West Bank, Gaza, 2003: Ghetto Palestine

by Lori A. Allen

Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member imprisoned by Israel since April 2002 for his activities as a popular leader of the uprising

It was an apt symbol for prevailing opinions of the achievements of the intifada to date. After three years, the two targets of the uprising -- the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Authority (PA) -- still stand. Most Palestinians admit that, in many respects, their personal and collective political status has in fact deteriorated. Militant groups' attacks on Israeli civilians inside the Green Line, such as the October 4 suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis in Haifa, continue to arouse deep disquiet among Palestinians, disquiet that is not limited to fear of Israeli reprisal. Confusion reigns: what have we achieved? Where are we going? What is coming next? Nobody seems to know. Qaddoura Faris, head of the Palestinian Political Prisoners' Association, PLC deputy and current candidate for a ministerial post, answered these questions of the hour with a laugh half-sheepish and half-cynical, "Even we don't know."

Since the Israeli cabinet voted in mid-September to "remove" Arafat at some undetermined time, large crowds have periodically marched through Ramallah vocalizing their solidarity with "Abu Ammar," the nom de guerre by which the PA leader is often addressed. A host of political and professional organizations announce their support for Arafat in the daily newspapers, but others offer a continuous stream of derisive jokes. Question: what does it really mean when Abu Ammar holds up two fingers in the "V for victory" sign? Answer: two rooms! Two rooms! Another magazine caricature depicts Arafat putting together a puzzle, the completed part of which spells the word, "Abu." Arafat is replacing the neighboring pieces that spelled out "Mazen" with "Alaa'," references to the outgoing and incoming prime ministers, Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmad Qurei, whom he has appointed within a few months of each other. One coffee shop patron listening to a description of this cartoon muttered, "God willing, next it will be Abu Zift (a polite translation of which would be 'Mr. Nothing')."

General consensus holds that it does not matter who is appointed prime minister; nothing good will come out of the recurrent ministerial maneuverings, or the new "emergency" cabinet sworn into office on October 7.

"We have no trust in anything," a schoolteacher summarized. "Nobody is paying attention to the new government," said a social worker in Hebron. A recent poll reported a large majority of respondents saying the same thing. "The situation" is not moving in any particular direction, despite the fact that Israeli forces have been killing a steady stream of Islamist activists in the summer and early fall, and that Islamist groups have retaliated with bombings inside Israel. Six "senior" Islamist militants have been assassinated in Hebron since the campaign began. In mid-September, an activist was killed when the Israeli army destroyed the house in which he was hiding, crushing him under the rubble. The demolished house's residents, a woman and her disabled seven-year old son, are now living in a yellow tent beside the wreckage. "He cries every night and wails that the Israelis shot his favorite toy car," said the haggard mother.

On September 28, the various political factions in Qalqilya sent representatives to a demonstration to "show off," in the words of one local photojournalist. His words express a not uncommon view of masked men carrying weapons, who were once considered proud icons of Palestinian armed resistance to the occupation, but are now seen by some as nothing but braggarts representing acts of superficial defiance. Despite the gathering of young activists, an official of the Qalqilya municipality went so far as to say that he would never take part in such a march, and that he and many others were "against the intifada." While the official was clearly telling his audience of foreigners what he thought they wanted to hear, it would have been almost unthinkable for someone, especially a Palestinian in his position, to utter such an apostasy two years ago.

In Abu Dis, a small rally and some stone throwing marked the intifada's third anniversary. The separation wall slices through this town immediately southeast of Jerusalem, and the rumble of trucks and bulldozers can be heard non-stop, as building proceeds apace. Occasionally, children hurl rocks at the construction trucks, but Israeli security forces surrounding the area shoot readily, discouraging any greater shows of opposition. From the roof of one family's house located just on the Jerusalem side of the wall, the extended path of construction is visible. A patch of land is being prepared for a new settlement just a city block away, and workers trying to get back and forth to their jobs in Jerusalem can be seen scurrying through the valley just in front of the house. The previous week, soldiers set an ambush in their path, sending the workers fleeing from gunfire.

One night, residents of a house located close to the projected settlement in the same valley were awakened by soldiers. Israeli soldiers pulled them from their beds and transported them to the checkpoint on the edge of Bethlehem. Since their identity cards indicate that they are from the West Bank, the soldiers informed them, the West Bank is where they should be. The message seemed to be that these people, who had lived in Abu Dis their whole lives, were suddenly trespassers in Jerusalem. As the wall slowly goes up and places everything to its west on the "Israeli" side, Israeli Jerusalem is growing into the West Bank, isolating Abu Dis and making the town's residents "illegal." Qurei, the recently confirmed prime minister, is a native of Abu Dis. But nobody there seems to expect much from him either.

"Ghetto Abu Dis" is scrawled in English across one section of the line of concrete barriers that represents the first installment of the wall cutting though town. Projected to reach a height of 26-30 feet, the barriers are now only about 10 feet tall, and young people can hoist themselves over the top in order to pass between Jerusalem and the town. Others squeeze through a small opening at an intersection where taxis drop off passengers coming from Jerusalem. Sometimes the soldiers ignore this arduous form of transit; at other times, they stop it. "It depends on the soldiers," a shop owner near the opening explained. Enforcers of the Israeli occupation are now deemed "humanitarian" and "good" if they let people clamber over rocks to get home. No one has easy answers for why people in Abu Dis appear to be taking the construction of the wall with such relative equanimity.

