Pessimism Prevalent in Palestine

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By JOHN YEMMA seem lo be the daily bre•J of Arab and terrorism arA with ho*iiity Irom'.gi. Israeli alike. ioinlnl COWrtr.

JERUSALEM - Ih ihe du5tS'. >Un- But with ne8Otiatiom MIW guwd. bleathed Arab of the ttcupied ell Tel WI thty re- *ld West Bank and Gaza Strip, where late èd. with stepped-up 13raell mllitary it- an l$r¥eli governmtnt spokesman. -Look at the con¢ext our s¢>ealled ths- summer's merciless and unchanging tivity in the West Bank and Southern crimiNtion tomes in.

We're in in ar Lebanon and with most diplomals weather wa6 endin& & vi51tor EeD$es that the Is of dppointmen waiting the outeome of the United violence all artyJnd - IraTh Ir4. State5 pre51dential eleeiK)i Ilttle hope Syn4 LebaMJN the Horn of Afriei is evident. There are plenty of repre551ve Arab re. Even whlspered hopes thAt the gimes. We're ottiy MntnIng seeuTIty.

TDP David tLeord$ will bear frnSt More chllllng to p)Ittle Ilot cutting off ptople'5 hjnds or gun. seem to have vanishe &5pirations hjve ljeen the Israeli mlll. ning them down.- tary govtrnment's security crackdowns Palestinian bu5ines8mtn. journal.

Though the Paie$tinlans rarely are since spr& including the expulsion of i$tg. poliiicians and academlcian8 optimistic in this divided, wolence* two Wesi Bank mayors.

Coupled wlth within Israel may differ in Ideology.. but prone ]aftd. those contKted recently the ierror bombing5 of Iwo other mrot agree there Is little to te g seem unifonnly yAsimi51ic beuy8e of mayors (the source of which still these miior problem& by open revolL Most qcklY dismiy8 known), these developmenti seem ¢0 bEllicose rnmbllnp in the Arab world have quashed incipient activism. of a Ilhjd. or holy war. s4yin8 16r•el The pliti¢al impas* in Egyptian. on]y will use such talk to supFrf)rt"its Israell negotiations toward Paiestillian Meam¥hile. the argumeht that Ottll- embatt]ed public imB8e. aut(nomy. pation has brou8ht at) economie sllver lining to the territorieB has been under.

Ne5ther the contacts wr We5teTiI Israeli "security, crackdowns in the West Bank and Gttza. toupled wlth mined by Israel's hypèrintlatlotL Prlce diplomats *e a way ol recoKilln Increases exceed 100 percent per ye&r. terrorssm threcttrj at Wes¢ Bank lead- Egyptian, Israeli, JordBnlJn and the second-hlghe8t rate its work1 PaJe5tln54n view$ toward "self-deter- er& after Argentina. minatioTh" or "aUt0my. for the more than I milln W¢st Banke[8 and Ga. • A dttsrtolattng Israe]i economy.

This has hurt the 7O,000.plus And DOW the unseiiled nabjre of bring $8larie$ from Israel PToper and who have io buy Israeli gc4Jds. ThoBe the Iiaq-lrtsn wat to the east. Llgten long enough, howe*r, with remitijnces from the 051 states of d the wlitkcal arguments usufylly Somewhere out in the World of con- the wjf fare better.

51nee they benelit o)me full cSTcle.' a 8la55 01 hot lej a ferente tables arml salon chair5 far from favorable exchange rates, but 8i8h, an wgreernent that trithd aNI fee they, tco, are fjubject ¢0 hi8h prices. ithe have their own problerryj. and &n removed trom the wihdlng street5, admitiaon th* a]thfrtL8h all short.term MSSY souks and hilly olive 8Toves of Is- "PoliiicAlly. in 80 many w4y4 il is 4n •venues ol Solutlon may be blocke raeli•(ttupied ierritory - Egyptain.

15. Impo$sible situ¥Eion lor u8," sIBhed wnewhere, sometime, ¢knge is bound raeli And AMeraTr diplomats struggle Bethlehem Mayor Elia5 Fr¢lj. a one. lo ¢ontitsue the Camp Davld peace time moderate wbo seems Increasingly tks. But this prctess al limes seems hat we know Is ih¥t htsirry de• only va8uely cOTected with the lives of emblttered. Md5 prwess" uid ah Egyptlan jour.

West Bankers atMI Gazans- the people nalst. "We don't know it comes in who wlll t¢ the ultimale Ixnefactors or Freij s8id hi5 tthvn is sufferlng from itsown time." poor tourism, runaway inflation for e 5en¢ials suth L8 rnllk and sugar. and low "How tar from reajlty we have revenues.

At one time, Bethlehem re- ceived flljanciil ald from It5 51ster city, come tn these autonomy ¢alk&" la. Abu Dhabi, but now guch aid to the lfr mented a Iru9trated Egyptian negotia. raeli0CCUpIed territories Is admini& ¢or shorily alter E8yPt's President Anwar Sadat ordered the tajks sUS- iered by the Arab Joint Fund. The mayor sw thi$ money has not been pended Aug.

2 in rdaliation for the new forthconung that Bethlehem Is on Israeli law formaiizing the amiexation of Ea5tJerusatem. the verge of trAnkruptcy. 'We have been mee¢in8 and to To many Palestlnlanj, little ducting abstr1 eKeTrise5 In Alexan. ehange 15 evident gu)ce the Camp Dhvid droll IEgyptl and Herziiya Ilsraell, and peace prweES began 19 month$ 880. to what eThaV' he continued.

"We have Armed Israeb soldier8 Still patrol the streets. Shrouded tonkfj are earttd ajl bettsmè Ereat experts on autonomy* but what is thbt7 We are so far from the thrwgh the Co¢rySide. Cars with blue situalion it relate5 to the people of licen6e plates (Arabl Ire routinely Palestine." sthpped at Checkpoints Yellow plates {Isr8elil are waved through.

Even si the autonomy tslks hwl ol- Ajmogt every pe$l]iaTr one meets red the possibillty. however sllm. of has a favorlte siory at Israeli di> change lor the bEtter. Thtyjgh the taiks ¢rimina¢ion and innexibility, mllitary wei¢ opeftly embraced by few, if any, Pa]estinian4 they did give rtse io Sub or kIbb land grab5 bnd humiliallng 5earthes It border wints.

In faJrne64 rosa hope in the rwipied terTitorie5- IN HEBRON however, om Temombers that the Is- and they 8Jso fed the endless, impas- raelis liR wlth the threa¢ of PaiesLinlan 18rael'8 Mllttary Dlsplayed Iloned dlntter-table arguments that

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"Pessimism Prevalent in Palestine," Courier Post, 7 October 1979. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1979-020. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1979-020