspaper, Al Raya (The
Banner), was summoned by the Israeli
district commander and informed of
the authorities’ intention to revoke the
paper’s license, due to alleged connec-
tions to the PFLP. Al Raya has con-
sistently and militantly called for
Palestinians in the zionist state to be
more active in supporting the intifada,
which is the most likely reason for its
being singled out at this particular time.
On February 4th, a rally was held in
Nazareth, to protest the planned
closure. The paper was closed in early
March.
The other prong of the Israeli attack
on political forces concerned the
February 28th municipal elections.
Prior to their being held, the Zionist
authorities escalated their campaign to
deprive Palestinians of independent
national representation and em-
powerment, using a variety of ‘legal’
devices. An Interior Ministry plan was
approved to dissolve the councils of
four villages and merge them with
Israeli-controlled councils. Significant-
ly, all four councils were controlled by
the DFPE or Rakah. Then, on January
23rd, the mayor of one of these
villages, Jdayda, was arrested on
trumped up charges of fraud. Two
weeks before the elections, a bill was
brought to the Israeli Knesset to bar
former «security prisoners» from run-
ning for office, because it was found
that three candidates had previously
served time in Israeli jails for na-
tionalist activities, and been released in
1985.
A less publicized struggle highlights
the impossibility of reconciling Zionist
principles with any kind of justice or
equality. On January 11th, there was a
joint demonstration of democratic
Jewish and Palestinian Arab students at
Tel Aviv University, under the slogan:
«No to Apartheid» in protest of a deci-
sion to segregate dormitories on the
basis of students being Jewish or not.
An Israeli court upheld the decision,
and Palestinian students were moved
from dormitories which should receive
Jewish students coming from abroad.
The reason behind all this was the
Israeli-Jewish Agency rule governing
such incoming students who should
experience living with other Jews - not
with Palestinians.
The real background for the increas-
ed Zionist repression is the Israeli
authorities’ concern about their own
failure to create the «pure Jewish state»
to which they aspire. At a time when
the intifada has shown the unviability
of the 1967 occupation, any display of
nationalism from Palestinians in the
Zionist state shows that the problem
really is, as Shomron said, «at home.»
Statistics show that the number of Jews
living in the Galilee has dropped by ten
per cent over the past ten years. This
was the decade that should have
witnessed the opposite trend, in accor-
dance with the Judaization plan
adopted by the Israeli government in
the wake of the 1976 Day of the Land’s
reassertion of Palestinian na-
tionalism. This is one of many signs
that, in the long-run, the Zionists are
fighting a losing battle. ®
In addition to our own sources and the quoted
news reports, our main source for the article was
Uprising Update: December 8, 1989, published by
the Database Project on Palestinian Human
Rights, and the weekly English editions of A/ Fajr,
January 2nd-February 20th.
Democratic Palestine, March 1989 - هو جزء من
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