Contents

Introduction

I. Israeli Policies against the Palestinian Civilian population

• Deaths
• Arrest Raids and Torture in Detention
• Curfew and Other Movement Restrictions
• Expulsions
• Education
• Taxation
• Uprooting of Trees
• Demolitions & House Sealings

II. Israeli Land Confiscation and Settlement since the start of the Madrid Peace Conference

III. Settler Violence in the Occupied Territories

IV. Media Disinformation

• The First Stage
• The Second Stage

The atmosphere in the occupied territories on witnessing the opening peace talks in Madrid was one of hope, conducive to working toward peace. This positive feeling quickly abated, as the Israeli attendance at the Madrid conference was offset by an escalation in repressive measures in the occupied territories. Another twelve Palestinians were ordered expelled from their homeland, despite international condemnation. Palestinians continue to be killed and wounded by Israeli army gunfire nearly every day. Mass arrest raids, lengthy curfews, school closures and ever continuing land seizure and settlement construction greeted the Palestinian delegation on their return home.

There is clearly a lack of harmony between Israel's verbal commitment to the idea of peace and the brutal war it wages on the ground against the civilian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian people, seeing this imbalance, feeling the impact of the Israeli measures on every aspect of daily life, can only question the credibility of the Israeli participation and doubt that Israeli goals for the future encompass a peaceful solution. Furthermore, the credibility of the co - sponsors an d the integrity of the process are at stake i f Israel is allowed to continue undermining the ongoing efforts towards achieving peace.

Israel's policies in the occupied territories jeopardize the aims of the peace negotiations and the talks themselves, in two ways. Firstly, Israel's actions work to change the very realities that are scheduled to be addressed in later stages of the peace talks: that of control of the land. Israel's continuous seizure of land, uprooting of trees, and construction of housing, commercial zones and roads for settlers is not only having an immediate impact on Palestinians but also seriously complicating prospects for a peaceful and equitable resolution. Palestinian participants in the negotiations are not allowed to even raise certain issues, such as land and the status of Jerusalem, until the second phase of the peace process; Israel, despite being a participant in the talks is taking unilateral action on those very issues whose ultimate resolution has been put on hold.

Secondly, the brutal crackdown witnessed since the start of the peace talks can only serve to extinguish Palestinian hopes for the success of the process. The mandate of the Palestinian delegation rests on two authorities: the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian people. The delegation is not allowed to proclaim the mandate from the PLO and the Israeli military authorities have consistently denied the existence of any popular mandate while simultaneously working to destroy it.

For the current peace process to achieve any measure of success, the commitment to peace must be comprehensive. Palestinians cannot be expected to sit at the negotiating table with the same officials responsible for daily violations of human rights and international law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel must be brought to participate in discussions openly and honestly, and must be forced to halt its campaign of coercion which is aimed at forcing Palestinians to abandon the peace process. 

Deaths

Well over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and 117,000 injured by the Israeli army and settlers since the beginning of the intifada in several ways, including through the use of live ammunition, rubber and plastic bullets, and physical beatings. In early February 1992, the Israeli army eased once again the regulations governing the use of live ammunition, and soldiers now have the authority to open fire at armed Palestinians without first giving a warning. On 12 February, 19-year old 'Ode 'Abd al-'Azeez Rashwan of Khan Younis was shot seven times and killed when he reportedly brandished a toy pistol at soldiers. Substantial evidence exists to suggest that opening fire regulations are not strictly adhered to. Mohanad Muhammed 'Abd Khanjaya, a father of four, was shot dead while a passenger in the back of a taxi because he reportedly made a "suspicious" movement. It later came to light that the taxi had been stopped at a checkpoint and the "suspicious" movement was most probably a move to extract his identity card from his pocket, standard procedure at checkpoints. On 4 February, 30year-old construction worker 'Awad Bakheit was shot dead as he was on his daily bus ride home from work inside Israel. The military first circulated the story that the bus on which he was a passenger had run through a checkpoint without stopping and that they had shot the driver. It was only later that the truth emerged; the driver, alive and well, testified that the bus was some three kilometers away from the nearest checkpoint when shots were fired into the back of the vehicle from the side of the road. The soldiers involved later insisted that the bus had aroused suspicion, although it is questionable that they were in any danger from the bus when it was driving normally along the road and had already passed them by. These and numerous other incidents serve as ample evidence of the need for protection of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories.

•  30 Oct. Israeli soldiers shoot dead Sufian Mansour Nasser a -Deen, 20, in Hebron when they see him erecting a roadblock with other youths.
• 31 Oct 17-year-old Yasseen Muhammed 'Ali 'A wad of 'A warta is killed when residents of the town clash with Israeli troops.
• 05 Nov Mahdi Abu a]-Hassan, 21, of 'Arrabeh, is shot dead and two other youths are wounded, al-Hassan has been sought by the Israeli security forces for some time.
• 14 Nov 25-year-old Bassem Fathi lbraheem Saaban of Jenin is shot in the leg by soldiers and then shot dead as he lies on the ground.
• 15 Nov As Sheikh Radi Bustani, 67 years old, in the company of three other sheikhs, are walking out of a mosque in Nablus after prayers, soldiers begin to shoot in the air to disperse Palestinians celebrating the anniversary of the declaration of independence. Sheikh Bustani is shot in the stomach and dies a week later of his wounds.
• 15 Nov Musa Ghazi Abu 'Eid, 20, of Jerusalem's Old City, is shot dead by a border policeman while writing slogans on walls expressing support for the peace conference. Just eight days before his death, Musa was photographed while handing out olive branches to Israeli soldiers.
• 18 Nov Muhammed Sukar, 16, Of 'Azzoun, is shot dead and seventeen others are injured by a collaborator carrying weapons licensed by the Israeli authorities and working with the the security forces.
• 05 Dec An undercover army unit shoots and kills Naji Muhammed Shqeir, 22, in a -Zawia village, and shoots another young man in the face.
• 10 Dec The army announces that Muhanad Muhammed 'Abd Khanjaya, 29, of Zebabde, has been shot after making a 'Auspicious movement" and trying to evade a checkpoint. It later comes to light that he was in fact sitting in the back seat of a passenger taxi that had been stopped at a checkpoint and had reached into his pocket, apparently to pull out his identity card.
• 17 Dec 'Ayad Khatatbeh, 25, of Beit Fureek, dies three days after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers.
• 19 Dec Soldiers shoot dead Khaled Masarweh, 30, when they come upon him in an orchard dismantling a car with another man. Masarweh had escaped some months before from an Israeli prison.
• 27 Dec 17-year-old Sami Ahmed a -Nimri is killed during an army raid on Rameen village; three other youths are shot and injured.
• 03 Jan Muhammed'AliMidras, 20, of Qabatia, is shot dead during an armed clash with Israeli troops.
• 04 Jan Israeli troops raid a Khan Younis neighand reportedly open fire after seeing masked youths writing graffiti. Hussein Yousef Abu a]-Kheir, 22, isshot dead, UN officials report that army helicopters have to return twice to the site in order to transfer to hospital all those wounded in the incident.
• 07 Jan Ahmed Khaleel Abu Naha], 43 years of age and father of ten children, is shot dead while inside a mosque in Gaza City, soldiers then block am bulances attempting to transport the wounded. Two drivers are beaten and a nurse is hit.
• 18 Jan Musa 'Abd a-Rahman Ahmed Dababse, 32, is shot and killed "by mistake" as soldiers are taking him to military headquarters.
• 27 Jan Farmer Mahmoud Mirai Hassan Samoudi, 20, is killed when an unidentified explosive device goes off on land where Israeli troops had been conductinga search operation shortly before.
• 03 Feb Construction worker 'A wad Bakheit, 30, of Deir al -Balah, is returning home when the bus on which he is a passenger is attacked by gunfire from soldiers at the side of the road. Shots are fired into the back of the vehicle and Bakheit is killed instantly.
• 04 Feb Mustafa 'Akawi, 36, of East Jerusalem, dies while being held in a Shin Bet cell in Hebron prison. An American pathologist conducts an autopsy and says that beatings and physical abuse directly contributed to his heart failure.
• 05 Feb 12-year-old Taleb Sana"Alla is shot in the neck and killed when Israeli soldiers burst into a house in search of someone wanted by the security forces,, two other neigh bours in the house at the time of the raid are also shot and wounded.
• 08 Feb 60-year-old Bahi Muhammed 'Othman Rabaia of Irtas village near Bethlehem, dies of a heart attack when soldiers enforcing a curfew order fire on the car taking her to hospital.
• 12 Feb 'Odeh'Abdal-'AzeezRashwan of Khan Younis is shot dead when he waves a toy pistol at soldiers who surprise him and other youths writing graffiti on a wall.

