29 sept 2013
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the return to negotiations with Israel harmed the resistance and affected the results of the second intifada, and stressed that the Intifada is able to counter balance Israeli occupation’s terror. Member of the Central Committee of the Front Jamil Mezher said in a press statement on Sunday that "the second intifada changed the balance of power and put the Palestinian issue on the table of the international community."
He stressed that the second intifada and its results have been invested in the wrong way. "It was not exploited under a unified national framework, and the occupation was able to undermine its role."
Mezher pointed out that there are several options available for the Palestinians, "most notably achieving the national unity, working on creating a joint national program for all factions, adhering to the option of resistance in all its forms."
He also called for continuing to go to the international institutions to "hold the occupation accountable for its crimes," and stressed that such trends "may form a path to isolate Israel internationally."
The second intifada broke out on September 28, 2000, and lasted for about five years, during which violent armed clashes took place. During Al-Aqsa Intifada, nearly 4412 Palestinians were killed while more than 48,000 were injured.
He stressed that the second intifada and its results have been invested in the wrong way. "It was not exploited under a unified national framework, and the occupation was able to undermine its role."
Mezher pointed out that there are several options available for the Palestinians, "most notably achieving the national unity, working on creating a joint national program for all factions, adhering to the option of resistance in all its forms."
He also called for continuing to go to the international institutions to "hold the occupation accountable for its crimes," and stressed that such trends "may form a path to isolate Israel internationally."
The second intifada broke out on September 28, 2000, and lasted for about five years, during which violent armed clashes took place. During Al-Aqsa Intifada, nearly 4412 Palestinians were killed while more than 48,000 were injured.
Palestinian Youth Intifada Coalition on Saturday evening announced the start of the events of the Jerusalem Week for the support of Jerusalem and the Islamic and Christian holy sites. The coalition called on the Palestinian young people in Jerusalem to intensify their presence in the Aqsa mosque in order to prevent the Israeli soldiers and settlers from entering its courtyards, and to confront all the Israeli plans to Judaize Jerusalem and the holy sites.
It announced in a statement on Saturday evening that next Monday will be a day of anger against the settlements in all the cities of the West Bank, and called on the Palestinian youths and students of universities and schools to close all roads leading to these settlements, and to rally at all military checkpoints in the West Bank cities.
The Youth Intifada Coalition confirmed that dozens of foreign peace activists decided to participate in the activities of Monday considering that the settlement activity is a clear violation of all international conventions and resolutions according to which Israel must remove the settlements as they harm the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cities.
It stressed that its popular activities will continue and that "the occupation will pay for its persistent aggression against our people", and called on all the people and factions to participate in the popular uprising against the occupier.
It announced in a statement on Saturday evening that next Monday will be a day of anger against the settlements in all the cities of the West Bank, and called on the Palestinian youths and students of universities and schools to close all roads leading to these settlements, and to rally at all military checkpoints in the West Bank cities.
The Youth Intifada Coalition confirmed that dozens of foreign peace activists decided to participate in the activities of Monday considering that the settlement activity is a clear violation of all international conventions and resolutions according to which Israel must remove the settlements as they harm the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cities.
It stressed that its popular activities will continue and that "the occupation will pay for its persistent aggression against our people", and called on all the people and factions to participate in the popular uprising against the occupier.
The Hamas Movement said that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped 129 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem last week in the context of a recent campaign aimed at suppressing any Palestinian uprising for the Aqsa Mosque.
According to a report issued by Hamas on Sunday, the detention campaign during last week has been the most ferocious since the start of the current year.
It explained that 45 Palestinians of those detainees were from Al-Khalil, 41 others from Jerusalem and the rest from Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem.
According to a report issued by Hamas on Sunday, the detention campaign during last week has been the most ferocious since the start of the current year.
It explained that 45 Palestinians of those detainees were from Al-Khalil, 41 others from Jerusalem and the rest from Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem.
The Israeli police and security apparatuses continued on Saturday its detention and suppression campaign in occupied Jerusalem and its neighborhoods and kidnapped 29 young men on allegations of their participation in protests and events during the last few days in support of the Aqsa Mosque.
Lawyer Hamdi Meswaddah told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that many students and young men who went on a march in protest of the Israeli violations against the Aqsa Mosque in Sultan Suleiman street last Friday were taken prisoners.
Meswaddah added that most of these young men were kidnapped from their homes in the old city of Jerusalem.
