[The following article appeared in the January 11 issue of the French-language fortnightly Inprecor. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
TEL AVIV - On December 14 Prime Minister Menachem Begin submitted a draft law to the Israeli Knesset (parliament) confirming the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights, which were captured in 1967 by Israel.
In only eight hours the law was passed by a large majority. The Labor Party, now in the opposition, saw the majority of its deputies support the Golan annexation, and emerged from this parliamentary maneuver in tatters. The majority of the Labor members of parliament did not take part in the voting for technical reasons. The rest were divided in their vote on Begin's proposal.
For the inhabitants of the occupied Golan Heights, the new law will not change their situation much. But it would be wrong to take this move by the Begin government lightly. This was not simply a blustering or pro forma move. It was a real provocation against Syria, against whom the Israeli government dreams of crossing swords.
Israeli regime pushes for war
In April 1982, under the terms of the Camp David accords, Israel is supposed to return the rest of the Sinai to Egypt; and it is very likely that this will mark the end of the Camp David accords framework. Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon would like to see a broad military confrontation that would bury the Camp David accords before Israel is obliged to return the Sinai and dismantle the Zionist colonies in the Yamit region, south of the Gaza Strip.
They have, therefore, done whatever they could in recent months to torpedo the ceasefire that they were forced to agree to on the northern border with Lebanon.
The key question today is not the formal status of the occupied Syrian territories, but a new Zionist military adventure and an increasing offensive on all the fronts against the Palestinian national movement and the Arab world.
That is why thousands of demonstrators mobilized after the announcement of the new Golan law, demanding withdrawal from both the Golan Heights and the West Bank. It is becoming increasingly clear that the only alternative to withdrawal from all the territories conquered in June 1967 is another war. And this time the costs of such a war would be incalculable, not only for the Arabs but also for the Jewish masses.
Since 1967 there have been protests in Israel against the occupation and repression in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These protests by and large involved only members of the anti-Zionist organizations and the Israeli Communist Party (Rakah). Although for three or four years these actions have had a certain impact in Israel, and especially abroad, this impact owed more to their being an isolated voice in a desert of chauvinism than to their concrete impact on the Israeli political reality.
But the November 28, 1981, demonstration organized by the Committee in Solidarity with Bir Zeit University (CSBZU) marked a qualitative turning point in this regard. Two hundred young Israelis, including members of left- Zionist and anti-Zionist organizations, but mostly people who belonged to no organization, went right into the heart of the occupied territories, the city of Ramallah, to show their opposition to the Begin government's repressive policies.
For the first time in the history of the occupation, the Israeli repressive forces were ordered to use some of the methods reserved thus far for Palestinians against Jewish demonstrators. They dispersed the demonstration with tear-gas grenades, blackjacks, and nightsticks, causing several major injuries and arresting fifty.
What is new is the reaction to the repression against the Ramallah demonstration. Despite the radical character of the demonstration, despite the predominance of "extremist" forces in the Committee in Solidarity with Bir Zeit University, and despite the mass media's stress on the number of members of Matzpen* among those jailed, hundreds of people turned out the following day in a number of demonstrations that linked solidarity with the imprisoned protesters to denunciation of the repression in the occupied territories. The demonstrators included Labor Party deputies, members of the United Workers Party (Mapam) youth, kibbutz members, and spanned the whole spectrum in Israel that is liberal and even to a slight extent critical of Begin's policies.
Change in attitude of workers
No less significant was the reaction of workers in the factories where some of the demonstrators work. These workers saw their workmates "in action" on television.
Without necessarily agreeing with the demonstration's themes, most of these workers
*The Revolutionary Communist League, the Israeli section of the Fourth International, is often referred to as Matzpen (compass) after the name of its newspaper, Matzpen Marxisti.
were sincerely interested in understanding what the demonstration was about, and they opposed any attempt to fire the demonstrators for their beliefs, as was tried in some places.
Far from being a flash in the pan, this solidarity movement grew in a remarkable way over the next weeks. Nearly 2,000 people demonstrated on December 14, in response to a call by the CSBZU, against repression in the occupied territories and the annexation of the Golan Heights, which the Knesset was discussing at the very moment the demonstration was taking place.
The fact that the majority of demonstrators did not belong to left organizations, and that Labor deputies felt obliged to speak alongside leaders of the Communist Party and members of the far left, confirms that this is a new phenomenon, a qualitative leap toward the formation of a united mass movement against the occupation.
This change is explained by a combination of objective and subjective factors. First of all, the question of the occupied territories now plays a much bigger part in the crisis of the Zionist state. It is no longer just a question of solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian population. The question of the occupied territories is now seen as decisive to the future of the inhabitants of Israel, following the proof that the Camp David accords did not resolve anything. New possibilities for action
In addition, the absence of any credible opposition force — with the Zionist left being squashed and the Labor Party being torn apart — leaves a political vacuum the likes of which Israel has never seen.
Finally, the crudity and the fanaticism of the new government is such that a fairly substantial element among liberal layers is for the first time viewing the Israeli government as a more dangerous enemy than the left organizations, which raises the possibility of a real united front.
For nearly fifteen years, the Israeli anti- Zionists have placed the struggle against the occupation at the center of their concerns and activity. For the first time they now have the possibility of leading a mass movement around this question. This is a heavy responsibility.
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