ON November 9, 1990, Michel Warshawsky. director of the Alternative Information Centre (AIC) was freed after four months in prison. Sophie Massourl interviewed him by telephone on November 29, 1990.
tions of your detention and liberation? I was relatively welltreated. I had a certain freedom of movement and my conditions of detention were the best possible. Although I did not have any contact with other political prisoners, my relations with the common law prisoners were quite good. This was due to the literacy courses that I gave in the prison and because I was editor of the prison
The Shin Beth (Israeli secret services) tried to make things more difficult for me. My first permission to go out only arrived a week before my conditional parole, and they tried to prevent the reduction in my sentence. In the end, I got out quite fast [Warshawsky was originally sentenced to 30 months in prison]. I am now on parole and my activities are under surveillance. • Israel is directly interested in the Gulf conflict. After the massacre in Jerusalem (see IV 193) has there been increased violence towards the Palestinians?
There can be no doubt today that all the Israeli leaders want war. They hope that this will unblock the internal situation in Israel and solve the Palestinian problem. They are doing everything possible to, at one and the same time, prepare public opinion for war and its consequences, and to urge the US to "behave like men" teach Saddam Hussein a lesson.
But the battle for the Constituent Assembly, whatever its limits, continues, even if, given the electoral results, it is not clear who will lead this struggle.
Navarro Wolf, the M-19 leader and formerly Gaviria's Health Minister, now elected deputy, will surely not be a part of this struggle; it is no longer part of his political project, although this does not mean that he is safe. Serious threats to his life are being made, since, despite his conciliatory positions, he is not a recognized part of the bourgeois two-party
COLOMBIA / ISRAELI STATE
The idea that the international confrontation can resolve Israeli internal problems is not the sole property of the leaders, it is also shared by a large part of the media and press. • What has been the general reac-
One could say that on the whole people are keyed up for war. They are waiting anxiously of course, but it is a contradictory thing, because they are also impatient.
The general trend of public opinion is a melange of fear of the coming conflict which may be very costly, with, at the same time, the impression that, if all goes well, this will be the moment to deal with the Palestinians. People like Sharon and Shamir express the feelings of a big majority of public opinion that a solution to the Palestinian question is on the cards. • What has been the reaction of the population in the occupied territories?
Confronted with the hardening of Israeli policy, in the absence of any obvious way out, and in the new situation opened by the conflict between Iraq and the West, there is a also a hardening of attitudes on the West Bank and in Gaza. This is more a popular feeling than a clearly harder political line.
This is expressed by violent individual acts for example, and also by some leaders making more intransigent statements than they would have done six months ago. • What about the Israeli left?
For the first time in a long while, the Israeli left is divided. What one might call the broad pacifist movement, which includes a moderate Zionist wing, has split into two.
One part has come over to complete identification with the "sacred union", and has made it clear that they have separated from the Palestinians, telling them: "now you have supported Saddam Hussein, we have unmasked your bad faith and your real intentions."
This position is a step back for the progressive forces in Israel and has provoked divisions in the moderate left. The shock has hit the Civil Rights Movement, where there are two contradictory positions, the Left Zionist organization, Mapam, its youth organization and "Peace Now" whose spokespersons have adopted opposed positions. • What do you intend to do now?
I am hoping to resume my work for the Alternative Information Centre, which I have been unable to do since the beginning of my case, four years ago. But I am now also rather concerned about the penal world and I have decided to try to take part in work concerning common law prisoners, to maintain contact with the prison through publications, cultural activities 19 and so on. *