He noted that Israeli policemen and soldiers occupied the rooftops of Palestinian homes overlooking the Aqsa Mosque and its vicinity, and took pictures of passersby, adding that other group of troops on the ground brutally attacked young men in the old city and took them prisoners.
According to other local sources, Israeli police men and border guards raided several homes in Al-Saadiya neighborhood in the old city and handed its Palestinian residents written orders warning them of arrest if they refused to allow the police to use their rooftops at any time.
Lawyer Hamdi Meswaddah told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that many students and young men who went on a march in protest of the Israeli violations against the Aqsa Mosque in Sultan Suleiman street last Friday were taken prisoners.
Meswaddah added that most of these young men were kidnapped from their homes in the old city of Jerusalem.
He noted that Israeli policemen and soldiers occupied the rooftops of Palestinian homes overlooking the Aqsa Mosque and its vicinity, and took pictures of passersby, adding that other group of troops on the ground brutally attacked young men in the old city and took them prisoners.
According to other local sources, Israeli police men and border guards raided several homes in Al-Saadiya neighborhood in the old city and handed its Palestinian residents written orders warning them of arrest if they refused to allow the police to use their rooftops at any time.
Hamas movement said on the thirteenth anniversary of the Aqsa Intifada that it will not accept any agreement or promises that will lead to the recognition of "Israel", and that it will never relinquish the rights and holy sites. The movement marked the thirteenth anniversary of the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada of 2000 that was triggered when the Israeli former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raided and desecrated the Aqsa mosque guarded by police and soldiers.
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday morning, "We will not accept any agreement or promises that will lead to the recognition of Israel, and will not recognize any agreement concluded with the occupation at the expense of the waiver of our land, rights, constants and holy sites. All Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people."
It pointed out that the negotiations and security coordination with the occupation constitute a cover for the occupation crimes against the Palestinian people, land and sanctities, and called on the Palestinian factions to reject the futile negotiations, which proved its failure in achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Hamas urged Fatah movement to shoulder its responsibilities, stop the negotiations and security coordination, return to the option of resistance and work on achieving the national reconciliation.
It also stressed that occupation schemes to Judaize Jerusalem, divide Al-Aqsa and build the alleged Temple will never succeed in obliterating the historical facts, noting that Jerusalem will always remain an Arab and Islamic city and the capital of the State of Palestine.
The movement reiterated that the resistance is the only strategic option to defeat the occupation, and said: "The resistance with all its forms, especially the armed resistance is the only strategic option able to defeat the occupation. It is the best response to the occupation ongoing crimes in the West Bank and Jerusalem."
It called on the Jerusalemites and people from the 1948 territories to continue flocking towards the Aqsa to confront the Israeli crimes, and asked the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian people to join the efforts and activate their actions in order to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.
Hamas also called on the Arab Republic of Egypt to lift the siege on Gaza, stressing that the unjust siege and the continued incitement against the resistance serve only the interests of the occupation.
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday morning, "We will not accept any agreement or promises that will lead to the recognition of Israel, and will not recognize any agreement concluded with the occupation at the expense of the waiver of our land, rights, constants and holy sites. All Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people."
It pointed out that the negotiations and security coordination with the occupation constitute a cover for the occupation crimes against the Palestinian people, land and sanctities, and called on the Palestinian factions to reject the futile negotiations, which proved its failure in achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Hamas urged Fatah movement to shoulder its responsibilities, stop the negotiations and security coordination, return to the option of resistance and work on achieving the national reconciliation.
It also stressed that occupation schemes to Judaize Jerusalem, divide Al-Aqsa and build the alleged Temple will never succeed in obliterating the historical facts, noting that Jerusalem will always remain an Arab and Islamic city and the capital of the State of Palestine.
The movement reiterated that the resistance is the only strategic option to defeat the occupation, and said: "The resistance with all its forms, especially the armed resistance is the only strategic option able to defeat the occupation. It is the best response to the occupation ongoing crimes in the West Bank and Jerusalem."
It called on the Jerusalemites and people from the 1948 territories to continue flocking towards the Aqsa to confront the Israeli crimes, and asked the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian people to join the efforts and activate their actions in order to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.
Hamas also called on the Arab Republic of Egypt to lift the siege on Gaza, stressing that the unjust siege and the continued incitement against the resistance serve only the interests of the occupation.
