Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 9)
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- Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 9)
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Shati camp, Gaza Strip, under curfew
— Tordai
the Jerusalem district and up the Israeli
population of the West Bank (now
estimated at 100— 105,000) by 50% in
the near future. (The number of Israeli
settlers in the Gaza Strip — now 4,500 —
has already doubled since the start of the
intifada.) The emphasis of the Zionist
settlement plan is on enlarging existing
settlements, particularly around
Jerusalem, turning them into
full — fledged cities. A prime example is
the plan to expand Maale Adumim
(current population 15,000) into a city of
50,000, as was reported by the Israeli
daily Haaretz in late May. This entails
confiscating land from Palestinian
villages and camps on the eastern side of
Jerusalem and hemming in_ the
Palestinians residing in the Old City. The
overall plan of the Housing Ministry, as
described by Yediot Ahronot, June 28th,
is to build 106,000 new housing units at
110 sites in the West Bank, covering
90,000 dunums of land, in the next few
years.
Another tactic is building settlements
which straddle the «green line,» erasing
the distinction between 1948 — occupied
Palestine and the Palestinian land
occupied in 1967. If, in the future, Israel
were to accept the principle of land for
peace for tactical reasons — to get the
Arabs to surrender — the new physical
and demographic realities created would
reduce the options to be negotiated.
Resolving the Palestinian issue would be
limited to the imposition of «autonomy»
on the’ remaining pockets’ of
Palestinians’ presence in their own
homeland. In call no. 72, the UNL
Democratic Palestine, August 1991
described «the occupation’s expansionist
policy exemplified by the gradual
annexation of parts of our state.»
The danger of the renewed
settlement — building is not only to the
1967 occupied territories, but challenges
the overall Palestinian claim to
Palestine. The immigration wave will
reinforce Israel economically and
eventually militarily, especially in view
of the high professional and technical
skills of Soviet immigrants. This will
bolster the Zionist state’s position
against future international pressure for
withdrawal or addressing Palestinian
rights.
The new immigration and
settlement — building mean confiscation
of West Bank and Gaza Strip land,
fitting into the occupation authorities’
current plan to starve out the intifada,
making the economic situation so
difficult that people will simply give up.
This also means further marginalization
of Palestinians residing in the Zionist
state, with new land confiscations in
‘areas such as the Galilee, where they still
constitute a majority. Citing a report
written in Israel, CAABU Bulletin of
July 1st highlighted «Interior Ministry
decisions which, in order to create space
for new housing, expanded the Jewish
settlement of Nazareth Ilit by 7,330
dunums at the expense of neighboring
Arab villages and reduced the area of the
large Arab village of Umm al Fahm by
500 dunums.»
Can the intifada be starved out?
The UNL has organized a series of
activities in recent months specifically to
oppose the settlement drive. Because
Zionist plans target Jerusalem in
particular, call no. 72 proposed a week
of special activities for the capital of the
State of Palestine, including mass
marches from the West Bank to
Jerusalem «to assert its Arab character
and express our rejection of its being
isolated from the rest of our state.» The
UNL is referring to an impending Israeli
plan to prohibit entry to Jerusalem to
those Palestinians not possessing the
required papers and permits on false
security premises. This infringes on
Palestinians’ rights to attend religious
rites at Al Aqsa and other holy sites; it
would also prevent many from going to
work. Roads from the North to the
South of the West Bank pass through
Jerusalem. A person living in Jenin, for
example, would be unable to travel to Al
Khalil (Hebron) for work or to visit
family.
In call no. 71, June Ist, the UNL
directly connects the Israeli policies of
slicing up the land and economic warfare
with the aim of ending the intifada via
internal Palestinian conditions: «the
Zionist authorities adopted the policy of
imposing siege upon our people, divided
our state into four parts, separated by
semi— permanent military checkpoints,
and used the stick — and — carrot policy
in anew manner, in order to create social
and economic differences among the
classes and strata of the same people and
among the several parts of the same
country.»
The occupation authorities’ attempt
to have the intifada «die out by itself»
dates back over a year, when the
occupation forces began trying to avoid
giant head-on confrontations with the
people. Meanwhile, they intensified their
deadly pursuit of intifada activists and
tried to undermine the subsistence of the
population at large via tax collection,
excessive fines and fees, economié siege,
etc. This policy climaxed in the 40 — day
curfew during the Gulf war. In the
aftermath, less than one — third of those
who previously worked in Israel were
able to return to their jobs, depriving
West Bank and Gaza families of their
main income, which cannot now be
supplemented by family members
working in the Gulf. Writing in Al Fajr,
June 3rd English edition, Frank Collins
predicted: «A decline of one — quarter to
one —third in the Palestinian per capita
income in the year 1991 is likely. In
April, unemployment was as high as 40
to 50 percent, reducing many families to
abject poverty.»
The continued closure of Palestinian P
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