[(Continued from p.5)]
from the negotiation team headed by the Commander, the Emblem Abu Ammar, to our heroic Palestinian nation: Be ready, the campaign for Jerusalem has started, this is the meaning of the return to the motherland of (our) mission from Camp David without conceding any of the declared and fundamental Palestinian positions." About three weeks before the outbreak of the intifada,the writing on the wall became apparent. In an article in Al Sabah, the official newspaper of the PA, Yasser Khalil Salah referred to the approaching event and to its theme -- Jerusalem -- as well as to the launching of the "jihad and intifada campaign" against Israel. "The time of intifada has come, has come, has come, the time of Jerusalem has come, Jerusalem is calling."In order to keep the sword of violence ready at any time, the PA established the Political Direction Organization, which reports directly to Arafat, and which is responsible for national mobilization and the shaping of Palestinian public opinion on every level, from kindergarten through youth movements to military officers and civil servants. The organization has its representatives planted in every government office and each military unit, and is widely active in the fields of propaganda and "the preparation of hearts." Its activities include the publication of numerous information pamphlets, lectures to military units, organization of summer camps for tens of thousands of students (where emphasis is put on Palestinian rights to "Palestine 1948" and where students are trained in the use of firearms as a legitimate means in the struggle), and the explication of PA policy in the form of Orders of the Day.
The goal of these activities is to educate the present and emerging generations in the fundamental and uncompromising values of the Palestinians (independence, Jerusalem, the return), to contest the right of Israel to exist, to deny the right of the Jews to any share of Palestine, openly to promote anti-Semitism, and to encourage Istishhad (martyrdom) and the immediate readiness for self-sacrifice, according to the Fatah slogan "revolution until victory." The lyrics of the 2001 PA summer camp anthem read: "We the youth...will sacrifice ourselves for Yasser (Arafat)....We train in the use of weapons, we are the youth of vengeance.... Revolution, revolution until victory."
The PA sees the decisive historic action toward the eradication of Zionism as requiring the following elements:
Cement national unity in the Palestinian camp based on the consensus over fundamental Palestinian principles. One of the most important achievements of the "War of Independence and Return" has been (and still is) the setting up of an organization for the overall coordination of the political movements within the Palestinian arena, dubbed "the National and Islamic Forces." This body has assumed the role (and was authorized to do so by the PA) of managing the intifada. It determines policy on the use of terror and is emerging as a center of power, overshadowing even the PLO (which does not represent Islamist bodies) in charting the political objectives of the intifada and that of the "negotiation campaign."
Overturn the demographic equation in Palestine through the return of refugees, with the goal of preparing the conditions for the bi-national state.
Encourage the alliance (politically, socially, and economically) between the two constituents of the Palestinian people in Palestine, and encourage separatist tendencies among Israeli Palestinians. This is why the PA views with favor initiatives by the Israeli Palestinian leadership that strive to obliterate the Jewish character of Israel. A reflection of the PA's agenda regarding Israeli Palestinians can be seen in the speech made by Knesset Member Azmi Bashara before a forum of Arab politicians and intellectuals in early 1999. "[The option is] a bi-national entity, whose only feasible expression today is the strengthening of the ties between the Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, and support for the demand of the Arabs in Israel to transform the state into a state of all its citizens."
On the other side of the (Israeli-Palestinian) political camp, one of the leaders of the Islamic movement in Israel, Raed Salah, is engaged in building an "independent Palestinian society" which is gradually distancing itself from Israeli society and relies on its own economic and social institutions. This entails strengthening ties with the "brethren" in the West Bank. Arafat himself, in a phone speech to a meeting of supporters in the Galilee (December 7, 2001), turned to the Palestinians in the "Galilee, the Triangle, and the Negev," and called them part of the heroic Palestinian people, a part that does not surrender and adheres to the "Ard-a-Ribat," a Muslim concept denoting a territory where Muslim armies congregate before battle.
Obtain active Arab support for the Palestinian struggle. This is part of the doctrine that perceives the armed struggle as legitimate even during negotiations, and as essential during the stage of confrontation over the right of return. The head of the political indoctrination apparatus, Othman abu Rarbiya, explained the relevant Palestinian doctrine in an article in A-Rai, an official Palestinian paper (December 2001). He wrote: "The [Arab] nation and the Palestinian nation will continue to prosecute the struggle for the rights of the Palestinians and the rights of the [Arab] nation....[The options of force and struggle exist] for the realization of the historic strategic front to a sufficient degree and to the degree of neces-
[(Continued on p.7)]
Outpost - 6 - December 2002