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The Intifada Diary section of A Personal Diary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has been planned since the Personal Diary itself was launched in mid 1996. However, work only began on it after David Solomon from the European Palestine Israel Centre (EPIC) approached me in early 1997 to ask me to participate in a Web-based, multi-perspective history project on the Intifada, called Peacequest. I have always felt uncomfortable with the idea of participating in 'joint' Israeli-Palestinian peace projects. They tend to be administratively dominated by the Israeli side and, in this respect, Peacequest was no exception. However, after attending an initial workshop in May 1997, and seeing a very genuine committment by David and his co-worker Noa Kanavan to encourage conceptual, as well as material, input from all of the participants, I realised that the usual implications of lack of balance did not need to apply in a project where everyone's point of view is afforded equal space. Such is the power of true multi-perspective projects. My agreed contribution to Peacequest was a series of stories from students from the Palestinian West Bank university of Birzeit, where I have worked since 1994, about their experiences during the Intifada. This initial idea has been expanded to include former students and faculty. Birzeit University was the first independent, national, Palestinian institution to be established in the country. This fact, combined with its role as an academic institution and intellectual hub, has afforded the university a central place in the Palestinian consciousness. Birzeit's graduates and faculty have gone on to become national leaders. University faculty made up sixty percent of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Peace Talks. And Birzeit was closed by direct Israeli military order 15 times, the last and longest period for 51 months after the beginning of the Intifada. So, Birzeit is a very unique institution and, as you will see, so are her children. By necessity, most of the students that will appear in the Intifada Diary, all activists to varying degrees during the Intifada, cannot be identified by their real names. This may seem an extreme measure in the post-Oslo period, while we are in the midst of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Yet one friend, as recently as summer 1996, was imprisoned and violently tortured by the Israeli authorities for minor Intifada activities he was involved in while aged 14. The two-column format of the Intifada Diary is different than that of other parts of a Personal Diary. This was determined by two editorial factors:
I intend to add material also from my first and third visits to Palestine, including audio and video material. In narrative material which is wholly my own, my voice is found in the left column with additional material in the right. Where my own narrative material is appended to others' voices, it will be separated by a horizontal rule. Whatever! Before this gets too complicated, let's just say that it will be clear from the context. The Intifada Diary was launched on 9 December 1997, on the tenth anniversary of the Intifada. During the coming 12 months, other voices will be added to the initial material on the Intifada Diary including that of prisoners, women activists, those involved in the national leadership and others. Please send any comments you may have by e-mail, thanks for visiting the Peacequest website, and please visit A Personal Diary website if you haven't already. The Intifada may have finished, but the events you will find recorded in A Personal Diary are still going on. Nigel Parry 9 December 1997 |
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