Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian Authority (PA) consolidated control over the territory
under its jurisdiction, namely almost all of the Gaza Strip and most of
the Arab-populated areas of the West Bank, with the exception of Hebron.
The first Palestinian elections, which took place on 20 January, endorsed
the leadership of Yassir Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO). An eighty-eight-member legislative council, dominated by members
of Arafat's Fatah faction, was also elected. The periodic, short-term arrests
of radical leaders may have helped to intimidate some opposition forces.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process continued in 1996 but at a slower
pace than during the previous year. Palestinian groups who oppose the peace
process carried out a wave of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
in February and March, killing scores of Israelis. In response, Israel closed
its borders with the PA-ruled territories, denying thousands of Palestinian
labourers access to work inside Israel. The closure policies therefore exacerbated
economic difficulties within the Palestinian administrative areas.
Violations of human rights by the Palestinian authorities appeared to diminish
somewhat during 1996, but certain abuses such as the torture of detainees
by the Palestinian security forces reportedly continued. Also notable in
1996 was the detention without trial by the PA of approximately 1,000 Palestinians
suspected of involvement with Islamist and secular opposition groups.
Israeli-Palestinian talks on the final status of international borders,
security, Jewish settlements and Jerusalem were opened symbolically in April
but rapidly adjourned after the Israeli general election in May. Violent
clashes between Palestinian police and Israeli troops broke out in September
following the decision of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu,
to open a Hasmonean tunnel close to Muslim and Christian sites in the old
city of Jerusalem. In general, the mood of the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process deteriorated, reflecting stagnation in negotiations.
The Palestinians have rarely confronted Jews as a religious, racial or
minority question but as a political issue based on a national struggle
over power and land. Palestinian attitudes towards Jews before the 1993
Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles (DOP) were shaped by many
sources, such as traditional Muslim and Arab views of Jews, neo-Marxist
concepts, imported European antisemitism and actual experience, and often
produced contradictory doctrines. An important feature of this blend was
that traditional antisemitic notions were often transferred from defining
Jews as a whole to include Israelis, Zionists and Jewish supporters of Israel,
categories constituting a majority of the world's Jews.
Israel was often depicted as a front for western imperialist plots to control
the Middle East or the entire world. Judaism was viewed as a legitimate
religion but not as a nation with an identity of its own. Zionism, however,
was viewed as a Jewish effort to obtain world control, subjecting other
countries, including western ones, to its goals. The conclusion was that
Israel should not exist and that it should be destroyed by military defeat,
or by the wooing away of external support, or a collapse from within owing
to its weak foundations and the success of terrorist attacks in breaking
the nation's morale. These doctrines have waned in recent years because
of Israeli successes, Arab defeats, declining Arab state support for the
Palestinians, and the inability to end Israeli control of the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip other than by diplomacy.
In the 1993 Oslo Declaration of Principles, the PLO recognized Israel's
right to exist and subscribed to a peace process free of violence.
The population of the Palestinian administered areas is overwhelmingly
Arab and mostly Muslim. Christians remained nervous about their future in
the light of the uncertain political climate and the radical Islamist movements.
Arafat endeavoured to reassure them, frequently speaking about the unity
of Palestinians and attending Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem. Six seats
were reserved for Christians in the Palestinian governing council.
The only Jews living under Palestinian rule belong to a small Samaritan
Jewish community of about 150 people near Hebron. While some leading PA
officials did engage in dialogue with Jewish settlers in the West Bank,
the PA made clear its preference for the removal of Jewish settlers if and
when the areas came under Palestinian rule, unless they agreed to live under
full Palestinian rule.
Among the most significant Palestinian rejectionist groups are Hamas
and al-Jihad al-Islamiyya (Islamic Jihad), which both combine classical
European antisemitism with an anti-Jewish interpretation of the Qur'an.
The conflict between Israel and the Arabs is portrayed by these groups as
an extension of a historic battle between Muslims and Jews. The covenant
issued by Hamas in 1988, entitled "The Charter of Allah", asserts
that "the Nazism of the Jews . . . makes war against people's livelihood,
plunders their monies and threatens their honour . . . like the most horrendous
war criminals". The document claims that Jews use their wealth to control
the international media and establish clandestine organizations such as
the Masons, Rotary clubs and B'nai B'rith around the world "to destroy
societies and carry out Zionist interests". Hamas holds Jews responsible
for all war, the UN and imperialism, claiming that "their scheme has
been laid out in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , and their
present [conduct] is the best proof of what is said there".
Throughout 1996, as in previous years, antisemitic slogans were combined
with anti-Zionist rhetoric at Islamist meetings and rallies. Hamas's magazine,
Filastin al-Muslimiah , which is published in London, contained a
lengthy series of articles in July under the heading "What did Muhammad
say About the Jews?" The antisemitic statements included the following:
"From the beginning, the Prophet Muhammad exposed the real nature of
the Jews and their opinion of the Muslims. Even then he discovered the fascistic
basis of the Jews which continues to this day."
Within the Palestinian administrative areas, graffiti are a particularly
popular means of political expression. Hamas activists were responsible
for antisemitic slogans such as "The Jews are Dogs", which appeared
on walls in towns such as Nablus.
The military wing of Hamas, Izz al-Din al-Qassam, fails to distinguish between
Jews, Israelis and Zionists in its propaganda. Sim-ilarly, Islamic Jihad
frequently combines antisemitic and anti-Zionist slogans. During the first
week of April, Dr Ramadan Abdallah Shalah, leader of Islamic Jihad, was
quoted in the Lebanese newspaper al-Wasat as saying: "Peace
with Israel is impossible to achieve for many reasons. The Qur'an says that
the Jews do not keep promises or respect agreements. They are not pleased
by other people unless they can turn them into slaves."
Most PLO leaders, including Arafat, are generally aware of western sensitivities
to antisemitism and therefore refrain from overtly antisemitic statements.
Nonetheless, antisemitic assumptions, such as the notion that the Jews constitute
only a religion rather than a nation, occasionally occur in speeches delivered
to their local constituencies. Frequent antisemitic statements are reportedly
made in speeches to the PA's legislative council.
Among the PLO's opposition, smaller nationalist groups have gained representation
in the Palestinian national assembly. Rafaat Najar, a representative of
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was quoted on 5 February
in Israel's English-language daily, the Jerusalem Post , as announcing
to a meeting of Palestinians in Gaza: "We demand a change in the Protocols
of Zion [sic] in exchange for changing the [PLO] charter."
Arabic translations of antisemitic texts such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are available in Gaza and the West Bank.
Many mosques were controlled by Hamas supporters, whose sermons often used Islamist rhetoric to denounce Jews. However, by the end of 1996, Arafat had neutralized Hamas's grip on the mosques in Gaza.
Palestinians and the PA remain locked in a complex relationship of friction
and co-operation with Israel, while often appearing to reformulate their
views of Jews and Israel. In 1996, the chief source of antisemitism among
Palestinians derived from militant Islamic groups, who maintain a significant
but minority following.
© JPR 1997