THIRTY years on, Israeli military rule. over the Palestinian territories occupied during the 1967 war (the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem), as the Syrian Golan Heights, continues without let-up. Despite the deal made in Madrid and Oslo, and finally signed in Washington, most Palestinians see little real improvement in taeir situadon Economic, social and political conditions in the Occupied Territories have sharply deteriorated since the Oslo agreement, according to US academic Sara Roy, of The Gaza Strip: The Politics of Dedecelopment.
Between 1992 and 1996, per cap ita GNP fell by almost 40%, to $1500 a year in the West Bank and $700 in Gaza. Malnutrition is rising, and there are increasing reports of begging, sifting through rubbish for food, sale of body organs to Isracli hospitals, and prostitution.
15% of the children in Gaza suffer from malnutrition, 60% of the babies have anaemia, and 90% have intestinal parasites, according to Israeli activist Amira Hass in a recent book, Drinking the Sea at Gaza.
The frequent closures, which restrict or ban lice movement within and between areas, have severely damared the conomy.
In 1996, there were over 100 days of total closure, and countless periods of partial closure. Unemployment is rising, totalling 29% of the 540,000 labour force when closures In Gaza, where unemployment reaches 40%, over 40% of the families have sold property in order to buy food. At the same time, there is large increase in child labour. Land confiscation for Israeli settlements, military bases and roads also continues, with 44% of Gaza and 78% of the West Bank now in Isracli Meanwhile, the Arafat regime becomes daily more brutal and autocratic. Nearly every day, further reports are received of the arbitrary and undemocratic way in which Arafat and his cohorts carry out their task as Israel's surrogates in the slums and refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Human rights activists, such as researcher Bassam el-Eid and psy. chologist Eyyad el-Sarraj, have spent lengthy periods in Arafat's prisons.
Twenty-four political prisoners -one of them a lawyer - are reportedly held at the Interrogation Cener for the General Intelligence in Jericho, and denied the right to see their lawyets and, in many calh their families.
Several detainees have died un. der interrogation and torture in these prisons, often at the hands of gaolers who had themselves suffered similar techniques in Isracli During the carly years of the Intifada, Israel arrested Palestinian teachers for teaching, which had been forbidden. Now, they are arOn 21 April, the Palestinian Authority arrested over 30 teachers leading a strike demanding better wages and conditions. For several months, teachers had been dethe Israeli army continues its undercover operations, the Israeli government continues to Jews only, and the Palestinian Authority plunders and tortures the masses who struggled for their return and rule. manding a 100% increase in their salaries, which now average about $300 a month.
Despite claims of their release, human rights activists report that teachers are still in prison and that the strike continues. The assault on democracy and on the institutions of civil society painstakingly developed by Pales. tinian activists through the first two decades of Isracli occupation and the carly years of the Intifada serve the interests of the Isracli and Palestinian regimes alike. As Israeli Professor Tanya ReinIsraeli settlers continue their racist provocations, expropriate land and to build homes and roads for hart noted recently, "It takes at least 30 thousand 'policemen' and a sov in every house to oppress the Palestinians struggle tor independence. the istaci army just does not have the 30 thousand So, after thirty years of military occupation, and ten years after the start of the Intifada, which for a while threatened both Israel and the Arab regimes, the Palestinian people are more oppressed, more immiserated, and more lacking in Icadership than at any time since the great disasters of 1948 and 1967.
Isracli settlers continue their racist provocations, the Israeli army continues its undercover opcrations, the Isracli government continues to expropriate land and to build homes and roads for Jews only, and the Palestinian Authority plunders and tortures the masses who struggled for their return and rule.
When the Intifada crupted, in December 1987, the Isracli government and many commentators surprised. They should not have There had already been several sman uprisings, and it was cicar to most independent observers that a major uprising was likely, though the date and form could not have A similar situation is developing now. The clashes over the tunnel the Old City of unaer Jerusalem and over the settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim were bloody but short-lived.
They are unlikely to be the last. Under a brutal double occupation, forgotten by the world and aban doned by most of their erstwhile allies, Palestine is a bomb waiting to explode. Hamas and its allies appear ready to offer a different leadership and a different goal, while much of the nationalist left seems to have abandoned the struggle.
The responsibility of Palestinian socialists, and of socialists in the Arab world as a whole. has
WORLD TLOOK I6