From a dream to a nightmare

Socialist Outlook December 1994
Roland Rance

The shooting by PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s police force of worshippers leaving a Gaza mosque, which left dead at least 13 alleged Islamic fundamentalists, is stark evidence of Socialist Outlook’s comment last year, when Arafat and Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin signed their agreement, that "peace" on Israel’s terms could only be enforced by military strength and domestic repression. Although an uneasy truce has been agreed in Gaza, all forces agree that this can only be temporary, and further clashes, leading possibly to a bloody civil war, seem inevitable.

This conflict plays right into Israel’s hands. The Guardian has already reported demonstrations in Gaza calling for the return of the Israeli army as the lesser evil. Meanwhile, international support for a rising which can be portrayed as fundamentalist is far lower than for the earlier stages of the Palestinian Intifada. The Palestine solidarity movement, with few exceptions, is either silent, or calling for increased support for the Palestinian "Self Government".

For the past 50 years, Gaza has remained under military rule - British, Egyptian, Israeli and now Palestinian collaborators. Overcrowded with refugees expelled from their homes in 1948, dotted with Israeli settlements, surrounded by an electrified fence, with few natural resources, it powerfully symbolises the reality of Palestinian existence. "Self Government" has not addressed any of these issues; it has merely replaced the Israeli army with Palestinian surrogates.

Despite Arafat’s betrayal of Palestinian interests, the Palestinian left has also remained silent, leaving Hamas apparently alone in its opposition. Several years ago, following the vicious civil war in the refugee camps of Lebanon, the PFLP declared that "national unity" was its major goal, and replaced its historic call for "Revolution Until Victory" with the more accommodating "Unity Until Victory". Ailing PFLP leader Dr George Habash no longer seems to realise that this accommodation with the Palestinian and Arab bourgeoisie is delivering neither unity nor victory, while many former cadres have switched allegiance. According to reliable reports, at the time of the Gaza shooting, Arafat was seen dancing in the streets of Gaza with the former head of the PFLP underground resistance in the region.

While this has been going on, Israeli eyes have been focussed on the agreement with Jordan’s King Hussein, who has visited Israel and received a hero’s welcome. Israel has promised to recognise Hussein’s special status in East Jerusalem, thus offering a further snub to Arafat. Rabin has also refused to permit elections for the "Self Government" authority in the Occupied Territories, has guaranteed the security of Israeli settlements, and has rejected calls for the release of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners. It has become clear that his only purpose in signing the agreement with Arafat was to co opt the PLO to police the occupation, and that there was never any intention of honouring even the minimal Israeli commitments in the agreement.

Offered the choice of siding with the occupation against the Palestinian people, or struggling with the Palestinian people against the occupation, Arafat took the first opportunity to side with the occupation. Although this was no great surprise, the failure of the Palestinian left to identify this betrayal and to offer a genuine political alternative has left the field wide open for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other fundamentalist groups, who are reversing the social gains of the Intifada, while themselves seeking accommodation with the Israeli regime.

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