Download PALESTINIAN NATIONALISM REMADE

PALESTINIAN NATIONALISM
REMADE
ARMED STRUGGLE AND THE
IRRESISTABLE DANGER OF
STATE-MAKING
COMMANDOS
• WITH CIVILIAN POLITICIANS
WEAKENED THE COMMANDOS
CLAIMED TO REPRESENT
PALESTINIANS
• AL-MUQAWAMAH OR RESISTANCE
– TO ISRAEL
– TO THE ARAB STATES
WHAT ARE COMMANDOS
LIGHTLY ARMED SOLDIERS
ENGAGE IN “PROPAGANDA OF THE
DEED”
NOT ENGAGED DIRECTLY IN POLITICAL
ACTION
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE
CONTEXT OF COMPROMISES WITH
ISRAEL ARE UNACCEPTABLE
PALESTINIAN LIBERATION
ORGANIZATION
• UMBRELLA ORGANIZATION FORMED
BY THE ARAB STATES
• HAD DIPLOMATIC CONNECTIONS TO
THE ARAB STATES
PALESTINE LIBERATION ARMY
• NOT A COMMANDO GROUP
• THE PLA WAS A SET OF REGULAR
ARMY UNITS OF PALESTINIANS
EFFECTIVELY CONTROLLED BY THE
ARAB ARMIES AND INTEGRATED INTO
THEIR COMMAND STRUCTURE
FATAH
• FORMED BY YASSER ARAFAT AND
COLLEAGUES IN EARLY 60s
• A COMMANDO ORGANIZATION
• CAME TO DOMINATE THE PLO IN
FEBRUARY 1969
• ARAFAT ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF THE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
POPULAR FRONT FOR THE
LIBERATION OF PALESTINE
• FORMED OUT OF THE ARAB NATIONAL
MOVEMENT
• LED BY GEORGE HABASH
• MARXIST IN IDEOLOGY
• CALLED FOR PALESTINIAN RETURN
TO ALL OF MANDATORY PALESTINE
• TIED TO IRAQ
DEMOCRATIC FRONT FOR THE
LIBERATION OF PALESTINE
• FORMED FROM A SPLIT IN THE PFLP
IN FEBRUARY 1969
• LED BY NAYIF HAWATMEH
• MARXIST-LENINIST IN IDEOLOGY
• ACCEPTED AID FROM SYRIA AND THE
SOVIET BLOCK\
AL-SA’IQA
• FOUNDED IN 1968
• SYRIAN BA’TH PARTY’S EFFORT TO
AFFECT/CONTROL PALESTINIAN
ISSUE
• CLOSER TO FATAH INITIALLY AND
OPPOSED TO PFLP
TOTAL SIZE OF COMMANDO
GROUPS
• 10,000-20,000 IN FATAH AND SA’IQA
• 2,000-4,000 IN PFLP AND DFLP
• 700-3,500 IN VARIOUS OTHER GROUPS
• THE COMMANDO GROUPS WERE TOO
SMALL TO ENGAGE ISRAEL BUT
SUFFICIENTLY LARGE TO BE A LOCAL
POLICE/ARMY
PRIMARY GOAL OF THE
RESISTANCE
• LIBERATION OF ALL OF PALESTINE
THROUGH ARMED STRUGGLE AND
CREATION OF A DEMOCRATIC
SECULAR STATE FOR ARABS AND
JEWS
• EXPLICITLY AIMED TO ELIMINATE
ISRAEL AS A STATE
PRAGMATIC GOALS
• RE-CREATION OF A SENSE OF
PALESTINIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY
• PUTTING THE ISSUE OF PALESTINE
ON THE MAP
• ESTABLISHMMENT OF THE PLO AS
THE CENTRAL REPRESENTATIVE OF
PALESTINIAN NATIONALISM
ISLANDS OF SOVEREIGNTY
• “MILITARIZATION” OR TAJYISH
• WITH SIGNIFICANT MILITARY
CAPABILITY, TERRITORIAL
EXTENSION, AND INDEPENDENT
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP PALESTINIAN
NATIONALISM TENDED TO CREATE
ISLANDS OF SOVEREIGNTY
PLO AND HISTORIC PALESTINE
• THE ISRAELI ARMY, COMMANDED BY
ARIEL SHARON, DESTROYED THE PLO
PRESENCE IN GAZA
• THE WEST BANK RETAINED ITS OWN
POLITICAL ELITES
Yasser Arafat
King Abdul Aziz
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
President Husni Mubarak
Plus one Egyptian peasant
And one Harvard anthropologist
1970 – SOVEREIGNTY IN
JORDAN IN THE BALANCE
• WITH A LARGE PALESTINIAN
POPULATION AND ARMED FORCE
(COMMANDOS=MILITIAS) THE
RESISTANCE THREATENED THE STATE
• PFLP RAISED THE SLOGAN “THE
ROAD TO JERUSALEM RUNS
THROUGH AMMAN”
King Hussein of Jordan
• VIOLENCE IN JUNE 1970: ARTILLERY
AND ATTACK ON ROYAL MOTORCADE
• JULY 10 KING GAVE PLO CONTROL
OVER CAMPS
• AUGUST: PROTESTS AGAINST VISIT BY
US SECRETARY OF STATE
• SEPTEMBER – HIJACKING AND
LANDING OF THREE PLANES IN
AMMAN BY PFLP- WHO’S IN CHARGE?
