[SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1991 11 Zionist outlook, however…]

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SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1991 11 Zionist outlook, however, colors their conclusion.

A full-blown uprising The authors date the Intifada from Dec. 8, 1987, when the enraged inhabitants of Gaza responded to the killing of four Palestinians by an Israeli truck driver. They said the truck driver deliberately rammed the Palestinians' car in revenge for the death of an Israeli.

The military government in the territories has been accustomed, over the past 20 years, to sporadic outbreaks of resistance by students and other young people. But this was something different. "This time, " the authors write, "the outburst was spontaneous and encompassed the entire population, young and off buses and searched, held up for hours at road blocks, being cheated by Israeli employers. They were taught by daily experience that Israel is a cruel place where they could never experience respect or compassion.

Out of the Intifada a new layer of leaders arose. They are men and women who have spent their entire adult lives under occupation. They scorn the older generation of leaders who have depended on careful diplomacy to relate to the occupation. Under the Israeli policy of so-called "benevolent occupation," the standard of living of some Palestinians improved, and a certain modus vivendi developed over 20 years.

This was not the experience of the When moderate force fails, more force is applied. Houses and orchards are bulldozed, curfews confine whole communities indoors, leaders are deported, and nearly 50,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned at one time or other. All this has been to no avail.

The army high command has concluded that force alone will not end the Intifada. This notion has been totally rejected by the government. The General Staff has been accused of "being soft on the Palestinians." Settlers have reviled their army and begun to form vigilante bands.

Unified National Command

The settlers are not facing unorganized bands of stone throwers. The Intifada has A biweekly magazine published under the auspices of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. One year sub:$47. Send to: 2 rue Richard Lenoir, 93108, Montreuil, France

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The coffin of one of four PRT members killed last August is taken to burial. supporters from the Union General Obrera, Campesina, Popular/General Workers', Peasants' and Peoples' Union (UGOCP), a national organization with which the URECSEP maintains fraternal relations, carried out protests along the main highway to Jolalpan to dramatize their plight.

Then on Monday, Dec. 3, protesters moved to the San Antonio ranch, where a camp was set up to defend the land.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, however, 11 bus loads of police moved into the area to begin a campaign of their own. Over 200 persons were detained at the San Antonio ranch alone, while police operations extended to the center of town.

State authorities tried to justify the raid based on the preposterous claim that they were attacking a guerrilla base that had been set up by the PRT along with forces loyal to Martinez Soriano, a well-known ultraleft figure with a long history of suspicious relations with state authorities. Martinez Soriano has been accused of involvement in the assassination of several socialist leaders and activists in Mexico.

As is well known, the PRT has never maintained any sort of relationship with Martinez Soriano nor does it advocate guerrilla warfare as a tactical option for Mexico. However, to back up their claim, state authorities released photos of huge caches of arms in front of a PRT banner.

The photos were clearly a product of a prearranged photo session which was also employed to back charges against the demonstrators that they had violated Mexican law