28 sept 2013
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By Jon Elmer
Ten years ago, Ariel Sharon marched on the symbolic heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, flanked by a 1,000-strong security force, and invoked one of the most famous phrases in Israeli history. "The Temple Mount is in our hands," he said, reiterating the radio broadcast from June 1967, when Israeli forces overran Jerusalem and occupied the last portions of Palestinian territory not conquered in 1948. Though Sharon's message that day was directed to the Israeli public in his run for the leadership of the Likud party, it was received with rage by Palestinians, whose anger after the failure of the Oslo peace process and the collapse of final status negotiations at Camp David two months earlier was simmering. |
General Sharon's legacy had long been cemented in the Palestinian narrative: Architect of the invasion of Lebanon; responsible for the vicious massacres at Sabra and Shatila; and, in many ways, founder of the settlement enterprise that by the autumn of 2000 had devastated Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
A perfect storm
What began as a few hundred protesters throwing shoes at Sharon's police escort following prayers at al-Aqsa mosque had within hours erupted into demonstrations across the Palestinian territories, with chants of "we want an intifada".
The following day, September 29, Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of unarmed demonstrators in al-Aqsa compound, killing seven and wounding more than 100. "People are being massacred! Bring the ambulances," echoed from the mosque's loudspeakers.
Demonstrations raged throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli forces repeatedly met the stone-throwing crowds with live ammunition.
In Gaza, a French broadcast crew captured footage of a boy called Mohammed al-Durrah being shot repeatedly by Israeli forces as he clung to his father. Moments later, a paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was killed as he attempted to treat the boy and his father.
Inside the Green Line, too, riots took hold in Palestinian communities, with 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel killed in the first days of protests.
As the intensity of the demonstrations increased, so too did international and human rights groups' condemnation of Israel's violent attempts to suppress what was quickly becoming an uprising.
Amos Malka, the head of Israeli military intelligence at the time, said that Israeli forces fired more than 1,300,000 bullets in the territories in the first month alone.
"This is a strategic figure that says that our soldiers are shooting and shooting and shooting," Malka said about what amounted to some 40,000 rounds a day.
"The significance is that we are determining the height of the flames."
War
By the end of the year, at least 275 Palestinians had been killed and thousands had been wounded, along with 19 members of the Israeli security forces and five Israeli civilians, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Palestinian stone-throwers were met with Israeli snipers; gunmen, with helicopter gunships and tanks. What began as a popular protest movement quickly began to look like a war.
"When the soldiers began to fire on the crowds, people knew that their role was finished and participation quickly declined. It was a war," said Kamel Jaber, a member of the political wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in an interview in 2003.
Whereas the first intifada (1987-1992) was defined by popular protest, general strikes and stones - and to be sure, harsh Israeli counter-measures, including the infamous order by Yitzhak Rabin to break the bones of stone-throwing Palestinians - it was immediately clear that this new uprising was different.
Demonstrations were being met with overwhelming force by Israel and it made popular protest impossible.
In February 2001, the Israeli public backed the strategy when General Sharon was elected prime minister.
Suicide bombing campaign
While suicide attacks came to define the Palestinian armed struggle, these operations did not begin in earnest until more than a year into the uprising, and after the deaths of more than 400 Palestinians.
Against a heavily armed and armoured Israeli force, the kind of guerrilla warfare that the Palestinians had access to - namely, ambushes, shooting attacks and defensive armed struggle - was strictly limited and of marginal impact.
Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago's Project on Security and Terrorism, has studied suicide terrorism worldwide since 1980. "Suicide attacks are always one of last resort," said the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.
"What you see is that it almost always comes later, after the ordinary violence - when you have ordinary violence that doesn't rollback the occupation."
Pape says his thesis, that as occupation increases, so do attacks, is borne out "in no better place than Palestine".
While Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out the most suicide attacks, all factions were involved - including secular elements of Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades and the leftist PFLP.
"Religion itself has very little to do with it," said Pape, whose institute has compiled the first comprehensive database of suicide bombings. "Over 95 per cent of suicide attacks around the world since 1980 are in direct response to a foreign occupation."
"The core issue with what is called Palestinian terrorism is a response to the loss of autonomy in the West bank and Gaza," said Pape.
The collapse of the peace process had signaled to Palestinians that the expansive occupation would persist.
An asymmetrical conflict
Mahmoud Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and a member of its leadership, points to the asymmetry of the conflict and the options for armed struggle under the vast disparity in military capabilities.
