Voices of the Intifada

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I witnessed three or four times when Arafat got mad and asked [Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright and twice he asked Clinton, "Where is the man. Is he here? Is he outside? Let's the three of us talk about the serious issues and give directions to the different committees about how they should negotiate. We came here for this purpose." We felt that they were playing with the nerves of Arafat. They left him even for days and days, very long days sitting in the garden of his villa in Camp David, enjoying the sun, having meals and without doing anything except having one or two meetings with Clinton or Albright. We felt that this is also one of the stupid tactics that were used to play a psychological game with our man, to get him nervous to make him wish that he can get out of this trap. So the atmosphere they created in Camp David was not an atmosphere of negotiations at all.

"We are struggling to get our rights"

Abdel Hakim Awad, Palestinian youth leader, who was jailed by the Israelis during the 1987-93 intifada:
We are not struggling against Israel because we hate Jews. We don't reject their presence in this area. They are here now. We are struggling to get our rights. Imagine a person like me. I spent five years in prison because I struggled against the occupation. I threw stones. I suffered in prison. Suddenly, with Madrid and Oslo, I believe that we have to live in peace with Israelis, to have our rights and to have what all the people in the world have. How can I convince people who have been wounded or imprisoned to join with me in supporting the peace process? This is the difficult question that we faced. But we succeeded winning support for peace on the ground. I remember we organized a big demonstration of 100,000 people here in Gaza City. People went out in the street and shouted in support of the peace process.

Then after Oslo, we faced a difficult time with the Israelis. We asked them to respect the agreement, but they did not. Seven years later, we are at the same point. The hard life of the Palestinians became a negative point for the peace process. If you ask me now how many in my movement support peace today, I'd say one in a hundred. It is difficult to be the donkey. The Palestinian people began to believe that we have to look for another alternative, not the peace process only.

What is the aim of this intifada? Not pressure for our negotiations. The Israelis did not respect the agreement before. The goal is independence. We did not expect that the Israelis wanted Arafat to be just a policeman for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We did not expect Israel to say, "OK, stop there. Do not talk about Jerusalem, the refugees. This is the maximum we can give you." We did not expect that. Why? This is our mistake.

"I thought Oslo was going to be a breakthrough"

Mohammed Dahlan, leader of 1987-93 intifada, jailed and deported by Israel, later chief of preventive security in the Palestinian Authority, responsible for preventing terrorist attacks against Israel:
From my daily experience, I think this is apartheid. I worked with the Israelis for six years. I know all their leaders, right, left, middle, commercial, political, business. I know their homes, their wives. The Palestinian Authority has prevented at least 40 suicide attacks against Israel throughout the past few years. This is apart from the small [terrorist] operations. We were working to protect the security of the Israelis while their officials were asleep in their homes. Now they want to blow up our headquarters. All the work of the past six years has been wiped out. How can I convince my officers to deal with the Israelis in the future? This experience will not be erased from my memory: for six years we protect them, and then suddenly they blow up our headquarters.

The continuation of the pressure on the Palestinian people will bring on suicide operations, which up till now we are preventing. But no one should expect the security apparatus to prevent a desperate person from committing suicide. If the situation continues, the people will be given the freedom to respond to the Israelis in whatever way they wish. If Israel continues in its aggression, then all options will be open that until now we have not used. In that case, the Palestinian Authority will have a secondary role.

I thought Oslo was going to be a breakthrough. I had been working against Israel all the years before the agreement. When we signed the agreement, I changed 180 degrees. I was convinced that Israel needed to make an agreement for peace just like us. We were wrong. What was the outcome? Zero.

Now my days are easier, I can rest. We had a goal, to protect the peace. That means protecting Israelis by arresting Palestinians. I arrested some of my colleagues. We had been together in Israeli jails. We arrested them because they were against Oslo. We did all that under the pretext that there was this great goal that we were going to achieve. Now I am not committed to that.

"We will continue our intifada"

Marwan Barghouti, leader of Fatah's Tanzim militia and organizer of the intifada:
I'm optimistic because we are going forward. First of all, we proved that it is possible to negotiate with the Israelis with the pressure of the intifada. For seven years, nobody imagined that the Israelis would accept that, including the majority of the Palestinian leadership.

