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, WELL-TRAINED, 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”)