BLACK SEPTEMBER
• COMMANDOS SOUGHT CONTROL OF
AMMAN AND JORDAN
• KING HUSSEIN DECLARED MARTIAL
LAW
• AN ASSAULT ON THE PLO FORCES IN
THE REFUGEE CAMPS BEGINNING
SEPTEMBER 17 DESTROYED THE
PLO’S MILITARY AND POLITICAL
POWER IN JORDAN
• BY JULY 1971 ALL PLO COMMANDOS
IN JORDAN HAD BEEN EXPELLED
• HUSSEIN’S MOST RELIABLE TROOPS
WERE HIS BEDOUIN ARMORED
BRIGADE
• THE COMMANDOS WERE NO MATCH
FOR HEAVILY ARMORED, WELLTRAINED, AND ORGANIZED TROOPS
THE PLO SHIFTED ITS TROOPS
TO LEBANON
• THE “CAIRO AGREEMENT” OF 1969
AND THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
• THE PRESENCE OF REFUGEE CAMPS
(WELL-DEFINED TERRITORIES)
• LEBANON A MUCH WEAKER STATE
THAN JORDAN
INTERLUDE: WHAT IS TERROR?
• THE FIRST TERROR WAS UNLEASHED
BY THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• USE OF TERROR BY EUROPEAN
ANARCHISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES
• KEY FEATURES
– RANDOM NATURE OF VIOLENCE
– USE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS
– GOAL: POLITICAL DEMOBILIZATION
WHO USES TERROR?
• IS IT A WEAPON OF THE WEAK?
• IS THERE “STATE TERRORISM”
• WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN THOSE WHO USE TERROR
AND THE POLITICAL BASE THEY CLAIM
TO REPRESENT?
• AGAINST WHOM CAN THE
INSTRUMENTS OF TERROR BE USED?
THE HIDDEN WAR
• ATTACKS ON AIRLINERS AND
AIRPORTS
• ATTACKS ON ISRAELI AND JORDANIAN
TARGETS
– WASFI TAL
– ISRAELI ATHLETES
– LETTER BOMBS
RESULTS
• PLACED THE PLO ON THE GLOBAL
AGENDA
• MILITARILY UNSUCCESSFUL
• EXPANDED ISRAELI EXTRA-LEGAL
CAPACITY
THE PLO DIPLOMATIC
OFFENSIVE
• In 1970 neither the PLO nor Arafat were
sole or legitimate representatives of the
Palestinian people
• November 1973 – Arab summit at
Algiers recognized the PLO as the sole
legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people
• external recognition of internal
sovereignty
• February 1974 Islamic summit
recognized PLO
• March 1974 Non-Aligned movement
recognized PLO
• June 1974 – PLO calls for “intermediate
stages” in liberation of Palestine
AMBIGUITIES OF CHANGE
• Democratic Front had called for a dialogue
between the PLO and “peace-oriented
Israelis” in 1974
• Why did DFLP mebers take school children
hostage at Maalot on May 15, 1974 ?
• One answer is that the Palestinian
organizations were not serious
• Another is that the dynamic of armed
struggle prevailed
• At the Rabat meeting of the Arab
League in October 1974 the power to
negotiate over any Palestinian territory
from which Israel withdrew was handed
to the PLO over Jordanian objections
• November 13 1974 Arafat addressed the
UN General Assembly, armed.
• In November 1975 the UN General
Assembly resolved that Zionism was a
form of racism
• Were these “findings of fact” or
political maneuvers in a battle with
Israel and the US?
CODA: WHAT KIND OF
STRUGGLE?
• ARABIC HAS A VARIETY OF WORDS TO
DESCRIBE CONFLICT/STRUGGLE
– JIHAD: CLASSICAL LEGAL TERM FOR
WAR; APPEARS 5 TIMES IN QUR’AN AS
SUCH (“EFFORT”)
– QITAL: SYNONYM; APPEARS 14 TIMES
(“KILLING”)
– KIFAH: BATTLE (“CONFRONTATION”)
– SIRA’: STRUGGLE (“WRESTLING”)