Arrest Raids and Torture in Detention

At least 95,000 Palestinians, of whom an average 30 percent are minors, have been arrested since the beginning of the intifada by the Israeli security forces. In this same period of time, some 15,000 Palestinians have been administratively detained, imprisoned with no charges lodged against them, and no trial. Administrative detention currently can be imposed for renewable periods of up to six months.

Upon entering Israeli prisons, Palestinians are subject to both mental and physical abuse, especially during the long hours of interrogation. The most crucial period of imprisonment is the first eighteen days, in which attorneys, family members, international and local organisations are not allowed to see the prisoners. It is during this period that reports of torture and maltreatment are most common. These charges are not new; reports on the torture of Palestinian detainees have been surfacing since 1967. In recent years, however, particularly since the start of the intifada, there has been an escalation in such abuses. In November 1987, the Israeli Knesset endorsed the Landau Commission Report which legitimised the use of "moderate physical and psychological pressure" during interrogation. Nine Palestinian detainees have died as a result of torture in Israeli jails since July 1987. In 1989, ten Israeli policemen were accused of severely beating and torturing Palestinian detainees during interrogation sessions. In 1991 a special committee investigated eight cases of prisoner torture; the soldiers involved have yet to be charged. But, as Amnesty International reports '[T]orture or ill-treatment seem to be virtually institutionalised during the arrest and interrogation procedures .. [T]he practices relating in particular to interrogation procedures have been officially endorsed or are generally condoned, and therefore effectively encouraged, by the authorities.'

In a survey conducted in the autumn of 1991 on former detainees from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Al-Haq, the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists, found that from a randomly selected group of 474 detainees, 85% were subjected to torture or mistreatment, 25.6% fainted during interrogation as a result of physical pressure. Al-Haq also found that of 234 Palestinians interrogated by the, Israelis, 98.7% reported being beaten, 91.5% had been hooded and subjected to position abuse for continuous periods of time, ranging from one hour to one week, and 6.8% were subjected to electric shock.

Most common methods of torture:

"Al-Shabih" (tying the detainee's hands in front or behind his body with plastic or metal cuffs He is blindfolded or his head is covered to the neck by sacking with only a slit left open to breathe. He stands in this position in an open yard, or sometimes with his hands tied to a pole, for several days during which he isinterrogated for several hours each day) inadequate food; sleep deprivation (sometimes for up to a week) and restriction of toilet facilities; beating (with clubs, fists or boots, sometimes on the genitals or head, sometimes banging the head on the wall), the 'cupboard' (being placed in a closed dark space, some one metre by one metre for hours or days); partial suffocation (by pressure on the windpipe or by placing sacks on the head and pressing them against the nose and mouth), 'falaqa' (beating the soles of the feet with a stick or plastic hose, usually while the detainee is handcuffed and hooded).

Source: Israel's Use of Electric Shock Torture in the interrogation of Palestinian Detainees, Palestine Human Rights Information Centre, Jerusalem, December 1991 (excerpted from: Al -Haq, A Nation Under Siege: Al-Haq Annual Report on Human Rights in the Occupied PalestinianTerritories, Ramallah: al-Haq, 1989.)

Large-scale arrest campaigns have been carried out in the occupied territories over the past two and half months. Most alarming, however, is the scope and violence involved. On 22 January 1992, over 100 Palestinians were rounded up in the towns of Ramallah, al-Bireh, Nablus and Jenin where houses were broken into and windows shattered. Family members sat witness to the beating of relatives being arrested. In several cases infants and children were prevented from being put back to bed and were forced to remain seated in the cold of an open living room. Among those arrested was Tawfiq Nassar, a teacher of electrical engineering at the Abu Dees College of Science and Technology. At the time of his arrest, Tawfiq's wife was in hospital and he was alone with his sone, three-and-a-half-year-old and his one-and-a-half-year- old daughter. Nassar refused to leave his home, telling the soldiers that he could not leave his children all alone. The soldiers eventually dragged him outside in his pyjamas, locked the children in the house and threw the keys at a neighbor, awakened by the noise, telling her that there were children in the house and for her to go check on them.

Fourteen days after this arrest raid, Mustafa a]-'Akawi died while in the Shin Bet section of the Hebron prison as he was undergoing interrogation. An American.pathologist hired on behalf of the family blamed the physical abuse to which 'Akawi had been subjected for leading to the heart failure which ultimately killed him. In" the same week, 50-year-old Ribhi Hadad was transferred from prison to hospital for medical treatment after he too reported being tortured. Both men were among those rounded up on 22 January.

