Palestinians in Israel: on the road to intifada
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 4/6/1998

The general strike in the Arab sector of Israel on Monday was total, and demonstrations broke out in a number of towns and villages in what was termed by many, including Israelis, as an uprising of the Arabs (who are Israeli citizens) in Israel.

Ibrahim Nimer Hussein, mayor of the Arab town of Shafa Amr, said the strike was in response to police's violent and brutal attacks on Palestinian villagers on Friday night when police troops demolished three Arab houses in the village of Um As-Sahali near the town of Shafa Amr. The police forces, said Hussein, arrived in the village with huge reinforcements and clashed with the local villagers for at least four hours at night. In response to those attacks, he added, the heads of the Arab community in Israel, including members of the Supreme Follow-Up Committee, met and took their decision to declare a total general strike on Monday.

The current tension between Arabs in Israel and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been prompted by a number of land confiscation and house demolition orders, including orders issued against houses owned by Arab Bedouins who had already served in the Israeli army. But with the approaching celebrations by Israel of its 50th anniversary of proclamation, which for the Arabs has meant catastrophe and dispersion, the tension between the two sides is even worse with lots of voices in Israel attacking the Arabs for their lack of loyalty to Israel.

Not being prepared to celebrate with Israel a day that for them brought only tragedy and historical loss. Hussein said Arab notables this year decided to boycott any official reception in which the prime minister would call on Arab heads of public bodies to congratulate them on the Muslim Adha Feast and the Passover.

The strike followed a call by the Supreme Arab Follow-Up Committee of the Palestinians in Israel to protest the demolition of three houses in the village of Um Sahali near Shafa Amr in the Galilee and the subsequent fierce clashes that took place between the Palestinians and the Israeli troops. Police and border guards used tear gas canisters and rubber bullets in one of the fiercest clashes in Israel.

According to impartial estimates, some 20 Palestinians and 20 Israeli policemen were wounded in those clashes. Arab Knesset members and notables gathered in the area of the clashes to express their support for the houses' owners, and those too were reportedly harassed by the police. Hussein said there are 28 dunums of land and seven houses in the area that are all threatened with confiscation and demolition. "We demand that the houses be rebuilt and that the land be either annexed to Shafa Amr or to any regional council in the area and should be allowed to exist without any threat of demolition or confiscation," said Hussein.

Israeli sources admitted that they were taken by surprise when the wave of unrest broke out, because a few days earlier the events that marked Land Day passed peacefully, without violent incidents. The sources said the level of violence was unprecedented within Israel and the scene is reminiscent of scenes from the West Bank during the seven years of the Intifada, between 1987 and 1994.

There are hundreds of Arab Bedouins who serve in the Israeli army and some of them warned they would use their firepower if the Israeli authorities try to demolish their homes. "These youths serve in the army," said Knesset member Talab As-Sane' who himself is a Bedouin, "but if that's the attitude toward them, why should they guard the country? They'll take the weapons and will defend their homes."

Abdul Rahman Salah, the deputy mayor of the council of Bir Al Maqsour in the Galilee, confirmed that he too heard similar remarks from Bedouin soldiers. "It's not easy for us, but according to our beliefs, one is permitted to harm whoever harms his house, his money or his honor. Over the weekend, the police did all these things," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Katsav, who is charge of the Arab affairs in Israel, said it was a wise decision to let the police forces tackle the problem with the Bedouins and not the army. "We need to show a special treatment of the Bedouins of the north who serve in the army," he said. For him, the fact that police forces were involved in the fierce clashes with the Bedouins and not the soldiers made it easier for the army command to distance itself from the clashes with Bedouins.

Heads of the Arab public in Israel, meanwhile, called for the appointment of an investigative committee that would check into the violent behavior of police last weekend in the Sawaed village near Shafa Amr. Witnesses using harsh words described the clashes with police, which spread over Saturday night throughout the village. "We were woken from our sleep, we didn't understand what had happened, and suddenly a massive number of policemen appeared and started beating everyone," said Asmahan Sawaed, a 16-year-old girl. Another resident, Muhammad Sawaed, said the police attacked elderly people and children and broke windshields on cars.

A Jewish reporter for one of the local papers in Galilee was present in the village when police forces broke into the area. He did not escape beatings and was rushed to hospital with a broken arm. "The police were exceptionally violent," Rami Mivlon said, "without any provocation on the part of the residents, who albeit faced the police with stones, but were absolutely not the ones to make the first move. That was a shocking experience." He added it was hard to see a wounded person being dragged by the police on the ground for a long distance, after being beaten by them."

"I saw scores of police arriving, I shouted 'What are you doing?' And they threw me to the ground," said Fadia Sawaed who added that she suffered bruises all over her body. Other villagers said the police did not allow them to remove their belongings from the houses before they were destroyed. One of the women began to dig through the ruins. "Help me find my gold," she begged her neighbors. A Jew who happened to be passing by the place at that moment walked away murmuring: "That's how hatred is produced."

The latest clashes inside Israel drove a number of Israelis to believe that Intifada of Arabs in Israel is no longer an imagined script. "Should this wave of tension continue," many observers believe, "we are likely to see scenes of tear gas, rubber bullets, stone throwing and perhaps Molotov cocktails on the streets of Arab towns and villages inside Israel."

The amount of stone throwing, tire burning, and rubber bullet firing over the past few days had never been seen before in Israel and they all had shown that many among the Arabs in Israel are losing their patience. The chief police commissioner in Israel had already described the violent events in the area as "the first shot in the Israeli Arabs' Intifada against the state."

Previous Stories:
  Report: Hundreds of buildings destroyed in 1997   (3/28/1998)
  Bedouins in Israel: victims of ongoing discrimination   (11/28/1997)
  Houses await demolition as Israel visits the sins of the sons on the parents   (10/14/1997)

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