To the bitter end

By Sherine Bahaa
Twelve-year-old Abeer was waiting for her father on the doorstep of their home in the village of Omm Al-Safa, in Ramallah. She planned to read him a composition she had written about the death of Mohamed Al-Dorra, the Palestinian child shot dead while seeking shelter behind his father's body. As she waited, anticipating the praise she would receive when her father saw she had done her homework -- she had called her essay: Do not kill me with bullets -- her mother's sudden wailing brought Abeer back to reality. Abeer's father, Essam Gouda, had been kidnapped by extremist Jewish settlers and killed, his body mutilated.
Gouda was one of more than 350 Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada last September. With more than 13,000 wounded, many of them seriously, nearly every Palestinian home now can name a relative who has become a victim of the brutality of the Israeli army and settlers.
The heavy death toll and the suffering resulting from the tight blockade and restriction of movement, even within areas of Palestinian self-rule, has not, however, deterred Palestinians from continuing their Intifada. They have even defined its role: to be rid of the occupation once and for all, with a return to the 1967 border, and to establish an independent, viable state.
The determination of the mass of Palestinians, according to most analysts, has developed into a liberation movement which even Palestinian Authority (PA) officials cannot halt. That Israel offered no concessions on Jerusalem, refugees, dismantling of settlements or assuring the territorial integrity of the aspired state rendered even a hint by a PA official that the Intifada should stop or calm down a sell-out and political suicide.
"The Intifada will not stop until the legitimate rights of Palestinians are achieved," senior Palestinian peace negotiator Nabil Shaath told reporters earlier this week.
Shaath was speaking at the same time that Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were taking part in intensive security talks led by President Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Most Palestinians believe these talks are aimed at putting an end to the Intifada, despite the denials of the PLO officials.
At this stage, Palestinians, including many who belong to Arafat's Fatah movement, are calling for the intensification of the Intifada with the objective of bringing about peace talks based on UN resolutions 242 and 338, which demand Israel's withdrawal from all the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967.
According to Marwan Al-Barghouti, a Fatah leader whom Israel blames for masterminding Intifada activities, the second Palestinian uprising came "to correct the path of the peace process which started in Oslo in 1993."
"The Intifada erupted after the peace talks reached a dead end. Thus, seeking to revive the talks on the basis of the same references, frameworks and international sponsorship is totally fake. The Intifada has to go hand in hand with the negotiations, which must have new terms of reference and sponsorship," Al-Barghouti told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"In early deals, Israel was always keen to keep the security aspect as a top priority. After the Intifada, any security agreement must be part of the political agreement," Al-Barghouti said. After pointing out that Israel had not carried out most of the commitments it made in the interim agreements -- such as withdrawals from occupied territories, release of prisoners and halting expansion of settlements -- Al-Barghouti asked: "Why should not they (Israel) implement the agreements, while we are asked to go by the book. We believe that security coordination is over and we should not go back to negotiation for the sake of Israel's security."
For Al-Barghouti, the Intifada is something more than stone-throwing. "It is a reformation of our domestic conditions. It has reinforced national unity, solidified our internal front, and led to demands for reconsideration of the performance of the Palestinian Authority on all aspects -- political, economical, social and administrative. All these aspects should boost the Intifada in its war with the occupation."
Former Palestinian chief negotiator Haidar Abdel-Shafi, who has been critical of Arafat, says Palestinians must be prepared for a long fight. "We are not interested in fighting per se. Unless we are prepared and ready to fight a reasonable and productive battle, then we have to look for another way," Abdel-Shafi told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"We have to organise better. I do not reject the Intifada in principle, but we have to be prudent and know how to fight, when to quieten down and when to activate. Our fight is to regain our rights."
According to Abdel-Shafi, the Intifada has sent a clear message that the majority of Palestinians no longer believe in peace negotiations according to the same pattern of past years. "Talks have been going on for the past eight years. We cannot continue with hopeless talks. Israel exploits our sitting at the table to add a cover for continued aggression on the ground."
Abdel-Shafi emphasised, however, that Palestinians should not underscore their losses since the Intifada started. "Respecting the message of the Intifada does not mean that we should continue to sacrifice without any result. But we should suspend the negotiating process and then get engaged in seeing how we can improve our situation by using whatever potentials we have."
For his part, Khaled Mesha'al, head of the Hamas political bureau, who was deported from Jordan in late 1999, believes that the persistence of the Intifada and the escalation of resistance are essential. "I agree there are Palestinian losses, but this is the normal price for national targets. No people have regained their rights without paying the price."
Mesha'al sees the Intifada as different from military resistance, although each is essential for the success of the other, rather than being alternatives -- at least at the present time. "The Intifada is crucial as it is a popular reaction and an expression of will in recapturing one's lost rights. The Intifada has also unveiled the ugly face of Zionism through the inequitable war between an unarmed society and the oppressing military machine of the Zionists." Armed resistance, as Mesha'al sees it, is different. "It is legal, it hurts our enemy and supports the Intifada," he says.
Mesha'al points out that it is possible for the Intifada to turn into armed resistance, but that this has several requirements.
"Resistance needs support; particularly financial and political Arab support. Arab countries supported the resistance in south Lebanon, and they have to do the same with the Palestinian resistance." Mesha'al, who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Mossad agents in Jordan in 1998, has also asked the PA openly to support the armed resistance option, "and not to go to security talks with our enemy. Security talks are the worst stab in the back of the resistance and the Intifada," he said.
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