During the past month, “more voices … from Palestinian society” have called for a shift in the “tactics of the intifada [toward] nonviolence,” said Bassem Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, at a 5 April 2001 Center luncheon. Eid believes that Israel, while continuing to use “tanks and bullets,” might employ less brutal means against nonviolent demonstrators. Moreover, a stronger focus on nonviolence may improve media coverage of the conflict in favor of the Palestinians.

Some Palestinians, acting independently of the Palestinian Authority (PA), have fired on various Israeli outposts and settlements within the Occupied Territories. Such shootings have inflicted very little damage, and yet have served to harm Palestinians due to Israel’s punitive retaliation. For example: When shots are fired at Gilo settlement, generally from a significant distance, the results are ineffectual, but Israel has destroyed half of nearby Beit Jala in retaliatory bombing raids.

Israel’s excessive use of force has resulted in a higher Palestinian death rate than during the first intifada. In the first year of the earlier uprising, Israeli forces killed 450 Palestinians. Now, just over six months into the current uprising, approximately 400 Palestinians are dead. Since the 1948 war, Eid contended, Palestinians have never seen such a stringent closure, “helicopters hitting civilians,” and tanks firing at civilian homes. In the current crisis, the PA “has become so useless.” It is unable to do anything to stop the helicopter gunships, closures, and other repressive policies of the Israeli government.

“What can the Palestinian Authority do for us?” Eid asked. It seems “we have no leadership anymore.” “People are getting killed every day” and PA President Yasser Arafat cannot “give them any protection.” Because of the PA’s powerlessness, Palestinian society is trying “to find an end to the suffering” apart from the PA.

“Arafat is not responsible anymore for the situation,” Eid argued. Israel blames Arafat for inciting Palestinians, yet “it is not true.” The intifada erupted “because the people are so frustrated from the situation”—it was “not planned at all.” Nonetheless, Israel demands that Arafat stop the uprising. But how can he ask the Palestinians to end the intifada, asked Eid, “when there is no deal in his hand” to offer them? As opposed to offering something Arafat can take to the Palestinian people, Israel continues its policy of home demolitions, land confiscation, and assassinations.

Still, “we should continue the struggle,” Eid asserted. Palestinians have a “legitimate right to resist against the occupation.” However, they need to decide if they should continue with the current protest methods or try different tactics. After six months of resistance, “we [are] stuck at the same place.” The PA is now asking Israel to withdraw its tanks, end the closure, and allow free movement in the Occupied Territories. Yet these are simply demands for a return to the status quo that existed prior to the uprising.

During the first intifada, the Palestinians received more support from the international community. The conflict was viewed as an army battling civilians. This is less the case now. If Palestinians shift tactics, some still may be killed, but “is it our violence or their violence” that will be apparent? This may help address one of the Palestinians’ key problems: that they have little or no media support. When a nine-year-old Palestinian is killed in his home by the Israeli army, it does not make the front page. When a 10-month-old Israeli is killed in Hebron, however, her photo is on the front page of newspapers all over the world.

“I am blaming the media,” particularly the U.S. press, for this biased coverage, Eid said. More Israelis than Palestinians are quoted in the press, even though correspondents of The New York Times and The Washington Post know many Palestinians. Still, the PA also bears responsibility for the biased media coverage. The Israeli government closely monitors the media and puts pressure on them; representatives of the PA do not. “Don’t tell me that everyone knows what’s going on in the Occupied Territories,” Eid contended. Even if people read the press daily and watch CNN 24 hours a day, they still do not really comprehend the situation.

“We are in a kind of dilemma,” he said. “No one expected that this intifada would take such a long time.” Arafat did not foresee how difficult the situation would become, and now Arafat is losing his authority. Some ministers have already moved their families out of the Occupied Territories, much to the resentment of Palestinians, who feel abandoned.

At the moment, Arafat is “between his own people’s hammer and [the anvil of] the Israeli army.” There is a “huge contradiction” between the demands made by the two sides. Palestinians want to end the occupation, while Israel wants to end resistance to the occupation. Meanwhile, Arafat gets no support from the media, no support from the international community, no support from Arab countries, and finally, no support from his own people.

In an effort to improve the situation, Palestinians want to see more Israeli peace activists enter the Occupied Territories to reopen roads and support them in other ways. During the past month, Palestinians have organized more civilian demonstrations; in response, more Israelis have participated. Eid referred to 200 Israelis from Rabbis for Human Rights who helped to reopen the blockaded road leading out of Rantis village. Villagers offered refreshments to them as they worked. The Israeli army re-closed the road after the activists were finished; nevertheless, it was a positive step that Palestinians supported.

Eid argued that the international community as a whole must pressure Israel to change its policies or the “whole Middle East” will be in “danger.” If Israel wants to end the intifada, it must understand that “excessive force” will negatively affect its own security in the long run.