•  03 Nov Prison administrators at the Jenin prison bar family visits until the end of the month. No reason for the measure is reported.
• 06 Nov Palestinians in the Ansar 3 detention centre are not allowed to read newspapers or listen to the radio while the Madrid peace conference is going on.
• 10 Nov Rasmiah Saeed Hija, 35, arrested on security charges, is forced to give birth in Telmond prison before being later released on bail.
• 08 Dec 14- Year-old Wissam 'Anabtawi is pulled out of bed and beaten in front of his family before I'sraeli soldiers take him away- He spends five hours in interrogation where he was brutally beaten. To date he remains in prison awaiting trial in military Court, accused of throwing stonat an Israeli bus one month prior to his arrest.
• 15 Dec One -and-a -half -year-old Watan Muharnmed Salameh was released from prison after one and a half Vears, her mother was transferred to Telmondpt-ison to continue her five -year sentence.
• 25 Dec Palestinian detainees in Ashkelon prison protest the overcrowded cells, prison guards use tear gas to quell protest.
• 30 Dec Prison administrators at the Ansar 3 detention centre bar attorneys from providing Palestinian detainees with extra clothes to combat the record cold temperatures.
• 18 Jan Musa 'Abd a-Rahman Ahmed Dababse, 32, of Nouba village near Hebron, is shot dead while being taken to military headquarters when, according to Israeli military officials, a bullet is discharged "by mistake" from the gun of a soldier and hits him in the head.
• 22 Jan Spearheading a massive arrest campaign, over 100 Palestinians are hauled in during the early hours of the morning. The raid proves to be one of the most brutal ever witnessed. In one incident, a two-month -old baby girl has her diapers searched with the butt of a machine gun.
• 26 Jan Israeli prison authorities decide to change regulations, and restrict families of Palestinian prisoners to providing fresh clothes every six months, as opposed to every two months.
• 09 Feb At 2.00 a.m Birzeit University engineering student Amin Amin, 23, is taken from his family home and arrested, he suffers from a serious liver ailment which an Israeli army spokesperson says "will be taken into consideration." In response to concerns expressed about Amin's safety the army spokesperson states that "torture is illegal. " Amin was previously detained without charge in 1989 and interrogated for a straight twenty-four days, during which time he was beaten, electrically shocked and deprived of adequate medication. Following his interrogation (and contributing to current fears for his health) Amin ended up in the hospital with serious liver complications.

Curfew and Other Movement Restrictions

The Israeli army's use of punitive curfews has again risen dramatically in the last several months. The entire population of the Gaza Strip has been under a nightly curfew since the beginning of the intifada; from the middle of December 1991 until the second week of February 1992, residents of the major urban centres of the West Bank (Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron)and the surrounding villages and refugee camps were also confined to their homes from 5 p.m. onward. This nightly confinement followed a two-week 'round-the-clock curfew on the entire Ramallah/al -Bireh area, comprising some I 00,000 Palestinians. Under curfew, stepping outside of one's home can mean risking arrest. Work, school and all normal social interaction is completely disrupted. Palestinians in the occupied territories are still recovering from the economic devastation caused by the Israeli military's imposition of blanket curfew for almost six weeks last year during the Gulf war.

In addition to curfew, Palestinians are restricted in other ways. Since the Gulf war, it has been forbidden for Palestinians holding identity cards from the West Bank or Gazato be in East Jerusalem or Israel without a permit from the military authorities. In January, the army announced that Palestinians are prohibited from being within 150 metres of roadsides in the West Bank from dusk to dawn. Another proposal being discussed in military circles is the banning of any right to be on one's rooftop except for the purpose of hanging laundry (rooftops are often the site of water storage tanks, television antennae and solar panels).

Curfew remains a favoured policy of the Israeli military authorities, despite international consensus that a belligerent occupying power should only apply the measure if "sufficiently compelling security reasons exist and then only if its application of the measure does not violate fundamental humanitarian safeguards or unjustifiably disrupt orderly civil life." During the first three years of the intifada Palestinians in the occupied territories racked up an average annual 50 million person-days under curfew, person-days being defined as one person under curfew for one day (JMCC, No Exit. Israel's Curfew Policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jerusalem, June 1991, p.5).

Expulsions

On 3 January 1992, the Israeli government announced that twelve Palestinians were to be deported, bringing to 78 the number deported during the intifada. In all, Israel has expelled over 1,200 Palestinians since taking over the occupied territories in 1967. While the deportees have the right to appeal to a military objections committee and to the Israeli High Court, the High Court has never overturned a deportation order. The military objections committee, for only the second time in the 25 years of the occupation, recommended against the deportation of one of the twelve, 'Iyad Joudeh, on grounds that there were other measures yet untried by the authorities. At the time his deportation order was issued, Joudeh had already been under administrative detention (without charges or trial) for six months and was to be released in two days. Instead, the military authorities suspended his deportation but ordered him confined for another, consecutive, six month period.

Meanwhile, in a precedent-setting decision, the Israeli High Court did order that the hearings before the military objections committee be "open". This, however, translated to mean "open" to the press and public only; most of the evidence remained secret and was not shown to defense attorneys on grounds that this would threaten Israel's security. At the time of publication, the appeals hearings had not been completed but historical precedent strongly suggests that the eleven Palestinians will be expelled permanently from their homeland.

Then, too, there is the constant "invisible" transfer of women and children from the occupied territories. There are currently an estimated 120,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children denied the right to live with their families, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights Organisation. Married to Palestinians from the occupied territories but lacking Israeli-issued identity cards themselves and denied family reunification permits by the authorities, they can only remain with their husbands/wives through obtaining three-month visitor visas and are subject to summary expulsion when these expire. Army raids on villages are a common occurrence, with women and children dragged from their homes at a moment's notice, driven to the bridge and expelled to Jordan, often in the middle of the night.

Education

One of the first Israeli responses to the Palestinian intifada was the interference in Palestinian education. This has involved extended and widespread closures of schools and universities, military attacks on schools, the military occupation of schools for use as army headquarters and detention centres, the outlawing of popularly initiated alternative education programmes, and the harassment and detention of educators and students.

While the Israeli High Court ten years ago determined that the military authorities could close down educational institutions for "public security" reasons, the court also stipulated that the closures must be for a "reasonable period of time" only. Four years on, Birzeit University remains closed. The f ive other Palestinian universities were allowed to reopen last year, after three years of closure. This last December, military authorities renewed the university's closure for yet another three months, effective until March 1992.

At the same time, raids on other educational institutions indicate that they too may be shut down once again. In particular, the forced entry of Israeli troops onto the premises of Hebron University on 26 January alarmed many, including members of the Israeli left. Israeli soldiers reportedly collected hundreds of books from the university's library and set them on fire. Under no "security" justification could this act have been carried out, particularly since, as one Knesset member noted, the soldiers could riot read Arabic. Several days later, atthe end of January, administrators at an-Najah University in Nablus reported being threatened with closure by the military authorities, on grounds that students were gathering on the campus for political meetings.

With regard to compulsory education, the Israeli military authorities have not ordered the blanket long-term closures of schools as seen in previous years. However, Israeli troops have carried out a number of brutal raids on schools recently, injuring students and teachers. In just one incident, a dozen pupils suffered injury when soldiers fired tear gas into the Bureij Refugee Camp preparatory boys school on 2 February; two boys aged 13 and 14 were shot in the hip and leg respectively, and others suffered partial suffocation from overexposure to tear gas.

Raids, curfews, and closures continue to disrupt classes and hinder preparation for the tawjihi (matriculation) examinations, the first section of which began 18 January. Students in the secondary school in Toubas, for example, had been locked out of their classes for three weeks by an army closure which ended just three days before tawjihi exams were to begin. In the Ramallah area, army-imposed curfews kept 30,000 students from attending school for the first two weeks in December and later barred 2,854 secondary school students from taking the exams and ultimately forced their postponement.

