The Contest for Palestine (Redux) • 443they saw televised pictures of Israeli tanks rumbling into the streets of
Jenin and Nablus, bulldozers wrecking the homes of terrorist suspects in
Gaza, helicopters firing missiles into crowded urban centers, and troops
besieging the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Zionist propaganda
counted how many innocent Israelis were killed or maimed by Palestinian
suicide bombers, while Arab satellite television stations like al-Jazeera
drove home the point that at least three times as many Palestinians, includ¬
ing many women and children, died at the hands of Israeli soldiers. The
picture of a twelve-year-old boy caught between a crowd of Palestinians
and Israeli sharpshooters and killed (despite his father's frantic efforts to
shield him) caught worldwide attention. Almost concurrently, the Pales¬
tinians captured two young Israeli reservists, took them to the Jenin police
station, killed them, and threw their bodies out among celebrating crowds,
many of whom dipped their hands in their blood.
The economy of Israel suffered from the loss of investment and tourism
revenues. That of the Palestinians plummeted as an Israeli blockade cut off
their trade with the outside world and barred many from going to their jobs
in Israel. Arafat, the only Palestinian leader who could have delivered to
Israel a peace that Palestinians could accept, became a prisoner in his Ra¬
mallah presidential compound. At US insistence, he named first Mahmud
Abbas and then Ahmad Quray' as his prime minister. But the Israelis refused
to talk to anyone in the Palestinian Authority as long as terrorism contin¬
ued. However, since they called all resistance—violent or otherwise—
terrorism, many observers argue that they really wanted to stifle any
opposition to their occupation. Increasingly, attacks on Israelis were carried
out by Hamas (the Palestinians' leading Muslim resistance group) or Hiz¬
ballah (backed by Syria and Iran), neither of which answered to the Pales¬
tine Authority.
Then, on 11 November 2004 Arafat died of an undisclosed illness. This
was an event which, from the Western and the Israeli point of view, might
shake things up and set the "peace process" off in a new and allegedly more
productive direction. This point of view was based on the questionable as¬
sumption that Arafat was the main obstacle to peace. In any case, his death
did lead to Palestinian elections for a new president. The Western press
viewed these elections as a great move forward, and indeed direct elections
in the Arab world are rare. But how meaningful was this vote in Palestine?
First and foremost, the elections took place in an environment of Israel's
ongoing occupation. With the exception of Mahmud Abbas, the West's
favored candidate, the Israeli authorities restricted the campaign mobility
of those running for office. A significant minority of Palestinian voters,
answering the call of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, chose to boycott the polls.