Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 October 2000 Issue No. 503
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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A global Intifada?

By Dominic Coldwell

Disgruntled commuters in New York experienced the worst gridlock in recent memory as 5,000 demonstrators thronged the streets of Manhattan last Friday to protest the continued Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories. Hundreds of policemen cordoned off Times Square and shut down traffic during the evening rush hour.

According to Shiko Bihar, a Jewish Israeli graduate student at Columbia University, Israeli military practice is "state terrorism... and I'm here because I'm anti-racist."

Carrying placards with the image of Mohamed Al-Dorra, the 12-year-old Palestinian shot by an Israeli broadside in Gaza while hiding behind his father, demonstrators chanted. "We're Muslims, we're Americans, and we vote" in what analysts say is a clear warning to New York's Democratic senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton not to curry further favour with the city's influential Jewish lobby.

Demonstrations took place in several French cities in support of the new Intifada (photo:AFP, AP, Reuters)

Across the Atlantic, protests have been no less vociferous. In Vienna, Islamic, Christian, and left-wing activists organised a rally with 1,000 participants. In the German capital, 4,000 demonstrators staged a peaceful vigil outside Berlin's city hall on Friday. Even the otherwise quiescent Icelandic capital witnessed demonstrations organised by the Iceland-Palestine Association outside the Israeli embassy in Reykyavik.

Only occasionally did the demonstrations turn violent. In Copenhagen, protesters clashed with police on Friday. In The Hague, riot police and mounted guards also used force to disperse 700 demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy following an attempt by the crowd to burn an Israeli flag.

An injured Palestinian commented, "I expect this attitude and behaviour from the Israeli occupation, but not from the Dutch police." Ironically, he had received political asylum from the Netherlands for medical reasons in 1992 after suffering torture at the hands of Israeli interrogators during "administrative detention."

The groundswell of popular support for the Palestinians in recent days has led one human rights group to speak of the beginning of a new "global Intifada." Impressive though the recent manifestations of sympathy on both sides of the Atlantic may seem, there is, however, little doubt that pro-Palestinian activists face an uphill struggle against Western deference to Israel.

Despite noisy picketing outside the prime minister's residence in 10 Downing Street on Friday, the British government has kept an especially stiff upper lip in the face of recent Israeli massacres. Prime Minister Tony Blair remains one of the few leaders yet to produce a public statement on the current conflagration. So far, not even Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has condemned the visit by Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the Al-Haram Al-Sharif which sparked the latest carnage. Only Peter Hain, a foreign office minister, told reporters sheepishly last Thursday that it was "clear to everybody" where responsibility for the bloodshed lay, but hastened to add that "public denunciations get us nowhere in the urgent quest for peace." According to an Arab diplomat in London, Blair is urging the Foreign Office not to condemn Tel Aviv outright.

Even the Elysée seems to be vacillating somewhat. Despite impressive pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Paris, Marseilles, and Strasbourg last Saturday, French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin promised Henri Hajdenberg of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif) government protection for Jewish institutions during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur over the weekend. The impromptu meetings with Hajdenberg were scheduled after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak tartly accused Chirac of having encouraged a "resurgence of terrorism" following French calls for an international commission of enquiry to investigate the current bloodshed.

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