"How do you expect people facing such aggression to stop [using] one of the methods that sends a clear message that if you are going to kill my son, your son should expect to be killed," Zahar told me in an interview in 2005.
"Just give us, as the Israelis have, helicopters, guns, tanks, and so on - and at that time we are going to face army for army.
"But if you are going tie my hands and throw me into the sea and tell me I am not allowed to use my legs - this is nonsense. We are not playing in a movie here. We lost our people, our houses, our future - they destroyed everything in our lives. We are fighting to live."
By the end of 2004, there had been 135 Palestinian suicide bombings which had killed 500 and in many cases brought the war right to the centre of Israel's cities.
"In terms of producing political or strategic results, what you see is that suicide terrorism is significantly effective at the strategic level," Pape explained.
Yoram Schweitzer, a former Israeli intelligence officer, said the attacks were the most "impressive" aspect on the Israeli public consciousness.
"There is no question that suicide attacks were efficient in the sense that the Israeli casualties were very high," said Schweitzer, the director of the programme on terrorism and low-intensity conflict at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies.
"Of course, the Palestinians also paid a price for it, in terms of the Israeli firm hand and the [determination] to fight filthy against it."
Defining moment
Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, described the war as an effort to "sear" into Palestinian consciousness that they cannot succeed through armed struggle.
"Because if we do not do that, Israel will be in serious trouble," he said in his exit interview with Ha'aretz.
In April 2002, Israel invaded the West Bank en masse in an operation titled "Defensive Shield", and reoccupied Palestinian cities and towns in the largest military offensive in Palestinian territory since 1967.
According to a report by the UN secretary general, 500 Palestinians were killed and more than 6,000 were arrested during the campaign.
In what is perhaps the defining moment of the intifada, in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian fighters held off the Israeli offensive of more than 1,000 soldiers during several days of fierce fighting.
Unable to effectively enter the camp with ground troops, Israel responded by bombing the camp with helicopters and warplanes, shelling it with tanks, and ultimately bulldozing a massive section of the camp - leaving 4,000 homeless according to Human Rights Watch.
In 10 days, 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in what became known as the Battle of Jenin.
Israel's 'targeted killings'
Israel's campaign to suppress the uprising took a heavy toll on ordinary Palestinians.
After four years, at least 2,859 Palestinians had been killed and tens of thousands injured. Israel destroyed more than 3,700 Palestinian homes and placed more than 7,300 Palestinians in Israeli prisons according to B'Tselem.
Significantly, the Palestinian leadership was also decimated by a concerted campaign of assassination.
While some assassinations were ambushes by undercover Israeli units, helicopters increasingly became a fixture of Israeli attacks.
Helicopter gunships and anti-tank missiles were used on cars, offices and homes. They hovered over Palestinian cities and refugee camps.
Avi Dichter, Israel's internal security chief during the intifada, characterised the policy by stating simply: "When a Palestinian child draws a picture of the sky, he doesn't draw it without a helicopter."
Between November 2000 and September 2004, Israel carried out at least 273 assassinations, according to data compiled by the Institute for Palestine Studies.
High profile assassinations included Abu Ali Mustafa, the general secretary of the PFLP, in 2001, and the top Hamas leaders and founders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi, in 2004.
Perhaps most notoriously, in July 2002, Israeli warplanes dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on a Gaza apartment building that housed Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades commander Salah Shehade and his family. The Hamas founder was killed along with 15 others, including his wife and nine children.
The Shehade assassination led to notable criticism, even within Israel, where it inspired the so-called "pilots' letter" - a declaration by several Israeli air force pilots refusing to carry out bombing raids over occupied territory.
In response, Dan Halutz, the chief of Israel's air force, urged his pilots to "sleep well" at night, knowing that "you are not responsible for the contents of the target. Your execution was perfect. Superb ... You did exactly what you were instructed to do," he told Ha'aretz.
Palestinians retaliated for the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, when militants from the PFLP assassinated far-right Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October 2001 in his Jerusalem hotel. The assassins managed to evade capture and returned to the West Bank.
In 2002, as Arafat's Ramallah compound was under siege, the Palestinian president imprisoned Ze'evi's assassins, along with PFLP general secretary Ahmed Sa'adat in a deal brokered by the US and UK. Israel has since sacked the prison and taken the men into custody in Israel.
The assassinations were a crucial element in "containing" the uprising, said Schweitzer.
"Of course, the contribution of the IDF [Israeli army] in the cities was crucial, and the establishment of the fence was a major component, too," he said.
