Al-Aqsa Intifada: Encyclopedia II - Al-Aqsa Intifada - Prior events

Al-Aqsa Intifada - Prior events

By signing the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Palestinians and Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization committed to curbing violence in exchange for phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and Palestinian self-government within those areas through the creation of the Palestinian Authority. However, both sides ended up deeply disappointed in the results of the Oslo Accords.

In the immediate five years following the Oslo signing, 256 Israeli citizens were killed, more than the amount slain in the previous fifteen years (216, 172 of which were slain during the First Intifada). During that same period, 405 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers (source: B'Tselem). In addition, due to forced enclose of Palestinian areas by Israeli security fences, many Palestinians lost their jobs in Israeli cities, causing the unemployment rate to spike by 50% and cause the standard of living to drop by 30%

This increase in Israeli casualties caused a simmering discontent aimed at the Oslo Accords in the Israeli public. At the same time, many Palestinians blamed this collapse on the conditions imposed in Oslo, especially the rapidly increasing settler population and the subsequent uncompensated land confiscation for the enlargement of "buffer zones" around the settlements.

In 1995, Shimon Peres took the place of Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by Yigal Amir, a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo peace agreement. In the 1996 elections, Israelis elected the Likud candidate, Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised to restore safety for Israelis by conditioning every step in the peace process on Israel's assessment of the Palestinian Authority's fulfillment of its obligations in curbing violence as outlined in the Oslo agreement. Netanyahu continued the policy of construction within and expansion of existing Israeli settlements, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Though construction within the settlements was not explicitly prohibited in the Oslo agreement and the violence increased after 1993, many Palestinians believed that the continuing construction was contrary to the spirit of the Oslo agreement.

Some have claimed that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority had pre-planned the Intifada [1]. They point out that Yasser Arafat had warned that the failure of on-going peace process talks would lead to another intifada [2]. They often quote a statement made by Imad Falouji, the P.A. Communications Minister at the time, that the violence had been planned since Arafat's return from the Camp David summit in July, far in advance of Sharon's visit. He stated that the intifada "was carefully planned since the return of (Palestinian President) Yasser Arafat from Camp David negotiations rejecting the U.S. conditions."[3][4]. David Samuels quotes Mamduh Nofal, former military commander of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who supplies more evidence of pre-September 28th military preparations. Nofal recounts that Arafat "told us, Now we are going to the fight, so we must be ready".

In his book The High Cost of Peace, Yossef Bodansky writes:

Clinton's proposal... included explicit guarantees that Jews would have the right to visit and pray in and around the Temple Mount... Once Sharon was convinced that Jews had free access to the Temple Mount, there would be little the Israeli religious and nationalist Right could do to stall the peace process. When Sharon expressed interest in visiting the Temple Mount, Barak ordered GSS chief Ami Ayalon to approach Jibril Rajoub with a special request to facilitate a smooth and friendly visit... Rajoub promised it would be smooth as long as Sharon would refrain from entering any of the mosques or praying publicly... Just to be on the safe side, Barak personally approached Arafat and once again got assurances that Sharon's visit would be smooth as long as he did not attempt to enter the Holy Mosques... A group of Palestinian dignitaries came to protest the visit, as did three Arab Knesset Members. With the dignitaries watching from a safe distance, the Shahab (youth mob) threw stones and attempted to get past the Israeli security personnel and reach Sharon and his entourage... Still, Sharon's deportment was quiet and dignified. He did not pray, did not make any statement, or do anything else that might be interpreted as offensive to the sensitivities of Muslims. Even after he came back near the Wailing Wall under the hail of stones, he remained calm. "I came here as one who believes in coexistence between Jews and Arabs," Sharon told the waiting reporters. "I believe that we can build and develop together. This was a peaceful visit. Is it an instigation for Israeli Jews to come to the Jewish people's holiest site?" (p354)

Following Israel's pullout from Lebanon in May 2000, the PLO official Farouk Kaddoumi told reporters: "We are optimistic. Hezbollah's resistance can be used as an example for other Arabs seeking to regain their rights" (AP, Mar 26, 2002).

Starting as early as September 13, 2000, members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement carried out a number of attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets, in violation of Oslo Accords. In addition, the Israeli agency Palestinian Media Watch alleged that the Palestinian official TV broadcasts became increasingly militant during the summer of 2000, as Camp David negotiations faltered [5].

According to the Mitchell Report, (the investigatory committee set up to look into the cause of the violence and named after the chairman of the committee, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell), the government of Israel asserted that

the immediate catalyst for the violence was the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations on 25 July 2000 and the “widespread appreciation in the international community of Palestinian responsibility for the impasse.” In this view, Palestinian violence was planned by the PA leadership, and was aimed at “provoking and incurring Palestinian casualties as a means of regaining the diplomatic initiative.”

The Palestine Liberation Organization, according to the same report, denied that the Intifada was planned, and asserted that "Camp David represented nothing less than an attempt by Israel to extend the force it exercises on the ground to negotiations." [6]

The report also stated:

From the perspective of the PLO, Israel responded to the disturbances with excessive and illegal use of deadly force against demonstrators; behavior which, in the PLO’s view, reflected Israel’s contempt for the lives and safety of Palestinians. For Palestinians, the widely seen images of Muhammad al Durra in Gaza on September 30, shot as he huddled behind his father, reinforced that perception.

Although the common belief today is that Muhammad al Durra was actually killed by Palestinian fire [7]

The Mitchell Report, based on a subsequent investigation, found that the Sharon visit did not cause the Al-Aqsa Intifada, although it was poorly timed and would clearly have a provocative effect. The report also concluded that

Accordingly, we have no basis on which to conclude that there was a deliberate plan by the PA to initiate a campaign of violence at the first opportunity; or to conclude that there was a delilberate plan by the Government of Israel to respond with lethal force.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prior events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki