Introduction
The articles published in this book analyse various aspects of the context in which the (first) Palestinian Intifada has developed.
The political economy of the West Bank 1967-1987: from peripheralization to development – Adel Samara
The relation between the Israeli economy and the West Bank is a relation between two separate economies: between a developed capitalist mode of production dominant in one, and a controlled peripheral capitalist mode in the other. In this case, the relation is an external and settler-colonial one.
Palestinian migrant workers in Israel: from repression to rebellion – Toby Shelley
The Apartheid-like conditions under which the Palestinian migrant workers are employed in Israel, the obstacles that the Israeli occupation puts on their ability to organise and their attempts to overcome it. One of the obstacles is the zionist trade union federation, the Histadrut.
Colonial law and ideology: Israel and the Occupied Territories – Ben Cashdan
Investigation into the ways in which the law has been used by the Israeli state to ideologically legitimise land expropriations and the erosion of civil liberties for Palestinians.
Demography and settler politics in the Old City of Jerusalem, 1980-1988 – Richard Thomas
How government and settler policies collude in the Old City of Jerusalem, as well as how they constrain each other.
The twenty-first year: new ideas – Ehud Ein-GiI
Proposals of maverick zionists for solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict via forms of federalism, while themselves weighted heavily against the Palestinians, do signal the usefulness of federalism for socialists in proposing how Israelis and Palestinians can live together on equal terms.
Self and other in Zionism: Palestine and Israel in recent Hebrew literature – Haim Bresheeth
The relationship between Israelis and Palestinians through looking at Zionist Hebrew literature, particularly the writings of left-Zionist writers such as Amos Oz, pointing out the deep roots of Zionist racism and neo-colonial attitudes towards Palestinians.
Palestinian women: triple burden, single struggle – Rosemary Sayigh
An overview on the position of women within Palestinian society since 1948, focusing on the experiences of Palestinian women in the resistance movements in the diaspora communities and refugee camps, and in the Occupied West Bank.
Palestinian women in the Occupied Territories: an interview with Laila al-Hamdani
The involvement of Palestinian women in the national struggle has affected the position of women in the social strata and in the family. The process has been slow but that has made it stronger.
The Middle East – Still at The Crossroads: A Socialist Position on the Palestinian Problem ‒ By Moshé Machover
The sense in which socialists ought to be “more radical” than liberation nationalists is not in vying with the latter’s nationalism, but in putting forward revolutionary social aims. Liberation nationalists do not propose to overthrow the existing social order; what they want is just to put an end to the oppression of their own nation. Socialists, on the contrary, must seek to promote in every national liberation struggle the aim of overthrowing the existing order of class exploitation.
The Middle East at the Crossroads – by Abu Sa’id and Moshé Machover
This is a re-print of an article that was originally published in September 1969. "The formula that restricts the struggle to Palestine alone, despite its revolutionary appearance, derives from a reformist attitude which seeks partial solutions within the framework of conditions now existing in the region. In fact, partial solutions can only be implemented through a compromise with imperialism and Zionism".
Appeals by West-Bank Trade Unions
The Palestinian working class and its trade-union movement is bearing the brunt of many of the Israeli fascist measures. Eight out of the eleven members of the Executive Committee of the General Federation have been arrested, including the General Secretary, Mahmud Ziadah. More than 50 other members, including members of the Federation's Council, secretaries of branch unions, members of Administrative Committees and active unionists, have also been arrested.
Appeal on behalf of Women Political Prisoners
This English-language appeal, dated 2 November 1988, was sent to Khamsin by the Women's Organization for Women Political Prisoners, a committee recently set up in Israel, devoted to defending the rights of women political prisoners, both Palestinian and Israeli.
The Struggle in Western Sahara ‒ By Alain Hertzmann
The struggle for independence is foremost in the mind of the Polisario. The declared intention of the Polisario is the setting up of an independent, secular, republic, with a multi-party system, where religion is a private matter, and where the status of women will be equal to that of men.
In Defence of Children under Occupation
The cases of four Palestinian children, aged 6 to 9, who were arrested by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Elections: An Introduction to the Manifestoes ‒ by Haim Bresheeth
A guide for the "offerings" of the different parties contending the Israeli elections for the Knesset, on 2nd November, 1988. This election has been billed as the "most important in Israel's history" by a whole number of pundits, arguing that the resulting government will be the one to face the new challenges, internal and external.
Ansar-3 Prisoners’ Call for Closure of “Death Camp”
We, thousands of Palestinian detainees, have been thrown by the Israeli authorities into Ansar-3 Detention Centre, without regard to the most rudimentary judicial formalities, including our right to know the charges levelled against us. We are kept in difficult circumstances under the burning desert sun, where the temperature by day reaches 45°C and drops to below freezing at night; in an area teaming with reptiles, insects and rats. But the severity of nature is no match for the cruelty of the soldiers of the Detention Centre, with their arbitrariness and constant brutality and violence.
An Appeal by Women’s Co-Operatives
"Our Production Is Our Pride" is a Palestinian women's development project in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its aim is to establish women's co-operatives based on the production and marketing of Palestinian agricultural products.
Communiques of the Uprising
Soon after the eruption of the Palestinian uprising (December 1987), a clandestine United National Leadership (UNL) began to lead, plan and direct the struggle. The UNL has published a series of numbered and dated communiques (bayanat), which have had an important role in mobilizing the masses and directing their struggle. We publish here a full translation of recent communiques: nos 16, 18 and 20, and a summary of no 19.
Michel Khleifi’s “Wedding in Galilee” ‒ film review by Dr Nur-eldeen Masalha
While there is certainly a strong point to be made about the human in each Palestinian and Israeli and the significance of emotions and individual desires and needs, it is nonetheless essential to avoid reducing the real conflict to a confused plethora of feelings and sensations. The Palestinian-Zionist/Israeli conflict remains at heart a real political conflict about land, homeland, political identity and national survival.