The

RISE and FALL

t PALESTINE
0
 The
RISE and FALL
I PALESTINE
0

A Personal Account of the Intifada Years

NORMAN G. FINKELSTEIN

University of Minnesota Press

Minneapolis
London
 Copyright 1996 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by the University of Minnesota Press

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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Finkelstein, Norman G.
The rise and fall of Palestine : a personal account of the
Intifada years I Norman G. Finkelstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8166-2858-0
ISBN 0-8166-2859-9 (pbk.)
I. Intifada, 1987- 2. Finkelstein, Norman G.-Joumeys-West
Bank. 3. Jewish-Arab relations-1973- I. Title.
DS119.75.F55 1996
956.9405' .4-<lc20 96-17955

The University of Minnesota is an

equal-opportunity educator and employer.
To Samira and Moussa
As in the last days of Pompeii, there was disintegration; restraints and prohibitions
disappeared ....I knew about people who were corrupt and I didn't always condemn
them because the accepted norm was: "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we
die." ... There were, however, also instances of moral dignity. People sought a way to
us, wanted to help us. Citizens without any political affiliation ... There were a lot of
instances of dignified behavior, an expression of solidarity of simple people who weren't
members of a movement.... [W]hen we were in danger, we always found people to
hide us.... There was a class of people in the ghetto who lived the good life all the
time. These were smugglers and the economic collaborators, not the collaborators,
the bastards, the Gestapo agents. These smugglers and economic opportunists were
another level of collaborator. Perhaps we could say - with grief and bitterness - this
group also included the leadership of the political parties: they had plenty of money,
which they got from various sources . ... At any rate, they didn't go hungry.

Yitzhak Zuckerman, A Surplus of Memory:

Chronicles of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
 Contents

Key Abbreviations and Foreign Terms xi

Author's Note xii

Acknowledgments xiii

Chronology xiv

Dramatis Personae xv

The Truth from Palestine, Revisited

The Ordinary, the Awful, and the Sublime 18

A Double Standard in the Application

of International Law 44

Why Palestinians Cheered the Scud Missiles 69

Epilogue
The End of Palestine? 85

Notes 123

Index 153
 Key Abbreviations and Foreign Terms

ADC American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

CRM Citizen's Rights Movement
GSS General Security Services
IDF Israel Defense Forces
jay sh Israeli army
MEW Middle East Watch
PFLP Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
PLO Palestine Liberation Organization
PNC Palestine National Council
shebab young Palestinian militants
UNC Unified National Command
 Author's Note

I first traveled to Palestine in August 1988 as part of an American-Arab Anti­

Discrimination Committee (ADC) human rights delegation. Two chance
encounters - with Samira Mikhail of Beit Sahour and Moussa Abu Hashhash
of Fawwar refugee camp - developed into enduring friendships as I returned
to Palestine in successive years at their invitation. Samira and Moussa trusted
me to enter their lives and experience Palestine without blinders. All they
wanted in return was that I truthfully report what I witnessed. I have done
so to the best of my ability; I hope I have not disappointed them. W hat fol­
lows is a chronicle of those visits as well as the intervening tragedy in the
Gulf. Chapters 1, 2, 4, and the epilogue were written after trips to the West
Bank in, respectively, August 1988, August 1989, August 1991, and Decem­
ber 1993. Chapter 3 was written on the eve of the Gulf "war" in December
1990 (appendix 1 in January 1992, appendix 2 in November 1992). Aside
from minor additions, I have decided to reproduce the original manuscripts
more or less intact so as to better preserve the spirit of those remarkable times.
 Acknowledgments

Over the past seven years I benefited from the generosity of many individu­
als; no words can adequately convey my gratitude. I want especially to thank
Nabeel Abraham, Rudolph Baldeo, Jonathan Boyarin, Roane Carey, Carol
Chomsky, Noam Chomsky, Carolyn Fialkow, Samira Haj, Joanne Koslofsky,
Ellen Mastromonaco, Allan Nairn, Adele Oltman, Eyal Press, Nawal Ragheb,
Frank Sheed, Shifra Stern, and Cyrus Veeser. Unless otherwise indicated,
Hebrew-language periodicals are cited from Israel Shahak's invaluable Trans­
lations from the Hebrew Press. W hile I was preparing this manuscript for
publication, my mother and father - both survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto
and the Nazi concentration camps - passed away. My grief is inexpressible,
as is my debt to them.
 Chronology

December 198 7 Intifada begins as Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
revolt against twenty-year-long Israeli occupation
November 1988 Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers formally
ratifies a two-state settlement of Israel-Palestine conflict
August 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait
January 1991 U.S.-led assault on Iraq begins
February 1991 Iraq withdraws from Kuwait
October 1991 Madrid peace talks convene to resolve Israel-Palestine
conflict
September 1993 Israel and PLO sign Oslo accord
 Dramatis Personae

