Dr. Majed Nassar, Union of Health Work Committees
Nassar Ibrahim, Alternative Information Center
3 November 2000
The present Intifada is based on a number of political realities that form a framework within which we can understand more fully the events of the past four weeks in the Palestinian occupied territories.
Before beginning an analysis of these realities, however, it must be clearly stated that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is the sole entity responsible for the Aqsa Intifada. The same occupation has been implementing a policy of terror for years toward the Palestinian people including arrests, deportations, killings, and robbery of the national economy, in addition to the confiscation of lands and building of settlements. This same occupying force still refuses to acknowledge the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, namely, the right for self-determination, the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right for all refugees to return.
The spark that ignited this Intifada, moreover, was the provocative visit of Ariel Sharon, accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers, to Al Haram A-Sharif. Any attempt to minimize this fact, or to explain the events in any other way would be a deception.
A Refusal to Surrender
There has been an increasing loss of confidence in the peace process designed according to the American-Israeli vision, which implies the exclusive implementation of Israeli terms. These terms include:
a. the separation of the geographic and demographic unity of the Palestinian people by dividing their land into cantons A, B, and C, in addition to the creation of bypass roads that have consumed thousands of dunums of Palestinian lands;
b. the building and expansion of new settlements;
c. the continuing siege over Palestinian cities, villages, and camps;
d. the policy of house demolitions;
e. the rejection of Palestinian basic human rights as well as national rights;
f. the use of Palestinian prisoners as a bargaining chip for more concessions.
In addition, Israel continually refuses to comply with international resolutions (United Nations and UN Security Council) and has replaced these international terms of reference with its own force, and the creation of "facts on the ground." Israel depends exclusively on the completely biased American position which supports and whitewashes Israel's practices against the Palestinian people. The United States, moreover, continues to threaten to use its veto power against any attempt to condemn Israeli crimes.
The recent events, as well as the results of seven years of the Oslo Agreement fiasco and all the subsequent "agreements," are nothing but tools to eliminate the rights of the Palestinian people. None of these agreements have been effective means to achieve a just peace in the region.
The extreme violence used by Israel against the Palestinian uprising is nothing but another attempt to coerce the world into buying into its understanding of "peace," namely, a peace based on surrender.
Israel's Intransigence
Although Israel presents itself as a party willing to make compromises, in reality, the "facts on the ground" illustrate clearly its complete intransigence with respect to any and all negotiations. Barak went to Camp David (the beginning of the final status negotiations) and brought with him the following conditions on the Israeli agenda:
a. No withdrawal to the borders of 6 June 1967 (this contradicts UN resolutions 242 and 338);
b. The insistence that the settlements should remain and be annexed to Israel (this also contradicts all UN and UN Security Council resolutions which consider all settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza illegal);
c. The denial of the rights of Palestinian people in East Jerusalem and dealing with Jerusalem in toto as the eternal capital of Israel;
d. The refusal to allow Palestinians to return to the homes from which they have been expelled since 1948 (contradiction of UN Resolution 194);
e. Israel's refusal to have a "foreign" army west of the Jordan River. This implies that if Israel ever accepts the creation of a Palestinian state (constrained, of course, by the conditions previously mentioned), it must necessarily be a state without an army.
It is important to understand the significance of some of these conditions for Palestinians. The settlements are an Israeli political project aimed at crushing Palestinian aspirations for freedom and independence. Any realistic discourse focused on the creation of a Palestinian state with the coexistence of the settlements and bypass roads would imply a state without sovereignty. This has always been one of the main reasons for conflict and confrontation. Israel's vision of annexing the already-existing settlements translates into annexation of an additional 15% of Palestinian lands. At present, there are approximately 200,000 settlers in 140 settlements throughout the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. In Hebron, for example, 400 Jewish settlers live in the midst of 140,000 Palestinians, and control 20% of the city.
Israel's expansionist, colonialist policy is a rejection of all decisions of the international community that state unequivocally that all settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are illegal and as such must be dismantled.
The refugee problem is another basic issue at the heart of the Palestinian cause. Refugees were created as a direct result of the Zionist project in Palestine. Seventy-eight percent of Palestine was occupied in 1948 and as a result, approximately one million Palestinians were made refugees. During the 1967 War, another half a million refugees were added to this number. Today there are approximately 4 million refugees living in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, as well as in Palestine itself.
These are the facts and the foundation upon which the present Intifada was built. The only conclusion to be drawn from all this is that, although Israel speaks eloquently about peace, it acts as a brutal occupying force on the ground that will stop at nothing to maintain its power. Oslo aided the Israeli occupation army in tightening its grip on each and every Palestinian city and village. In addition, the plans for redeployment as articulated in Oslo have only served to improve Israel's strategic military positions rather than precipitate its withdrawal, as some people erroneously imagined. The recent summit at Sharm a-Sheikh on 17 October, with Clinton, Mubarak, Annan, Solana, Arafat, and Barak was yet another step in perpetuating the deception that has dominated all attempts to deal rationally with the conflict.
