The impact of the PLO split on West Bank Palestinians politically educated activists, it is something else again. More and more find it outright absurd to steer a completely pro-American course when the US is on the offensive against the colonial revolution throughout the world.
Among the political activists, Arafat's alliance with the fundamentalist Islamic
WEST BANK - "In Deishe we flew black flags when it became known that Abu Amar [Yasser Arafat] had had a meeting with Egyptian president Mubarak." Hamdi Faraj is a journalist sentenced to house arrest in the Deishe Palestinian camp near Bethlehem. He is convinced that most
Palestinians are against the latest initiative by the chief of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization.
Raimund LOEW
That does not mean that Hamdi Faraj favors the PLO rebels led by Abu Musa.
"In the beginning, a lot of people supported the demands of the opposition for democratizing the PLO. But there is universal condemnation of the violent and military form taken by the differences in
In particular, the Palestinian resistance.
people condemned the way things led to the siege of Tripoli. We demanded an end to the fighting."
The more politically conscious and left
Palestinian activists reproach Arafat for setting out on a confrontation course with Syria a few months before the siege of Tripoli. Arafat's decision to go to visit his fighters in the Bekaa valley this summer, they say, was a deliberate challenge to the Damascus regime.
It was also the loyalist troops that began the hostilities this fall. At the same time, Arafat abandoned his previous tactic of balancing among the powers and put his money on the American card, a decision that was expressed in his visit to Egypt.
Does that mean that there is sympathy with Syria among Palestinians? Faraj denied this. "It's only that there is no reason to consider Syria more reactionary than the other Arab states. What we won't go along with is confrontation with Syria in the name of collaboration
When we discussed the possibility of the PLO chief shifting toward making a deal with King Hussein under the auspices of Washington, Faraj took a stronger po-
"We were always with Arafat. But now that is finished. All Palestinians are for the PLO. That is not the same thing as Arafat."
The Palestinians in the occupied areas are still considered the most loyal supporters of Arafat. Has there really been a breach since Tripoli and the Egyptian visit? We put this question to Alexander Flores, a Berliner who teaches cultural history at the Palestinian university of
Unity Movement in Tripoli has not gone unnoticed. One of the first actions of this group, armed by Arafat, was to carry out a massacre of Communists. Palestinian left is not ready to forgive the PLO chief for that. Tomorrow they themselves could be the victims of such a tactical alliance.
A revolutionary Marxist activist who teaches at Bir Zeit put it this way: "No Palestinian with any touch of Marxism will back Arafat anymore. He has managed to isolate himself profoundly from all the progressive movements in the Arab world without getting anything more from the imperialists or the Arab reg imes." But he said that none of the oppositionist forces in the PLO offered an alternative. Rise of Muslim fundamentalists
The Muslim fundamentalists are, moreover, the only political force among the Palestinians that is now on the offensive. In the most recent student elections at Bir Zeit, they got 520 votes, almost as much as the left (550). The left bloc includes sympathizers of the Palestinian Communist Party and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine led by George Habash. The group close to E
An Arafat supporter running for shelter in the bombing of Tripoli (DR)
Fateh got the majority with 820 votes.
In the Palestinian press, Arafat supporters are strongly dominant. In the office of the Palestinian press service headed by Raymonda Tawil, they have put up a whole list of statements by Palestinian figures hailing the PLO leader's visit to Egypt.
The predominant themes are confidence in his leadership capacities, concern for the unity of the PLO and expectation of gains for the Palestinian cause.
When he raised the accusation that the PLO is now relying entirely on the American card, Ibrahim Karaeen, a member of Raymonda Tawil's staff, said resignedly: "It's the only card we have left." The question is whether you can get anything by playing this card.
All the questions related to this are being discussed in the Jerusalem Palestinian press with a notable openness. It is ironic that despite a severe censorship the West Bank journalists can often mince less words than their colleagues in Jordan and Syria and since last year in Lebanon.
Three big Palestinian dailies are pub-
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lished in Jerusalem. There is the conservative and pro-Jordanian Al Quds, and two nationalist dailies, Al Fajr, and AshShab. Al Fajr also publishes a very lively and informative English-language weekly.
There is also a weekly close to the El
Fateh rebels, Al Mithak, and the Palestinian CP's weekly Al Thalia.
The daily