The degree to which the continuing unrest on the West Bank has affected Israel’s 670,000-strong Arab population will be tested tomorrow by the manner in which Israeli Arabs observe Land Day, an annual event protesting Israel’s seizure of Arab lands in Galilee six years ago.
A call for a general strike by the Committee for the Protection of Arab Land which organizes the Land Day observances, got only a lukewarm response from the National Council of Arab Mayors, the highest political body of Israeli Arabs.
Of 54 Arab and Druze mayors in Israel, 31 have announced that they and their local councils would not join a strike. The Council as a whole agreed unanimously to “welcome” a strike decision and expressed “understanding” for the reasons.
But this was an oblique way indicating neither approval nor disapproval. Individual mayors were left free to interpret the Council’s position in whatever way they choose.
Israeli experts on Arab affairs predicted today that a strike would be at least partially successful. The question was whether the participants would refrain from violence. Binyamin Gur-Arye, Premier Menachem Begin’s advisor an Arab affairs, warned yesterday that the government would act firmly against anyone who disturbed the peace.
AN AGONIZING DECISION
The 31 mayors who have opted against a strike said their’s was an aganizing decision because they are fully aware of the suffering of their Arab brethren in the occupied territories. But they concluded that a strike would only worsen relations between Jews and Arabs.
Gur-Arye urged Israeli Arabs not to be drawn into provocation. He claimed that the strike call was initiated by the Hadash (Communist) Party to retrieve some of the support that it lost among Israeli Arabs in the last Knesset elections.
The first Land Day demonstrations were initiated by the Communists in 1976 when the government expropriated 5,000 acres of Arab land in Galilee for the purpose of developing the Jewish towns of Carmiel and Upper Nazareth. The general strike called at the time turned violent and six Arabs were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces. It was the deaths more than anything else which turned Lan Day into an annual event.
Over the ensuing years, however, the organizers ruled out strikes and Land Day was marked by regional parades and rallies, all of them peaceful. As long as that continued, Israeli police refrained from showing a presence in the Arab towns during the demonstrations.
But the Land Day observances spread to the West Bank where they were marked by strikes and incidents of violence. Extremists among Israeli Arabs who wanted to emulate the West Bankers were restrained by the Communists. The latter believed that an image of moderation would strengthen their influence in the normally peaceful Arab sectors of Israel.
But in last June’s Knesset elections, the Communists lost nearly 30 percent of their Arab voters and as a consequence dropped one seat in the Knesset. Most of the Arab votes went to the Labor Alignment which Israeli Arabs regarded as the lesser of two evils compared to Likud.
Gur-Arye predicted two months ago that the Communists would adopt an extremist line as a result of their electoral defeat. The Land Day organizers denied this at the time and adopted a resolution ruling out any work stoppage.
ROLE OF YOUNG ARAB RADICALS
But recent events on the West Bank have had a strong impact on Israeli Arabs and pressure has been mounting for more vigorous demonstrations on Land Day. Pushing hardest for a general strike are “The Village Sons, ” a relatively small body of young Arab radicals, mainly students, who unlike the Communists would not be satisfied with a Palestinian state alongside Israel but demand such a state without recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
This group scored a victory when the organizing committee called for a strike. The events tomorrow are expected to be a show of strength between “The Village Sons” and the Communists and possibly a confrontation between Israeli Arabs and the police. Above all, observers believe, it will indicate to what degree the bittemess on the West Bank has spread to Israel’s Arab population.
ISRAEL’S POLICIES CONDEMNED
Meanwhile, the mayors of eight towns on the West Bank and Gaza Strip signed a statement yesterday condemning Israel’s policies in the occupied territories. The statement characterized Israel’s new civil administration in the territories as “a step toward annexation” and the mayors vowed not to cooperate with it. The statement also called for an independent state under the Palestine Liberation Organization.
But one of the signatories, Mayor Rashad Shawa of Gaza, met yesterday with Gen. Yosef Lunz, the governor of the civilian administration in the Gaza Strip. Shawa explained that the civil administration was only a continuation of the military occupation. “As people have to live in the occupied territories, we have to be in touch with the military authorities because everything is in their hands,” he said.
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