Israeli arrogance sets Oslo Accords burning

Socialist Outlook April 1997
Roland Rance

According to the national press, the controversy around the Israeli decision to build a new settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which has led to violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops in Bethlehem, Hebron and Jerusalem, "endangers the Oslo peace process". However, as anyone who has observed developments in the Middle East over the past few years will be aware, the Oslo agreement has not brought peace to Palestinians, nor to Israelis. Rather, by recruiting the leadership of the PLO to act as Israel’s mercenary army in the suppression of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, the agreement has reinforced Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and crucially Jerusalem. What has been endangered in recent weeks is the sleight of hand which has permitted Israel to pretend that it is taking steps towards ending its military occupation.

Socialist Outlook has consistently argued that, far from ending the century of conflict resulting from the Zionist colonisation of Palestine, the Madrid and Oslo agreements attempt to legitimise and perpetuate it, and sooner or later will lead to a renewal of the Palestinian mass uprising. It is still too early to assess whether the latest confrontations will be swiftly crushed, or whether they represent the beginnings of this new Intifada. But it is no surprise that, once again, the spark for clashes has been Israeli settlement activity in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the economic, as well as political, centre of Palestine. Until 1967, it was the largest town in the West Bank, the commercial heart of the Palestinian economy, and the centre of communications, not only within the West Bank but also with Transjordan. However, since the 1967 war, in the course of which Israel occupied those parts of Palestine - including East Jerusalem and the Old City - which it had not seized in 1948, the municipal borders of Jerusalem have been greatly expanded, and the entire metropolitan area annexed to Israel.

As a result, many thousands of Palestinians have been required to obtain Israeli residence permits in order to remain in areas where their families have lived for centuries, not only in the centre of Jerusalem but in villages many miles away. In recent months, these controls have been tightened; in some cases, Palestinians in villages annexed to Israel have been arrested for stepping from their front doors into Israel without the necessary permits, which they have been denied. Only 5% of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza are legally permitted to enter Greater Jerusalem. At the same time, Israel has stepped up the pace of its building plans, designed to surround Greater Jerusalem with a ring of Jewish settlements. The continuing expansion of settlements now threatens the Palestinian towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem, both subject to increasing Israeli encroachment.

This expansion is part of the cantonisation of Palestine. By denying Palestinian access to Jerusalem, Israel does more than isolate those Palestinians remaining in the city and its surrounding villages from the rest of Palestine. Communication between the north and south of the West Bank, and between the West Bank and Jordan, has been broken. Travel from Hebron to Nablus - a distance of only 40 miles - has become a major test of initiative and endurance, over poor quality mountain tracks. This is further impeded by the construction of ’security roads’ - roads for Jews only, linking settlements with each other and with Israeli cities, and thus further dividing Palestinian areas.

The Golan Heights and large parts of Jerusalem have been formally annexed to Israel. In addition, 44% of the land of Gaza (one of the most densely populated areas in the world) and 78% of the land of the West Bank has been confiscated to build settlements, army bases and roads - all allocated for Jews only. The development of separate administrative, legal and economic realities for Jews and Arabs in the same geographical region indicates that Israel is bent on establishing a new apartheid regime in the Middle East.

Palestinians are still subject to constant brutality, from settlers and soldiers alike. In recent months, there have been several reports of undercover soldiers, in plain clothes, conducting training exercises with live ammunition at night in Palestinian villages. In one such incident in March, villagers, understandably believing that they were once again being attacked by settlers, gathered and started to defend their homes. The troops opened fire, wounding several Palestinians. One man, who was shot in the leg and thus unable to flee, was then beaten mercilessly with a radio for twenty minutes until he died. His son, meanwhile, had been attending a Jewish-Arab reconciliation meeting in Jerusalem. . .

Ten years ago, in December 1987, a road accident was the spark which ignited the Intifada. This was not initiated, led or organised by the PLO, which had to struggle for several months to establish its authority over the popular committees established by the uprising. These committees were led by activists who had been formed by twenty years of struggle against the Israeli occupation, in the refugee camps, slums, campuses and prisons. At the time, the PLO still had the legitimacy of a fighting, exiled leadership, however compromised, and it commanded mass support in Palestine. Since then, Arafat has reached a deal with the Israeli occupiers, and has returned as their agent in policing the Palestinians. The Palestinian masses, increasingly impoverished and desperate, have not yet established an alternative leadership; the organisations of the Palestinian left, the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, weakened and demoralised by decades of fruitless compromise with Arafat, seem unable to offer such an alternative. In this vacuum, it is understandable that many are attracted by the suicide bombers of Hamas.

It remains to be seen whether the latest events will peter out, or will develop into a new uprising. In any case, we can expect further clashes in the occupied territories, and further bombs in the Israeli heartland. But until the Palestinian left poses a credible alternative, these outbursts stand little chance of removing the occupation, let alone of liberating Palestine.

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