SECOND INTIFADA

2000-2008

English VIII

Course Group: 1B

Teacher: Julio Ramirez

Students: Angélica Castillo

Sara Flores

Mónica Larín

Thursday, November 29th 2011

“The world can not be angry and the media can not scream as an Israeli citizen dies while silence prevails when Israel killed hundreds of Palestinian children and civilians per day.”1 Negotiations for

1 Hicham Hadan, Ambassador of Lebanon.

Arab-Israeli peace have been developed on a background of growing repression in Gaza and the West Bank in an attempt to suppress the Intifada. The intifada, which literally means "awakening surprises," is a historical product of all the efforts of Palestinian resistance to repression. It is even said that as of dispossession of the inhabitants of Palestine, the Intifada is the first sustained mass movement of long duration. They have been one of the most important recent years of the Arab-Israeli conflict. According to historians and politicians, there have been two Palestinian Intifadas. The first was developed in 1987 and the second in 2000. Both campaigns intifada began as resistance of the Palestinians and were intensifying in a cycle of violence from terrorist attacks, followed by Israeli reprisals, thus creating a cycle of violence inertial difficult to solve. In that sense, this essay aims to make a description of the development of the second intifada: In the first part, be addressed in concrete terms, the most important and immediate background to the second intifada in 2000. This including the main historical causes that produce the Palestinian uprising. In the second part presents the development of the conflict: the Second Intifada in 2000. In the third part presents the end of the second intifada and its general outcomes. Finally, the essay shows some reflections on the possible political impact of the Intifada in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Similarly, reflecting on the possibility of developing a possible third Intifada.

About the background, the first Intifada was a direct consequence of military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. This is because the policy of systematic repression of the Palestinians to achieve the integration of the occupied territories in Israel. The first of the Intifadas begins in December 1987 and is also known as the "War of the Rock". That year, the Palestinians organized a series of demonstrations and violent protests against the presence of security forces and the Israeli Army. Thus, the December 8, 1987, a truck rammed an Israeli settler car loaded with Palestinian workers in Gaza. As a result, four Palestinians were killed. Gazans took to the streets to protest and the Israeli occupation forces reacted wildly. Indeed, these events were only the "straw that broke the spleen." Because of street protests and demonstrations with stones became general strikes and civil disobedience to resistance and the search for a political project. Israeli troops responded with weapons, causing numerous deaths among Palestinians. The protest was organized and led at first by the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (PLO). But after starring seconded and radical groups had as main objective to intensify action and pressure on Israeli forces to draw international attention to the problem of Palestine and discourage Israeli society, with a low intensity conflict but long-term . In this sense, the fundamentalist movement Hamas channeled popular protest, was organized and perpetuated over time. As a result, there was a historic breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations that led to the consolidation of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. It also contributed to the birth of a world public opinion in favor of the Palestinian cause and the beginning of the peace process. At the same time reversed the traditional image of the conflict in the tiny state of Israel appeared surrounded by giant and hostile Arab world. This was helpful to the Palestinian cause because Israel is evident and prolonged the illegal military occupation. This whole process took a high cost, the balance of 1.200 fatalities. Thus, the clashes in the West Bank and Gaza became a constant, which remained dormant civil uprisings.

Since the nineties, they begin to take shape peaceful approaches. The peace process starts the Middle East October 30, 1991 at the Madrid Conference. It was the first time that both sides sit down to negotiate at the same table, with the aim is to agree to further negotiations. The next major milestone takes place in September 1993 when the Oslo Accords signed between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Labor Prime Minister. This agreement will be very important, because the Palestinians recognize the State of Israel, and Jews to recognize the territories occupied in 1967 (Gaza and West

Bank). However, the issue of the status of Jerusalem is pending. On the other hand, Yasser Arafat returns from exile in 1994 and settled in West Bank. That same year, the Cairo agreement is achieved autonomy for Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho, is the starting point for the creation of the Palestinian National Authority. However, the road to peace is not without obstacles on both sides: Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist groups do not recognize the peace accords, and ultra-religious Jewish groups consider it sacrilege concessions to the Palestinians. Added to this, in 2000 due to the tension and the visit of Ariel Sharon to a holy place for the Arabs called Al-Sharif, was to create a general uprising became known as the Second Intifada.

