THE STONE AND THE OLIVE BRANCH 1;I Four Years of the Intifada From Jabalia Madrid December 1991 1 The Jerusalem CzCownicationMedia and A The Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre is a Jerusalem-based group which works to provide accurate and objective information concerning events in the occupied territories. JMCC produces weekly summaries of events reported in the local press, organises tours for journalists and other iiteres ted parties, and produces briefing papers on current issues. Briefing papers to date include: - Since Madrid: Israeli Confidence -Destroying Measures in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Dec 1991) - Beg, Borrow or Steal: Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Sep 199 1 ) - No Exit: Israel's Curfew Policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (June 1 99 1) - Soviet Jewish Immigration and Israeli Settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Dec 1990) - Palestinian Education - A Threat to Israel's Security? (2nd ed., updated, Aug 1990) - Lessons of Occupation - Palestinian Higher Education During the Uprising (May 1990) - The Intifada: An Overview - The First Two Years (Dec 1989) - Reporting Harassment - lsraeli Restrictions of Press Freedom in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Aug 1980) - Bitter Harvest - lsraeli Sanctions Against Palestinian Agriculture During the Uprising (May 1 989) For further information, contact: JMCC POB 26047 East Jerusalem Tel (02) 819776/7 West Bank via Israel Fax (02) 829534 C L I AL-AMAL PRESS Jerusalem T02-959064 ...... TABLE OF CO- :uW 'tld ssij %:>i!rr ................................aeu%mMurW 1. PREFACE ... ..,. ................................num@kmSr ...... 5 ............ Tnoi~s~ltl!mqlo ylbliud-xwrsbllno3 2. INTRODUCTION ............*yski)sA dawsd eMiJgotibro;X he.'. ..... 5 3 . THE PALESTINIAN UPRISW Iw1.m awEegmaMqo~JAMQLTJ#X-*TM6 Aims of the Uprising ............................................ leoh~xd-~. 6 The Nature of the Uprising. .................... .tn.atssIf. l. 7 Mass Protest ............................ hinl e-4 .f&vCi . 7 Popular Committees. ........ -1 ~&aedukl...... 10 Strikes ............................. LQrWaIT...... 12 Disengagement from Israeli Society ............ rj ...... 14 Tax Revolt ......................mrMCqyl.0 143U ...... 14 Economic Boycott & the-Creation of a Home-based Economy 3. ..... 15 ................. -19 ~kmsrtesliloj wx1ogss5l dud Resignations: the Withdrawal of Labour .... wq3dq ..... 16 Collaborators ................................ mite &rnoCqlb 'fo saql~liti>. 19 Palestinian Diplomatic Initiativeq ......................d a13 ~IBJ&).&T ...... 21 Recent Developments in the Intifada 4- bc~& ...... 23 ...... mmm~Ino3 bi7bsM 311T 4 . ISRAELI RESPONSE TO THE INTIFADA ........................... 26 Effects on Israeli Society ............ERTMrJA MjA22AH9.YfJ Y &?; 26 Trends in Controlling the Intifada ............................. 28 The Use of Force ..........................................................~IC~P . 28 ;:1 @Lowering the Profile & the Use of Undercover Squaj#i .A &bnepcpL . 31 Arrests and Administrative Detention. ..............a,=....bihM ...... 32 Deportation ...ra .w wrcnu .Y.S U2 .Y;EK)JOWSM3 ..U dbneqgh . 33 Collective Punishment ....................................34 Curfew ..................................... ~TOL34 House Demolition and Sealing ........................... 35 Sanctions Against Education ............................ 35 Economic Sanctions ...................................... 37 Taxes ........................................... 38 Agricultural Siege ................................... 38 Denying Employment ................................. 40 I. PREFACE has contributed to the convening of the peace In 9 December 1991 the Palestinian uprising conference. A wide variety of sources, krill have endured for 48 months or 1,461 days, Palestinian, Israeli and international, have mtting the claims of former Israeli Defence been used as well as JMCC9s own date base Minister Yitzhak Rabin that the trouble would and field work. All sources are acknowledged 'all be over by Christmas (19871"' into in footnotes. ~erspective.Contrary to the expectations of nany, the intifada has sustained itself for 2. INTRODUCTION Tour years in spite of overwhelming odds, and As the intifada enters its fifth year several las contributed considerably to the recent trends can be identified in the nature of Iolitical developments. Palestinian protest activity and Israeli methods of control over the occupied The aim of this document is to provide an territories. werview of the activities, and an analysis of ;he developments, of the intifada from the The trend away from constant high levels of First protests which erupted in Jabalia mass mobilisation has continued, although