Abandoning armed struggle?
By the end of 2003, the intifada began to wane, and Israelis were moving toward a territorial withdrawal for the first time in the history of Zionism.
Sharon's "unilateral disengagement", saw the removal of settlers from Gaza and the "redeployment" of the Israeli army to the borders of Gaza. It opened a new chapter of the conflict, while in many ways quietening the intifada.
From the announcement of the disengagement from Gaza in early 2004, Hamas attacks all but ceased - only one of Hamas' 38 suicide attacks occurred in 2004.
"The Palestinians suffered major losses in their leadership, their senior leadership, because most of them were either killed or in prison," Schweitzer said.
"But they also wanted to capitalise on the achievement [of the uprising] and they went into the political arena," he said, speaking particularly of Hamas.
So, did Hamas abandon the armed struggle in favour of electoral democracy?
According to Aziz Dweik, Hamas' senior West Bank leader: "If things went as they were expected to, yes. They were really pretty close to having a solution to what they call resistance. But they were not given the chance. I think in the future Israel will be sorry for that."
A perfect storm
What began as a few hundred protesters throwing shoes at Sharon's police escort following prayers at al-Aqsa mosque had within hours erupted into demonstrations across the Palestinian territories, with chants of "we want an intifada".
The following day, September 29, Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of unarmed demonstrators in al-Aqsa compound, killing seven and wounding more than 100. "People are being massacred! Bring the ambulances," echoed from the mosque's loudspeakers.
Demonstrations raged throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli forces repeatedly met the stone-throwing crowds with live ammunition.
In Gaza, a French broadcast crew captured footage of a boy called Mohammed al-Durrah being shot repeatedly by Israeli forces as he clung to his father. Moments later, a paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was killed as he attempted to treat the boy and his father.
Inside the Green Line, too, riots took hold in Palestinian communities, with 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel killed in the first days of protests.
As the intensity of the demonstrations increased, so too did international and human rights groups' condemnation of Israel's violent attempts to suppress what was quickly becoming an uprising.
Amos Malka, the head of Israeli military intelligence at the time, said that Israeli forces fired more than 1,300,000 bullets in the territories in the first month alone.
"This is a strategic figure that says that our soldiers are shooting and shooting and shooting," Malka said about what amounted to some 40,000 rounds a day.
"The significance is that we are determining the height of the flames."
War
By the end of the year, at least 275 Palestinians had been killed and thousands had been wounded, along with 19 members of the Israeli security forces and five Israeli civilians, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.
Palestinian stone-throwers were met with Israeli snipers; gunmen, with helicopter gunships and tanks. What began as a popular protest movement quickly began to look like a war.
"When the soldiers began to fire on the crowds, people knew that their role was finished and participation quickly declined. It was a war," said Kamel Jaber, a member of the political wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in an interview in 2003.
Whereas the first intifada (1987-1992) was defined by popular protest, general strikes and stones - and to be sure, harsh Israeli counter-measures, including the infamous order by Yitzhak Rabin to break the bones of stone-throwing Palestinians - it was immediately clear that this new uprising was different.
Demonstrations were being met with overwhelming force by Israel and it made popular protest impossible.
In February 2001, the Israeli public backed the strategy when General Sharon was elected prime minister.
Suicide bombing campaign
While suicide attacks came to define the Palestinian armed struggle, these operations did not begin in earnest until more than a year into the uprising, and after the deaths of more than 400 Palestinians.
Against a heavily armed and armoured Israeli force, the kind of guerrilla warfare that the Palestinians had access to - namely, ambushes, shooting attacks and defensive armed struggle - was strictly limited and of marginal impact.
Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago's Project on Security and Terrorism, has studied suicide terrorism worldwide since 1980. "Suicide attacks are always one of last resort," said the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.
"What you see is that it almost always comes later, after the ordinary violence - when you have ordinary violence that doesn't rollback the occupation."
Pape says his thesis, that as occupation increases, so do attacks, is borne out "in no better place than Palestine".
While Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out the most suicide attacks, all factions were involved - including secular elements of Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades and the leftist PFLP.
"Religion itself has very little to do with it," said Pape, whose institute has compiled the first comprehensive database of suicide bombings. "Over 95 per cent of suicide attacks around the world since 1980 are in direct response to a foreign occupation."
"The core issue with what is called Palestinian terrorism is a response to the loss of autonomy in the West bank and Gaza," said Pape.
