Amira Hass - Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege

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Contents

To my parentsHanna and Avraham

Glossary

Cairo Agreement: Signed in Cairo on May 4, 1994, the agreement formally initiated Palestinian self-rule and established terms for the Israeli military redeployment in Gaza and Jericho. The Cairo agreement also defined the structure of the Palestinian Authority, its relations with Israel, and the terms of Palestinian general elections. The Cairo agreement is also known as Oslo 1 and the Gaza-Jericho agreement.

Civil Administration: A separate branch of the Israeli military government in the occupied territories, set up in 1981 to handle civilian matters. The civil administration was dissolved in the Gaza Strip in 1994 but continues to function in those parts of the West Bank that remain under direct Israeli military control.

Communist Party: Established in 1919, it changed its name to the Palestinian Peoples Party in 1991.

Coordination and Liaison Office (CLO): The Israeli administration set this up in 1994 to replace the civil administration.

Declaration of Principles (DOP): An agreement to establish limited Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and in Jericho in the West Bank that also set down principles for further negotiations. The DOP was signed in Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1993, by Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yassir Arafat.

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP): Broke away from the PFLP in 1969; led by Naif Hawatmeh. The DFLP supported a democratic, secular state in Palestine with equal rights for Jews and Arabs; it now advocates a two-state solution.

Fatah: The largest and most influential Palestinian political organization, founded by Yassir Arafat in exile in 1959. Fatah took the position that the liberation of Palestine was primarily a Palestinian concern.

Baruch Goldstein: A Jewish doctor who lived in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, Goldstein opened fire on Moslems praying at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. He killed twenty-nine Palestinians before he himself was killed. The massacre took place on February 25, 1994, during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.

Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement): Formed at the beginning of the intifada in 1987 by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, among them Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Salah Shehade. Hamas is the second largest organization in the occupied territories.

Intifada: The Palestinian popular uprising that began on December 9, 1987, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The intifada ended officially in 1993 when the Letters of Mutual Recognition were exchanged between Israel and the PLO.

Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War): A Muslim Brotherhood breakaway group formed in the mid-1980s by Fathi Shiqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Oudeh, two refugees from Gaza. The Islamic Jihad advocates an Islamic state in all of Palestine.

Letters of Mutual Recognition: Following intense negotiations in Oslo, Yassir Arafat sent a letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on September 9, 1993, in which the PLO recognized Israels right to exist and renounced terrorism. In reply, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of Palestinians in negotiations. The letters paved the way for the Oslo Accords.

Madrid Negotiations: U.S.-Sovietsponsored Middle East peace conference in Madrid that opened in October 1991. The conference was attended by Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Israeli delegations; the Palestinians agreed to participate as members of the Jordanian delegation. Bilateral talks among the delegations continued in Washington, D.C., hosted by the U.S. State Department.

Muslim Brotherhood: Founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a schoolteacher critical of the moral and political conduct of Arab leaders.

Oslo Accords: The umbrella term for a series of agreements signed by Israel and the PLO between September 1993 and September 1995, which includes the Declaration of Principles, the Cairo agreement, the Washington agreement, and the Paris Protocols. The accords are so called because early negotiations between the two sides were conducted in Oslo.

Palestinian Authority: The self-ruling body established in Gaza and Jericho in May 1994 as a result of the Oslo Accords; its jurisdiction was later extended to other parts of the West Bank. The Authority includes an eighty-eight-member elected legislative council, an executive branch that consists of some thirty members, and six security branches.

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO): Founded in Jerusalem in 1964 as a coalition of various Palestinian political factions. The PLO was tightly controlled by the Arab League until 1969, when the Fatah movement, led by Yassir Arafat, took command of the organization.

Palestine National Council (PNC): The PLOs legislative body, to which its 554 members are either nominated or elected. Seats were held vacant for residents of the occupied territories until April 1996, when all the members of the Palestinian Legislative Council joined its ranks.

Paris Protocols: Protocol on economic relations between Israel and the future Palestinian Authority, signed in Paris on April 29, 1994.

Partition Plan: In 1947 the United Nations proposed a plan to divide Palestine into two self-governing territories, one populated with Jews, the other with Arabs. The plan was accepted by the Jewish community in Palestine but rejected by most of the Arab population.

Permanent-status Negotiations: Talks on the final nature of a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians began on May 5, 1996, in Taba, a town on the Israeli-Egyptian border. These negotiations quickly broke down over Israels delays on further redeployments in the West Bank.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): A Marxist-Leninist organization founded in exile in 1967 by George Habash and historically the group most closely identified with the concept of armed struggle as the means to liberate Palestine.

Shabak: The Israeli intelligence agency responsible for internal security, Shabak operates within Israel and the occupied territories. Shabak is the Hebrew acronym for sherut bitachon klali, or General Security Service.

Um- and Abu-: Literally mother of and father of. According to traditional Arab practice, parents adopt the name of their eldest son, who is usually named for his paternal grandfather.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): Created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 to assist Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

Washington Agreement: Also called Oslo 2 or the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the accord was signed in Washington, D.C., on September 28, 1995. It expanded the jurisdiction of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank for an interim period to end no later than five years after the signing of the Cairo accord, i.e., on May 4, 1999. Crucial issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, the Jewish settlements, and the Palestinian refugees were to be addressed in permanent-status negotiations.