SEA Port Said Cairo Suez EGYPT PALESTINE/ISRAEL: The changing borderlines 1949 Armistice Agreement Boundaries Territories occupied by Israel in 1967 Haifas MEDITERRANEAN Tel Aviv Jaffad Gaza *. Desert Negev _ SINAI Eilat Ageba LEBANON Golan . Heights Galilee!
Triangle in Jordan JORDAN Israel.
been 1967 SAUDI ARABIA TUESDAY workers all over the Middle East held a one day general strike -one of the biggest in world history - in support of the growing struggle of the Palestinian people in the rentones occupied The current wave of struggle, in which at least 30 Arabs have shot dead and wounded, is a response to the plans of the Israeli government to integrate the West Bank and the Gaza strip into Israel.
The victory won by Israel in the ushered in a period political confidence and economic ex- •wal pansion. But today the mood is quite different. The Zionist state of Israel is in crisis. The Palestinian mass movement has grown stronger and more self-confident.
The Israelis' self-image as a haven of 'prosperity' and "safety' Jews has suffered a severe jolt, one reflected in the constant governmental crises. To begin to understand why a dark mood of crisis has set in in Israel it is useful to look at the circumstances which gave rise to the unexpected election of Begin as prime minister in 1977.
The first real jolt to Israeli self-confidence was the Egyptian launched Yom Kippur war of 1973. This was far from the easy walk-over' that had been accomplished in 1967. same time Israel began to suffer an economic crisis which has become progressively more severe.
Begin's Likud was elected on the basis of a promise to end the corruption and inflation of Rabin's Labour government. further factor Begin's election was the support of Oriental Jews of nonPalestinian prisoners captured by Zionists European origin. These Jews, secondclass citizens in the Jewish state, have a deep mistrust of the Labour Party, which has a well-deserved reputation as racist.
The Labour Party leadership (in Israel 'Labour bourgeois party Zionist and expansionist views) traditionally associated European elite, and has dominated Israeli society for three decades The economic crisis in Israel is in part a by-product economic recession, but fundamentally result OI overheads of maintaining a state permanently at war Since the 1973 war an average of 37 per cent of the government budget and around 16 per cent of total national expenditure have been devoted to the military.
The present crisis of the occupied territories arises out of the breakdown of Israel calc | and Egypt's Anwar Sadat in process' begun 1977, which led to the signing of the Camo David agreement. The essence of the Camp David agreement was the withdrawal of Israel from Sinai, occupied in 1967, in return separate peace treaty. would be able to present himself internally as the 'liberator of Sinai', Egypt would be removed from the ranks of the Arab 'confrontation' states, furAt the ther isolating the Palestinians dividing the Arab nations But Camp David precisely on the issue of the Palestinians. Sadat, despite himself, was faced with pressure both in Egypt and in the Arab world as a whole not to pro ceed with the 'Camp David process' unless there was some movement on the Palestinians, some gesture to give the autonomy.
Parti vehemently Crcalc the Golan Ine terrifying ritories work between Samaria' (the mense.
itself. for While Sadat settler movement. and broke down Palestinians a degree of Instead Begin proceeded with the policy begun under Labour of annexation of the West Bank and Gaza strip. The problem is that the pro posal to give some limited 'autonomy' to the occupied territories, or even Palestinian mini-state touches the heart of the contradictions of the Israeli-Zionist state The conquest of the West Bank the Gaza strip and the now-annexed Heights opened markets for Israeli goods and new sources of cheap labour —c.80,000 Arab workers from the Occupied te in Israel. Moreover, Israeli control of these areas creates more 'secure' frontiers. In addition to these pressures, the pressure from the settler movement and all their right wing allies to maintain control of is allegedly 'historic' (Eretz) Israel — and in particular 'Judea and West Bank) - • 1S 1mThe contradiction of this policy is that it brings greater numbers of Palestinians into the state of Israel Since 1973 the Palestinian masses have increased their confidence and combativity. . The Israeli strategy is that of dividing up and weakening the Arab character of the occupied territories by utilising the The settlers are armed to the teeth by the Israeli state. Conflict with the
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: Bank 1 Jerusalem
Compiled by Ros Kaplan, Pam Singer and Phil Hearse