The Summit described the Palestinian resistance as simple rioting rather than as the profound expression of the aspirations of an entire population for freedom and independence. The Sharm-a Sheikh Summit and its results were clearly controlled by the U.S. vision for "peace" in the region -- a vision that would crush the Palestinian Intifada, block the Arabic national movement, and hinder the broadening of solidarity movements in Europe and elsewhere in the world. One of the most dangerous consequences of the Summit is the equalization of the victim and the victimizer and the effort to ignore the liberation movement's political dimension underlying the action of the Palestinian people. In addition, Sharm a-Sheikh was an attempt to transform the reality of Israeli brute force into political "achievement" in order to dictate Israel's political conditions in any future agreements.
Al-Aqsa Intifada: Unprecedented Palestinian Unity
The present Intifada is distinguished by a unique unanimity of intent and motivation among all sectors of Palestinian society. Palestinians on the streets of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank are using similar slogans to express their state of despair and their loss of confidence in the peace process. Since 1993, the Palestinians have experienced first-hand the fact that the present political settlement is nothing but a dictation of Israeli terms, namely, a continuation of the occupation with settlement expansion, a "state" comprised of bantustans, and no right to return. Palestinians have united, not only in the West Bank and Gaza, but also (and for the first time), with the Palestinians living inside the Green Line as well as with those living in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
Since 1948, Israel has tried to isolate the Palestinians inside the Green Line from the rest of the Palestinian people and has dealt with them as "Israeli Arabs." Despite this, however, the Palestinians from 1948 have entered fully into the present Intifada. Their participation in Al-Aqsa Intifada is a deep acknowledgement of their belonging to the Palestinian people. It is part of an Intifada for themselves and a means to fight for their rights.
The entire Palestinian people painfully remembers that in 1948, Israel occupied 80% of Palestine and continues to today its policy of confiscating what remains. For this reason, the Palestinians are united on the following principles:
a. negotiations based on imbalance of power and American bias must be stopped;
b. the Palestinian cause must be a priority on the agenda of the international community;
c. there can be no political settlement without Jerusalem;
d. all settlements must be dismantled immediately
e. all cooperation with the occupying power on security arrangements must come to a halt;
f. continuation of the present negotiations will not bring about even the minimum with respect to ensuring the basic rights of Palestinians, so our choice is to continue the resistance movement.
Israel's Strategy of Confrontation: "Bring Them to Their Knees"
Palestinians throughout the world are committed to reaffirming their inalienable, national rights. Sharon's intention, with the blessing of the Israeli government, was to create yet another "fact on the ground." This alone is sufficient to explain Israel's violent reaction toward the Palestinian demonstrators protesting Sharon's visit. Barak's government wanted to deliver a clear message to the Palestinian people that Israel is ready to do everything necessary to protect its own political choice and to safeguard Israel's conditions defined by Barak at the Camp David Summit. If Israel has its way, then, the Palestinians are either to kneel and accept Israeli terms, or to be subject to Israeli terror and killing.
Israeli army tactics thus far have been "hidden" under the cover of political and security "considerations" - in other words, use the utmost level of force, as quickly as possible, in order to crush the Palestinian resistance. In this way, the Intifada will lose its momentum, thus ensuring the attainment of Israeli goals and rendering impotent the Palestinians.
Israel's strategy in dealing with the Intifada is connected to three elements:
a. Maintaining Israeli force through ensuring the highest possible number of losses among Palestinian demonstrators and the least possible in the Israeli army;
b. Tightening the grip and siege over Palestinian cities and villages, as well as severely restricting freedom of movement through the Israeli army's complete control of all roads.
c. Encouraging settlers throughout the West Bank and Gaza to attack Palestinian villages;
d. Attempting to portray the confrontations as a confrontation with a real armed Palestinian force, although Israel knows very well, the kinds of weapons that are in the possession of the Palestinian police. Israel, nevertheless, has used this argument as a cover and an excuse for its disproportionate use of combat helicopters, rockets, and tanks.
The Bottom Line
Confronted with this reality, Arafat has found himself in front of yet another closed door. Any further compromise on the basic points of the final status negotiations would mean defeat in the struggle toward gaining recognition of the legitimate rights of Palestinians. No Palestinian would stand for it.
The demands of the Palestinian people are very simple and clear:
a. end the occupation
b. dismantle all settlements
c. grant freedom and independence to Palestinians in a sovereign state, with Jerusalem as its capital
d. guarantee the right of return to all refugees
The Palestinian people seek a just political solution that brings refugees back to their homes. They seek a just political solution that guarantees freedom and independence for the entire Palestinian people, and not a new, creative form of occupation. This is the reason that the conflict continues and the resistance gets stronger. And this is the reason that the Israeli occupation, with its tactics of terror and aggression, will never be able to crush the Palestinian spirit and longing for justice.