Thus, the Second Intifada also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada began on September 2000. After Ariel Sharon’s visit to Harim Al-Sharif/ Temple Mount against the background of the failure of the peace process. The peace process determined that Harim Al-Sharif/ Temple Mount is a controversial disputed territory, both Israel and Palestine reclaim the ownership of this territory supporting in historical stories. The visit was interpreted as an offense to Palestinian because of the declaration made by Sharon: “The Temple Mount is in our hands and will remain in our hands. It is the holiest site in Judaism and it is the right of every Jew to visit the Temple Mount”. The day after Sharon`s visit, during the day of prayers thee clashes between Palestinian and Israelis began. In the first five days of rioting and clashes after the visit, Israeli police and security forces killed 47 Palestinians and wounded 1885, while Palestinians killed 5 Israelis. The riots and the clashes continued and in October 2000, a general strike and demonstrations across northern Israel began and continued for several days. In some cases, the demonstrations escalated into clashes with the Israeli Police involving rock-throwing, firebombing, and live-fire. Policemen used tear-gas and opened fire with rubber-coated bullets and later live ammunition in some instances, many times in contravention with police protocol governing riot-dispersion, which was directly linked with many of the deaths by the Commission. Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians increased sharply on November 1ST, when three Israeli soldiers and six Palestinians were killed, and four Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and 140 Palestinians were wounded.

By 2001, the violence between Israel and Palestine continued. There were important events that are necessary to highlight in order to understand the development of the conflict. On 6 th February Ariel Sharon was elected as Israel Prime Minister in the 2001 special election to the Prime Ministership. Sharon refused to meet in person with Yasser Arafat. On May 18, 2001, Israel for the first time since 1967 used warplanes to attack targets in the territories. Prior to that, airstrikes had been carried out with helicopter gunships. 12 Palestinians were killed in these attacks on Palestinian Authority security targets. On June 1, 2001, an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber detonated himself in the Tel Aviv coastline Dolphinarium dancing club. Twenty-one Israeli civilians, most of them high school students, were killed. The attack significantly hampered American attempts to negotiate cease-fire. A total of 469 Palestinians and 199 Israelis were killed in 2001.

On 2002 there were two major clashes. The first one was the battle of Jenin, between April 2 and 11. Jenin was a Palestinian refugee camp. The battle became a flashpoint for both sides. During the IDF's operations in the camp, Palestinian sources alleged that a massacre of hundreds of people had taken place. In the ensuing controversy, the United Nations issued a report that found no evidence of hundreds of deaths, and criticized both sides for placing Palestinian civilians at risk. However, based on their own investigations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch charged that IDF personnel in Jenin had committed war crimes. Both human rights organizations called for official inquiries; the IDF disputed the charges. After the battle, most sources, including the IDF and

Palestinian Authority, placed the Palestinian death toll at 52–56. The Palestinian Authority count of 53 described 21 of the dead as civilians. The IDF reported that 23 Israeli soldiers were killed and 75 wounded. The U.N. Secretary General's report states: "Fifty-two Palestinian deaths had been confirmed by the hospital in Jenin by the end of May 2002. A senior Palestinian Authority official alleged in mid-April that some 500 were killed. The second major clash was an incident in Bethlehem where IDF soldiers surrounded the Church of Nativity. During the incident IDF snipers killed 8 militants and wounded 40 people.

On March 2003 Mahmud Abbas agrees to become the first Palestinian Prime Minister. The Quartet group - the EU, UN, Russia and the US - launch the roadmap peace plan. It is a phased programme for ending conflict culminating in the creation of an independent Palestinian state, but the neither side keeps to its timetable. On 11 June, sixteen people were killed in a bus bomb in Jerusalem, in the first suicide attack since US President Bush's peace summit a week before. It follows an Israeli air strike on 10 June aimed at killing Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in Gaza. On 9 September Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns after clashing with Yasser Arafat over reform of security services. On 13 October the Geneva Accords, an alternative peace-plan negotiated by prominent Israelis and Palestinians, is unveiled. The plan is quickly rejected by Israel and Palestinian militants.

