First paragraph (Teaser):

An interview with a PLO activist in Jenin, from http://www.FromOccupiedPalestine.org

Rest of the text:

The two intifadas: Interview with a PLO activist

FromOccupiedPalestine.org, 4 November 2003

Jenin, West Bank -- Because of the constant threat of arrest or assassination, the setting for most of our interviews with activists has been dramatic: a secluded cemetery, an abandoned office, or a house on the outskirts of the city with the requisite gunfire in the background, and the roar of tanks. This time was different. We interviewed Kamal in the baby supplies store that he manages; to make room for our recorder he cleared the desk of crib-assembly instructions.

At 54 years-old, Kamel's history reads like the standard rap-sheet of a Palestinian Liberation Organization activist. As a teenager he was an "educator and agitator" in the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), at the time the second largest faction in the PLO. At 19 he was sentenced to 16 years in Israeli prison for his participation in the PLO; his crime: "I threw a hand grenade at an Israeli battalion occupying the city of Jenin."

He spoke of his time in prison only in passing, as most Palestinians do out of respect for their friends and allies still in prison. And on the streets of Jenin, finding a man who hasn't been in prison is easier than the reverse. What Kamel did say about Israeli prison was that he was interrogated "night and day for 18 consecutive days," routinely gang beaten, and tortured "physically, psychologically, and morally" as well as with the standard electrical shocks.

He left prison in 1986, just before the first intifada broke out, and has since played the role of a "thinker and agitator, concerned with political, not military matters."

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FromOccupiedPalestine.org: Can you describe the differences in the first intifada, which was very much a people's movement, and the al Aqsa intifada, which is focused more on the armed struggle of particular factions?

The first intifada was new for people here, and everyone contributed to political activities. There was mass participation - it was like a civil rebellion. And throughout, the Israelis oppressed the people, suppressed the people, abused the people. You know, Yitzhak Rabin told his soldiers to break the bones of the Palestinian children who participated in the intifada.

In 1990, the intifada here in Jenin District was transformed as people decided that it was necessary to confront the Israeli Occupation Forces with weapons. Why? Because during the first three years of the intifada the Israelis were like hunters: while people were demonstrating, throwing bottles and stones from a distance of 100 metres, a soldier would choose where he wanted to aim – the head, the heart, the legs. He was a hunter. All of the people who died were on the Palestinian side. On the Israeli side there were no casualties. Maybe one of the Israeli soldiers was hit in the helmet with a stone.

So some of the Fatah and PFLP activists here in Jenin District decided to carry weapons and to confront Israeli Occupation Forces with force. They formed the Black Panther apparatus, a military wing of Fatah, and the PFLP formed the Red Eagle military wing. And the clashes with Israeli forces began.

And now to this intifada, the al Aqsa intifada. In the first two or three weeks there was mass participation. All of the people here demonstrated in order to give the world the whole picture about what was going on in Palestine after the failure of the Camp David negotiations.

From the first day that the intifada broke out, the Israelis depended on the iron fist. They fired randomly on people demonstrating, and twenty six people here in Jenin were killed in the first two weeks for nothing but throwing stones. And when the soldiers began to fire on the crowds, people knew that their role was finished and participation quickly declined. It was a war now.

So from the beginning fighters realized that they needed to confront the Israelis with force. They defended our people, our towns, our authority. Not everyone had weapons, so the people with guns did their duty, and the others participated in different forms.

FromOccupiedPalestine.org: Can you tell us about the other forms of resistance?

In the early phases of this intifada, many committees and subcommittees came into being to be in solidarity with poor people - the people here have no money, because all of our cities are under siege. People who once worked in Israel are now unable to enter Israel, they are forbidden. So people here made committees to support them and others who are economically in a bad situation.

Political life here was also very active. There were always symposiums and meetings to discuss the political situation and recent political developments. Many things were crystallizing at the same moment. Many people helped the fighters by witnessing the moves of the Israeli forces and so on. But the central role was for the fighters.

FromOccupiedPalestine.org: Do you see an end in sight to this intifada?

Believe me, most of our people here, in spite of their desire to have all of Palestine - because they consider that it belongs to us - in spite of that we are ready for peace.

If you know the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, you will know that for many years we have been oppressed, suppressed, abused, killed and tortured by the Israelis. In 1948 the Israelis killed many thousands of our people, and forced them to leave their tranquil villages and live in Lebanon, in Syria, and here in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And Israel came into being on the ruins of our people.

In spite of all this came the Oslo Accords. I was astonished, I didn't know what had happened. Our people were ready to compromise, to make a historic reconciliation with the Israelis and to forget the past. But the Israelis don't want peace. The Israelis are arrogant, reluctant - they don't want to give us anything, because they are stronger than us.

Now, in this moment, if you take a poll, most of the Palestinian people support compromise, reconciliation. We want peace.

We are not terrorists, as they have termed us in your media. We feel that the world is unjust toward our cause and our activities – we want now a peace settlement. But the Israelis, they have elected Sharon, they are erecting a wall, and our lands continue to be confiscated by the Israelis under the pretext of military reasons. We feel that we are in a stalemate.

FromOccupiedPalestine.org: As you have said, the Israelis have always met the Palestinians with an iron fist, with their military strength. Considering the disparity in arms, what are your hopes for the success of this intifada given that the Palestinian strategy is focused on armed resistance?

You have to know that we are not living on a prayer. The armed struggle is not a holy matter - it was imposed on us by the current situation. We do not want to kill or to be killed. We are a tranquil people, a loving people, an open-minded people. We have a desire to live like all other people. But if your right to live in your own town is in danger, what can you do?

This is not the Qu'ran. The armed struggle is not an icon. If the Israelis are prepared to sit at the table and begin new negotiations with us, will accept this.

Three months ago we made a truce with the Israelis - even the Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed upon this truce. Who violated it? The Israelis.

Most of the governments of the world are now criticizing the Palestinians for sending bombers inside Israel. They don't see what the Israelis have done to us. Here in Jenin, our town has been bombed many, many times by Apaches and the F-16s.

Unfortunately, the Western media does not understand the motives and reasons of these young men who travel to Israel and bomb themselves. The Israelis put us in a cage and all of the time they push us, push us... and we explode.

Many youth under these conditions are saying 'I want to sacrifice myself, I have no option but to do this suicide bombing'. We are only human. It is a human matter.

I heard Hanadi [Jaradat, the 27 year-old women lawyer from Jenin who bombed a Haifa restaurant on 5 October 2003] criticize the suicide bombers for months. She would ask me why they were killing people needlessly.

But then the Israelis killed her brother and her cousin in front of her eyes. She appealed to the soldiers not to kill them.

When her brother was shot, he didn't die right away - he was only injured, but the Israelis [in plainclothes] pulled him out into an industrial area of Jenin and executed him there. And Hanadi changed her mind. Two of her loved ones had been executed in front of her eyes. What do you expect this girl to do? Six months ago she was criticizing suicide bombers.

FromOccupiedPalestine.org: What would you like to say to the international community?

Now, what we want from the international community - except from the United States, because we have no hope for them, from Bush especially - is help in making the two sides sit around the table and make a compromise.

In spite of our aggravated and deteriorating condition, in spite of the harsh environment that we live in, I do believe that most of the people here hope to reach a compromise with the Israelis. Without compromise there is no chance for a continuous life here, for Palestinians or for Israelis.

* Interview conducted in English on 1 November 2003 by Valerie Zink and Jon Elmer

For more interviews, articles, photos and testimonies from the frontlines of the Israeli/Palestine conflict, see http://www.FromOccupiedPalestine.org