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The Role of the Professional Middle Class in the Mobilization of Palestinian Society: The Medical and Agricultural Committees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Glenn E. Robinson
Glenn E. Robinson
Affiliation:
Teaches political science at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. 93943, U.S.A.
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Extract

The political mobilization of Palestinians in the occupied territories in the 1980s was closely tied to the rise of a new elite and the marginalization of the traditional notable leadership. Such mobilization was necessary in order to overcome, at least in part, the class, kin, and regional cleavages that had long fragmented Palestinian society and that had been used by occupying powers to undermine collective national action. The mobilization of Palestinian society by a new elite was made possible by structural changes that had led to the peripheralization of the traditional elite. The three most important structural changes were the dramaticrise of wage labor after 1967, which transfigured a basically peasant society, extensive land confiscations, and the widespread availability of university education after 1972. Each of these developments helped to break traditional patron–client relations that had been the social base of the old elite and paved the way for the rise of a more extensive, better educated, more rural, and nonlanded elite which had gained cohesion in thePalestinian universities. In addition, these developments, and in particular the diminution of the Palestinian peasantry, meant that large segments of the population had, in effect, been cleaved from their social moorings and were, thus, more open for recruitment into new forms of social relations and organizations. It is to refer to these structural changes in Palestinian society that I use the term “social mobilization.”

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , May 1993 , pp. 301 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

NOTES

Author's note: An expanded version of this essay can be found in the author's dissertation, “Creating Space: Organization, Ideology and Leadership in the Palestinian Intifada” (Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1992). I am grateful to Kenneth Jowitt, Chalmers Johnson, Ira Lapidus, David Waldner, Elizabeth Robinson, and the anonymous IJMES reviewers for their comments. None of these individuals should be held accountable for any errors in fact, judgment, or taste.

1 There are any number of works which have dealt with this theme, either directly or indirectly. For an excellent overview, see the collection of essays in Abed, George T., ed., The Palestinian Economy: Studies in Development Under Prolonged Occupation (New York, 1988)Google Scholar.

2 For the best work to date on Palestinian labor unions and women's committees, see Hiltermann, Joost R., Behind the Intifada (Princeton, N.J., 1991)Google Scholar.

3 The Technical Center for Agricultural Services is a coalition of Fatah and DFLP elements.

4 The PCP has recently split, with the dominant faction now known as the Palestinian People's Party.

5 Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, An Overview of Health Conditions and Services in the Israeli Occupied Territories (Jerusalem, August 1987), 10Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., 12–13.

7 Ibid., 15–16. The Popular Committees for Health Services calculates that the availability of beds in the West Bank and Gaza Strip declined from 1.9 per 1,000 people to 1.5 from 1967 to 1989. See PCHS, Message Commemorating the Second Year of the Intifada, 10 12 1989Google Scholar.

8 Nixon, Anne Elizabeth, The Status of Palestinian Children During the Uprising in the Occupied Territories (Jerusalem, 1990), 5Google Scholar.

9 Barghouti, Mustafa and Giacaman, Rita, “The Emergence of an Infrastructure of Resistance: The Case of Health” in Intifada; Palestine at the Crossroads, ed. Nassar, and Heacock, (New York, 1990), 76–81Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., 76.

11 interview with Rita Giacaman, Ramallah, 13 09 1989Google Scholar.

11 Barghouthi and Giacaman, “The Emergence of an Infrastructure,” 77Google Scholar.

13 Ibid.,

14 See the author's “From Co-optation to Revolution; The Politics of Notables and the Palestinian Intifada” (unpublished essay, Berkeley, Calif., October 1990), 13–18Google Scholar.

15 interview with UPMRC officials, East Jerusalem, 16 10 1989Google Scholar.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid. Each kit consisted of bandages, iodine, antiburn cream, plaster, and the like. The goal of this endeavor was to teach people how to stop bleeding quickly and treat a wounded person and to give first aid to burn victims effectively.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 With the increased immiseration of the Palestinian population during and after the Gulf War, the number of social patients has undoubtedly risen substantially.

25 interview with UPMRC officials, East Jerusalem, 16 10 1989Google Scholar.

26 Interview with officials from PCHS, Shuʿfat, 14 01 1990Google Scholar.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid. By January 1990, the number of permanent clinics totaled thirty-nine.

31 PCHS, Annual Activity Report, 1989Google Scholar.

32 Ibid.

33 See Roy, Sara, “The Political Economy of Despair: Changing Political and Economic Realities in the Gaza Strip,” Journal of Palestine Studies 79 (Spring 1991): 64Google Scholar.

