The latest conflict arose after the breakdown of talks between Yasir Arafat, Palestine Liberation Organization chairperson and president of the Palestinian National Authority, and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. The talks, sponsored by Washington in a high-profile session with U.S. president William Clinton, broke down when the Palestinian officials refused to accept demands by Washington and Tel Aviv to forfeit claims to sovereignty over Jerusalem. The Palestinian National Authority has nominal control of parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, areas which Palestinian leaders are seeking to proclaim as a state with Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli military forces occupied the Palestinian areas soon after the latest round of fighting began.

The establishment of the state of Israel following World War II as a military garrison outpost for imperialism in the Mideast was based on the denial of self-determination of the Palestinian people. This has remained a central conflict in the Mideast as the Palestinians have refused to be dissipated as a people or to give up their struggle for national rights. The Israeli government is dependent on Washington, which provides political backing, military collaboration, and billions in yearly financial subsidies.

The protests and repression were sparked by a provocation by rightist Israeli politician Ariel Sharon, who visited the most sacred Islamic site in Jerusalem September 28 surrounded by an armed entourage of 1,000 cops. He declared this calculated move a demonstration of Israeli control over the site.

Clerics at mosques encouraged immediate protests against this outrage, and thousands mobilized in the face of deadly fire by Israeli forces. Protests have taken place throughout the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and some towns inside Israel's borders. Arafat's Al Fatah militia has been active in organizing the actions and at times shooting at Israeli forces. The Palestinian Authority security forces have also joined in, sometimes defending protesters from Israeli assault, at other times standing by during the demonstrations, which were marked by the number of youth and working people who faced Israeli troop and police mobilizations.

The head of Al Fatah in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, has been a central organizer of the protests. Barghouti issued a statement September 29 calling for an uprising, and mobilized the militias throughout the West Bank.

At the Netzarim junction between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops fired on protesters September 30, killing a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was passing by. The boy has become a symbol of the Palestinian protests against Israeli brutality and oppression.

Two days later, hundreds of Palestinian youths pelted the Israeli army outpost there with rocks and some gasoline bombs. The troops attacked the crowd with automatic weapons and armor-piercing missiles launched from a helicopter.

Meanwhile, the protests spread to the Palestinian population within Israel--also known as "Israeli Arabs" to try to divide the Palestinian population. Numbering 1 million of the country's 6 million people, they have Israeli citizenship, unlike other Palestinians. Demonstrators blocked highways and closed schools, paralyzing some areas in northern Israel. Protests flared up in the Jaffa suburb of the capital, Tel Aviv.

The protests brought to the fore the systematic discrimination faced by Palestinians in Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian talks have revolved around limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the future of Jerusalem, and not around a change in these conditions.

"Israeli Arabs have long chafed at inadequate state budgets for their communities, land confiscations, inferior schools, and lack of housing and of industrial development plans for their towns," admitted a New York Times correspondent, reporting from Umm Al Fahm, a town where Palestinian protesters attacked a post office as a symbol of government authority.

The Clinton administration sent U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright to reconvene talks in Paris between Barak and Arafat October 5. The talks broke down after one day.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, denounced the Paris talks saying the meeting represents "careless disregard for the blood of our martyrs." Hamas has called for new confrontations with Israeli security forces.

The actions by Sharon, leader of the opposition Likud party in the Israeli parliament, show the divisions within the Israeli capitalist ruling class over what direction and how far to go in negotiations with the Palestinians. Sharon seeks to depose Labor Party prime minister Ehud Barak and said he would move a vote of no-confidence when parliament reconvenes this month.

The evolution of the Palestinian leadership of the PLO, which has become increasingly bourgeoisified over the past two decades, has deepened since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. Arafat has moved to quell opposition groups and more and more relied on ties with capitalist Arab regimes and negotiations with Washington to secure a Palestinian homeland.

The U.S. government is exerting pressure on the Israeli regime to reach a settlement aimed at stability, on terms favorable to imperialism. U.S. officials, while posing as even-handed, have directed most of their fire at the Palestinians, falsely blaming them for the violence.  
 
 

In Beirut, capital of Lebanon, some 20,000 people marched to the United Nations House October 3. The Lebanese Daily Star reports that thousands of Palestinian refugees were joined by students from two universities marching in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and inside Israeli borders. Demonstrations have also occurred in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.

Demonstrations took place in several cities in North America. In Montreal, 500 people marched October 2 to the Israeli consulate. The big majority were Palestinian students, who gave the demonstration its militant and boisterous character. Solidarity Palestine Human Rights, involving students from three local campuses, organized the demonstration. Signs declared: "52 years of oppression," "Pas de justice, pas de paix" (No justice, no peace). "Israel out of Palestine" and "Palestine-Québec, solidarité" were chanted in English, French, and Arabic.

In Chicago, 1,000 protesters and their supporters rallied to demand an end to the massacre of Palestinians and to denounce U.S. military and financial aid to Israel. The march to the Israeli consulate was called on one day's notice by several Palestinian and Arab organizations.

About 250 people gathered outside the Israeli consulate in New York October 3. The crowd waved large Palestinian flags, chanted in English and Arabic, and carried signs such as "The time is now: right to return," referring to the demand to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Sponsoring organizations included the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Palestinian American Congress, and Al-Awda. Two school buses brought people from Paterson, New Jersey.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, 100 people assembled in front of the state capitol building. Most came from the Arab-American community in the area, and there were a couple dozen Arab students from North Carolina State University. They held signs with the names of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, including 12-year-old Rami Jamal Al-Durra, whose fatal shooting by Israeli troops was telecast worldwide. Many motorists and passersby responded favorably to the demonstrators' chants and signs.

Grant Hargrave in Montreal, Cappy Kidd in Chicago, Elena Tate in New York, and Ben Dover in Durham, North Carolina, contributed to this article.