the -efugee camp, to the participation of the Palestinian population has shown itself to be first group of Palestinian delegates drawn willing and able to take to the streets in from the occupied territories at the Madrid response to particular incidents, and recently 3eace conference. It does not seek to cover demonstrated in large numbers in favour of the whole range of anti-occupation activity in peace. The move towards individual acts of its minutiae, nor to produce a comprehensive protest, often involving the use of force, has -ecord of the abuses of Palestinian human continued, with levels of activity generally rights. At best it will offer a summary of the rising in direct correlation to the use of major elements and an analysis of the violence against Palestinians. significant trends in order to contribute to a better understanding of its nature and its The Israeli army has developed a policy of results. lowering the level of its military presence and activity against the Palestinian population, The document will examine the four years in relying increasingly on undercover operations two distinct phases: the first two and a half and the work of Palestinian collaborators to years from December 1987 to August 1990 eliminate individual activists. Collective and the last year and a half which has been punishment, like restrictions on movement and inevitably affected by the Gulf crisis and war. employment, and other methods of Particular attention will be given to the bureaucratic control have increased, with the developments of the past year. In addition, formalisation of the pass-system in the spring the document will consider three separate of 1991. This restricts the supply of arenas of activity: Palestinian, Israeli and Palestinian labour within Israel and cuts off international. different segments of the occupied territories from one another, denying access in particular An essay by Palestinian delegate, Ghassan al- to the cultural and commercial centre of Khatib examines the way in which the intifada Palestinian life, East Jerusalem. Whilst this move towards the wholesale segregation of Palestinians from Lraeb has continued, there 3, THE PALESTIMAN UPRISING have been recent attempts &Q remove maof Aim of the U~rkbg si the innumerable economic smctiams, The long-te~~Igoals of the Palestinian particularly in a,which m~trkt uprising were clearly an end to the Israe Palestinian industrial development. However, occupation and the creation of a Palestinia the degree of economic pressure imposed on statr The fhat communique of the unific! Palestinian agriculture mminue unabated. Leademhip of the Uprising (UNLU) spoke c There has been a marked incwase in the rate the "insistence of ow national demand fi of land seizure adtree uprooting, caq1ed df-detemination and the establishment C with the unprecedented intensity Q;E Israel's an independent Palestinian staten2. At td settlement drive; it should be mted that all meeting of the Palestine National Counc three phenomena have coincided prmkly (PNC) In Algiers in November 1988 the PLl with the US-led peace initiative in the Middle clarified that the Palestinians were seeking East. sdution based OR the terms of UN Securir Council Resolutions M2 and 338, an sfRlultaneo'usly ree~gnisedthe jurisdiction c UN fcesoluti~n181 by declaring the existencI of the Palestinian Btate. At a press conferend m 14 December 1988, Arafat elaborate btk: "[We] seek a comprehensiv settlement among the parties concerned in th AmbIsraeli conflict, including the state o Palestine, Israel and other neighbours, withi the fmewwk.o-f the international conferenc for pace fn.ehsMtddle East, on the basis d IJN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 33 and so as tr, guarantee equality and th especially our people' xaiatWsnalindependence 'to &xist in peace an1 atmvening of a pea& therefore, to be ai integral stage in the kertgj term process a creaGiag a Palestinian me, -The intifada set itsetf a mberof importan &ort-term goals which can be divided intc two spheres of activity; aiming to change thi internal structures and attitudes which goven the lives of Palestinlaas in the occupiel itories, to "extend the practice of refusin; to, obey the orders of the occupation Gam Strip. Palast were to force the auth~rities";~and striving to alter the balance world to Uetma to the& "narrative" and of power, thereby destroying "the m th of recognice the legitimacy sf their cause. By coexistence with the occupationJ and r*@rtbg to ewecttially non-vblwt methods persuading Israel, and by extension the world, of prratmit they were to recapture the moral of /the urgent need to find a resolution to the high mmnd in the struggle, hq Palestinian-Israeli conflict. in&rneS,ieraal support and prove that weakness QW be a strength. Internally,