Repression reverts to normal

Socialist Outlook April 1994
Roland Rance

The massacre by an Israeli settler of dozens of Palestinian worshippers in a Hebron mosque on 25 February led to an upsurge in demonstrations and other acts of resistance against the Israeli occupation. The response of the Israeli military authorities was, unsurprisingly, to tighten the oppression in the Occupied Territories. Hebron was placed under total curfew for a month, while the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were under military closure. The army continues to murder Palestinians, to destroy their homes with anti tank weapons, and to deny access to hospitals. A new ’security’ road, which Palestinians are forbidden to cross, has divided Hebron in half.

This has not deterred the PLO from continuing to negotiate with Israel on the implementation of the imperialist agreement. Latest reports suggest that Israel will permit the stationing of a small, unarmed ’International Observer Force’ in the Occupied Territories, while senior commanders of the new Palestinian Police Force for Gaza and Jericho are to be trained in community policing at the British Police College at Bramshill. According to the Guardian (8 April), "The experience in Northern Ireland, interrogation techniques, treatment of offenders, police accountability and human rights will be on the syllabus".

Despite the continuing PLO concessions, it seems unlikely that Israeli forces will indeed withdraw from Gaza and Jericho by 13 April, as promised in the agreement.

Meanwhile, the official Israeli inquiry into the massacre at Ibrahimiya Mosque has established that five of the six soldiers supposed to guard the mosque failed to turn up for duty on 25 February, that the video surveillance camera was broken, and that Israeli troops fired at the mosque to prevent Palestinians from fleeing from the massacre. An army commander stated in evidence to the inquiry: "You have to understand the basic situation. A Jew has a weapon to defend himself. An Arab who is carrying a weapon is a terrorist. A Jew with a weapon is defending himself and he is allowed to shoot. We forbid soldiers in the IDF to open fire at them".

Israel’s leading intellectual, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, has argued that the killer, Baruch Goldstein, is the authentic representative of the country’s current culture and regime, and that the real guilt lies with Prime Minister Rabin. In an attempt to shift this blame to a minority, the Israeli government has banned two right wing Israeli organisations, the splinters of the fascist Kach movement founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. This decision has been widely welcomed by Israel’s apologists in the Zionist left, as well as by the Israeli Communist Party. But, as the anti-Zionist left has pointed out, this banning legitimises future administrative measures against Palestinian or radical left groups. Lawyer Leah Tsemel, a Fourth International supporter, appeared in a televised debate with the Justice Minister and described the bannings as "the easy way out". She called for the criminal prosecution of those responsible, adding: "There is no doubt that many more than the members of Kach and Kahane Chai should be sitting in the dock".

Roland Rance has been a socialist activist in Israeli, Palestinian and British politics for many years.