The Other Israel Newsletter of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace April, 1985 No 14 Editor: Adam Keller Editorial Board: Uri Avnery, Matti Peled, Yaakov P.O.B.956 Tel-Aviv, Israel 61008 Arnon, Haim Bar'am, Yael Lotan, Yossi Amitai force in South Lebanon, now known as the "South INTRODUCTION Lebanon Army". Both these forces are still very much in evidence ; both are now jointly conducting In January, the Israeli government declared its the heavy artillery bombardments of the Sidon area intention to withdraw from Lebanon. Many people, Pa1estinian refugee camps, in which tens of both inside and outside Israel, assumed this to mean thousands again lost their homes, painstakingly the end of the war, except for some final winding rebuilt after being destroyed during and after the up.1 In actuality, the government decision 1982 fighting. inaugurated one of the bloodiest phases of the The Israeli government still fully intends to whole Lebanon War. This seemingly absurd result is, hand over part o f South Lebanon to its mercenaries in fact, quite logical, because the central issue on and create a so-called "Security Belt" under de-facto which the war was, and is, fought - who will rule Israeli rule. This causes the continuing and fierce South Lebanon - has been left unresolved. Lebanese resistance. In trying to break this In determining . its policy, the Israeli resistance, the government resorts to the "Iron Fist" government is caught between two opposing policy2 of brutal raids on Lebanese villages, and to pressures. On the one hand, there are the mounting such steps as transferring 1,200 Lebanese prisoners toll of Israeli casualties in Lebanon, and the to a detention camp inside Israel, in direct increasing pressure inside Israel for immediate contravention of international law. Unless this withdrawal; on the other hand, the government is policy is abandoned, the official Israeli withdrawal still far from abandoning completely the Israeli from Lebanon will not mean the end o f the war, but involvement in Lebanon. That involvement, a merely a change of its form: the replacement of traditional bi-partisan policy of both Labor and Israeli soldiers by Israeli-controlled mercenaries, Likud, has its ideological roots back in David backed up by Israeli artillery and air force Ben-Gurion's time, and its practical implementation bombardments and by frequent "search and destroy" started in 1975, with Israeli support [or the raids by Israeli ground forces. right-wing Christian militias in Central Lebanon Unless Israeli involvement in Lebanon, in all its and the creation of the Israeli-controlled mercenary forms, is completely ended, a new full-scale war will be almost inevitable, sooner or later. 1 .Major (Res.) Benny Gvirtz, killed in Lebanon on April 11th, was a member of "Peace Now". He contemplated refusing to serve in Lebanon, but did not do so because of the government decision on 2. The Hebrew name is "Mediniyut Ha-yad withdrawal. Ha-Hazakah" (literally, "The Strong Arm Policy"). Karim Halaf For the second consecutive time, it is our sad duty to eulogize a Palestinian leader. On March 30th, a heart attack ended the life of Karim Halaf, the deposed mayor of Ramallah. Like Fahd Kawameh, Halaf was one of the group of Palestinian nationalist mayors who, after the 1976 municipal elections - the only free elections ever held on the West Bank - have made the municipalities into central organs of Palestinian political life in the occupied territories. As such, Halaf became a prominent target for any plan aimed at breaking Palestinian resistance to Israeli annexation plans. In 1980, he lost his foot in an assassination attempt by the Israeli settlers' terrorist underground; his health was impaired, and his wound required new operations for the rest of his life. In 1982 he was deposed, together with most other mayors, and exiled to Jericho; only after two years was he permitted to return to his hometown. Throughout, Karim Halaf had maintained constant and growing contacts with the Israeli peace forces. Originally a supporter of Naif Hawatmeh's "Democratic Front", he gradually came to support outspokenly Yassir Arafat's peace line. It should be particularly mentioned that in 1983, after an Israeli girl was killed by a bomb planted in a Jerusalem bus, Karim Halaf publicly condemned the bombing. In death as in life, Karim Halaf remained a symbol of the Palestinian struggle. At the time of his death, Ramallah was under curfew, following the killing of an Israeli settler. Severe restrictions were placed on Halaf's funeral by the military authorities, who feared it might turn into a demonstration. Many of the participants, including Uri Avnery of the ICIPP, were turned back at the entrance of Ramallah; but the idea of Israeli-Palestinian peace, though it might be turned back again and again, is sure to win through enventually. 