 Education Under Siege - A Chronology of Events

• 07 Nov The Israeli army continues to occupy the Lubban a -Sharqia Girl's School, near Nablus, first taken over on 29 October 29.
• 08 Nov A -Salam Secondary Boys School in Jenin is ordered closed for one month as a punitive "security" measure on grounds that students had participated in demonstrations.
• 16 Dec School resumes in Ramallah and a] -Bireh after a two - week 'round-the-clock curfew (AN 17. l,2.91)
• 16 Dec The army raids a -Tabari Boys School in Rafah as students are taking exams; one boy is arrested (AI 17.12.91)
• 24 Dec Toubas Secondai-y Boys School isclosed for one month, on grounds that some students threu,, stones at the army (AQ 25.12.91).
• 25 Dec Al-Hussein Ibn 'Ali and the al-Alfalik Ibn 'A bd a]-'Azeez Secondary Schools in Hebron are closed by the army for two weeks (Al 26.12.91).
• 25 Dec Falastine Secondary School in Gaza City is raided by the army (Al 26.12.91).
• 26 Dec Falastine Secondary School in Gaza City is closed by the army (AN 28.12.91).
• 26 Dec Karmel Secondary School in Gaza City is ordered closed by the army (AN 28.12.91).
• 27 Dec The secondary school in Rafah's Tel a-Sultan neighbourhood is closed down "until further notice" (AN 28.12.91).
• 06 Jan Ilyan Abu Sa'ed, 33, a teacher in Deir a]-Balah, is fired from his job for "security" reasons, he had previously been held for six months in detention without charges or trial (AF 7.1. 92).
• 10 Jan Two schools in Deir al-Balah are shut down by the army until the end of the school term (AF 11.1.92).
• 15 Jan The 'Ain Yabroud Secondary Boys School is turned over for use as an army post as curfew on village keeps students at home (AS 16.1.92).
• 16 Jan Al-Karmel Boys Secondary Schools A & B in GazaCity are closed down "until further notice" (AI 17.1.92).
• 16 Jan Soldiers raid the preparatory school in Nuseirat Refugee Camp after stones are allegedly thrown; gunshots are fired inside the school grounds and ten students and one teacher are injured by ammunition and beatings (AI 17.1.92).
• 22 Jan Troops raid the Polytechnic Institute in Hebron as student elections are scheduled to be held. The institute is closed for two days (AI 23.1.92).
• 26 Jan The army raids Hebron University, searching offices and classrooms and burning books (AN 27.1.92).

Taxation

The issue of taxation in the occupied territories is a crucial one; besides causing extreme financial hardship for Palestinians, the imposition of certain taxes violates international law and helps to finance the Israeli military occupation. It is common knowledge that the Civil Administration profits from the collection of taxes and fines from Palestinians since the level of services offered to Palestinians does not justify the exorbitant taxes levied (more than double the tax levels paid by Israelis). A final determination, however, is impossible, since the military authorities refuse to divulge information on the collection and disbursement of tax revenues from Palestinians in the occupied territories. Only in early February 1992, in respose to a petition by some one hundred Palestinian merchants and business people, did the Israeli High Court order the Israeli government to explain this refusal to disclose information.

Not only are tax and fine assessments often arbitrary and illegal, but the means by which taxes are collected are many times brutal, and violate international law and Israel's own High Court rulings. Physical raids frequently accompany confiscation of merchandise and cash. To ensure payment, identity cards are held in the possesion of the military until the taxes demanded are paid, despite a High Court decision that this practise is illegal. Palestinians without their identity cards risk arrest, even at home. On many occasions, tax collectors are accompanied by soldiers, curfew is imposed and a house-to-house raid is carried out. Appendix A provides an example of the pattern of tax collection activities.

Uprooting of Trees

Every year thousands upon thousands of olive, fig and citrus trees are bulldozed and grapevines are uprooted from Palestinian land. This act only strikes directly at landowners and farmers, robbing them of their livelihood. Appendix B provides the number of trees uprooted in November. The common reasons for uprooting trees are a) as collective, punitive "security" measures after incidents of stonethrowing at army or settler vehicles; and b) to make way for the construction of roads serving the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

Demolitions & House Sealings

The army carries out demolitions either by using explosives and often damaging neighbouring structures, or by simply bulldozing the home, shop, or poultry farm in question. Often residents have as little as 15 minutes in which to vacate their homes and in many cases there is no prior warning given. Sometimes, personal items or furniture are not permitted to be removed from the premises.

When the army seals or partially seals a home, it welds shut the entire premises or several rooms; the family is subject to reprisal should they later re -open the sealed home or room. A list of the house demolitions and sealings are included in Appendix C. Some demolitions and all sealings are carried out as a collective punitive measure (justified on "security" grounds) against:

Many houses are also demolished on grounds that the owners lack the required building permit or license, although it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits to build from the Israeli authorities. 

The Israeli authorities have allocated millions of shekels in prioritising settlement infrastructure in an effort to support the growing move to settlements; road construction accounts for many incidents of land seizure and tree uprooting. Then too, the Israelis often take control of Palestinian land for "security" purposes; this land is then sometimes given over to civilian settlement. In addition, expansion of existing settlements continues, often using mobile homes, which are quick and easy to transport. Permanent construction on thousands of units, meanwhile, continues without interruption. Appendix C shows the incidents of land seizure and tree uprootings reported in the press between early November 1991 through the middle of February 1992.

Ramallah Area

Beit Iksa

On 12 November 1991, the military governor in Ramallah notified villagers of an order officially designating 450 dunams of their land as "state land". The land taken over was owned by some 50 to 60 resi, and they estimated the actual area at 1,500 dunams. The military governor never showed up for a scheduled meeting with the landowners, who were thereafter barred from entering the land, under penalty of a NIS2,000 fine.

Beit Seera

On or about 4 November 1991, 20 dunams of land were expropriated on "security" grounds from Muhammed Rasheed al-'Antawi, Muhammed Yousef al -'Antawi, Theeb Yousef al -'Antawi, Muhammed 'AbdallahSamour, Mashour Hassan Abu Saghir. Israeli troops then set up an army camp on the site, taking up six dunams planted with olive trees.

al-Janieh

Al-Janieh lies near to the Talmon settlement. On 19 November 1991, the army announced over loudspeakers that more than 950 dunams of village land was thereafter designated "state land". This was the first the villagers had heard that such an order had been issued, although it was officially dated 9 June 1991. Under that written order, more than 1,300 dunams of land were taken, far beyond the amount originally announced.

Beit El Settlement

Approximately 40 permanent housing units have been added to the settlement since the Madrid conference. Beit El is expanding in the direction of the Jalazon Refugee Camp, and land has recently been bulldozed to make way for construction. The current expansion will bring the settlement into close proximity to the refugee camp.

Telmon A Settlement

This settlement was first constructed three years ago; to date however, no settlers have moved in to occupy the housing units. Expansion is currently in progress to increase the number of housing units.

Telmon B Settlement

The Telmon B settlement is located two kilometers away from the Telmon A settlement, two kilometers west of the Mazra'a al-Gharbia village and east of al-Janieh. Currently the only visible sights on the settlement grounds are an army camp and a construction site.

The Telmon settlements lie on 2,500 dunams of land taken in 1982 from the Palestinian villages of 'Aboud and Lubban. In April 1991, an additional 1,500 dunams were taken over as "state land". On a portion of this 1,500 dunams, construction is underway on a new road which will link the Telmon settlements with the Beit Aryeh settlement.

