Palestinian discontent increases
Land day
On 15 November Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza observed Independence Day. It was eight years since the
Algiers Palestine National Council finally voted for a two state solution to the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict.
Graham Usher
In a televised address, Yassir Arafat vowed that the eventual content of Palestinian independence would be "a state with Jerusalem as its capital". Elsewhere in the self-rule areas a public holiday was declared, with the main emphasis on parades by the Palestinian police (units of the PLO's old Palestine
Liberation Army) and speeches from one or other of the Palestinian Authority's new dis trict governors in the West Bank and Gaza
(ex-commanders of the PLO's old Western
Sector military command). But the dominant mood remains one of despondency, soured by Israeli actions on the ground.
Independence Day festivities highlighted the central paradox the Oslo process has imposed on the Palestinian struggle. People in the occupied territories have never been freer to express their nationalism on occasions like Independence Day. But they have never felt so restrained in their resistance to the ongoing reality of Israeli occupation, and the de facto denial of their national rights.
For most people in the West Bank and Gaza, this is a paradox that cannot endure. Following the armed and popular confrontations that rocked the territories in late September, Arafat's dilemma is that he knows sooner or later he will have to move, either to quell the growing discontent of his people or (as he did, partially, in September) to throw his and the PA's authority behind it. Struggling against settlements
The Oslo paradox is especially apparent in the Palestinians' so far hamstrung struggle against what is perhaps the gravest threat to any future Palestinian independence - Israel's settlement policies in the West Bank.
On 10 November, one Palestinian was killed and 12 wounded after the Israeli army opened fire on a peaceful Palestinian demonstration in the West Bank village of Deir Qiddis, near Ramallah. The 100 or so villagers (led by their local Land Defence Committee and backed by several Palestinian Legislative Council members) had been protesting Israeli seizures of their land to expand the Jewish orthodox settlement of Kiryat Sefer:
Nine days later, Israel's Defence Minister, Yitzak Mordechai, approved the construction of 1,200 housing units for the settlement of Emmanual, over 25 km east of the Green Line. The units will be built on 100 acres of land confiscated from the Palestinian village of Deir Isitya, near Nablus. Mordechai also agreed the sale to Israelis of 600 more West Bank units "frozen" under the
Labour government.
Arafat described these actions as "new and dangerous". There are also signs that he has given a cautious go ahead to Palestinians to oppose them, on the ground as well as rhetorically. On 21 November - in what was a clearly prepared statement of policy - PA Information Minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, warned that Israel's ongoing expansion of settlements would provoke "total confrontation" between Israel and the Palestinians. "The only alternative that this (Israeli) government leaves for us is to confront this policy... with all the means that are possible and at all levels," he said.
The next day a joint meeting of the PLO executive and PA Cabinet called on Palestinians to reclaim confiscated land in the West Bank and Gaza, declared it would support any Palestinian resistance politically and financially, and urged "popular confrontation" every time "Israeli bulldozers appear on Palestinian land".
Two days later, on 24 November, several dozen Palestinian cars and trucks blocked a junction leading to Netzarim, a Zionist minisettlement in the centre of Gaza. The Palestinians were protesting the Israeli army's two year closure of a road that runs alongside the settlement and which, according to Oslo, should be open to Palestinian traffic. There have been sporadic Palestinian protests outside Netzarim ever since Oslo was signed. But this was the first time Palestinian drivers were assisted in their demonstrations by PA police officers, who not only allowed the traffic jam but redirected vehicles into the
Israel's response was to bring Armoured Personnel Carriers to the Netzarim junction and tanks to Gaza's Nahal Oz exit to Israel. Several hundred Israeli soldiers permanently stationed in or near the settlement dug in behind its sandbagged fortifications, mas-
Palestine sively reinforced since the September clashes. Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli army held Arafat directly responsible for the incident, warning the PA not to create tension" in Netzarim. "If anyone on the
Palestinian side thinks that a policy of provocation... bordering on violence will be diplo matically fruitful, they are mistaken," he said.
That evening, the blockade was called off.
with Palestinians quietly moving their vehicles from the junction. But the point had been made. Given the absolute mistrust that governs relations between the Israeli and
Palestinian sides, the slightest "tension" not only risks the Oslo process but a full scale military confrontation. As for the diplomatic
"fruit", by the end of the week Egypt's President Mubarak was warning Netanayahu that not only Oslo but "Israel's existing peace treaties with Arab states" would be put in jeopardy by settlement expansion.
More confrontations inevitable?
Arafat is adept at raising the political heat in the West Bank and Gaza only to then channel it into diplomacy. His problem since the September confrontations is that, while he has strengthened the Palestinians' international standing vis à vis Israel, he has not effected any change in Likud government policy. After two months, there is still no deal on Hebron anywhere on the horizon.
Nor have the diplomatic gains made any real dent on Netanyahu's expansionist ambitions for the West Bank. In a calculated show of defiance,on 26 November, the Israeli leader made his first visit as PM to a West Bank Jewish settlement. Standing on the perimeter of Ariel (with 13,000 settlers, the second largest settlement in the West Bank), Netanyahu vowed to increase the growth of West Bank settlements because "this land has been empty for thousands of years". Ariel is a few kilometres west of Nablus.
Many Palestinians are concluding that another round of confrontations may be the only way to push their struggle forward. Including the influential political scientist. Khalil Shakaki. Two months after the September clashes, he argues that there is now "only one way" to respond to Likud's settlement drive: "Confrontation. In every town and village where Israel attempts to expand settlements, there should be an immediate and physical confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians must force the region and the world to understand that we will fight further settlement. The protests should mass based and non-violent, though any confrontation risks violence given Israel's rule in the occupied territories. We should not stop negotiating, but the PA should bolster the negotiators' hand by authorising mass popular protests". * Source: News from Within
January 1997#284 27