Enemies and Neighbors by Ian Black

Author:Ian Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2017-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

A STATE IS BORN

Even before the new Israeli government was formed, the PLO marked a great leap forward, building on the gains and the sacrifices of the intifada. It understood that it needed to fill the vacuum left by Jordan’s disengagement and pre-empt possible annexation by Israel – as well as signal a change to the US.54 On 15 November 1988 the Palestine National Council convened in Algiers for a meeting that was named grandly ‘the session of the intifada and independence, the session of the martyred hero Abu Jihad’. Arafat formally announced the creation of a state of Palestine – four decades since the creation of Israel and the Nakba. It was a landmark moment and the document rose to the occasion, politically, legally and emotionally. Written by Mahmoud Darwish, the widely admired Palestinian ‘poet laureate’, the declaration referenced the UN partition resolution of November 1947. It did not explicitly recognize Israel, though an accompanying document made reference to UN Resolution 242, which had always been seen as implying recognition. It embodied the notion of independence alongside Israel, for better or worse. And for some dejected veterans it was nothing less than an act of surrender: ‘Thank God my father did not live to witness this day’, commented Shafiq al-Hout, a refugee from 1948. ‘I do not know what I could say to him if he asked me what was to become of his home city of Jaffa in this state that we have just declared.’55 The declaration referred too to Palestine as ‘the land of three monotheistic faiths’ – a tolerant nod to religious pluralism rather than excoriating the ‘Zionist invasion’ in the uncompromising language of the Palestine National Covenant of 1968. The Palestinians had seized the initiative and the moral high ground as well.

On the day of the declaration, thousands of Israeli troops were deployed to stop Palestinians celebrating – and to keep the press away. The West Bank was at its gorgeous early winter best: pale almond blossoms sparkling against the stony hill terraces, sacks of fat green olives waiting to be shipped out. In Hawara, south of Nablus, an old peasant shuffled along behind his donkey, oblivious to the helmeted soldiers bivouacked by the side of the road, and the green, red and white tatters of a plastic Palestinian flag overhead. Under the surface calm, a frisson of excitement was palpable. ‘We have always said we wanted peace and now we hear the news from Algiers,’ muttered a wizened sweet vendor near where the declaration was read out at 4.30 p.m., the time designated by the latest PLO leaflet for popular celebrations. ‘A state for us and state for Israel, that’s how things should be.’56 Troops were stationed all over East Jerusalem to try to silence the chimes of Arab freedom. Later, in Abu Tor a lone firework streaked across the night sky. In Bethlehem and elsewhere, the electricity was cut off to prevent people watching the event on TV.

Israel flatly refused to recognize that any advances had been made.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.