March 1976: four dead in the occupied West Bank; six dead in the territories under Israeli rule since 1948. For the first time since 1969, the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank were confronted with mass demonstrations and had to open fire; for the first time since 1948, the Palestinian-Arab population under Israeli rule rose up massively against government policy and was confronted by the "forces of order, " who had to sides of the "green line" (the pre-1967 borders); in reality, it was certainly more. The blood spilled by the Zionist forces once again sealed the unity of the struggle of the Palestinian people, beyond the borders drawn through this people by the Zionist colonization and expulsion. March 1976 marks a turning point both in the relations between the Zionist state and the Palestinian population under its rule and in the relations among New situation in the «newly occupied territories» The October War of 1973 opened a new situation in the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967. The first resistance, which had immediately followed the 1967 occupation, was able to be dissipated by the arrest and expulsion of all the major political leaders of the West Bank Palestinians and by a policy of fierce repression against all forms of civilian resistance and opposition to the Israeli occupation, Because of the repression, a certain degree of economic integration, and the existence of a layer of notables prepared to collaborate more or less openly with the occupation forces, the West Bank was able to be "integrated, " unlike the Gaza Strip, where the first wave of resistance lasted until 1971. In a general sense, calm has prevailed in this part of the occupied territories since 1969, despite the fact that many West Bank Palestinians continued to be active in the ranks of the resistance organizations. This situafion began to change with the outbreak of the October War. The formation of the Palestine National Front (PNF), led and staffed by members of the Palestinian Communist party but actually a civilian organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the West Bank, marked a turning point: for the first time, the Palestinian population of the West Bank provided itself with a polftical leadership that took charge of civilian resistance to the Israeli occupation. The CP has always been the only force sufficiently organized, despite the blows of repression, to be able to organize and speak for the occupied population. But this CP, which was the Jordanian CP until 1972, completely discredited Itself by refusing to support and participate in the armed Palestinian resistance and by supporting King Hussein as against any Palestinian solution. But the cadres of the CP preserved some influence in the clandestine mass organizations, and the CP's journal, el-Watan, continued to appear regularly. The change in the attitude of the Soviet Union toward the Palestinian Resistance 24 allowed the Jordanian CP, which in the meantime had split and become the Palestinian CP, to change its line, replacing support for King Hussein with support to the project of a Palestinian state and to the leadership of the PLO, notably its most capitulationist elements. The PLO had an interest in supporting the Palestine Nafional Front and its impact among the population of the occupied West Bank; this was easier than setting up its own civilian mass organization. In effect, the PNF today is the non-armed wing of the PLO in the West Bank. The existence of the PNF was to enable the PLO to lead a mass civilian movement in the occupied territories, especially after the October War. The diplomatic victories of the PLO and the placing on the agenda of the scheme of a Palestinion state on the West Bank gave a new impetus to the struggles of the masses in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. These struggles were often conducted and led by a new generation of militants, frequently students, who have grown up under Israeli occupation and who came of age politically around the time of the October War. This generation did not experience the fierce wave of repression that followed the occupation of 1967; on the contrary, it is mobilizing in a period marked by the political victories won against Israel by the Arab states and the PLO. It is in the framework of these post-October 1973 mobilizations that the recent wave of demonstrations in the occupied West Bank must be located. The fact that the demonstrations began while the UN Security Council was meeting on the Palestinian question demonstrates the degree to which the mobilizations in the occupied territories are linked to the diplomatic offensives of the PLO. But it was the decision of a judge in Jerusalem allowing Jews to pray on the promenade of the el-Agsa mosque that immediately provoked an uprising in all the cities of the West Bank. Besides this