The collapse of the peace process had signaled to Palestinians that the expansive occupation would persist.
An asymmetrical conflict
Mahmoud Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and a member of its leadership, points to the asymmetry of the conflict and the options for armed struggle under the vast disparity in military capabilities.
"How do you expect people facing such aggression to stop [using] one of the methods that sends a clear message that if you are going to kill my son, your son should expect to be killed," Zahar told me in an interview in 2005.
"Just give us, as the Israelis have, helicopters, guns, tanks, and so on - and at that time we are going to face army for army.
"But if you are going tie my hands and throw me into the sea and tell me I am not allowed to use my legs - this is nonsense. We are not playing in a movie here. We lost our people, our houses, our future - they destroyed everything in our lives. We are fighting to live."
By the end of 2004, there had been 135 Palestinian suicide bombings which had killed 500 and in many cases brought the war right to the centre of Israel's cities.
"In terms of producing political or strategic results, what you see is that suicide terrorism is significantly effective at the strategic level," Pape explained.
Yoram Schweitzer, a former Israeli intelligence officer, said the attacks were the most "impressive" aspect on the Israeli public consciousness.
"There is no question that suicide attacks were efficient in the sense that the Israeli casualties were very high," said Schweitzer, the director of the programme on terrorism and low-intensity conflict at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies.
"Of course, the Palestinians also paid a price for it, in terms of the Israeli firm hand and the [determination] to fight filthy against it."
Defining moment
Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, described the war as an effort to "sear" into Palestinian consciousness that they cannot succeed through armed struggle.
"Because if we do not do that, Israel will be in serious trouble," he said in his exit interview with Ha'aretz.
In April 2002, Israel invaded the West Bank en masse in an operation titled "Defensive Shield", and reoccupied Palestinian cities and towns in the largest military offensive in Palestinian territory since 1967.
According to a report by the UN secretary general, 500 Palestinians were killed and more than 6,000 were arrested during the campaign.
In what is perhaps the defining moment of the intifada, in the Jenin refugee camp, Palestinian fighters held off the Israeli offensive of more than 1,000 soldiers during several days of fierce fighting.
Unable to effectively enter the camp with ground troops, Israel responded by bombing the camp with helicopters and warplanes, shelling it with tanks, and ultimately bulldozing a massive section of the camp - leaving 4,000 homeless according to Human Rights Watch.
In 10 days, 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in what became known as the Battle of Jenin.
Israel's 'targeted killings'
Israel's campaign to suppress the uprising took a heavy toll on ordinary Palestinians.
After four years, at least 2,859 Palestinians had been killed and tens of thousands injured. Israel destroyed more than 3,700 Palestinian homes and placed more than 7,300 Palestinians in Israeli prisons according to B'Tselem.
Significantly, the Palestinian leadership was also decimated by a concerted campaign of assassination.
While some assassinations were ambushes by undercover Israeli units, helicopters increasingly became a fixture of Israeli attacks.
Helicopter gunships and anti-tank missiles were used on cars, offices and homes. They hovered over Palestinian cities and refugee camps.
Avi Dichter, Israel's internal security chief during the intifada, characterised the policy by stating simply: "When a Palestinian child draws a picture of the sky, he doesn't draw it without a helicopter."
Between November 2000 and September 2004, Israel carried out at least 273 assassinations, according to data compiled by the Institute for Palestine Studies.
High profile assassinations included Abu Ali Mustafa, the general secretary of the PFLP, in 2001, and the top Hamas leaders and founders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi, in 2004.
Perhaps most notoriously, in July 2002, Israeli warplanes dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on a Gaza apartment building that housed Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades commander Salah Shehade and his family. The Hamas founder was killed along with 15 others, including his wife and nine children.
The Shehade assassination led to notable criticism, even within Israel, where it inspired the so-called "pilots' letter" - a declaration by several Israeli air force pilots refusing to carry out bombing raids over occupied territory.
In response, Dan Halutz, the chief of Israel's air force, urged his pilots to "sleep well" at night, knowing that "you are not responsible for the contents of the target. Your execution was perfect. Superb ... You did exactly what you were instructed to do," he told Ha'aretz.
Palestinians retaliated for the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, when militants from the PFLP assassinated far-right Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October 2001 in his Jerusalem hotel. The assassins managed to evade capture and returned to the West Bank.
In 2002, as Arafat's Ramallah compound was under siege, the Palestinian president imprisoned Ze'evi's assassins, along with PFLP general secretary Ahmed Sa'adat in a deal brokered by the US and UK. Israel has since sacked the prison and taken the men into custody in Israel.
The assassinations were a crucial element in "containing" the uprising, said Schweitzer.
"Of course, the contribution of the IDF [Israeli army] in the cities was crucial, and the establishment of the fence was a major component, too," he said.
Abandoning armed struggle?
By the end of 2003, the intifada began to wane, and Israelis were moving toward a territorial withdrawal for the first time in the history of Zionism.
Sharon's "unilateral disengagement", saw the removal of settlers from Gaza and the "redeployment" of the Israeli army to the borders of Gaza. It opened a new chapter of the conflict, while in many ways quietening the intifada.
From the announcement of the disengagement from Gaza in early 2004, Hamas attacks all but ceased - only one of Hamas' 38 suicide attacks occurred in 2004.
"The Palestinians suffered major losses in their leadership, their senior leadership, because most of them were either killed or in prison," Schweitzer said.
"But they also wanted to capitalise on the achievement [of the uprising] and they went into the political arena," he said, speaking particularly of Hamas.
So, did Hamas abandon the armed struggle in favour of electoral democracy?
According to Aziz Dweik, Hamas' senior West Bank leader: "If things went as they were expected to, yes. They were really pretty close to having a solution to what they call resistance. But they were not given the chance. I think in the future Israel will be sorry for that."
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Palestinian youths wave flags and light tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the border fence near Gaza City on March 17, 2010
Hundreds of youth rallied Friday in northern Gaza Strip in support of Al-Aqsa Mosque, heading to the Nahal Oz border crossing. The march was called for earlier by Youth for Intifada Coalition. The participants tried to pitch Palestinian flags on the border fence and chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation. Israeli soldiers intensified their presence along the border fence and fired tear gas bombs |
and live bullets to disperse the demonstrators who continued to gather near the border area.
Some 5 citizens suffered from teargas fired by Israeli troops, Palestinian medical sources said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that "approximately 300 Palestinians" entered a zone near the fence within the Gaza Strip deemed off-limits to Palestinians by Israeli forces.
"In order to disperse the gathering...soldiers used tear gas," she told AFP.
Youth for Intifada Coalition had called earlier for stepping up the resistance against the occupation and for launching a new intifada against occupation.
Some 5 citizens suffered from teargas fired by Israeli troops, Palestinian medical sources said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that "approximately 300 Palestinians" entered a zone near the fence within the Gaza Strip deemed off-limits to Palestinians by Israeli forces.
"In order to disperse the gathering...soldiers used tear gas," she told AFP.
Youth for Intifada Coalition had called earlier for stepping up the resistance against the occupation and for launching a new intifada against occupation.
27 sept 2013
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The Israeli forces arrested 12 Palestinians on Friday during clashes that broke out in several neighbourhoods and villages in Jerusalem.
A large Israeli force was deployed in the streets of Jerusalem since the early morning hours and established checkpoints using iron barriers on the entrances of the old city and Al-Aqsa gates; they also prevented men under the age of 50 from entering Al-Aqsa. A young girl who was with her mother was injured by shrapnel of a sound bomb during the clashes that broke out by Lions gate; three other young men from the neighbourhood of Bab Hutta were also injured. Clashes broke out in Wadi Joz, Herod’s gate, Nablus and St. George Streets, Lions gate, Al-Sa’dyeh neighbourhood, Bab Hutta, Ras Al-Amoud, Shu’fat refugee camp and the village of Esawyeh as protests were organized in the streets after the Friday prayer was over. The Israeli forces fired sound bombs and rubber bullets towards the protesters and assaulted many of them using electric shocks especially in Lions gate and Ras Al-Amoud. Lions Gate A peaceful march initiated from Ras Al-Amoud towards Lions Gate. Upon arriving to the area, they were prevented from moving forward by the Calvary unit and the Special Forces fired sound bombs towards them which led to the injury of a girl. Ras Al-Amoud During the violent clashes that broke out in Ras Al-Amoud, the forces arrested three |
citizens and they are: Mohammad and Yousef Al-Atrash and 40-year old Ibrahim Shweiki who was assaulted by electric shocks.
Bab Hutta
Three young men were also injured in the neighbourhood of Bab Hutta. They suffered light to moderate injuries in the head, neck and hand; the Israeli forces went on the building’ roofs to monitor the young men.