In addition to the 20 dunams of land expropriated from Beit Seera and referred to above, an additional area is to be taken for a road, six metres wide and 400 metres long, for which 20 olive trees were uprooted. Another portion of the land was levelled in order to move the military outpost from Beit 'Ur a-Tahta to Beit Seera. The owners affected by these measures received no prior written notice.

Ramallah to Nablus

On 28 October 2,500 dunams were taken from residents of Yitma, aSawia, Qabalan and Til, and declared "staie land". The Land and Water Establishment for Services and Legal Studies estimate the actual confiscation figure soars up to 8,000 dunams once right-of-way measurements are accounted for. Included in the seizure were six dunams in Qabalan, owned by the family of Barhoum Saleem, which will be used toward the construction of a 250-metre long road; an army outpost was also built at the intersection leading to the village. In Yitma, ten dunams, owned by 'Abd al-GhafarMuhammed 'Atata, were confiscated and 250 olive & fig trees were uprooted, and ten dunams were taken from Mahmoud Muhammed Hamdallah, and 250 olive trees were uprooted. In a-Sawia, where a dozen landowners were af f ected (over 200 dunams were seized), only one received an of f icial military order. The land is being used variously for an army camp and road construction.

Beit Aryeh settlement

The Beit Aryeh settlement lies north of the Palestinian village of Lubban. About one year ago 50 dunams were seized and added to the settlement; however nothing was done with the land. On November 7, construction began on 120 new housing units, and additional housing units are to be added.

Greater Nablus Area

On 3 November 1991, work began on a new road slated to run 20 kilometresfromtheQalansawa-Taibeintersection,cuttingthroughthe Palestinian villages of Far'aoun, Shoufa, Siffareen and Beit Leed, and linking up with the main Tulkarem-Nablus route. The road construction has entailed the uprooting of thousands of trees from Palestinian farmland. At about the same time, construction began on a new road aimed at cutting through the Nablus area villages of Kufr Qadoum and Jeeb and linking the Kedumim C settlement with the Nablus-Qalqilia road, forms part of the larger 50-kilometre network serving settlers, which goes from Deir Sharaf and heads south through the villages of Quseen, Kufr Qadoum, Jeeb, Sarrah, a-Teel, 'Arak Bureen and Bureen. Residents of the affected villages were officially notified by the military authorities that their land was being expropriated for "public purposes".

al-Midia

Eight hundred dunams were taken over on 26 December from villagers in al-Midia, and are reportedly slated for settlement construction.

Tapuah Settlement

Approximately 200 housing units are being added to the settlement and work is ongoing. The settlement lies near the Palestinian villages of Yasouf and Salfeet.

Ariel Settlement

In early November, construction was underway on some 300 housing units in the Ariel settlement.

Hemish Settlement

On the eve of the Madrid peace conference, 30 October, 70 caravans were added to this settlement, which lies between Burqa and Silla. The land had recently been bulldozed without prior notification to the owners.

Kedumim Settlements

On or about 7 November, the Israeli authorities bulldozed land while setting up new caravans around both the Kedumim A and B settlements. Additional land and housing units were added to the Kedumim C settlement without notification to the owners of the land.

Jalout (near the Shilo settlement)

On October 30, 260 dunams of land belonging to 'Abd al-Ghani Ahmed Ibraheem were confiscated and ten prefabricated homes were placed on the land. On 15 November, 50 dunams of land belonging to lbraheem 'Abd Ibraheem were confiscated and six caravans and electricity supplies set up.

al-Mughayer

Fifty-two dunams of land were taken on 12 February for expansion of the nearby Shilo settlement.

Emanuel Settlement

In 1982, 400 dunams of land were seized and 1,500 olive trees were uprooted from the villages of Jeensafout and Deir Istia for the purpose of building the Emanuel settlement. In 1985, building was halted on the settlement. However, at the beginning of 1991, 70 housing units were added in addition to new internal streets.

Aliya Settlement

In order to expand the Aliya settlement east of the village of al-Sawia, 245 dunams planted with fruit-bearing trees have been taken over. In the last two weeks of November, construction began on 150 housing units in order to absorb new settlers.

Barkhan Settlement

In September, 300 dunams of land were taken over from the villages of Haris and Sarta belonging to 'Abd al - Razik Muhammed 'Abdall-ah-, Mahmoud 'Abdallah Taha, Muhammed 'Ali Qasem and Husein Hamid Husein, and added to the Barkhan settlement. On or about November 6, bulldozers began to clear the land for new housing units.

Revava Settlement

On 10 November, 500 dunams were taken from Haris residents including Y'acoub'Oudeh Hassan Sultan and Hassan Daoud, and added to the Revava settlement. Twenty additional mobile housing units were placed on the settlement grounds.

On 10 November, workers hired by the 'Atsiah building company in Tel Aviv, began working land in the Nablus area, in order to establish a new settlement called GinotAriel. The residents of nearby villages came to the site and told the workers that the land was not included in a previous seizure order. Private security guards from the Ariel settlement harassed the villagers, demanding their ID cards, which the villagers refused to hand over. Soldiers and settlers then came to the village and informed the residents that the settlement guards represent the authorities and as such have the power to demand anything and the residents must comply. Shortly thereafter, the security company demanded the ID cards of several residents from the village, the guards then took a number of the residents backto the Ariel settlement, where they were held at police headquarters. At this same time, bulldozers began clearing the ground. The land in question is from the villages of Broqeen, Salfeet, Haris, Kufr al-Harith and Marda. Settlers claim that the land taken is 700 dunams; villagers estimate the area to be 1,000 dunams, but do not have an exact figure because they were prevented from surveying the area.

Tulkarem - Jenin Area

Avnei Hefetz Settlement

Two days after the Madrid peace conference began, 120 dunams of land from the village of Shoufa was bulldozed in order to expand the Avnei Hefetz settlement. The Israeli military authorities did not notify the owners of the orders taking over their land. C.urrently, the land is still being cleared and the authorities are planning to set up caravans on the site.

Ganim Settlement

Thirty dunams in the vicinity of the Ganimsettlement, near'Arrabeh, were confiscated in order to expand the settlement. The land owners are Najeeb Ahmed Mahmoud'Azmouti and Muhammed'Azmouti. One hundred and fifty olive trees were subsequently uprooted.

Qalqilia Area

Elkana Settlement

On the eve of the Madrid peace conference, construction was ongoing on 150 housing units.

Kufr a-Deek

Five hundreds of dunams of land were taken over on 15 December in order to make way for the expansion of the Alei Zahav settlement.

Bethlehem Area

Nahaleen

In November 1991, the military governor in Bethlehem informed the mukhtar of Nahaleen of an undated order, signed by the Civil Administration, officially expropriating 300 dunams of village land as allegedly "state land", and gave residents 45 days in which to appeal order. The villagers report that, in fact, some 500 dunams were taken. This is only the latest in a history of land seizures from Nahaleen, which out of an original area of 12,000 dunams, has only 4,000 dunams remaining.