34 Interview with PCHS officials, Shuʿfat, 14 01 1990Google Scholar.

35 PCHS, Annual Activity Report, 1989. Seventeen thousand is approximately 2.5 percent of the Strip's 700,000 populationGoogle Scholar.

36 Interview with PCHS officials, Shuʿfat, 14 01 1990Google Scholar.

37 The DFLP-affiliated women's committee founded in 1978Google Scholar.

38 Interview with the secretary-general of the Union of Health Care Committees, East Jerusalem, 10 01 1990Google Scholar.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid. For its part, UHCC has encouraged a policy of spacing, arguing that no woman should be pregnant before age twenty or after age thirty-five, and all women should have at least two years between births. While four to six children is a goal, six to eight children is still healthier for the mother than the eleven to twelve commonly found in rural areas.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Union of Health Care Committees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Program and Internal Platform (n.d.), 12.

44 Number 51145645–1.

45 interview with member of the Executive Board of HSC, East Jerusalem, 19 11 1989Google Scholar.

46 Ibid.

47 interview with member of the Executive Board of HSC, East Jerusalem, 3 02 1990; a HSC memorandum, East Jerusalem, 1990Google Scholar.

48 Ibid.

49 interview with member of the Executive Board of HSC, East Jerusalem, 3 02 1990Google Scholar.

50 interview with member of the Executive Board of HSC, East Jerusalem, 19 11 1989Google Scholar.

51 interview with Rita Giacaman, Ramallah, 13 09 1989Google Scholar.

52 interview with the secretary-general of the UHCC, East Jerusalem, 10 01 1990Google Scholar.

53 interview with UPMRC officials, East Jerusalem, 16 10 1989Google Scholar.

54 Ibid.

55 Al-Quds, 12 08 1989Google Scholar.

56 Ibid.

57 Interview with Hisham Awartani, East Jerusalem, 14 12 1989Google Scholar.

58 PCHS, Message Commemorating the Second Year of the Intifada. Although the numbers vary, approximately 1,300 to 1,400 Palestinian homes were demolished by the occupying authorities during the first three years of the Intifada, and an additional 200 homes were partially or fully “sealed,” rendering them partially or fully uninhabitableGoogle Scholar. Journal of Palestine Studies 79 (Spring 1991): 116Google Scholar.

59 For a fuller discussion of Palestinian agriculture prior to the Intifada, see Awartani, Hisham, “Agricultural Development and Policies in the West Bank and Gaza,” in The Palestinian Economy, ed. , AbedGoogle Scholar.

60 Benvinisti, Meron, The West Bank Data Base Project (Washington, D.C., 1984), 13Google Scholar.

61 The planned distribution of West Bank water for 1990 was as follows: Of a total allotment of 807 million cubic meters (mem) of water, 510 mem (63%) was to go to Israel proper, 160 mem (20%) was to go to Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and 137 mem (17%) was to go to West Bank Palestinians. Jewish settlers in the West Bank use twelve times more water per capita than their Palestinian counterparts. The figures come from Israel Shahak, “Diplomacy Must Not Observe the Realities of Israel's Occupation,” Middle East International 351, 7 July 1989, 16Google Scholar.

62 Awartani, “Agricultural Development,” 143Google Scholar.

63 It was this type of area that was often cultivated during the Intifada. For example, in the village of Sinjal, north of Jerusalem, shabab cultivated a community plot that had been crudely but effectively terraced on the side of a steep hill. The author witnessed the laborious task of hand watering the crops from buckets filled at a nearby pump.

64 The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee maintains that the budget for agricultural research declined from $59,000 in 1972 to $14,600 in 1981. See PARC, Agricultural Development and the Uprising (Jerusalem, 1988), 2–3Google Scholar.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid., 4.

67 Ibid., 5.

68 The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (Shuʿfat, n.d.), 3Google Scholar.

69 Interview with PARC officials, Shuʿfat, 7 02 1990Google Scholar.

70 Interview with Majdi al-Muhtasib, Hebron, 7 01 1990Google Scholar.

71 interview with PARC officials, Shuʿfat, 7 02 1990Google Scholar.

72 Interview with TCAS officials, Hebron, 7 01 1990Google Scholar.

73 As it was, in the first two and one-half years of the Intifada, Palestinians in the occupied territories liquidated $250 million of savings held in Jordanian banks. While it helped the Palestinians to survive in difficult times, it was a disaster for Jordan. See International Herald Tribune, 19 06 1990Google Scholar.

74 This observation is based on both personal experience and the experiences of a number of workers from Jerusalem-based nongovernmental organizations.

75 Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Israel 40 (1989). The figure was derived from Chart 27/24.

76 Interview, East Jerusalem, 5 12 1989Google Scholar.

77 interview with PARC officials, Shuʿfat, 21 09 1989Google Scholar.

