Introduction

In the first three weeks of October 2000, Israeli forces killed over 100 Palestinians, and injured several thousand. Fully a quarter of these casualties were children. Palestinian hospitals reported that a large proportion of injuries - 60% according to some sources - were to the head, with evidence that Israeli troops were deliberately firing rubber-coated bullets at children’s eyes.

Horrific slow-motion footage of scenes such as the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura, shot as he cried in fright in his fathers arms, and the beating to death of Vadim Norzhich and Yosef Avrahami, suspected of being members of Israel’s undercover death squads, has been broadcast across the world.

Israeli forces, settlers and civilians have carried out pogroms across Palestine. Mosques and churches were torched in Tiberias, Jaffa, Haifa and elsewhere in the state of Israel, as well as in the 1967-occupied territories. Palestinians report huge crowds of armed settlers shouting "Death to the Arabs" descending on their homes; Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament, was forced to leave home after similar threats.

Palestinians have been kidnapped and tortured to death. Isam Hamad, from Um Safa, near Ramallah, was arrested by military police and handed over to settlers. He was then beaten, tortured with electricity, and burnt with hot irons, before being killed by an axe. Children have been shot dead, including one-and-a-half year old Sara Hasan, of Qasr, shot by settlers while her father was taking her to hospital. 14-year-old Muayad Abd Al- Jawarish from Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, was killed after being shot in the head. On his way home from school.

Ambulance and medical staff have been targeted, including Bassam al-Bilbaisi, who was attempting to reach Muhammad al-Dura. Peace activists have been killed; most notably 17-year-old Aseel ’Assalih, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, shot at close range in the head after being beaten by police. When he was shot, he was wearing a t-shirt from Seeds of Peace, a dialogue group between Jewish and Arab youth.

The level of brutality has been huge; Israel has been using tanks, helicopter gunships, and anti-tank artillert against demonstrators armed with stones, and sometimes Molotovs. Although Israel claims that "Stones can kill too", the balance of deaths - over 120 Palestinians, compared to 8 Israeli Jews - shows clearly the overwhelming Israeli balance of power.

Although almost the entire world recognises Israel’s responsibility for the current bloodshed (even the USA refused to veto a UN Security Council resolution criticising Israel), Israeli PM Barak insists that Palestinian leader Arafat is personally responsible. In fact, Arafat is so discredited by now in the eyes of Palestinians that, as Israeli academic Tanya Reinhart has argued, it is only Israel’s denunciations that still allow him to claim the title of "freedom fighter".

The statement by Barak that Israel would "take a time out from the peace process", and the invitation to Ariel Sharon, "The Butcher of Beirut", to join a National Emergency Government, have put the final seal on the so-called "peace process" initiated by the historic handshake between Arafat and Rabin at the White House in September 1993.

In reality, this process has brought the Palestinians more misery and oppression, continuing loss of land, economic immiseration, and the demise of their liberation movement. The PLO, having been recruited by Israel in order to police the occupation, has proved totally unable either to negotiate Palestinian independence or to protect the lives of the Palestinians facing a massive Israeli onslaught.

Socialist Outlook has been recording this process from the start. As we wrote in March 1996, "No one should be surprised by these developments. As Socialist Outlook has consistently argued, the Oslo agreements, which legitimised the existing social and demographic situation and recruited the PLO to police the Palestinian people on Israel’s behalf, while offering less than nothing to the impoverished Palestinian masses, were inherently unstable and could only be implemented by ever increasing military coercion". Although we were criticised at the time for our opposition to this process, our analysis has withstood the test of events. The articles presented in this collection show clearly the way in which Israel manipulated the PLO and world opinion, offered verbally what it was refusing in practice, and used the time bought by the cooption of the PLO and the suppression of the first Intifada to establish facts and prevent any real Palestinian autonomy.

From the start of this process, we pointed out that what the Palestinians were being offered in the West Bank and Gaza was nothing but a system of bantustans, as an integral part of the move in Israel to increasing separation, or apartheid. At the time we first used this analogy, few others would accept it. But in recent weeks, we have been in contact with a new Anti-Apartheid Movement in Israel, which is working with others for "the abolition of apartheid in Israel and the Occupied Territories". We hope to bring more information about this group and its work in forthcoming issues.

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