The Reductionist View of an
Intifada
By Ramzy Baroud
Associating the ongoing Palestinian intifada (uprising) with
the number of stabbings or alleged stabbings carried out by
Palestinian youths was a mistake from the start. An intifada
is a collective movement, not individual acts of violence, no
matter how frequent.
The current intifada dates back to last October, when a large
number of Palestinian youths began staging protests and
clashing with Israeli occupation soldiers in various parts of
occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
One aspect of the intifada was an increase of Palestinian
reciprocal attacks, often involving youths wielding knives.
They targeted occupation soldiers, armed colonists and also
Israeli civilians. Many reported incidents of such attacks
were contested by Palestinian and certain Israeli groups as
fabrications, which often led to the death and injury of
Palestinian civilians. In contrast to commonly-held views, a
recent assessment by Israel’s internal intelligence, the Shin
Bet, indicates a palpable decrease in the number of stabbings
in April, compared to earlier months.
To some, this reported decrease has led to the conclusion that
the Intifada is dying. However, the real reason behind the
decline in Palestinian retaliatory attacks is unclear. One
theory argues that Palestinians in general are increasingly
finding such attacks of no practical use. Another, as argued
by Adnan Abu Amer in Al-Monitor, suggests that “security
coordination between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)
and Israel has been an important factor behind the possible
decline. “On May 5, Shin Bet chief, Yoram Cohen, said that the
PNA security services have been thwarting attacks soon after
receiving intelligence from Israel, praising the security
coordination’s role in the efforts,” Abu Amer wrote.
This has been corroborated by Palestinian officials
themselves. Head of the Palestinian General Intelligence
Service, Majid Farah, said in an interview with DefenseNews
last January, that his agents managed to thwart “200 potential
terror attacks against Israel”, as phrased in Israel’s YNet
News.
While Farah spoke of arresting over 100 Palestinians in
cooperation with the Israeli army, Palestinian President,
Mahmoud Abbas, told Israel Channel 2 last March that his
security forces are cracking down on Palestinian school
children. Apart from apprehending suspected Palestinian
resisters, the security coordination includes searching school
children’s bags for knives, according to the Palestinian
leader. “Our security forces are entering schools and checking
if students are carrying knives. In one school, we found 70
students with knives, and we told them that this was wrong. I
told them I do not want you to kill someone and die; I want
you to live and for others to live, too,” he said.
Yet, reducing a historic event as popular as the intifada to
knives allegedly hidden in schoolbags is a major
misrepresentation of what is taking place in the Occupied
Territories. The issue is much larger than that, and is
unlikely to be quelled by Abbas’s henchmen or Israeli
occupation forces.
The nature of the current uprising in the West Bank and
occupied East Jerusalem is testament to a pent-up anger of an
entire generation that grew up behind walls and checkpoints.
They are fighting two separate enemies — the occupation army
and their own oppressive leadership.
Previous uprisings were massive in their mobilisation, clear
in their message and decisive in their delivery. They were
willed by the people and, within days, imprinted themselves on
the collective consciousness of Palestinians everywhere. The
current uprising is different, particularly because it is yet
to have a clear sense of direction — a leadership, a political
platform, demands, expectations and short and long-term
strategies. At least that is how the 1987-93 intifada played
out and, to a lesser extent, the 2000-2005 Al Aqsa intifada as
well. But is it not possible that the outcomes of these
previous Intifadas are what is making the current uprising
different?
The first intifada metamorphosed into a worthless peace
process which eventually led to the signing of the Oslo
Accords in 1993. A year later, the leadership of the Palestine
Liberation Organisation was reproduced into the emasculated
form of the PNA. Since then, the latter has served largely as
a conduit for the Israeli Occupation.
The second Intifada had less success than the first. It
quickly turned into an armed rebellion, thus marginalising the
popular component of revolt that is required to cement the
collective identity of Palestinians, forcing them to overcome
their divisions and unify behind a single flag and a distinct
chant.
That intifada was crushed by a brutal Israeli army: Hundreds
of activists were assassinated and thousands were killed in
protests and clashes with Israeli soldiers. It was a watershed
moment in the relationship between the Israeli government and
the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and between the
Palestinian factions themselves.
Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the PNA in 2005,
shortly after the death of Yasser Arafat. Abbas’s greatest
achievements include the cracking down on civil society
organisations, ensuring total loyalty towards him — personally
— and towards his branch within the Fatah faction. Under
Abbas, there has been no revolutionary model for change, no
‘national project’. In fact, no clear definition of nationhood
to begin with.
The Palestinian nation became whatever Abbas wanted it to be.
It consisted, largely, of West Bank Palestinians, living
mostly in Area A, loyal to Fatah and hungry for international
handouts. The more the Abbas nation agreed to play along, the
more money they were allowed to rake in.
Until October of last year, when the current uprising slowly
began building momentum, the situation on the ground seemed to
be at a standstill. In the West Bank, occupation was slowly
normalised in accordance with the formula: Occupation and
illegal colonies in exchange for money and silence.
Gaza, on the other hand, stood as a model for barbarity that
was regularly meted out by Israel as a reminder to those in
the West Bank that the price of revolt is besiegement, hunger,
destruction and death.
It is against this backdrop of misery, humiliation, fear,
oppression and corruption that Palestinians rose. They were
mostly young people born after Oslo — those who became
politically conscious after the 2006 Fatah-Hamas clash, and
were raised in the conflicting worlds of their own leadership
coexisting with the Occupation, on one hand, and clashing with
other Palestinians on the other.
This is a generation that is the most educated, yet, most
politically savvy and, thanks to the huge leaps in digital
media technology, the most connected and informed of the world
around it. The ambitions of these youth are huge, but their
opportunities are so limited; their earth has shrunk to the
size of a single-file queue before an Israeli military
checkpoint, where they are corralled on their way to school,
to work and back home. And, like the Israelis who shot at
anyone who dared protest, Abbas imprisons those who attempt to
do so.
The current intifada is an expression of that dichotomy, of a
generation that is so eager to break free, to define itself,
to liberate its land, yet which is resisted by an Old Guard
unremittingly holding on so tightly to the few perks and
dollars they receive in the form of allotments every month.
It matters little whether stabbing incidents are on the
decline or not. An intifada is not sustained by such acts
anyway. The latter is merely an expression of angst, pain and
anger. What has become clear since October is that the new
generation in Palestine is ready to effect a paradigm shift,
and that the current situation of a quisling leadership and a
belligerent occupation is simply unsustainable.
The outcome of this tension will not only define this entire
generation, as it defined previous generations in 1987 and
2000, but will define the future of Palestine altogether.
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist,
a media consultant, author of several books and the founder of
PalestineChronicle.com