Palestinian political violence: Encyclopedia II - Palestinian political violence - 1920–1987

Palestinian political violence - 1920–1987

The attacks on Jews by Arabs predating the establishment of the state of Israel culminated in the Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920, the riots in Palestine of May, 1921, the 1929 Hebron massacre, and the Great Uprising of 1936–1939. Prominent leaders of the Palestinian groups were Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, who was shot and killed by English soldiers, and the pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who was deported.

According to David Meir-Levi, "From 1949 to 1956, Egypt waged a terror war against Israel, launching c. 9,000 attacks from terrorist cells set up in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip." [1] The Israeli government cites dozens of these as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 Six-Day War". [2] [3] Between 1949 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks. [4] [5]; according to the Anti-Defamation League "[i]n 1955 alone, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen". [6] In 1964, the PLO was founded in order to "liberate," as they saw it, what they called the "usurped part" of Palestine, which had become the state of Israel. [7]

After Black September in 1970, the PLO and its offshoots waged an international campaign against Israelis. Notable events were the Munich Massacre (1972) and the hijacking of several civilian airliners. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, Israel suffered attacks from PLO bases in Lebanon, such as the Maalot massacre in 1974. Following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, called "Operation Peace for Galilee" by the IDF, and the exile of the PLO to Tunis, Israel had a relatively quiet decade.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1920–1987", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki