No.38 September-October,1989
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The Other Israel Newsletter of the Israeli Council for Israeli - Palestinian Peace September-October 1989 No 38 Editor: Adam Keller Ass.editors: Malka Gayer, Beate Keizer Editorial Board: Uri Avnery, Matti Peled, Yaakov P.O.B..956 Tel-Aviv, Is r a e l 61008 Arnon,Haim Bar’am, Yael Lotan, Yossi Amitay Phone: (03) 5565804 CHAIN OF EVENTS On July 5, many Israeli peace active- stones on cars bearing the easily leadership claimed the Intifada to be ists - and even many Palestinians in recognised license plates of the Ter- ‘burning out’, and Intifada news was the Occupied Territories - were, in ritories. In two cases, where stones pushed to the back pages. spite of themselves, waiting tensely were thrown from cars coming from The headlines were captured by for the decision of the Likud’s 2400- the opposite direction, the stones other issues: the growing unemploy- member ‘Central Committee’. In the had enough force to cause the ment and the apportioning of polit- previous months, Prime Minister Palestinian car to overturn, with ical blame for it; the unfinished war Shamir’s ‘peace plan’ had become fatal consequences for the drivers. in Lebanon and the audacious Isra- almost universally accepted in Israeli One of the main centres of racist eli kidnap of Sheih Obeid, an impor- politics as ‘the only game in town’. violence was the Shmu’el Hanavi tant Lebanese Shi’ite leader; the Many Israelis and Palestinians neighborhood, which borders on the involvement of ex-Israeli generals in hoped that - whatever Shamir’s dividing line between Jewish and training the Columbian drug-lords’ own intentions - his plan would set Arab Jerusalem. Shmu’el Hanavi, private army... in movement an irreversible dyna- populated mainly by Oriental Jews Meanwhile, the level of violence in mic, leading to Israeli withdrawal and riddled with drug and prostitu- the Occupied Territories escalated. from the Occupied Territories. The tion problems, is a permanent focus Defence Minister Rabin instructed same possibility was viewed with ap- of seething discontent. the army to shoot down any Pales- prehension by Shamir’s hardliner At one of the bus victims’ funerals tinian whose face is covered, even rivals inside the Likud - the Sharon- Shimon Peres was assaulted by though his hands are empty. The Levy-Moda’ey trio. For months, the Shmu’el HaNavi residents as the immediate result was an abrupt Likud factions marshalled their for- cortege passed through their neigh- climb in the number of Palestinians ces for the showdown. Shamir was borhood. They heckeled him: ‘Shut killed and wounded. The growing expected to get a narrow majority - up, Arab lover! Now we start the savagery was also reflected in the but on the last moment, fearing to Jewish Intifada!’ Peres’ bodyguards proportion of little children among endanger the Likud’s unity, he de- had to extricate him from the angry those killed.* cided to back down and accepted his crowd. During the next two weeks, The Israeli secret services attempt- rivals’ demands on all essential youths daily went to the Shmu’el ted to rebuild their network of in- points. As unanimously amended by Hanavi Junction, to assault Pales- formers, disrupted at the start of the the ‘Central Committee’, the Shamir tinian cars and clash with the police. Intifada. The result was a steep rise plan was emptied of any positive Not all inhabitants of Shmu’el Ha- in the number of suspected col- content it may have had. Navi, however, felt comfortable with laborators killed by the Palestinians. For those who had ‘come very far’ this situation. When their neighbor- Another Palestinian struggle had a to invest a reluctant hope in Prime hood was described in the media as clear non-violent nature: the inhab- Minister Shamir, the disappoint- ‘a hotbed of fanatism and extreme- itants of Beit Sahur, on the West ment was deep to the point of humili- ism’, the neighborhood committee Bank, who refuse to pay Israeli taxes, ation. took an initiative which constituted maintained their refusal even in the One inhabitant of the Gaza Strip the first break in a long chain of face of weeks of virtual looting by chose the following day, July 6, to violent events: on July 21, the junc- soldiers and tax gatherers. In raids perform an act of destruction. He tion was lined with dozens of on the residents’ houses, property boarded the Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem Shmu’el HaNavi residents giving worth millions of dollars was seized bus and in a suicidal bare-handed flowers to each passing driver, Jew in order to be sold to cover the tax attack on the driver forced the bus or Arab. Avi Alzam, head of the arrears. into a deep mountain ravine, causing neighborhood committee, told the 16 deaths. press: ‘We have started an Intifada • The news of this attack drew atten- of Flowers.’ On September 18, the citizens of tion away from an incipient Labour- Israel saw the embattled comman- Likud split; it was the signal for a • der of the Haifa firemen on their new anti-Arab campaign in different The upheaval in July gave way to television screens, with pillars of parts of the country. For days mobs, general feelings of resignation and flame behind him. He said: ‘The fire shouting ‘death to the Arabs’, threw apathy. The political and military broke out in five places at once. We were not prepared ... everybody we National Unity Government; will the Israeli government would, in have is here, fighting the fire...’. Shamir continue to maintain his effect, be taking a very big step in the Within hours, the entire Carmel rather unstable alliance with the other direction - the direction of Mount National Park was burned to Likud hardliners; will the U.S. ad- war, destruction and tragedy. the ground. Responsibility was clai- ministration, after all, come up with med by a previously unknown Pales- an initiative of its own which will The editor. tinian group, calling itself ‘Direct seduce the Israeli leaders into free- * From the beginning of the Intifada Revenge’. ing themselves of some taboos; and until August 22, 1989, hundred and The Israeli public response was what amount of energy the Soviet fifteen Palestinians aged less than 16 very different from that which fol- Union, with enormous problems years were killed by the Israeli army; lowed the bus attack. There were no closer to home, could invest in the twenty-nine of them were 12-years old outbursts of hatred against Arabs. Middle East. or less. The Jerusalem-based Occupied Public attention was mainly directed The time available for diplomatic Territories Information Centre, headed towards the rare animals who died in experiments is not unlimited. Overa by Ratz Knesset Member Dedi Zucker, the fire and those, deprived of their year has passed since PLO leader published a full list of their names on September 9. natural habitat, who had to be taken Yasser Arafat officially recognized care of. Several columnists wryly the existence of Israel and launched • • • pointed out the contrast between the an outspoken peace-seeking policy. concern for vegetation and rare So far, he has little to show for it; animals - and the silence about the after a year of American-PLO dia- ‘Anti-terrorism’ update Palestinian children’s death toll. logue, it is still doubtful whether Arafat would be granted a visa to A new amendment to the infamous • address the U.N. General Assembly ‘anti-terrorist act’ was presented to The ‘Ten-point’ initiative of Egyp- in New York. Despite all their suf- the Knesset by Justice Minister Dan tian President Mubarak might be the ferings and deprivations, most Pa- Meridor. Aimed at ‘preventing the last chance to break the fatal polit- lestinians give their support to the PLO from funneling funds into Is- ical deadlock, at-least for a long time Arafat line of reconciliation. rael’, the new amendment would to come. Shorn of the diplomatic There is no way of knowing how empower the police to seize the verbiage surrounding it, the Mu- long this will go on. If the present funds and property of any associa- barak initiative consists of an at- situation continues, frustration and tion which receives money from tempt to start negotiations in Cairo, despair may build, forcing Arafat to abroad. The association would then between Israel and a Palestinian change his position or causing his have to prove that the money didn’t delegation approved by - but not downfall. This might be exactly what come from ‘a terrorist organization’. officially representing - the PLO. the Israeli hardliners hope for. In the past few years, donations The Mubarak initiative occasioned These hardliners have, however, to from Western churches and charity several weeks of hectic diplomatic reckon with the desire for peace, organizations have formed a signif- manoevers. There was the strange which is a very real force among the icant income of Arab municipalities spectacle of two senior Israeli Min- Israeli public. It is being expressed, and public associations in Israel, isters - Likud Foreign Minister for example, by the massive out- who receive far less government Arens and Labor Finance Minister pouring of public sympathy for Abie funding than their Jewish counter- Peres - simultaneously visiting the Nathan, imprisoned for meeting parts. This is now threatened by the United States and presenting in their with Arafat. new amendment, as the govern- meetings with the American officials At this moment, there exists a very ment’s ‘Arab affairs experts’ claim positions diametrically opposed to real chance for peace in the Middle that the Western organizations are each other. East. To keep it in existence, the ‘PLO fronts and go-betweens’.