Jaba'

Over 2,000 dunams of land were being taken over as of early December 1991, on grounds that it was uncultivated. The landowners have been barred from planting trees on the land for the past four years. The area reportedly will be used for expansion of the Kfar Etzion settlement bloc.

al-Khader

In the village of a]-Khader, 21.5 dunams of land lying near the Efrat settlement was taken from owner Muhammed Isma'eel 'Ayish. On November 14, Civil Administration personnel accompanied by Israeli soldiers uprooted all trees on the land, comprising some 40 olive trees, 35 grapevines, eight fig trees and ten apricot trees. The land is slated for the construction of a road for the Efrat settlement.

Bateer/Hussan - Khirbat al-Khamsa

Approximately six years ago 1,000 dunams of land were confiscated. On November 6 work began on an additional 500 dunams of hilly terrain designated as "state land", for the construction of a road to link the Beitar settlement with the Beitar Elit settlement. Some of the land owners are: Jum'a Yousef 'Assaf, 'Othman al-Huroub, Muhammed 'Abdallah, 'Issa Ahmed al-Huroub.

Gilo Settlement

The village of Sharfat, near Beit Safafa, is the Palestinian village closest to the settlement of Gilo.On or about November 7, 300 dunams of land were seized to expand the Gilosettlement. Bulldozers cleared the land, and approximately 100 new housingcaravans have since been added. The land belongs to the following residents: 'Ali Muhammed lbraheem, Salih Hussein, 'Issa Hussein, Mahmoud Salah, Hussein Faraj.

East Jerusalem Area

Silwan

On I November 1991, the residents of Silwan were notified that the Jerusalem municipality had on June 9, declared that 100 dunams from the village had been classified as "green land", with building or cultivating strictly forbidden. Residents fear outright confiscation, since designation as a "green zone" in the Jerusalem area has frequently preceded outright confiscation for the "public benefit". The most recent example of this policy is in the East Jerusalem villages of Umm Touba and Sour Baher, where landowners received similar notification before their land was officially confiscated for the construction of the Har Homa settlement. Silwan has been the focus of increased settlement activity since October as several homes were occupied by yeshiva students/settlers, and the village is now slated for new construction under Housing Minister's plan for increasing the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem. Even more recently, a major roads project for the village was approved by the Jerusalem municipality, over the objections of the Palestinian residents. The cases involving the houses taken over by settlers are still be adjudicated, but evidence has come to light that title was transferred to the settlers through a number of fraudulent methods (including false testimonials as to ownership), and the Israel Lands Authority head recently admitted to serving a simply a rubber stamp for the Housing Ministry's plans for property takeover in Silwan.

Hebron Area

Beit Ummar

Seventy dunams planted with olive trees and wheat were seized on I February; the land is slated for construction of a road serving settlers in the area.

Tarqoumia

Making way for the expansion of Adura settlement, 4,000 dunams of land were taken from Tarqoumia and an additional 100 dunams from neighbouring Idhna.

Gaza Strip

On 7 January, 100 dunams of cultivated land were taken over in Beit Lahia, and slated for road construction. 

Settlers in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, currently number well over 200,000. Settlers, unlike Palestinians, have the right to bear arms and this right is often exercised at the cost of Palestinian lives. "Justice" meted out to Palestinians is far more severe than that to settlers, as in the case of three Israeli settler from the Joseph's Tomb Yeshiva in Nablus were sentenced to eight months in prison and one and a half years on probation after being charged with harassment and aggravated assault in Kifl Harith village. Their May 1989 raid on the village ended with the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old Palestinian girl (AN 16.12.91). In the same week that this sentence was handed down, three Palestinians received life imprisonment for the killing of a settler ten months earlier (AI 18.12.91). Furthermore, while the Israeli army claims responsibility for keeping order in the occupied territories, there is clear evidence of cooperation between the settler movement and army brass as in the recent case of the soldier who, surrounded by an angry mob of armed settlers who refused to disperse, fired a single warning shot in the air, and was later courtmartialled for this action. And, of course, many settlers are in the army reserves and are allowed to serve their duty near the settlements in which they live.

Recently, settlers have been given government backing for their activities, with Israeli Police Minister Ronni Milo authorising Civil Guardunits to operate out of certain West Bank settlements. However, settlers have themselves formed a "Committee for Road Security". Committee members "patrol" through neighbourhoods in the Palestinian town of Hebron, for example, where on 25 January they shot four Palestinians after claiming they were stoned. Two of the four were critically injured, with gunshot wounds in the head and chest, respectively. The Committee is also responsible for the creation of a device which hooks under rifles and catches the spent shells from any bullets fired. This makes any police investigation, if initiated, much more difficult.

Settlers have taken to more frequent outings through Palestinian towns and villages. In particular, while Palestinians in three of the largest populations centres in the West Bank were confined to their homes from 5 p.m. onward, armed Israeli settlers paraded through Ramallah, al-Bireh and elsewhere on a regular basis in the first two weeks of December, attacking and stonin&Palestinian property. Countless house windows were smashed, and dozens of automobiles vandalised. On the night of 15 December, GeorgeHaroof, a Ramallah resident who lives near the military headquarters, reported waking up at about 1 a.m. and seeing settlers arrive in ten cars. "I saw them smash all the windows of my car and my neighbour's car with rifle butts. There were women and men, and soldiers across the street, [who] did nothing. Seven cars were smashed on that street alone." The Jerusalem Post (16.12.91) reported that windows in cars and buildings were smashed in Hebron, Halhoul, Ramallah, and al-Bireh that night, all by settlers allowed to roam and vandalise at will. In an open meeting, settlers in Kiryat Arba declared that they would continue their attacks (AI 16.11.91).

In an incident broadcast to the public over Israeli television, Jewish settlers on 15 December, accompanied by soldiers, uprooted approximately 500 olive trees alongside the road leading to the Elon Moreh settlement where shots had been fired at a settler vehicle the week before. Knesset members Yossi Sarid, Dedi Zucker and Haim Oron later planted 30 olive trees at the site of the destruction of the olive groves (AQ 16.12.91). However, Elon Moreh settlement council head Benny Katzover later uprooted the trees, saying he would replant them in the settlement "where they belong". MK Sarid challenged the Defense Minister to ensure that the settlers who destroyed the trees, who were shown on Israel television, be identified and arrested (JP 16.12.91). Two days later, Israeli peace activists for a second time planted new saplings at the site of the olive groves; settlers again returned to uproot the saplings (JP 18.12.91). Meanwhile, in the villages surrounding the area where the mass destruction of trees was carried out, Salem, 'Azmout and Deir al-Hatab, residents remained under military curfew for ten days (AQ 22.12.91).