ISRAEL & THE PALESTINIANS UNDER ITS DOMINATION: A NEW PERIOD by MICHEL WARSHAWSKY provocation, there was the added ingredient of the municipal elections the Zionist occupiers had scheduled for mid-April. For the first time, political forces linked to the PLO, primarily the PNF, called for participation in the elections and presented their own candidates, many of whom were former polifical prisoners recently released by the occupying forces. What was unusual about the March demonstrations was both the prolonged character of the mobilizations (virtually constant for more than a month and the violence of the confrontations with the police and the army. The latest demonstrations, unlike the previous waves, did not disperse as soon as the Israeli troops appeared; the demonstrators held their ground, often counterattacking with great determination, burning military vehicles, setting up barricades, etc. More than once Israeli soldiers took flight before a half dozen high-school students armed with rocks and sticks! The Israeli response was commensurate with the rodicalization of the young Palestinians. For the first time since 1969, the occupying forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several. There were hundreds of arrests, fines as high as 8,000 Israeli pounds, and unprecedented brutal treatment of anyone who fell into the hands of the police or the army. But the brutality of the repression had no real effect on the mobilizations; on the contrary, it strengthened militancy, extended the revolt to villages that had hitherto remained calm, and forced most of the municipal councils of the West. Bank to resign, which has now placed a question mark over the efficacy, doubtful in any case, of the previous elections. It is obvious that if the government decides to hold the coming elections on schedule, they will unfold under the sign of the latest mobilizations and the opposition candidates (if they are not deported, as were two candidates known for their sympathy with the PNF) threaten to sweep away the moderates - in spite of the tricks, the repression, and the permanent intervention of the occupation authorities in the electoral campaign (banning of "political" programs, intimidation of all sorts, and so on). (1) It is no exaggeration to define what has happened in the occupied territories during past weeks as a generalized revolt, even though this cannot lead to a withdrawal of Israeli forces, even a partial one, in the near future. The mobilization of the Palestinian masses of the West Bank remains closely linked to the political, military, and diplomatic victories of the Palestinian Resistance beyond the borders of the Zionist occupation and has no independent prospects of its own. But even within these limits, the civil resistance movement has reached a point of no returns In the tertitories occupied since June 1967 the Palestinian population has proven that it will not remain passive in face of the perpetuation of the occupation and that, on the contrary, it has succeeded in pumping new strength into the diplomatic victories of the PLO. Palestinian population in the territories conquered before 1967 Those who escaped the process of expulsion carried out by the Zionist colonial movement, that small part of the Palestinian-Arab population that remained under Zionist rule after 1948, have been completely isolated from the Arab national movement and the living forces of the Palestinian-Arab people for more than twenty years, Even though their economic situation is superior to that of the refugees, the Palestinians who remained under Israeli rule have been those on whom the defeats of 1937 and 1948 have had the most lasting impact. This was due above all to their isclation from the active centers of the Arab revolution and to the violent repression exercised by the Zionist regime against the Palestinian minority under its rule. The situation was to change with the 1967 war and the occupation of the rest of Palestine by the Zionist state. The isolation was broken, just at the moment when the Palestinian national liberation movement experienced a new upsurge with the emergence of the armed Polestinian Resistance. Concurrently, a new generation of militants emerged within the Palestinian population of Israel, a generation born after 1948, which had not directly suffered the blows of Zionist repression during the 1950s and 1960s, and reached political maturity during a period when, for the first time in decodes, an independent. Palestinian liberation movement existed. Many indications were to confirm this profound change among the Palestinian population of Israel, especially among the young generation: the movement of Druze youth against their mobilization in the Israeli army; the emergence of local lists in some villages independent of the familial clans and diffusing a militant notionalist political ideology; the emergence of Arab stu-
