Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 1-31-2001 Resist Newsletter, Jan. 2001 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Jan. 2001" (2001). Resist Newsletters. 329. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/329 Inside: Stuggles in the Middle East ISSN0897-2613 •Vol.10#1 A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority January 2001 AnalyzingtheAI-Aqsalntifada NOAM CHOMSKY fter three weeks of virtual war in he Israeli occupied territories, rime Minister Ehud Barak an­ nounced in late October a new plan to de­ termine the final status of the region. Dur­ ing these weeks, over 100 Palestinians were killed, including 30 children, often by "excessive use oflethal force in circum­ stances in which neither the lives of the security forces nor others were in immi­ nent danger resulting in unlawful killings," Amnesty International concluded in a de­ tailed report that was scarcely mentioned in the US. The ratio of Palestinian to Is­ raeli dead was then about 15-1, reflecting the resources of force available. Barak's plan was not given in detail, but the outlines are familiar: they conform to Palestinian youths shout over the Temple Mount wall. Photo by Nir Kafri, Impact Visuals the "final status map" presented by the US­ Israel as the basis for the Camp David ne­ to include Nablus and other Palestinian cit­ US aid, with increasing energy since the gotiations that collapsed in July. This plan, ies, a central canton is based in Ramallah, US was able to implement its version of extending US-Israeli rejectionist propos­ and a southern canton in Bethlehem; Jeri­ the "peace process" after the Gulf War. als of earlier years, called for cantonization cho is to remain isolated. Palestinians of the territories that Israel had conquered would be effectively cut off from Jerusa­ Tension and Violence Mount in 1967, with mechanisms to ensure that lem, the center of Palestinian life. Similar The goal of the negotiations was to se­ usable land and resources (primarily wa­ arrangements are likely in Gaza, with Is­ cure official PA adherence to this project. ·ter) remain largely in Israeli hands while rael keeping the southern coastal region Two months after they collapsed, the cur­ the population is administered by a cor- and a small settlement at Netzarim (the site rent phase of violence began. Tensions, al­ rupt and brutal Palestinian Authority (PA), of many of the recent atrocities), which is ways high, were raised when the Barak playing the role traditionally assigned to hardly more than an excuse for a large mili­ government authorized a visit by Ariel indigenous collaborators under the several tary presence and roads splitting the Strip Sharon with 1000 police to the Muslim re­ varieties of imperial rule: the Black lead­ below Gaza City. ligious sites (Al-Aqsa) on Thursday, Sep­ ership of South Africa's Bantustans, to These proposals formalize the vast settle­ tember 28. Sharon is the very symbol of mention only the most obvious analogue. ment and construction programs that Israel Israeli state terror and aggression, with a In the West Bank, a northern canton is has been conducting, thanks to munificent continued on page two Vol. 10, #1 RESIST Newsletter Page 1 Analyzing the AI-Aqsa Intifada continued from page one by the importation of an essential commod­ rich record of atrocities going back to 1953. ity to replace the cheap and exploited Pal­ Sharon's announced purpose was to estinian labor on which much ofthe economy demonstrate "Jewish sovereignty" over the relies: hundreds of thousands of illegal im­ Al-Aqsa compound, but as the veteran cor­ migrants from around the world, many of respondent Graham Usher points out, the them victims of the "neoliberal reforms" of "Al-Aqsa intifada," as Palestinians call it, the recent years of "globalization." Surviv­ was not initiated by Sharon's visit; rather, ing in misery and without rights, they are by the massive and intimidating police and regularly described as a virtual slave labor military presence that Barak introduced the force in the Israeli press. The current Barak following day, the day of prayers. Predict­ proposal is to extend this program, reduc­ ably, that led to clashes as thousands of ing still further the prospects even for mere people streamed out of the mosque, leav­ survival for the Palestinians. ing seven Palestinians dead and 200 A major barrier to the program is the wounded. Whatever Barak's purpose, there opposition of the Israeli business commu­ could hardly have been a more efficient nity, which relies on a captive Palestinian way to set the stage for the shocking atroci­ market for some $2.5 billion in annual ex­ ties of the following weeks. ports, and has "forged links with Palestin­ The same can be said about the failed ian security officials" and Arafat's "eco­ negotiations, which focused on Jerusalem, nomic adviser, enabling them to carve out a condition observed strictly by US com­ monopolies with official PA consent" (Fi­ mentary. Possibly Israeli sociologist Baruch nancial Times, October 22; also New York Kimmerling was exaggerating when he Young palestinian uses a slingshot next Times, same day). They have also hoped wrote that a solution to this problem "could to the Temple Mount gate. Photo by Nir to set up industrial zones in the territories, have been reached in five minutes," but he Kafri, Impact Visuals transferring pollution and exploiting a is right to say that "by any diplomatic logic 242), then pursued its unilateral rejection cheap labor force in maquiladora-style in­ [it] should have been the easiest issue to of Palestinian rights in the years that fol­ stallations owned by Israeli enterprises and solve (Ha 'aretz, October 4, 2000). It is un­ lowed, culminating in the "Oslo process." continued on page three derstandable that Clinton-Barak should Since all of this has been effectively ve­ want to suppress what they are doing in the toed from history in the US, it takes a little occupied territories, which is far more im­ work to discover the essential facts. They portant. Why did Arafat agree? Perhaps be­ are not controversial, only evaded. cause he recognizes that the leadership of the Arab states regard the Palestinians as a Rejectionist Plans, Closure and Power nuisance, and have little problem with the As noted, Barak's plan is a particularly Bantustan-style settlement, but cannot harsh version of familiar US-Israeli overlook administration of the religious rejectionism. It calls for terminating elec­ sites, fearing the reaction oftheir own popu­ tricity, water, telecommunications, and lations. Nothing could be better calculated other services that are doled out in meager to set off a confrontation with religious rations to the Palestinian population, who ILLEGITIMATE AUIIIORlff Fu,ndi~ w..°«l ~ '1l1Ce 1961 overtones, the most ominous kind, as cen­ are now under virtual siege. It should be For information and grant guidelines, write to: turies of experience reveal. recalled that independent development was Resist, 259 Elm St., Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144 The primary innovation ofBarak's new ruthlessly barred by the military regime from www.resistinc.org; [email protected] plan is that the US-Israeli demands are to 1967, leaving the people in destitution and Resist Newsletter is published ten times a be imposed by direct force instead of co­ dependency, which has worsened consider­ year by RESIST, Inc., (617)623-5110. The ercive diplomacy, and in a harsher form. ably during the US-run "Oslo process." views expressed in articles, other than edi­ The outlines are in basic accord with poli­ One reason is the "closures" regularly torials, are those of the authors and do not cies established informally in 1968 (the instituted, must brutally by the more dov­ necessarily represent the opinions of the Allon Plan), and variants that have been ish Labor-based governments. As dis­ RESIST staff or board. proposed since by both political groupings cussed by another outstanding journalist, RESIST Staff: Jacquie Bishop (the Sharon Plan, the Labor government Amira Hass, this policy was initiated by Robin Carton plans, and others). It is important to recall the Rabin government "years before Amanda Matos-Gonzalez that the policies have not only been pro­ Hamas had planned suicide attacks, [and] Carol Schachet posed, but implemented, with the support has been perfected over the years, espe­ of the US. That support has been decisive cially since the establishment of the Pales­ RESIST Volunteer: Daphne Lees since 1971, when Washington abandoned tinian National Authority." Newsletter Editor: Carol Schachet the basic diplomatic framework that it had An efficient mechanism of strangulation Printing: Red Sun Press initiated (UN Security Council Resolution and control, closure has been accompanied ()Printed on Recycled Paper with Soy Ink~· Page 2 RESIST Newsletter January 2001 Analyzing the AI-Aqsa Intifada continued from page two the Palestinian elite, who are enriching The innovation of Barak's new plan is that themselves in the time-honored fashion. Barak's new proposals appear to be more the US-Israeli demands are to be imposed of a warning than a plan, though they are a natural extension of what has come before. by direct force instead of diplomacy. Insofar as they are implemented, they would extend the project of "invisible transfer" that settlement was "frozen," in accord leigh (North Carolina) press. that has been underway for many years, with the dovish image preferred in the US The sale of military helicopters was con­ and that makes more sense than outright and by much of the Israeli left. They made demned by Amnesty International (Oct. 19), "ethnic cleansing" (as we call the process use of the "freezing" to intensify settle­ because these "US-supplied helicopters when carried out by official enemies).