ABSTRACT
Israelis who acknowledge Palestinian political rights, and who claim to seek mutual recognition between their country and the Palestinians, in most cases insist that efforts to negotiate a settlement cannot go forward so long as the intifada continues. While Israel’s critics have often claimed that Zionism is racism and compared Israel to South Africa, freedom of political expression and participation for Israeli Arabs has made it possible to show the fallacies of such propaganda. Palestinians are determined to let Israelis know that occupation is not cost free so far as the Jewish state is concerned, and that political leaders who state otherwise are either ignorant of or deliberately lying about Arab grievances and demands. The intifada sends a powerful message about Palestinian demands and desires, and about the way that Palestinians will respond to a continuing abridgment of their right to self-determination.