Second, we achieved some progress in the negotiations. The intifada succeeded in breaking Israel's nose. Sharon is the last shot in the Israeli arsenal. They will shoot this bullet, and they will discover after two or three months that Sharon cannot guarantee Israel's security. The condition for Israeli security is to put an end to the Israeli occupation. We are ready to live peacefully with the Israeli state. But it is an absolute decision for the Palestinian people not to live peacefully with the Israeli occupation or the Israeli settlers.

We will continue our intifada. Sharon is coming under the slogan he will guarantee the security of Israel. He will discover that it is not possible. Sharon can make speeches, but he will discover when he receives the reports from his security services that the intifada will continue. It may take six months, that's OK. Israelis will discover that their problem is not Sharon, or Barak, or Peres. This intifada is strategic, not for one month, two months. I think it will continue for one year, two years, more than people expect. Israelis need to take a decision for a full withdrawal from the occupied territories.

Israelis read the Palestinians wrong after Oslo. Do you think we will continue to guard Israeli security while they are building settlements? There are conditions for peace. It's possible to live side by side in two independent states, face to face, not back to back. But we need the Israelis to understand they cannot ask me to accept Israeli occupation. Most of our lives, we've been under occupation. OK. But they want our children to live under occupation.

President Arafat shook hands with Rabin and recognized Israel in 78 percent of Palestine. He promised his people in five years he will establish a state and they will be liberated from occupation. People trusted him and gave him the chance to do that. Now they are very frustrated with his policies.

[Arafat] didn't tell us to stop [the intifada.] He would never say that. The intifada is not connected to orders. It didn't start with an order and won't stop with an order. It does not work according to remote control. I speak on phone [with Arafat]. He always has a good mood. I'm trying to persuade him that he has be steadfast. I always receive encouragement from him.

"I don't think we will have a peace process"

Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, who held secret talks with Barak's envoys up until Sharon's victory in the Feb. 6 Israeli election:
When Ariel Sharon began his settlements drive back in the 1970s, I knew that he was putting obstacles in the face of my generation to prevent us from making peace. When it became my time to attempt to make peace, I realized the extent of the damage that Sharon did. Now he comes as prime minister. He has one thing in mind. He is going to put obstacles for the future generations of Palestinians and Israelis who attempt to make peace. That is his life's mission. Believe me, 95 percent of the difficulties that prevented us from reaching an agreement was Sharon's doing. The man knew what he was doing in the '70s and '80s. And he is determined to block any future attempt of Palestinians and Israelis to make peace, the way he knows best: with more "facts on the ground," more fait accompli, more settlements.

When I see the Israelis threatening us with Sharon, voting Sharon in to poke us in the eye, to bring someone they think will scare us, I think this is an escape from reality. That shows a lack of readiness for the requirements of peace in the Israeli society. Maybe they need to see Sharon, to see how much more blood of Palestinians and Israelis will be shed, to realize that security and peace will only be brought by terminating the occupation, by making peace with the Palestinians. February 6 will be marked not only as the day the Israelis elected Sharon. It will be marked as the day they elected the extremists on our side, in the Arab world, in the Islamic world. Electing Sharon is undermining the moderates everywhere, making people like me irrelevant. I am sure there will be voices coming from the United States, from Europe, maybe from the Arab world: "Oh, give him a chance, don't prejudge, wait and see. The Likud can make peace." Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I think there will be meetings here and there. But I don't think we will have a peace process. His agenda will be a security-minded agenda. He will start demanding: "Collect weapons, arrest suspects. Do this, do that." He will be beefing up existing settlements. A week ago [with Barak's envoys] I was negotiating for 97 percent of the West Bank, and sovereignty in Jerusalem. With gaps, yes, but I was negotiating. What do I do with Sharon? Do I go back and negotiate 42 percent? It is impossible to speak of a peace process with Sharon. Benefit of the doubt? Let's not fool ourselves.

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