Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 6)
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- Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 6)
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«legalized» the shoot-to-kill policy
already in effect, by announcing that
Israeli troops can use live ammunition
to stop masked Palestinians in daylight
or at night.
In accordance with the policy of
physical elimination, high casualty
rates continued over the summer.
Scores of Palestinians were martyred,
many more wounded and even more
arrested as the occupation army
enacted large and constant «security
sweeps» under the cover of curfews. As
of September Ist, 650 Palestinians had
been killed in thz course of the intifada.
It was, however, the option of star-
vation that the Israeli occupation
authorities seized upon to implement
unconditionally. This began in mid-
May when, in an unprecedented move,
Gazans working in Israel were rounded
up en masse and sent home indefinitely,
with the announcement that a new
identity card would be needed to enter
Israel. So began the battle of the ID’s
that has become the most concentrated
round in the conflict of wills between
the intifada and the occupation to date.
Noting the overall increase of repres-
sion that has accompanied the Shamir
plan, the United National Leadership,
in call no. 43 of late July, stated: «...
the acme of this warfare is to be found
in the measure that the authorities are
trying to implement in the Gaza area to
defeat the will of our people there and
force them to take the magnetic identity
cards as a means of pressure against the
daily bread of hundreds of thousands
of our steadfast people in heroic
Gaza.»
A QUESTION OF IDENTITY
Initially, the Israeli requirement of
new IDs was presented as a punishment
connected to the finding of the dead
body of an Israeli sergeant who had
been missing since February, and the
almost simultaneous disappearance of
another soldier. Indeed, it is a punish-
ment of the Gaza Strip for its untiring
resistance to occupation, but it is also
much more. The occupation authorities
soon announced that Palestinians with
«criminal records» would not get the
new computerized cards, confirming
that it is a security measure. But more
basically, the campaign to impose IDs
6
is aimed at creating material divisions
among the people, and contradictions
between the people and the leadership
of the intifada which of course called
for rejecting the new cards, knowing
this to be a new attempt by the occupa-
tion to control the people. Another
prerequisite for being issued a new card
was paying taxes, so the campaign also
aimed to break the intifada’s refusal to
fund the occupation.
The Gaza Strip was the first target
simply because of its poverty. The high
population density, the fact that 70%
of the people live in camps (being
refugees from 1948 occupied Palestine),
and the concurrent lack of access to
land and agricultural means, make
self-sufficiency much more difficult
than in the West Bank. So the occupa-
tion targeted those most dependent on
work in Israel to serve as a test for
subsequent plans to enforce new IDs in
the West Bank. Another less publicized
form of economic warfare accom-
panied the battle of the IDs: As if to
dispell doubts that the the occupation
was saying «submit or starve,» Gaza
fishermen were forbidden to go out to
sea in May and June. The ban was
lifted just as the season ended.
Prolonged curfews were frequent in
the Gaza Strip throughout the summer
as the occupation troops confiscated
the old IDs as part of their escalated
harassment, ordering Palestinians to
wait for hours in the hot sun to get a
new card if they wanted to enter Israel
for work.
Just as steadily, resistance to the new
cards mounted, resulting in frequent
clashes with the occupation troops. The
strike forces and popular committees
spearheaded the campaign on the local
level to collect the new cards that had
been imposed, while the United Na-
tional Leadership geared its calls to
coordinating resistance to the cards on
the national level. A main aim of the
leadership’s efforts was organizing
support, so that this battle between the
occupation and the occupied State of
Palestine could not be confined to the
Strip alone; June 20th, July 3rd-4th and
July 30th were observed as general
strike days by all the workers of the
occupied Palestinian state in solidarity
with Gaza workers. The Palestinian
HHI
masses in the 1948 occupied territories
were called upon to give material sup-
port to the Gaza workers through all
available channels. West Bankers were
under strict orders not to replace strik-
ing Gaza workers on the job in Israel;
call no. 44, August 15th, called such
strike-breaking «national treason.» The
same call appealed for the PLO’s sup-
port to be channeled to the poor, for
they are «the base and fuel of the in-
tifada.»
The battle of the IDs came to a head
as August 18th approached - the day
designated by the occupation for the
new cards to be mandatory. In the
preceding days, Gaza workers were
frequently turned away from entering
Israel as a test, and there were daily
clashes between the troops and the
people. Special cards were issued for-
bidding some Gaza residents from
entering israel, while the occupation
troops also demanded presentation of
the new cards for citizens moving
within the Strip itself. Three-quarters
of the 60,000 new cards distributed by
the occupation authorities were handed
over the popular committees.
August 18th marked the beginning of
the two-week strike in the Strip, and the
week-long solidarity strike in the West
Bank, as called by the United National
Leadership. The strike was almost
totally observed throughout, marking a
victory for the intifada, and its longest
strike to date. Even after the termina-
tion of the strike on August 31st, the
number of Gaza residents going to
work in Israel with the new cards was
only a fraction of the number ordinari-
ly working in the Zionist state.
The Israelis seem to admit at least a
partial defeat in this battle. In late
August, the Israeli daily Haaretz
quoted an Israeli security source as
saying that the Ministry of Defense has
tentatively decided to impose new
measures that will facilitate control of
West Bank residents entering Israel.
There are now discussions in the Israeli
government about prohibiting Palesti-
nians from entering East Jerusalem.
The battle of the IDs has confirmed
once again that the Palestinians have
chosen their identity and are willing to
fight for its materialization in an in-
dependent, democratic state, despite
the sacrifices entailed. e
Democratic Palestine, October 1989 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 35
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