Following is a chronology of settler activity over the recent months:

• 06 Dec Two hundred settlers from , Kiryat Arba blockade the road to Beit Kahel village and vandalize Palestinian cars in the area. They later move their activities to the nearby town of Hebron (AQ 7.12.91).
• 09 Dec Armed settlers rampage through the towns of Ramallah and al-Bireh, smashing house and car windows and leaving behind threatening leaflets (AI 10. 12.91).
• 15 Dec Settlers uproot 500 olive trees from alongside the road leading to the Elon Moreh settlement. The olive groves were owned by local Palestinians including Suleiman Mustafa 'Abdel-Kareem and his brothers, 'Ayed'Abdel-Ghani and brothers, Fayez Mahmoud Hussein and his brothers and four other families (AI 16.12.91).
• 15 Dec Settlers burn down a store owned by Najeeb Da'oudSaleh, 17, of Biddu, near Ramallah, leaving behind them a threatening leaflet addressed to the village residents (AI 16.12.91).
• 17 Dec The army imposes curfew at 2 a.m. 16 December on Qalandia Refugee Camp after settlers enter the camp and stone houses and cars of Palestinians (AN 18.12.91).
• 17 Dec Settlers block the main road leading to al-Bireh as they conduct a player service (AQ 18.12.91).
• 17 Dec Israeli settlers uproot some 400 fruit -bearing trees in Biddu planted on approximately 300 dunams of land owned by Hussein Hamdan Muhammed a-Dali, Saleem Salman Rabiy'a, and the Islamic Waqf. The leaflets left behind are written in Arabic: "To residents of the Biddu village .. We warn you! Who hurts us once, we will hurt ten times worse!"  The threatening notices are signed by the "Residents of the Region"(AI 18.12.91).
• 17 Dec Israeli settlers threaten publicly to increase attacks against Palestinians if the Israeli authorities do not crack down on Palestinians even further with tougher restrictions (AI 18.12.91).
• 18 Dec Settlers forcibly remove the street barricades put in place in 1988 by the Israeli army to block entrance to the Palestinian village of Mazira'a  a-Sharqia. A fterwards they drive through the village distributing leaflets warning that settlers will take revenge if their cars are attacked. The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria demand that the authorities remove all blocks from the entrances to Palestinian villages to facilitate settler movement in the villages (AQ 19.12.91).
• 18 Dec Military authorities announce that the gunshots fired toward the Ma'aleh Amos settlement early in the week were fired from soldiers or settlers and not from Palestinians (AN 19.12.91).
• 20 Dec Armed settlers from Kiryat Arba raid the Palestinian villages of a -Shiyoukh and Sa'eer near Hebron, shooting at solar panels on roof tops of Palestinian homes, vandalising cars and breaking windows in homes. The entire area is declared a closed military zone by the army prior to the raid, reportedly as a preventive measure to counter the raid (AQ 21.12.91).
• 20 Dec A settler rampage and vandalism of Palestinian properties is reported in the city of Nablus (AN 21.12.91).
• 20 Dec Jewish settlers use their cars to block entrances to the villages of Turmus 'Aya and Sinjel on 20 December from 6 a.m. till 7.30 a.m. (AI 21.12.91).
• 20 Dec Press reports reveal that 35 Israeli rabbis are heading up a new committee for settlers, including training to carry out attacks against Palestinians (AQ 21.12.91).
• 27 Dec Settlers from Kiryat Arba sweep through Hebron, smashing house windows and car windscreens (AQ 28.12.91).
• 27 Dec Armed settlers from Neveh Tzur "pati-ol" the Palestinian village of Biz- Zeit in order to "impose public order" (AQ 28.12.91).
• 28 Dec Hundreds of armed Israelis, mostly from the East Jerusalem settlement of Neveh Ya'acov, converge on the Palestinian town of Dahiat a]-Bareed, not far away, carrying Israeli flags and vowing to "take the law into our own hands" (JP 29.12.91). The mob blocks the entrance to the town by dumping garbage in the road and burning tyres. Palestinian homes are stoned (AQ 29.12.91).
• 03 Jan Kach militants slash tyres of nine vehicles in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem Is Old City (AQ 4.1.92).
• 07 Jan Shehadeh 'Ali Manasrah, 35, of Bani Na'eem village, is beaten by settlers and suffers a broken hand (AI 8.1.92).
• 09 Jan Armed settlers carry out a midnight raid on 'Aboud village, shashing windows with axes and beating several Palestinian residents. Thirty-two window panes are smashed in one house alone, that of cleric 'Abdallah Sumrein. The army, though notified of the incident, does not respond. The settlers vow to revisit the village (AI 16.1.92).
• 10 Jan A group of rabbis from the settlements release their second leaflet which calls on settlers to continue their campaign against Palestinians (AN 11.1.92).
• 14 Jan A group of settlers uproot dozens of young olive saplings from land owned by a Palestinian farmer in Dhaharia, after stones are reportedly thrown from the vicinity (AI 15.1.92).
• 14 Jan Armed settlers smash windows and scrawl stars of David on the home of Birzeit University lecturer Riyad a]-Malki in a late-night raid which lasts three-quarters of an hour (AI 16.1.92).
• 16 Jan Fifty settlers park their automobiles in the road, blocking off traffic on th e Jerusalem - Na blus roa d (JP 1 7.1.92).
• 18 Jan Members of the "Committee for Road Security" roam the casbah of Hebron's Old City, shooting live ammunition at windows and solar panels on rooftops of Palestinian homes (JP 19.1.92).
• 19 Jan Armed settlers block the road near 'Ain Qeenia and smash house windows and cars, on the one-year anniversary of the death of a settler in the area (AN 20.1.92).
• 24 Jan 150 settlers from Kiryat Arba block off and deny entry to all Palestinian vehicles on a Hebron road for two hours before being persuaded to leave by the army (AQ 25.1.92).
• 25 Jan Four Palestinians are shot, two critically wounded in the head and chest respectively, when settlers from Kiryat Arba conduct a "patrol" of a Hebron neighbourhood and claim to have fired in response to stone -throwing (AI 26.1.92).
• 28 Jan Shots are fired into a house next door to that of Bethlehem mayor Elias Freij, a member of the Palestinian delegation to peace negotiations, a new militant Jewish underground takes responsibility saying that the purpose of the attack was "to threaten PLO supporters and to encourage them to leave before blood is shed unnecessarily" (JP 29.1.92). 05 Feb Some fifty armed settlers assemble outside the Ramallah home of Birzeit University lecturer Riyad al-Malki, protesting the departure of Dr. George Habash from Fran.

The crowd shouts slogans such as "Death to Arabs and terrorists." After half an hour, Israeli troops disperse the demonstrators (AI 6.2.92).

As world attention focussed on the Madrid conference, Israel launched a media campaign aimed at discrediting the Palestinian delegation and undermining the popular support the delegation enjoys both in the occupied territories and abroad, within the Palestinian and international communities. This media campaign has now entered a second phase following the first bilateral talks in Washington.

The First Stage

In the first stage of this disinformation campaign, news was shaped to portray intensive internal conflicts within the Palestinian delegation on one hand and between the delegates and the PLO leadership on the other. The Israeli campaign targetted three audiences:

The International Community

Aimed at combatting the favourable international public opinion vis-a-vis the Palestinian delegation, Israel attempted to portray the delegates as an isolated, internally divided group of people who have not shared the same hardships that most Palestinians face, and who are not qualified negotiators but merely experts in dealing with the western media and international public opinion.

On 19 November highly-placed Israeli security sources were quoted on the Voice of Israel radio as saying that "the Palestinian delegation in the occupied territories is not ready for the bilateral negotiations taking place after several days as they are without any committees to prepare them for the talks," adding that "they [delegates] are busy with internal conflicts and power struggles between the factions and they are not prepared for negotiations." While the delegates were portrayed as unprepared and fighting for power, they were also labelled as powerless and without credibility.

