Miracles urgently required
Anthony Parsons
PALESTINE AND ISRAEL: THE UPRISING AND BEYOND by David McDowall
L B. Tauris, £14.95, pp.322
In his preface David McDowall declares that he is more sympathetic to the Palesti- nian than the Zionist view. But what distinguishes this important book from the publications of many pro-Arab activists is his further statement that his purpose is not to plead the case of one party against the other but to examine the situation as it is and what this implies for the future.
There is no shortage of books on the Palestine problem and it might be regarded as difficult to write anything new. How- ever, McDowall's analysis of the various facets — the international dimension, the Jordanian connection, the refugees, the Occupied Territories, the Israeli Palesti- nians, the choices facing the state of Israel etc — has a sober (and sombre) lucidity which commands the reader's attention. Most valuable of all is his study of the origins and nature of the uprising (the intifada) which started in December 1987 in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and which, persisting until the present day, has changed the shape of Arab, Israeli and wider international attitudes. Few if any books have been published so far in English on the intifada, and McDowall has made a major contribution to our under- standing of this phenomenon.
He briefly summarises the earlier history of the dispute, but his effective point of departure is the June War of 1967 in which Israel occupied what remained of British Mandatory Palestine — the Gaza strip (administered by Egypt) and the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jor- dan. Until that time the Palestinians in these territories had been thoroughly dis- contented with their lot, but had not been thinking in terms of a Palestinian state, an option rejected by their leadership when the UN partition plan was adopted in 1947. Rather, they had been attracted by the kind of wider Arab unity preached by Nasserism and Ba'athism.
McDowall traces how autonomous Palestinian nationalism under Yasser Ara- fat's leadership of the PLO grew out of the 1967 debacle. Disillusioned by the Arab military fiasco, the PLO decided to take
the cause of Palestine into its own hands. The book then describes the fascinating evolution of West Bank politics between 1967 and 1987. The Israeli occupiers inher- ited the Jordanian administrative appar- atus and tried to work with it in order to create an impression of 'normality' even while they set about adopting measures (the establishment of settlements, approp- riation of land and water resources) which would preclude a return to the 1949 Armis- tice Lines. In a strange way this was agreeable to the PLO and the government in Amman, for neither wanted to see an independent leadership on the West Bank. The Amman-appointed notables suited their book. The years to come saw a continuing struggle by Amman to retain control of the political scene, by the PLO to suppress any attempt by the indigenous population to develop their own leader- ship, and by the Israelis, in the classical colonialist tradition, to bring out the accommodationist 'moderates'. All were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, by 1987, 150,000 Jewish settlers were established in the West Bank and Gaza, 52 per cent of the land of the West Bank had been appropri- ated, and the West Bank Palestinians had been deprived of all but four per cent of the potential output of their aquifers, the remainder going to Israel or to the new settlements. The Israelis had also, without too much fuss from the Arab world, arrested and/or deported any independent Palestinian leaders who had arisen in the West Bank. There had been sporadic outbursts in the form of strikes, riots, stone- throwing etc, but they looked as though they could be contained indefinitely by a `skilful and manipulative military gover- ment'.
McDowall then describes the important sea-changes which were taking place be- neath this relatively tranquil surface. Israeli policies were eroding village life and the bulk of the rural population was becoming cheap labour in Israel proper. This facilitated political organisation on a class basis, weakening the power of tradi- tional headmen and clan leaders. The spread of higher education was having a similar effect on the youth, and the posi- tion of the old elite was weakening. Demo- graphic change — by 1987 nearly 80 per cent of the population was under 30 years old — had increased frustration and the longing for liberation. The population as a whole was disillusioned with Arab govern-
ments and the PLO as instruments to free them from occupation. Political activists learnt that leadership, if it were not to be lopped off by the authorities, must be more diffuse and anonymous, spreading not through traditional structures but through community self-help institutions assuming responsibility for all aspects of day-to-day life. These formed the basis for the leader- ship of the intifada.
In McDowall's view, the last straw came when the Amman Arab summit of 1987 focused on the Iran/Iraq war, thus down- grading the Palestine cause. Shortly after- wards an incident in Gaza triggered off the uprising which has continued unabated at the cost of hundreds of lives and thousands of wounded and prisoners. For the first time since 1947, the indigenous population is calling the tune. They accept the PLO as their international representative and many intifada leaders are members of PLO groups. But it was their own pressure, not that of the Arab League, which brought about the dramatic change in PLO policy expressed in Arafat's statement to the UN General Assembly in December 1988.
McDowall is pessimistic about the fu- ture, closing with the sentence: 'After all they [Palestinians and Israelis] live in a land where miracles have been known to happen.' He sets out the dilemmas facing the Israeli government. Can Israel carry on indefinitely ruling and repressing an im- placably hostile population whose propor- tion to the total population is growing steadily? Can Israel afford to withdraw from virtually all the territories against a background of psychological insecurity? Will Israel ever abandon the vital land and water resources it has appropriated, not to mention the settlers? He makes a gloomy point that no Israeli government has ever departed far from the bulk of public opinion which is firmly opposed to an independent Palestine state (the 'Jordan- ian option' is no longer a starter if it ever was), or to anything more than a very limited exchange of territory for peace. (What the Labour Party would offer would be rejected immediately by the Palesti- nians). Since the late 1970s, Israeli feeling has been moving steadily towards a policy of not surrendering an inch of Eretz Israel'.
The Arab world and the PLO leadership may have become more moderate, but the trend in Israel is in the reverse direction, while, to quote a Palestinian journalist cited by McDowall: 'Young Palestinians have come to the conclusion that, in the world they inhabit, might is right and the only way to flourish is to be strong and violent.'
This book should be studied by all policy makers. Only by understanding what has happened in Israel and the Occupied Terri- tories in recent years can they have a clear idea of the magnitude of the task confront- ing the parties and the international com- munity in the future.
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