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ISRAELI·OCCUPIED territories include
West Bank and Gaza Strip, heavily pop·
ulated by Palestinians.
The lsraelis say no. Israel asserts that
the "full autonomy" agreed to at Camp
David for the West Bank-Gaza region is
for the Arab
inhabitants
of those areas,
not for the territories themselves. Israel
demands ultimate sovereignty over the
occupied areas.
"What l must make clear, and
what must be understood from the
outset ," said Israelí Interior Minister
Yosef Burg, chairman of the Israelí
negotiating team , at the first session
of the autonomy talks in Beersheba
in southern Israel last May, "is that
autonomy does not and cannot imply
sovereignty.... We must by defini–
tion reject
a priori
an independent
Palestinian statehood."
The reason for this Israelí posi–
tion ?
"It
[a Palestinian state] would
be the certain prescription for vio–
lence and war," Burg maintained .
" Indeed it would be a mortal danger
to Israel and a grave peril to the
whole free world .... No hostile ele–
ment or agent or force dare control
the heartland of this land to threaten
the lives of its city dwellers and vil–
lagers and thereby hold a knife to the
jugular vein of Israel."
10
Israelí Prime Minister Menachem
Begin has himself declared that there
will "never under any circum–
stances" arise a Palestinian state in
the occupied territories, viewing the
West Bank as a vital buffer against
attacks by Arab armies and Palestin–
ian guerrillas.
What, then, does Israel offer? Is–
rael proposes that the Arab inhabi–
tants of the West Bank and Gaza
shall exercise control over their own
daily lives and affairs- such as
health, schools and social welfare–
through a self-elected Arab adminis–
trative council. Israel, however,
would continue its military occupa–
tion of the region.
T his of fer , however, does not
tempt even most Palestinian moder–
ates, much less Palestinian extrem–
ists. Most Palestinians dcmand
total
Israelí withdrawal and self-determi–
nation in a full-fledged , independent
state of their own. Studies indicate
that a West Bank-Gaza state could
eventually sustain up to 4 million
people if properly industrialized and
urbanized.
Sorne Palestinians would prefer
sorne sort of federation of the new
Palestinian state with Jordan, which
is predominently Palestinian in com–
position. But the common denomina–
tor is a Palestinian desire for immedi–
ate removal of all Israelí forces and
the "illegal" civilian settlements
from the West Bank and Gaza areas,
and the establishment of a national
"homeland" of their own. Palestin–
ians cite the Fourth Geneva Conven–
tion, which states that "the occupy–
ing power [in this case, Israel] shall
not . . . transfer parts of its own civil–
ian population into the territory it
occupies."
Palestinians assert that current Is–
raelí proposals for limited self-rule
are only a device for perpetuating
Israelí control- a "fig lear• for con–
tinued Israelí occupation. They say
that they have "had it" wi th what
they see as Israel's "high-handed,"
"oppressive" and "arbitrary" admin–
istration of the occupied areas, which
includes frequent security checks and
body searches, curfews, roadblocks,
confiscation and expropriation of prí–
vate Arab land and detention without
tria!. Palestinians want an identity,
an elected government and a nation
of their own. The autonomy plan,
they say, would just legitimize the
Israelí occupation.
Consequently, West Bank-Gaza
Arabs have been unwilling to partici–
pate in autonomy talks with Egypt,
Israel and the United States. " You
have invited us to dinner ata pot that
is empty, and we won' t eat," declared
one West Bank mayor. "We are not
boycotting the talks," he explains,
"but no Palestinians will take part in
the West Bank talks until there is the
proper basis on which to talk." "No
to autonomy" is a frequently heard
slogan on the West Bank.
Pa lestinians also demand that East
J erusalem (the "Old City") be re–
turned to Arab sovereignty. They see
it as the capital of their hoped-for
state. But again, Israel has declared
it will never agree to a divided Jeru–
salem- the "eterna! capital" of the
J ewish state. Sorne analysts have
sugges ted the implementation of
sorne sort of borough plan as a solu–
tion. Each borough would be a sepa–
rately administered , independent
unit within an overall únited city
framework in which Jews , Moslems
and Christians would enjoy free ac–
cess to their holy places and unre–
str icted movement within the city as
a whole. But this and other plans
(such as the "internationalization" of
the city) have thus far been rejected.
The PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organiza–
tion ( PLO), founded in East Jerusa–
lem in 1964, is officially recognized
by the Arab nations and much of the
world at large as the "sole legitimate
representative of the Palestinian
people" - a kind of shadow govern–
ment of their hoped-for state.
Though the organization's legitimacy
was once strongly challenged, it is
now generally felt that the PLO is
accepted by the vast majority of the
Palestinian community. Even the
modera te West Bank Arab mayors–
though tbey would prefer more nego–
tiating and less saber rattling- view
Yasser Arafat (see photo on page 6),
the PLO chairman, as without ques–
tion their "leader."
Once regarded as primarily an
Arab terrorist group notorious for
The PLAIN TRUTH October / November 1979