2 While in Lebanon. events are moving very I have refused to serve in Lebanon, and was quickly (far too quickly for those killed in them), sentenced to 35 days. I am a tank gunner, a corporal events in the diplomatic arena are moving much (....) I have been a fighter fo r 12 years (... ) I more sluggishly• .President Mubarak's visit to fought in the Yom Kippur War and in Lebanon Washington seemingly ended in failure. The visit of (• • • ) 1. did everything: ambushes, opening routes, American envoy Richard Murphy to the Middle East patrols. is likely to end the same way, unless American (and (• • • ) I have fought at Sultan Ya'akub1 and Israeli) policy makers finally accept that there can saw terrible things. We fought for three and a half be no peace without the Palestinians, and that no weeks, and already on the second day I felt Palestinian negotiators exist, except those chosen deceived. Suddenly they would claim (on the Israeli or approved by the PLO. radio) that the Syrians have opened fire, and you The tim e for this is fa r from being unlimited. would know that in reality, you are the one who The situation on the West Bank is one of opened fire. In this way, they deceived our continuing, seething unrest, manifested in both people, day after day. I knew the truth, but violent demonstrations and occasional armed continued to fight. I shot down a Syrian helicopter, attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers. This situation I have hit tanks, but I could not reconcile myself to has not yet reached Lebanese proportions: but the war. I sat in the tank and strengthened myself by should the Palestinians lose all hope of a negotiated reading, under the lamp, the writings of Rabbi settlement, their desperation, coupled with the Nahman of Breslav.2 At some moments I imagined presence of Israeli armed settlers and with other myself sitting at a video game board, and playing. I complicating factors, might create a very explosive tried to convince myself that I was shooting situation indeed. imaginary monsters in a video game. Thus I was able to overcome fear, keep a cool head and fight calmly. I returned home shaken. What a stupid war, what a presumption and transgression against Man and against God! ( . ) Even though Israel had now been. for many years, the United States' military ally in the Middle East, Israel had hesitated to join directly in anti-Soviet activities. The last shreds of these restraints seem to disappear now: the Israeli When I received a new order to serve in government has agreed to the erection in Israel of Lebanon I was very depressed. (. ) I had terrible Voice of America transmitters, broadcasting hesitations, a whole month of them3. I did not fear anti-Soviet propaganda: and seems about to accept Lebanon, I feared the prison. I asked my friends President Reagan's invitation to participate in what is going on there, and they gave me a grim developing his ''Star Wars" initiative. For those who picture. I feared I would get hit on the head with a would like to see Israel a truly independent state, mess-tin I thought I would encounter the scum of rather than a pawn on a superpower chessboard, the land there, and couldn't sleep at night ( • • •) these are sad news indeed. Had I wanted, I could have neatly gotten out The Editor of this business. I could have asked for deferment of service or gone abroad. But I didn't want that. I have been brought up to be a good Jew and a good Zionist, and not to evade responsibility. I told The road to prison people: "I am a playwright and a theatre director, not a plumber. The theatre is my way of life. I Thirty years old Shmuel Ha'spari is one of cannot let myself make any concession, because Israel's promising young playwrights. Recently, he afterwards I would not be able to write a single has .been imprisoned for refusing to serve in word". I knew that if I dodge this responsibility I Lebanon during his military reserve service. would afterwards become a whore - I would start Ha'spari, who is a devoutly religious man, had writing things in which I don't believe. I regarded gone through a long moral struggle, before reaching this refusal as a persona l test. (•••) I knew that I his present political positions. He had started out must not fail this small test. I thought: what will from extreme right-wing views, and, at the age of happen if, God forbid, Sharon is elected as our seventeen, had participated in violent right-wing leader? What will happen then, when I would have demonstrations. His experiences as a combat soldier have deeply affected him.