Middle East In the Eye Of a Revolt

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Like a swelling number of other young people in the Middle East, the Palestinians have instead begun to turn to Islamic fundamentalism for their ideological sustenance. The fundamentalists are especially strong in Gaza, where the teeming refugee camps have become a fertile breeding ground for the message of the Islamic sheiks. Islam is also gaining strength in the camps and universities of the West Bank. Says Efraim Sneh, an Israeli brigadier general who recently resigned as head of the West Bank Civil Administration: "Islam is moving into the void, and it's much more difficult to combat that kind of terrorism."

Ironically, the Israelis, far from cracking down on fundamentalist activity, had until recently raised no objection to it, hoping it would turn the youth of the territories away from the P.L.O. In Gaza the military allowed the fundamentalists to establish kindergartens, youth clubs, sports organizations and, in 1978, an Islamic college. They also permitted the building of mosques, whose number in Gaza rose from 70 in 1967 to nearly 180 today. They even allowed the Islamic sheiks to bring in money from abroad, mostly from Saudi Arabia, to support their activities.

After allowing the seeds to be sown, Israel is now reaping the harvest of fundamentalist hatred. Islamic teachers have been some of the main cheerleaders of the rioting, blaring their call to resistance from loudspeakers attached to mosques in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They substitute Islamic slogans for the old P.L.O. themes, chanting "Allah helps those who help themselves" or "Palestine is our Holy Land." Their call to the barricades is made more effective by Islam's reverence for martyrdom. For now, the voice of Islam speaks from a small base, with the various local groups like Jihadi Islami and Mujama Islami claiming at most a few thousand members. But they have served as an emotional framework for the aimless ire of the rebels.

The P.L.O., in contrast, has been trying to catch up with the angry young Palestinians. Arafat publicly claimed credit for organizing the protests last week, but his advisers acknowledge that the eruptions were not orchestrated. "The P.L.O. cannot order people into the streets," says a Cairo-based Palestinian businessman with close ties to Arafat. "People have to be motivated by internal factors. It has to be spontaneous."

Arafat is trying to climb back into control. He is uniquely positioned to do so, since the P.L.O. is still the only organization in the territories with the money and clout to respond to the Palestinians' needs. The P.L.O. has sent dozens of radio and telephone messages to its friends inside the territories urging them to join in the unrest. P.L.O. officials say they have provided food, medical equipment and money to the inhabitants of the Gaza refugee camps, though camp residents deny it. "The P.L.O. is the only institution these people can go to when they're in trouble or when they need help," says Nabil Sha'ath, a member of the P.L.O. central council. Still, the veteran P.L.O. leadership has found itself for the most part looking on from the sidelines.