Rather than being isolated from their communities, the delegates all enjoy widespread popularity. Palestinians went out into the streets throughout the occupied territories, olive branches in hand, to demonstrate their support for the delegation and the Madrid conference. It was the Israeli officials that banned all pro-peace marches and violently repressed those that occurred after the edict. It was the Israeli military that opened fire on Palestinians holding olive branches, apparently fearing the implications of peace. It was the Israeli military authorities who declared Jericho a closed military area, preventing Palestinians outside the town from welcoming home en masse the delegation.

The Israelis point to Palestinian opposition to the conference as a reflection of the genuine sentiment in the occupied territories, as if Palestinians have but one single opinion, rather than views ranging the entire political spectrum, as in any society. In the Israeli scenario, the Palestinian cry for peace is depicted as merely a public relations campaign, the delegates as figureheads, out of touch with the true will of the people, which is to engage in violence directed at the state of Israel. Rather than succeeding in portraying the "true" face of the Palestinians, what is being demonstrated is the true face of Israel, set firmly against peace.

The Israeli Public

The Israeli media campaign aimed at Israeli public opinion attempted to once again undermine the credibility of the Palestinian delegation as people who had the power to negotiate for peace.

Recent polls have shown that the majority of Israelis favour coming to a peaceful, negotiated settlement with Palestinians, involving some kind of territorial compromise. Therefore, during and after the Madrid conference, articles in the Israeli press described the Palestinian delegation as a group of individuals enjoying no popular support, fighting amongst themselves, while under constant threat from their own people. Once again, opposition to the conference was focussed on disproportionately in an attempt to show the Israeli public that they should not have any confidence in the ability of the delegation to negotiate for peace on behalf of the Palestinians. The message to the Israeli public is clear: Do not put your trust or faith in this delegation, or the current peace process. This group will not be able to produce any tangible changes or bring about a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because they lack power and lack a political base in the occupied territories. Ironically, the Israeli claim that the delegates'lives are being threatened by their own people was made as police arrested members of a underground, Jewish extremist Organisation who were planning attacks on the Palestinian delegates.

The Palestinian Public

The Israeli media campaign addressed at Palestinians said, in effect: Your delegates have achieved nothing in Madrid. They are in the process of creating an alternative leadership to the PLO in Tunis and they have accepted autonomy, an option unacceptable ten years ago, instead of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli news broadcast in Arabic carried a speech by Foreign Minister David Levy to the Knesset in which he said: "The PLO is out of the picture and in contrast to the firm belief in this house, it was proven that it is possible to build up a leadership from among the Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza for the purpose of negotiating with Israel in order to shape their destiny." Immediately after the announcement of the names of the Palestinian delegation, IDF Coordinator of Activities in the Occupied Territories Dani Rothchild announced: "Today an alternative leadership to the PLO emerged in the occupied territories."

These and similar systematic announcements by Israeli officials and the Israeli media aim to create a gap between the delegates and the Palestinian people, with the hope of defeating all positive gains achieved by the delegates. Israel has tried to create an atmosphere of mistrust in the Palestinian political arena. Ironically, however, at the same time that Israel was charging that these figures represent an alternative leadership to the PLO, some officials were working on putting delegates such as Faisal Husseini and Hanan Ashrawi on trial for consulting with the PLO during the peace conference.

Israel tried to show the Palestinian delegates as failures, unable to cope with an historical opportunity to achieve Palestinian national rights. Palestinians, without access to local radio or TV stations, and a heavily censored press, could only combat this unfair media campaign by speaking directly to the people, as they have done since their return, throughout the occupied territories. Even this has been fraught with difficulties as the Israeli authorities have banned some meetings, as in Jericho recently, and interrogated participants and organisers of others, as happened in Qalqilia. However, if nothing concrete is attained through the peace talks, Palestinians will at least able to prove to the world that they have a genuine desire for peace and seek a just solution to the conflict.

The Second Stage

Finally, we come to the second stage of the Israeli media management campaign, which emerged following the first session of bilaterial talks in Washington DC and the failure of the news blitz aimed at discrediting the Palestinian delegation. The image of a power struggle between the delegates from the occupied territories and the PLO outside died, as the coordination between the two bodies was self evident in Washington and Moscow, particularly as all parties to the negotiatons are fully aware that the delegation has been selected and is guided by the PLO. Dire Israeli predictions that bloodshed and assassination would be the lot of the Palestinian delegation on their return home to face the opposition parties have also proved false, as opposition parties have clearly stated their views, but all parties remain united in the political struggle against the Israeli military occupation. This can be seen in the various local elections for trade unions and chambers of commerce, where coalition lists have been formed from parties with contrasting views on the peace process and parties in opposition haveheld joint press conferences.

The Israeli media campaign thus shifted, targetting instead the political sophistication and abilities of the Palestinian delegation, and attempting to damage their credibility by reporting that the delegates, through ignorance or misunderstanding, had agreed to terms in closed talks that were unacceptable to Palestinians in the occupied territories. During the second round of bilateral talks in Washington, trying to give the impression that the Palestinians were agreeing in private to points unacceptable to the national goals of the population and to further undermine the delegation's support at home, Israel Television reported that "the concept of self -rule [being discussed] is identical to that agreed upon in the Camp David accord; it is basically not a transfer of authority". Further, Israeli prime minister Shamir was quoted as telling the right-wing parties in the Knesset that after five years of autonomy Israeli sovereignty would continue to remain in force throughout "Eretz Yisrael".

Israeli foreign minister David Levy, interviewed on Israel Television after the Moscow talks, charged that Palestinians were trying to "change the rules of the game" in force at Madrid by bringing Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the diaspora as part of the delegation. An Israel Radio reporter the very next day told the listening audience that it appeared as if the Palestinians "are not able to understand" the official documents sent them by the Americans and others. Furthermore, the Israeli officials charged Palestinian delegates with "speaking out of both sides of their mouths with two different languages", in effect, making different statements in English and Arabic respectively, and being guilty of incitement to violence.

These efforts are part of a larger campaign to discredit the delegation abroad and to make Palestinians in the occupied territories believe that the delegation cannot manage the negotiations. It suggests the achievement of political victories by Israel, in stark contrast to the realities inside the negotiating chambers. In addition, the Israeli media has focussed undue time and attention on the Palestinian opposition to the negotiations. In its Arabic language news broadcast on 22 December 1991, following the Palestinian delegation'sreturn from the first round of bilateral talks in Washington, six minutes of film and commentary were given to coverage of a press conference by members of the opposition, compared with a scant one minute to that by the delegation, which consisted of an announcement that the press conference had occurred. This reveals Israel's determination to limit the public's access to the views of the delegation and encourage the impression that the opposition is winning increased support. it is important to note that Palestinians are denied the right to their own television or radio facilities in the occupied territories and are forced to rely on the Israeli Arabic language broadcasts or news from abroad. Israel has clearly shown that it is not interested in reinforcing the desire for peace in the Palestinian population nor indeed in its own people.