Al-Qiyada al-Wataniyya al-Muwahhida li-l-Intifada Collection

Period  1987-1990
Total size   0.02 m.
Consultation Not restricted
User restriction   Only the microfilms can be consulted

History

Al-Qiyada al-Wataniyya al-Muwahhida li-l-Intifada (the Unified National Command of the Intifada) was founded in January 1988 during the Intifada (Palestinian uprising on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip); composed of anonymous young members of Fatah, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Communist Party of Palestine (CPP); issued 46 numbered leaflets, with a distribution of 10,000 to 35,000 each, through which it was able to direct the Intifada; several times the whole Unified National Command was arrested, each time to be succeeded by others; dissolved in September 1989; the Intifada itself ended with the Gulf War, and was superseded by the Oslo Accords of September 1993, when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) regained its dominant position in the Occupied Territories.

Content

Collection of the leaflets Nos. 1-42, 46 (partly in original and partly photocopies) of the Unified National Command 1988-1989; some leaflets issued separately by the PFLP, DFLP, CPP, al-Havaka al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (HAMAS), the Local Command Council of Rammallah and other local organizations 1987-1990.

Processing information

Inventory made by Roel Meijer

Alternate Form of Material

Security microfilm 1990.

Security microfilm 1990

INTRODUCTION

History

The first numbered leaflet of the intifada was issued in January 1988 and bore the signature of the ` Unified National Command to Escalate the Uprising in the Occupied Territories ', a body which was a fiction at that point of time as it was still a private initiative of one member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) . Besides demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state, the flier called for a general strike of three days, the erection of road-blocks, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the cities, towns and refugee camps, the repeal of the emergency laws and the holding of democratic elections. When the flier was being printed, it was discovered that two days earlier a similar flier had been printed at the same publisher's in name of the `Palestine National Forces', an organization of Fatah .
In this atmosphere of rivalry the Unified National Command was born as a compromise between the Democratic and Popular Fronts, the Palestinian Communist Party and Fatah . The flier the PFLP issued was quickly given number two in the series of leaflets issued by the Unified National Command which ended with No. 46 almost two years later.
The Unified National Command was a grass roots organization which had been established at the initiative of local groups on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For the first time since the establishment of the PLO , a political organization was established that was at least partly independent from the PLO. Its leaders were anonymous young Palestinians who replaced the old guard of the PLO `notables' after they had proved themselves unable to take command of the Intifada during the first months after its outbreak in October 1987.
The fliers were the greatest achievement of the Unified National Command. They set realistic goals and established practical means of attaining them. They gave coherence to the intifada and determined strike days, sneered at the enemy and gave pride to its participants. Although the Unified National Command sometimes consulted with the PLO headquarters in Tunis, it mostly decided its strategy according to specific circumstances and local exigencies. The distribution system of the fliers, which numbered between 35,000 and 100,000 copies, was ingenious. The very fact that they were distributed all over the West Bank without the Shin Bet discovering the whereabouts of the Unified National Command, meant that the Intifada was well-organized. Due to the large recruitment potential, the anonymous membership of the Unified Command was easily replaced. When one of the distributors was arrested with 35,000 copies of flier No. 6 in his van on 3 February 1988, and the whole Unified Command was arrested, it was quickly succeeded by another, put together by its participating organizations. The next two Commands were arrested as well; the first while drawing up flier No. 11 on 19 March, the second only one month later. Continuous repression and the difficulty in printing such enormous numbers of fliers meant, however, that initiative and guidance over the intifada gradually shifted from the Unified National Command to the PLO headquarters in Tunis.
From autumn 1988 fliers were read at dictation speed over the radio by the PLO. As control from outside increased, the fliers lost their original verve and started to repeat themselves. When at the beginning of 1989 the last lineup of the Unified Command was arrested, power had devolved to the local committees which continued the intifada. Eventually, the Unified Command was unable to resist the pressure of the Israeli's and the PLO together.

The collection

The collection of fliers of the Unified National Command of the Intifada was received by the IISH in 1989. The leaflets of the Unified Command, which form the main part of the collection, was distributed between January 1988 and September 1989. The collection also contains leaflets issued jointly by Fatah and the Unified Command, the local Command council of Ramallah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) , the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) , HAMAS and several other Palestinian organizations. The leaflets of the Unified National Command, part of which are orginal and part of which are photocopies, are numbered from one to forty six (Nos. 43 - 45 are missing). The size of the collection is 0.02 m.
All the leaflets of the Unified National Command and the other Palestinian organizations, issued from the beginning of 1987 until the end of 1988 (until leaflet No. 30 of the Unified National Command), have been described and reproduced by Jean-François Legrain in his book Les Voix du soulèvement palestinien (Cairo, 1991).

INVENTORY