Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 7)
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- Democratic Palestine : 7 (ص 7)
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-
occupied territories. In short this is an
attempt to split the Palestinians along
class as well as political lines, breaking
the national unity that has thwarted
Camp David's ‘autonomy’, _ ‘civil’
administration, the village league
scheme, etc. Instead a new Palestinian
‘leadership’ would be formed to preside
over the ‘development’ of the occupied
territories in line with US-Zionist
interests. This would provide the pre-
requisite for the reactionary Arab
regimes to enter negotiations with ‘Is-
rael’ and expand Camp David.
Small carrots and big fists
The clearest proof that Israeli
‘goodwill’ is only intended to split the
Palestinian position can be found in the
treatment simultaneously meted out to
nationalist leaders and the masses. Lib-
eral supporters of the Zionist state would
like to depict these gestures as a change
from the Likud’s iron fist. On the con-
trary, these gestures can and will only be
made as an embellishment on the iron
fist.
While Peres was breathing ‘good-
will’ in mid-October, the major nationalist
leaders of the West Bank were being
summoned by the military governor and
warned against political activities, espe-
Cially of reactivating the National Gui-
dance Committee. While five Palesti-
nians were allowed to travel to the New
York capitalists’ conference, the major-
ity of nationalist leaders cannot leave the
country without special permission in
advance; some cannot leave their home
or their town. Israeli patrols are again
round-the-clock at the home of Bassam
Shakaa, the elected mayor of Nablus,
while the pro-Jordanian Thabet Masri,
deputy mayor and head of the Nablus
Chamber of Commerce, is now allowed
to open a bank. The carrot now being
Offered to the select few is over-
shadowed by the iron fist still perched
over the heads of the vast majority.
Shakaa told A/ Fajr, October 19th, that
Shmuel Goren, the Israeli military coor-
dinator for the occupied territories,
threatened to «return the iron fist
stronger than ever before» if the
nationalists engage in politics.
Settler-state terrorism
The carrot has not reached into
most Palestinian towns, much less the
villages and camps. Life under occupa-
tion is much the same: Palestinian
demonstrations countered by IDF tear
gas and «shooting in the air», as hap-
pened when protests shook the West
Bank after Zionist terrorists launched a
rocket attack on a bus near Jerusalem,
killing one Palestinian and wounding ten
others, on October 28th. Again the
occupiers were out in force to attack
demonstrations on November 2nd when
Palestinians traditionally protest the Bal-
four declaration which gave British
imperialist backing to the Zionist project
in Palestine.
Settler provocations have become
bolder under the national unity govern-
ment with the fascist Kahane’s par-
liamentary immunity being exploited to
the hilt. The pattern established in Um al
Fahm in the Galilee on August 29th has
since been repeated with slight varia-
tions in Dheisheh camp, south of
Bethlehem in early October, in Taibeh
on October 12th, and Haifa on October
14th. In all cases, Palestinians mounted
demonstrations against Kahane and his
settlers’ presence; in Haifa and Taibeh
they were joined by anti-fascist Israeli
Jews. In some cases, Kahane entered
the targeted area; other times the Israeli
police kept him out. But in all cases the
provocation was used to crack down on
Palestinians.
In the six weeks after Kahane tried
to enter Um al Fahm, 300 residents were
interrogated for their role in the
demonstration. Police attacked the anti-
Kahane demonstrations in both Taibeh
and Haifa and made arrests. After 300
armed settlers had raided Duheisheh,
and Kahane had prayed near the camp's.
mosque, the camp was curfewed; eight
of its ten entrances were permanently
sealed; forty residents were detained.
Defense Minister Rabin approved the
settlers’ initiative to patrol the road in
front of the camp. The settlers are also
demanding that three rows of the camp
houses closest to the road be
demolished «to prevent stone-throw-
ing». This has with good reason elicited
fears among Duheisheh residents that
the occupiers are considering abolishing
the camp altogether. The refugee
camps and their inhabitants have no
place in the ‘development’ schemes for
the occupied territories; to the enemy,
they are a blemish constantly exposing
that ‘Israel’ is built on stolen land; they
are also a breeding ground for the fer-
vent nationalism which the Zionist
enemy aims to squash.
Aside from generally using
Kahane’s campaign for expelling the
Palestinians from Palestine as an
excuse for more repression, the clearest
proof of the national unity government's
support to settler violence came on
October 18th. On this evening, Al Khalil
(Hebron) was placed under curfew to
allow 7000 settlers to assemble in the
city center. Purportedly this was to
celebrate a Jewish feast, but the event
was sponsored by the Committee for the
Defense of Underground Settlers, i.e.
Zionist terrorists. Slogans and posters
lauding anti-Palestinian terror pervaded.
Members of the Knesset were in atten-
dance, and the rally was addressed by
Minister of Industry and Commerce,
Ariel Sharon, who pledged that next year
the event would be celebrated in Nablus,
the largest city of the West Bank.
Defense Minister Rabin had refused
requests by Peace Now, the Citizens’
Rights Movement and Al Khalil’s Mayor
Natshe, to have the event cancelled.
The trap
Clearly the Zionist national unity
government holds out no prospects of
easing repression against our people.
Rather it is setting a trap for the PLO.
The Zionists are preparing for the antici-
pated reactivation of the US initiative in
the area with Reagan's reelection. They
are consciously seeking to exploit the
situation created by Arafat's alliance
with the Jordanian and _ Egyptian
regimes, which threatens to split the
PLO on the one hand, and gives the
green light to collaborators on the other.
This does not mean that the Zionists are
ready to deal with Arafat, or that they are
willing to give meaningful power to the
Palestinian bourgeoisie under occupa-
tion. It does mean that they will try to
exploit the disarray in the PLO to
stabilize their own control over all the
occupied territories in the context of
imperialist ‘peace’ in the area. Once
again, ‘peace’ initiatives which circum-
vent the Palestinians’ legitimate rights
are proven to be a cover for more Zionist
expansion and aggression.
At this point we see the direct rela-
tion between the situation in occupied
Palestine and the efforts being made, by
the Democratic Alliance in particular, to
reunite the PLO on the basis of the
Aden-Algiers agreement with Fatah’s
Central Committee. Our masses under
occupation need the backing of a strong,
united PLO in resisting the enemy’s new
attempts to divide and squelch their
struggle. In particular, the Aden-Algiers
agreement's stress on rebuilding the
Palestinian National Front, to lead the
popular struggle against occupation,
provides the means for resisting both the
fraudulent Zionist carrot and the very
real Zionist terror. )
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