SPECIAL REPORTS FROM PALESTINE
Towards A State Of Independence
The Palestinian Uprising December 1987 - August 1988
(JMCC, pp 265, September 1988)
Contents
Since January 1988 the FACTS Information Committee has been working to communicate the realities of life during the Palestinian uprising to the outside world. While journalists have drawn the world's attention to the succession of Israeli atrocities, the voice of the Palestinian people under occupation has received minor coverage. While much sympathy for the sufferings of Palestinians was provoked by the spectacular television footage, the uprising remained without a face.
The media coverage helped to change the world's view of Israel by showing the army's brutality, while the Palestinian cause won a new legitimacy, but there was much more to the uprising than the violence. Political analysis of the uprising tended to be relatively superficial, while the various non-violent forms of protest and organization were, initially, all but ignored. The communities were highly disciplined and organized, developing a wide range of tactics in their struggle for a political solution, yet this facet of the uprising received little attention.
Political distortions and simplifications abounded in media coverage: the PLO was presented as something outside the occupied territories, different from the people of the uprising and while the US "peace initiative" was given center stage, the Palestinian peace movement was either dismissed or given a passing reference.
The Committee has attempted to offer a local, Palestinian perspective on the uprising by publishing weekly reviews of current developments. In addition to documenting the repression of the Israeli authorities, we have tried to present the other face of the movement. Non-violent forms of protest, including strikes, tax boycotts, Israeli product boycotts and the local production movement, have all played a central role in the development of the struggle, while the process of community-based organization - the popular movement - has created a nationwide network of committees without which the uprising could not have been sustained. One field of popular organization has been the creation of a network of popular information committees, to which the FACTS Information Committee belongs.
Important political developments within the Palestinian National Movement have also occurred which, until recently, went relatively unnoticed on the international stage.
"Towards a State of Independence" is a collection of articles which were published by the Committee between January and August 1988.
Chapter 1, The Uprising, is a review which was published in April. The article offers an overview of the factors which led to the uprising, and reviews its development over the first four months.
Chapter 2, Rebellion, is a collection of articles which describe the forms of protest which have been adopted within the framework of the popular committees. The "diaries" of resistance" take the reader through the uprising as it has developed in individual communities. The diaries document the dramatic impact which the last 8 months have had in the West Bank and Gaza: the fearless and heroic spirit which has fuelled the rebellion is best seen in these diaries, where communities describe the struggle as they have experienced it. The communiques of the uprising introduce the reader to the declarations of the local Unified National Leadership: the close adherence of the people to the directives in these communiques has been crucial in developing the tactics of the struggle while maintaining the unity of the movement. Demonstrations are also documented, to show the continuing vast scale of protest, which has been sustained throughout the period despite repeated Israeli claims that things were quietening down. Sections are also devoted to the merchants' struggle and the resignations from the Israeli "Civil Administration", two essential components of the uprising's tactics.
Chapter 3, Repression, documents the range and scale of measures which the Israeli authorities have unleashed against the Palestinians in an attempt to deter the protest. Specific sections are devoted to martyrs, army and settler violence, curfews, prisons and economic sanctions. Accounts from those on the receiving end of these measures show clearly that they have served, not to deter, but rather to deepen the will to continue resistance.
Finally chapter 4, Resolution? is a collection of reviews of political developments which have accompanied the uprising. These developments have been watched with great interest by the Palestinians in the occupied territories. The Palestinians are calling for a political solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict, and the uprising has led to changes in the international political arena which have brought this goal closer than ever before.
The collective Palestinian will is now focussed , on the achievement of an independent state. This collection is offered as a contribution to that struggle.