ISRAEL dent unions in all the universities, their national coordination, and their taking of increasingly radical positions; the electoral results, ever more favorable to the CP, the only force in opposition to the government parties. But it was above all after the October War of 1973 that what the Zionist press has called "Palestinianization" was intensified among the Arabs of Israel. This time, the Palestinians of Israel massively defined themselves as an integral part of the Palestinian question and the Palestinian national movement. Sympathy for the Palestinian Resistance became increasingly openly declared, as did understanding by the Palestinians in Israel that their problems amounted to a national problem and not simply a problem of discrimination within Israeli society. Also for the first time, the debates within the Resistance had an impact, albeit deformed, within the Palestinian population of Israel. This March, for more than forty-eight hours tens of thousands of young Palestinians were confronted by the Zionist forces of order. They organized demonstrations, built barricades, and ceaselessly assaulted the police forces that were massively sent into the Arab cities and villages. The threats of the Israeli authorities and the Arab collaborators were unable to prevent the strike; on the contrary, they redoubled the combativity of the Palestinians. Villages that had been considered calm were the scenes of bloody confrontations, and the murders perpetrated by the Zionist forces only egged the demonstrators on. The massive and militant response to this latest plundering of land can be understood only on the basis of the evolution of the national consciousness of the Palestinian population as we have just described it. Granted, the very dimensions of the new plan to "Judaize Galilee" were alone sufficient cause for a massive mobilization. Such massive quantities of land had not been seized af a single stroke since the 1948-51 period; practically no village in Galilee was spared, even those known for their good relations with the Zionist state, The reason for this sharp attack must be sought in the political situation Israel is facing: the possibility of a division of Palestine into a Palestinian state and a Jewish state requires the "de-Palestinianization" of certain territories in which a high Arab concentration would threaten to legitimize attachment to the new Palestinian state. In this sense, the latest expropriations are closely linked to the plan for the Palestinian state. The struggle of the Palestinians living west of the green line is also a new component of the solution of the Palestinian state, a new obstacle to the realization of the imperialist plan. Through their massive and militant mobilization the Polestinians of Israel have reintegrated themselves into the camp of the Palesfinian struggle for national liberation. For them, the situation will never again be as before. Those who have seen Israeli policemen surrender with their hands up before a "commando" of four young highschool students armed with stones will never again be intimidated by agents of the Shin Beth (the Israeli secret police) or by house arrest. 28
Role of the Communist party To believe the Israeli press, the mobilizations of the day of struggle for defense of Arab land were merely a vast manipulation organized by the Israeli Communist party, which is alleged to have called, under the impetus of the FLO, for an insurrection of the Palestinian masses. Such an explanation is not astonishing coming from bourgeois commentators for whom history is nothing but manipulations and acts stage-managed by apparatuses. But it remains to answer the question, What was the role of the CP in these mobilizations? Since the creation of the state of Israel, the Communist party (Rakah) has been the only political party whose non-Zionist positions have enabled it to present itself before the Palestinian masses as a party of opposition to the Zionist regime. Because of this, the CP has become the party through which the national consciousness of the Palestinian population of Israel has been expressed. No one can deny the fact that for more than twenty-five years Rakah has been the spokesman for and defender of the immediate interests of the Palestinian population of Israel. It was thus predictable and natural that the CP would Find iself at the head of the protest. campaign against the new expropriations of Arab land. The CP tried to wage this campaign in collaboration with left Zionist parties and personalities, as well as with Arab notables whose links to the Zionist authorities are well known by everyone. If likewise tried to limit the campaign to restricted meetings and the sending of delegations of notables to the authorities. But its original plan failed: Under the pressure of the government, the right-wing notables quit the campaign in which they had been forced to participate by the pressure of the voters. Then, under the pressure of its own ranks, the CP was compelled to undertake increasingly massive actions. Of course, after the desertion of the notables, the CP tried to justify certain retreats (cancelation of the central demonstration in Jerusalem) and to do everything to reduce the "day of struggle" to simple work stoppages. But once the process was launched, the CP had no choice but to sanction actions that often unfolded without it and without its agreement.
