Palestinians determined on a long struggle

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 31

Palestinians determined on a long struggle

By

JEFFREY BARTHOLET

NZPA-Reuter Ramallah, West Bank

To dramatise his story. Jamal Katami leans close to his listener, holds his nose, shuts his mouth and blows. The sound that wheezes from his deaf left ear is meant to make two points: the Palestinians regard the Israeli occupation as brutal' and are willing to make severe sacrifices to end it.

Mr Katami. imprisoned by Israel after returning home in 1976 from Lebanon where he was trained by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, says] an Israeli interrogator at the time pushed a pencil too far into his ear.

Like other Palestinians here, he insists that despite shootings, beatings and economic hardship, an 11-week uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories will continue.

More than 60 people have been killed and hun-

dreds wounded in the uprising, which erupted in December. A widespread civil disobedience campaign is also in effect.

Many West Bank residents said they had (lost all confidence in honPalestinians being able to solve their problems and were taking matters into their own hands. "It must continue." said Mr Katami, lying next to a kerosene heater in a shabby hotel. "Many people may be killed, but it will still continue, until they solve the Palestinian problem." Another Palestinian, whose brother was shot in the; head and killed on Saturday in Ramallah, told reporters he ( was proud: his brother would not. be the last to fall, he said. i

On Monday, Israelis At-torney-General, ( Yosef Harish, said his office was being inundated by reports of soldiers illegally beating up Arabs during the uprising. ( ' “I have checked and found out that the number

of complaints raises the suspicion that classifying these incidents as exceptions no longer reflects the reality,” Mr Harish said in a letter to the Defence Minister, Yitzhak Rabin.

In a letter made public recently. Israel's Army Chief of Staff, General Dan Shomron, detailed guidelines for the use of force against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Israeli soldiers must act with firmness and decisiveness along with selfcontrol. restraint and sensitivity, according to the high norms of behaviour compelling Israeli soldiers and commanders,” he said.

General Shomron said soldiers could use force:to disperse demonstrators or to overcome a civilian resisting arrest, but must avoid hitting people (on their heads or other sensitive parts of the body.! “One may not use ; towards the local population means of torture, humiliation, degradation or caus-

ing intentional damage to property,” he said. Large demonstrations are expected during the peace mission to Israel this week by the United States Secretary of State, George Shultz. Shopkeepers in the territories have settled into a strike routine, opening only for three hours a day on the West Bank.

Many people, especially from refugee camps, still go to work in Israel. But Palestinians dispute Israel’s claim that a large majority of its Arab workforce is working normally.

The Israeli authorities say they hope the strike ( will ; backfire, causing economic problems that ] will break the Palestinians’ resolve. An ;Arab waiter in West Jerusalem who works for] an Israeli hotel said he] supported the strike but had to work. “It’s not a matter of i money, it’s food,” he said! ( “I have six children. Who ' will feed them?" !' Others said the P.L.O.

would provide funds. A shop-owner in Ramallah said he would strike until he and his five children were eating onlv bread. He, like others, drew historical parallels for the struggle. "In Vietnam, they ate rats. They ate the snakes until they had their freedom," he said.

On his living room wall was a poster of a young woman with blood pouring from her head on to the grass of an open field. It was titled “Al-Watan,” The] Homeland.

“We will get money from the P.L.O. If it is needed, they will supply it,” he said.

The shop-owner also told; a story about a truck taking gifts of food, to refugee camps on the West Bank.! At each stop, he said, residents told the driver to take the food to more needy people. “Israel says that some of | the people do the strikes and protests,” he said. "They do not know that all the people are united just like one man.”