78 Interview with TCAS officials, Hebron, 7 01 1990Google Scholar.

79 UAWC, Activity Report, 1988–1989 (“State of Palestine,” 23 December 1989), 1Google Scholar.

80 PARC, 1989 Annual Report, 8.

81 Ibid., 7.

82 UAWC, Activity Report, 1988–1989, 1Google Scholar.

83 The animals of choice were cows, goats, chickens, rabbits, and pigeons.

84 Interview with PARC officials, Shuʿfat, 21 09 1989. PARC, 1989 Annual Report, 10–12Google Scholar.

85 UAWC, Activity Report, 1988–1989, 1Google Scholar.

86 Interview with PARC officials, Shuʿfat, 21 09 1989Google Scholar.

87 Interview with Dr. Faras Sawalha, Director of the Rural Research Center at al-Najah University, Nablus, 10 01 1990Google Scholar.

88 Interview with TCAS officials, Hebron, 7 01 1990Google Scholar.

89 Interview with a leading member of the popular committees, Nablus, 24 09 1989Google Scholar.

90 interview with Mazan al-Risha, Nablus office of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, Nablus, 23 12 1989Google Scholar.

91 Ibid.

92 One indication of PARC's ties with Salfit is the fact that over one-quarter of all PARC's extension visits in the occupied territories in 1989 regarding animal husbandry were made to Salfit and its environs. See PARC, 1989 Annual Report, 10.

93 interview, Salfit, 12 10 1989Google Scholar.

94 Estimates among those who participated in the movement vary from 70 to 200 newly cultivated dunums. Interviews in Salfit, 12 October 1989; al-Bira, 26 02 1990Google Scholar.

95 interview with Shed member, Bayt Sahur, 02 1990Google Scholar.

96 These examples come from Bitter Harvest: Israeli Sanctions Against Palestinian Agriculture During the Uprising (The Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, 1989), 5–8Google Scholar. Similar examples can be found in materials published by B'tselem, al-Haq/Law in the Service of Man, and the Palestine Human Rights Information Center (PHRIC).

97 Al-Fajr (weekly) 18 12 1989 and interview with TCAS officials, Hebron, 7 01 1990Google Scholar.

98 From the beginning of the Intifada through 30 April 1991, according to PHRIC, over 100,000 trees had been uprooted by Israeli forces. Quoted in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1991, 33Google Scholar.

99 Ibid. Approximately 100,000 acres have been confiscated in the first three and one-half years of the uprising. Significant new confiscations were reported during the last half of 1991.

100 Reports of the incident were in a number of newspapers at the time. The figures for losses come from TCAS, Hebron, 7 01 1990Google Scholar.

101 interview, Ministry of Agriculture (Nablus branch), 23 12 1989Google Scholar.

102 Ibid.

103 interview with PARC officials, Shuʿfat, 21 09 1989Google Scholar.

104 San Francisco Examiner, 9 12 1990Google Scholar.

105 According to Dr. Faras Sawalha, Director of the Rural Research Center at al-Najah University in Nablus, the F-l hybrids have an odd number of chromosomes, rendering them infertile. Only through a special technique can offspring be produced. Dr. Sawalha estimates that 20 percent of all chickens in the occupied territories now are baladi, which are cheaper to buy and keep but which produce far fewer eggs. Interview, Nablus, 10 01 1990Google Scholar.

106 Interviews with Western aid official. East Jerusalem, 5 12 1989, and farmer from Salfit, al-Bira, 26 February 1990. While the drought in the area forced water cutbacks in a number of communities, the amount and timing of the action against Salfit suggest a political motivationGoogle Scholar.

107 interview, East Jerusalem, 14 12 1989Google Scholar.

108 Ibid.

109 This one example of a widespread phenomenon was given to me by PARC officials in an interview in Shuʿfat, 21 09 1989Google Scholar.

110 Ibid

111 All figures derived from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract No. 40 (1989) Table 27/30Google Scholar.

112 Ibid. Table 27/29.

113 PARC estimates that about 10 percent of the livestock in the occupied territories are affected. See PARC, 1989 Annual Report, 3Google Scholar.

114 Interview with Hisham Awartani, East Jerusalem, 14 12 1989Google Scholar.

115 Interview, al-Bira, 26 02 1990Google Scholar.

116 Interview, East Jerusalem, 5 12 1989Google Scholar.

117 PARC, 1989 Annual Report, 12.

118 Interview, East Jerusalem, 5 12 1989Google Scholar.

119 For the most prominent work on this topic, see Halpern, Manfred, The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton, N.J., 1963)Google Scholar.