In the beginning of end in this conflict there are some important dates that need to be highlighted. In first place the murder of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi spiritual leaders of Hamas. Also on 9 July the International Court of Justice rules that the West Bank barrier –that had begun on 2002- is illegal and that construction must be halted. In third place, in November 2004, Yasir Arafat died and many thought that new opportunities for peace would come from his death. In January 2005, Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the PNA and met with Sharon at Sharm-el-Sheikh in February 2005. Both sides announced an end to the violence. The Israeli parliament approved the disengagement plan during the same month. In March 2005, militant groups agreed to a tahideyah (lull in the fighting). While not a full truce, this was considered major progress and some have argued that it marked the end of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. In July 2005, the truce was broken by a suicide bombing in Netanya, which led to raids by the IDF into the West Bank. Hamas responded with rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Israel implemented its disengagement plan in August 2005, evacuating settlers from all of its Gaza settlements and four settlements in the West Bank. Sharon suffered a massive stroke in January 2006 and leadership of the Israeli government fell to Ehud Olmert. Hamas was victorious in Palestinian elections held in January 2006 and Olmert's Kadima Party retained power in Israeli elections in March 2006.

Hamas continued to launch rockets from the Gaza Strip and on June 25th, 2006 captured an Israeli corporal after killing two other Israeli soldiers in a raid attacking an Israeli border post near Gaza. Hamas's incursion into Israel led to Operation Summer Rains, a major thrust into Gaza. On July 12th, Hizbullah militants killed three Israeli soldiers in the north and captured two others. This led Israel to commence Operation Just Reward, a sustained bombing campaign against southern Lebanon. The Al-Aqsa Intifada never officially ended and it is debatable whether the events after February 2005 should be considered part of the uprising or as independent events.

About the outcome, these can be divided in human, socioeconomic and political consequences. In reference of human consequences, from September 2000 until February 2005, approximately 3,000-4,789 Palestinians were killed and approximately 950-1053 Israelis were killed. In the case of

Palestinians deaths throughout the Intifada, the Palestinian leadership suffered heavy losses through targeted killings. The practice has been condemned as extrajudicial executions by some international human rights organizations and the United Nations, while others (such as the United States) see it as a legitimate measure of self-defense against terrorism. In another hand, there are the socioeconomic consequences. Sixteen square kilometers of land in the Gaza Strip, most of it agricultural was razed by Israeli forces and more than 601 houses were completely destroyed. The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO) estimates the damage done to the Palestinian economy at over 1.1 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2002, compared to an annual GDP of 4.5 billion dollars. About Israeli, its commerce has experienced much hardship, in particular because of the sharp drop in tourism. Finally, the political consequences, in response to repeated rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Navy imposed a maritime blockade on the area. Israel also sealed the border and closed Gaza's airspace in coordination with Egypt, and subjected all humanitarian supplies entering the Strip to security inspection before transferring them through land crossings. Construction materials were declared banned due to their possible use to build bunkers. The blockade has been internationally criticized as a form of "collective punishment" against Gaza's civilian population. Another consequence is the increased political political-diplomatic tensions and reduced chance of reaching a mutual agreement. To this date no figure a total ceasefire and unconditional on both sides

In Conclusion as a group, we believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a proven ability to destabilize not only regionally but also globally. Due to the birth of a Palestinian state appears inevitable and the Second Intifada has acted as a catalyst for this bloody process of creating a Palestinian state, paralyzed for the past few years, virtually the entire international community agrees on this, the U.S. included. Even in Israel itself, and even in the toughest areas. This possibility of the creation of a Palestinian state is seen as inevitable in the medium to long term. Therefore, the fact that the intifada is always the result of the fight of Palestine for its independence and the territories that are historically belong, leads to fracture relations between the countries supporting one of the parties in conflict. On the one hand there are countries that support the objectives of Palestine in large numbers. On the other hand are increasingly supporting Israel. For example, if Russia supports Palestine ideals, this could cause the enmity of the United States and Israel and cause instability in the Middle East region. In the case of the start of a third intifada, there is the possibility that also act external actors in support of Palestinians who are gaining supporters, for the reasons outlined above. About the possibility of a third intifada is not excluded. The Second Intifada has been introduced to both sides in endless circle of self-destruction (which could mix with other regional problems and to design a very dangerous scenario for world stability, as we said before). As a perspective of this conflict, do not include other likely than mutual destruction. Although the conflict ended in theory in 2005, the attacks in a lesser way have persisted until today. The deadline to avoid is getting smaller and does not seem possible a firm agreement without an international pressure.

ANNEXES

1. Statistics of deaths during the second intifada

2. Scenario of the second intifada

Questions: 1. What are the key players identified in the second intifada?

2. What is the importance of this second intifada in the solution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine?

3. Do you think it is near a third intifada in present?4. Who do you think will win the battle at the end?5.