One of the most important new factors in Israel has been the re-emergence of Israeli" Arabs as a politically active group. This has happened for three main reasons. Firstly "Israeli Arabs are able to meet fellow-Palestinians from the West Bank of the Jordan, and sometimes from beyond. This contact has shown many "Israeli Arabs that while their standard of living is relatively high, the Palestinians outside Israel still need a political solution to their problems.
Secondly, while it would be incorrect to call Arabs in Israel legal' second-class citizens, it is obvious that they are considered a Fifth Front.
Whenever there is an explosion in Israel all the nearby Arabs are rounded up for questioning. In Haifa relations between Jews and Arabs are so strained that joint Jewish-Arab patrols have been instituted. At the many road-blocks throughout Israel, only cars with Arab passengers are stopped, while Jews are waved on with a smile.
Thirdly, there are areas where Arabs face discrimination - in education, for example. The quarter of a million Arabs in Israel have only one teacher-training college, according to the Israeli Government's figures.
The increasing tensions on the "Israeli" Arabs have two effects. On the one hand, 'Israeli Arabs are becoming increasingly involved in the guerrilla movement, and an examination of the addresses of people sent for trial for membership of, or active participation in, a guerrilla group, shows increasingly such Israeli towns as Ramla, Jaffa, Haifa, Lydda and Nazereth. In the recent trade union elections, Rakah (the non-Zionist of the two Israeli Communist Parties)
ained considerable support from Arabs. It now ontrols the Nazereth Trade Council, and gained nearly all the Arab vote in Haifa. On average, about one-third of all the Arabs in Israel voted, in effect, against Zionism by voting for Rakah.
Since the Six Day War in 1967, Israel has been having a financial boom caused mainly by increase in production to replace French, and to some extent British, armaments. Such large profits are currently being made in Israel that American non-Jewish firms are setting up subsidiaries.
However, the working class has gained very little from the boom and, in fact, through the army's ability to control the economy, attempts have been made to interfere with industrial strikes.
In the recent postmen's strike (a particularly unpleasant job in the Middle East sun) the postmen were told they would be called up if they did not go back to work. The workers ignored this threat, but had no option but to allow volunteer scabs to deliver the post. In a strike of technicians in a chemical factory, workers were informed that they could not leave two of the plants as the products (ammonia and nitric acid were needed by the army. This was a complete falsification, for the factory had 3 weeks' stock of both chemicals and the strike was a token one of 3 days. The net effect of the boom and a Wilson-type prices and incomes policy was to increase last year's profits by 60% with only a small increase in wages. When it comes to voluncary payments for Bonds the workers seem to defenders of Israel have enlarged the politica contribute an enormous percentage. In Haifa, for example, out of 20 million Israeli pounds donated, 1 million Israeli pounds (about £125,000) was donated by dock workers alone. Perhaps, however, the saddest sight was to see small children collecting pennies for the multi-million dollar Phantom jet from America.
In the occupied territories, there is quite a lot of sympathy for the guerrilla groups. In a recent rocket attack on Jerusalem, from a hill near Bethlehem (in the occupied West Bank) the equipment used was so heavy that the entire local population must have known about it. The Israeli army was unable to find any informers and the area has now been turned into a sealed zone. Arab lawyers in Nablus have now recommenced working and have successfully defended a number of guerrillas tried at military courts. I led by IS and IMG to insert a clause on the think the army feels that the law is rather soft on guerrillas (the death sentence was abolished in the early fifties) and I have my suspicions that it takes the law into its own hands. It seems rather odd to me that two Arab suspects in the the officials of PSC. In this an Executive Comcase of the murder of an Israeli in Gaza were. shot dead while running away from a refugee camp.
A large area of the West Bank depends on tourism, and this now seems to be non-existent because of the political situation. Taxi drivers, for example, outside the large cities often don't earn enough money to pay for their petrol. The Israelis have introduced relief work but there is a limit to the number of roads that need repairing city, almost never meeting. The Jewish and hatred engendered by the Akra Mosque fire showed the Jews that the Arabs still maintain In the absence of any large group of Israeli Jews committed to a change in the nature of Israel, it seems that any major change can only come about through the Palestinian Liberation movements. However Fred Halliday is right to point out the essentially nationalistic political nature of El Fatah. One can hardly expect Israelis to believe that the goal of Fatah is to create a Jewish-Arab state when its military tactics are not usually aimed at the industrial and military installations of the state, but at civilians, often including "Israeli" Arabs. I don't think there will be a solution to the problem until both Jews and Arabs realise that the Jews are victims of Zionism, and that an alliance between the two is needed to free the Semitic peoples from their modern bondage. I can't see this alliance being forged until the Palestinians realise that they cannot have an Arab Palestine any more than the Jews can have a Jewish can achieve peace.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign held its first majority of the members of the Arab students' unions. Elections for the EC were held and seven people were elected.
The Conference was attended by about 300 people, and the demonstration by around 2,000. The PSC has established itself as a democratic revolutionary front united on a militant political programme. It itself will continue if stated that Palma's activities against the bank and armoury had nothing whatever to do with political targets. The Appelate Tribunal of the Seine region refused to allow extradition, recognising that the Bank affair was certainly of a political nature as the money was destined to finance LUAR revolutionary activities.
Unce tree, Palma was placed in command of
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