Nablus Street
The Musta’ribeen (undercover unit) arrested two young men in Nablus Street after assaulting and severely beating them.
Damascus Gate
A protest was organized at Damascus gate during which Palestinian flags were raised as well as the Qur’an to confirm the Islamic identity of Al-Aqsa. A peaceful march headed towards Sultan Suleiman Street and they were followed and by Israeli forces and upon arriving at Herod’s gate, they were prevented from moving forward towards Salah Eddin Street and the forces assaulted the participants; they also assaulted Wadi Hilweh Information Center’s photographer, Ahmad Siam, and the policeman used force to prevent him from photographing. Clashes also spread to Al-Rasheed Street.
Praying in the streets
Despite the Israeli restrictions that were imposed in Jerusalem, hundreds of citizens performed the Friday prayer in the streets of the city as men under the age of 50 were prevented from getting inside Al-Aqsa.
Bab Hutta
Three young men were also injured in the neighbourhood of Bab Hutta. They suffered light to moderate injuries in the head, neck and hand; the Israeli forces went on the building’ roofs to monitor the young men.
Nablus Street
The Musta’ribeen (undercover unit) arrested two young men in Nablus Street after assaulting and severely beating them.
Damascus Gate
A protest was organized at Damascus gate during which Palestinian flags were raised as well as the Qur’an to confirm the Islamic identity of Al-Aqsa. A peaceful march headed towards Sultan Suleiman Street and they were followed and by Israeli forces and upon arriving at Herod’s gate, they were prevented from moving forward towards Salah Eddin Street and the forces assaulted the participants; they also assaulted Wadi Hilweh Information Center’s photographer, Ahmad Siam, and the policeman used force to prevent him from photographing. Clashes also spread to Al-Rasheed Street.
Praying in the streets
Despite the Israeli restrictions that were imposed in Jerusalem, hundreds of citizens performed the Friday prayer in the streets of the city as men under the age of 50 were prevented from getting inside Al-Aqsa.
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Masses chant 'we are all the resistance' in Hamas rally in central Gaza, burn Netanyahu, Peres effigies. IDF use tear gas on crowd who approach border (Israeli paper)
Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated Friday in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, on the eve of the anniversary of the Second Intifada (2000-2005) against the Israeli occupation, according to AFP correspondents. Demonstrators in Gaza waved the green flags of the Islamist movement and chanted slogans such as "We are all the resistance." Some burned a coffin wrapped with an Israeli flag, inscribed: "Oslo is the negotiation of shame and humiliation," and also set fire to |
effigies of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.
"We call on the masses of our Palestinian people in the West Bank to revolt against injustice and oppression and declare a third intifada against the Zionist entity," said a member of Hamas, Mushir al-Masri, at the rally.
Similar parades, interspersed with calls for "third intifada", took place near the border with Israel, where five Palestinians were hit by tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers, according to medical sources.
The Israeli military said it has dispersed a demonstration of Palestinians who had marched to the Israeli border in the northern Gaza Strip.
It said troops fired tear gas to break up a crowd of around 300 who had entered the immediate border area, which it considers off limits.
In East Jerusalem, where the Second Intifada broke out in 2000, hundreds of young Palestinians clashed with Israeli police after Friday prayers.
Nine people were arrested and one policeman was injured, said a spokesman for the police, Luba Samri.
Demonstrations were also held across the West Bank, sometimes causing clashes between Palestinian youngsters and Israeli soldiers, including around the Ofer military prison near Ramallah.
"We call on the masses of our Palestinian people in the West Bank to revolt against injustice and oppression and declare a third intifada against the Zionist entity," said a member of Hamas, Mushir al-Masri, at the rally.
Similar parades, interspersed with calls for "third intifada", took place near the border with Israel, where five Palestinians were hit by tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers, according to medical sources.
The Israeli military said it has dispersed a demonstration of Palestinians who had marched to the Israeli border in the northern Gaza Strip.
It said troops fired tear gas to break up a crowd of around 300 who had entered the immediate border area, which it considers off limits.
In East Jerusalem, where the Second Intifada broke out in 2000, hundreds of young Palestinians clashed with Israeli police after Friday prayers.
Nine people were arrested and one policeman was injured, said a spokesman for the police, Luba Samri.
Demonstrations were also held across the West Bank, sometimes causing clashes between Palestinian youngsters and Israeli soldiers, including around the Ofer military prison near Ramallah.