While some Palestinians declare that the intifada is over, and has been for some time, intifada-like activity flares up here and there. For example, every afternoon around 3PM, after returning from school and finishing lunch, about 20 boys begin whistling and throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers occupying the Rachel's Tomb checkpoint near Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. The soldiers throw sound bombs and tear gas, the children run away and the residents of the camp are left choking in their homes. A soldier who had ventured a bit deeper into the alleyways of the camp stopped a shop owner and told him to inform the children that he was going on lunch break, but he would be back in an hour to continue their "game." On another day, the soldiers could be heard calling out to the children from their microphones: "Come out and play!" The children obliged. A few days later, the soldiers came down the main road, took over the first house on the edge of the camp and fired canisters of tear gas from the roof for two hours.

Residents of Bethlehem complain that the young protesters do not have a clear understanding of the significance of their acts. To the boys, the residents say, stone throwing is just a game. Worse, they know that the soldiers are treating it as a game as well. These children are unguided, complained L., a leader during the first uprising in 1987-1993. "They shout and curse the soldiers. They have no message, though," L. continued. "When we used to demonstrate, we gathered huge crowds. We knew we were not going to liberate Palestine with stones, but we were letting the Israelis know that we rejected the occupation. I called the press and the Red Cross to come and witness our acts of refusal. We shouted slogans that carried the message of our refusal. These children have none of that."

But such efforts did not endure. The political parties are weak, and they have no popular following. "In comparison to the marches this year, [in 2002] we were able to organize major events," L. explained. "Because, with a lot of effort, our secret organizations personally convinced people to attend the demonstrations. People were willing to follow us because they had our trust and support. We provided services, we negotiated solutions to social and economic problems. People were with us and we had an organized program of anti-occupation activities. But the political parties today are out of touch with the people."

Among the parties, there are contradicting opinions on what form any continuation of the intifada might take. Some, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, support attacks inside Israel, while others say that military strikes should be focused on soldiers and settlers within the 1967 borders of the Occupied Territories. As PLC member Faris said, "It is true that as an occupied people we have the right to exercise all forms of resistance. But this does not mean that we have to exercise that right at all times." In Faris' opinion, the struggle for Palestinian independence has to focus just as much on the international arena and public opinion as on what happens on the ground. Still others, such as those gathering around al-Mubadara (Initiative), organized by NGO leader Mustapha Barghouthi, focus on non-violent forms of resistance and reconstruction of civil society. "We should find a balance between these positions," offered L., "but there is no general consensus."

Among most Palestinians, there is no faith in the PA. The political parties have no clear program. Even the Islamist movement carried by Hamas and Islamic Jihad has begun to reevaluate its tactics. While publicly Hamas insists that Palestinians have the right to exercise all forms of resistance, including attacks inside Israel, they know that much of the international community is against them, not just the US and the Europeans.

Even the Arab governments have labeled such attacks "terrorist." There are also rumors that Islamic Jihad is about to break apart as a result of conflicting opinions among members about the appropriateness of attacks in Israel, such as the Haifa bombing for which Islamic Jihad was responsible. Many Palestinians reacted to that bombing, which killed a number of Palestinian citizens of Israel, with consternation. The timing was wrong, the place was wrong. People can again be heard publicly insisting that such attacks cause more harm than good to the Palestinian cause. "Rather than a bombing every of couple weeks, attacks should be more carefully organized, aimed at precise targets, soldiers, settlers," offered one university student. A journalist suggested that a bomb should go off every day inside Israel, but not to harm people. "Israeli security should receive a phone call every day telling them that a bomb is about to go off in this or that garbage can. Let them close off streets, evacuate neighborhoods. Israelis should be made to live in a state of constant fear and chaos, such as what they have imposed on us."

At the same time, Palestinians believe that increasingly durable Israeli "facts on the ground" -- settlements, bypass roads, checkpoints -- foreclose the prospect that "the situation" will be resolved peaceably any time soon. For Palestinians throughout the West Bank, the separation wall in particular renders laughable any talk of negotiations or reinstatement of the U.S.-sponsored "road map." "The Israeli government's recent decision to provide the budget necessary for the second stage of wall construction means they are going ahead as they like," a man from a Bethlehem refugee camp explained. "It means that soon we'll need something like a visa just to get to Ramallah. The cantons are hardening." Delayed at a checkpoint sitting in a taxi, this man overheard another passenger joking, "They gave us the map, but took away the road!"

In L.'s analysis, the Palestinian population as a whole is tired. "But they do not want the intifada to end. After sacrificing so much, more than during any other period of Palestinian history, it can't just end like that. But what they want, and who will guide them to it, are unanswered questions right now." The disappearance of any popular character to the uprising not long after it began left the Palestinian majority feeling abandoned on the sidelines. L. summed up the situation of "the situation": "People think that it is all out of their hands. There is nothing for them to do. But also, there is nothing the world is doing for us."