Samira Mikhail is an English teacher from Beit Sahour

Stephan, Rana, Rita, and Basil are, respectively, Samira's husband and three
children

Moussa Abu Hashhash is an English teacher from Fawwar camp

Afaf, Marwa, Urwa, and Arwa are, respectively, Moussa's wife and three
children

George Hanna is a Bir Zeit University physicist from Beit Sahour

Mufid Hanna and Nadim Issa are youths from Beit Sahour

Esmail Abu Hashhash is a mathematics teacher from Fawwar camp

Caid El-Janazreh is an agricultural engineer from Fawwar camp

 Chapter 1
The Truth from Palestine, Revisited

Nearly a century ago, the Zionist writer Ahad Ha'am observed in his classic
essay, "The Truth from Palestine," that the Zionist movement had failed to
grasp the challenge posed by Palestine's indigenous population:
We tend to believe abroad that all Arabs are desert barbarians, an asmme
people who does not see or understand what is going on around them. This
is a cardinal mistake. The Arab, like all Semites, has a sharp mind and is
full of cunning....The Arabs ...understand very well what we want and what
we do in the country; but they behave as if they do not notice it because at
present they do not see any danger for themselves or their future in what we
are doing.... But when the day will come in which the life of our people in the
Land of Israel will develop to such a degree that they will push aside the local
population by little or by much, then it will not easily give up its place.1

Regarding the pervasive belief among Zionist settlers that "the only
language the Arabs understand is force," Ahad Ha'am went on to warn:
One thing we certainly should have learned from our past and present history,
and that is not to create anger among the local population against us....We
have to treat the local population with love and respect, justly and rightly. And
what do our brethren in the Land of Israel do? Exactly the opposite! ...They
behave toward the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, infringe upon their bound­
aries, hit them shamefully without reason, and even brag about it. Our brethren
are right when they say that the Arab honors only those who show valor and
fortitude; but this is the case only when he feels that the other side has justice
on his side. It is very different when the Arab thinks that his opponent's actions
are iniquitous and unlawful; in that case he may keep his anger to himself for a
long time, but it will dwell in his heart and in the long run he will prove himself
to be vengeful and full of retribution.2

I
We were standing on a balcony in the Tel al-Zaatar neighborhood (renamed
after the Palestinian refugee camp martyred during the Lebanese civil war) of
Beit Sahour when Samira Mikhail slipped outside to join us. Like the rest of
2 The Truth from Palestine, Revisited

us, she immediately turned her head toward the awful ritual unfolding some
fifty yards ahead.
Even by the stringent standards of the intifada, Beit Sahour, a Palestinian­
Christian town just south of Bethlehem, enjoyed an unusual reputation for
militancy. As the intifada began in December 1987, it was the first Pales­
nman community to stop paying taxes to the occupying authorities and
also took impressive steps toward popular self-government and economic
independence.
This Sunday morning, rumor had it that in response to an Israeli order
expelling twenty-five more residents from Gaza, there would be an "action"
in Beit Sahour after church services. I had arrived early with a photographer
friend, but, although noontime was fast approaching, we still didn't see any­
thing unusual. Suddenly, several children - the average age of the intifada
vanguard couldn't have been more than twelve years because the "older gen­
eration" of teenagers and young adults were by then either in jail or hiding
out - began piling stones in the street. Past experience suggested that, any
minute, the jaysh (Israeli army) would drive up in jeeps and all hell would
break loose.
The stone "barricade," erected on a side street deep inside the town, was a
purely symbolic gesture of defiance and self-affirmation. And it was precisely
for this reason that Israelis could be expected to react ruthlessly to it, deter­
mined as they were- it was stated officially- to "once again put the fear of
death" into the Palestinians and "wipe the smile" off their faces.
In fact, every expression of Palestinian "violence" I witnessed during my
stay in the occupied territories was little more than symbolic, though the same
could not be said for the force used to suppress it. Once, at Jalazoun refugee
camp, children were burning a tire off the main road inside the camp when
a car (with a blue Palestinian license plate)* pulled up next to it. The doors
swung open, and four men (either settlers or the army in plainclothes) jumped
out, shooting with abandon in every direction. The boy beside me was shot in
the back, the bullet exiting from his navel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF),
stationed immediately outside the camp, moved in and imposed a curfew.
Next day the Jerusalem Post reported that the army had fired in self-defense.
Of course, the army often did not wait for or need a pretext to strike.
Indeed, the most salient feature of the Israeli occupation was the lawless­
ness and unpredictability of the terror. For fairly long stretches of time, the
rhythms of Palestinian life might be left undisturbed. The terror was om­
nipresent but latent; it underlay daily life without displacing it. Soon enough,

*In the occupied territories, Palestinians were issued blue license plates while Jews were
issued yellow plates.