Real problems will be posed for the CP after the general strike. Not because there is any risk of the CP's being outlawed, as certain far-right parliament members want, for the government is quite conscious of the moderating role played by the CP among the Palestinian population. The problem for the CP is a political one: For the Immense majority of the Palestinian population, Rakah is seen as the force that led the general strike of March 30; this majority thus expects the CP to initiate new radical actions. But there is no question of this as far as the CP is concerned. Its political project remains that of a "peace front" with the moderate Zionist forces and it is still seeking to win "legitimacy" in the eyes of the Zionist Jewish masses. That is why Rakah will do all it can to demonstrate its responsibility and its Israeli patriotism. The CP will thus be confronted with contradictory pressures, the classic phenomenon of the Stalinist movement in Palestine, which has divided in two on numerous occasions, precisely over the national question. These tensions are especially inevitable in that the mobilization of the Palestinians of Israel has provoked an unprecedented wave of solidarity in the territories occupied since 1967 and in the Arab countries, which will compel the leaders of the PLO to take the rights of the Palestinians of israel into consideration in any compromise with Israel, making such a compromise all the less probable. As for the CP, if remains the most resolute advocate of the solution of the Palestinian state, within which there is no place for the Palestinians of Israel, whom the CP considers citizens of the Jewish state who have to struggle for racial equality. This constitutes a flagrant contradiction between the political line of the CP, which recognizes the existence of the state of Israel, and the growing consciousness on the part of the CP ranks that they belong to the Palestinian people and are struggling for the restitution of their rights along with the whole of the Palestinian people. We must thus expect important breaks within the CP, especially inasmuch as a revolutionary alternative is taking shape among the Palestinian population of Israel.
The far left For the first time in many years the CP did not have absolute hegemony in the mobilization of the Palestinian masses within the state of Israel. In the villages of Tiran,
Um el-Fa'hem, and in many others the CP leaders were rapidly outflanked by young militants often influenced by the Revolutionary Communist League, Israeli supporters of the Fourth International.(2) In Shfar'am and
Kfar Yassif the leaders of the National Committee for the Defense of Arab Land were forced to read messages from the RCL; in Tira and Taibe many inhabitants re-
Tected the leaflet of the National Committee and preferred to distribute the RCL's leaflet. But it was above all within the Union of Arab Students that the presence of the revolutionary Marxists was most heavily felt.
After many harsh discussions with CP members, who are dominant at the University of Haifa, the majority decided to put out a leaflet recommending that the demonstration in Jerusalem not be canceled. The CP delegates withdrew, after accusing Matzpen-Marxist, along with all those who refused to bow down before CP blackmail, of criminal adventurism. Along with militants of the RCL, the Arab students were the only ones to organize in the big cities with Jewish populations on the day of struggle; this included a demonstration in front of parliament which was harshly repressed. It was often these Arab students who stood in the front lines during confrontations with the Zionist forces of order, Through their real influence among the Arab students and through systematic agitation in most of the Arab villages, the revolutionary communists of Matzpen-Marxist were the only organized force active during the preparation and unfolding of the general strike, apart from the CP of course. The response to the RCL's activity, amplified by a press campaign after the arrest of some of its militants, has strongly increased the esteem for and audience of the revolutionary Marxists among the Palestinian population. For the first time, the RCL appeared not as an organization of anti-Zionist Jews in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinians, but as an organization that is an integral part of the struggle of this Palestinian population and is implanted among it. Today this is more important than ever in view of the fissures that will appear in the Communist party, for the existence of an alternative pole having at least some base among the Arab population of Israel can be a place of regroupment of the broad vanguard now detaching itself empirically from the CP. The opportunist line of the CP prevents it from offering an acceptable outlet for the national struggle of the Palestinians living within the borders of Israel. Only the revolutionary Marxists, with their total rejection of the Zionist state, have a coherent response to offer the Palestinian population. For the first time, they also have a possibility of putting this response into practice and organizing the best elements of this population, those who have been in the vanguard of the mobilization to defend Arab land. For the revolutionary Marxists also, the situation has changed radically, and they will do everything they can to measure up to the new tasks required of them. FOOTNOTES:
1. The elections took place on schedule, after this article was written. Oppositionists won 148 of the 188 seats being contested in twenty-two town councils. A total of sixty-three pro-Hussein incumbents withdrew from the elections before the voting because of the intensity of nationalist feeling among the population. The shift to the left was especially significant in that the elections are held under Jordanian law, which still maintains property qualifications for voting.
2. The Revolutionary Communist League (RCL)
emerged from a split in the Israeli Socialist Organization (ISO), an anti-Zionist group founded in the 1960s.
The I5O was more commonly known by the name of its newspaper, Matzpen (Compass), and the RCL is often referred to as "Matzpen-Marxist, " the name of its newspaper today.
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