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Palestinian political violence

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Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence committed for political reasons by Palestinians or Palestinian militant groups. Palestinian groups that support and carry out such acts include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Abu Nidal Organization. When directed against civilians, such violence is frequently labeled as terrorism. [1]

The United States[1] and European Union[2] have designated the Abu Nidal Organisation, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Palestine Liberation Front, the PFLP and PFLP-GC as terrorist organisations. A United States Congress decision from 1987 determined that the PLO was also a terrorist organization[3] (this decision was de facto reversed with the 1993 Oslo accords). Like much political violence, the perpetrators say that their attacks are justified, while the state targeted says otherwise. Regardless of the moral, political, or tactical justifications, these attacks are defined as terrorism when they are indiscriminate or directed at non-combatants, according to all academic definitions of "terrorism", and definitions used by the United Nations. [2]

Early political violence

File:Havlagah bus in Palestine during Great Arab revolt.jpg
The Great Uprising in Palestine. A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens to protect against rock, glass, and grenade throwing

During the British mandate in Palestine, Arab political violence directed against the British and against Zionist settlement included the Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920, the riots in Palestine of May, 1921, the 1929 Hebron massacre and Safed massacre, and the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Prominent leaders of the Palestinian groups were Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, who was shot and killed by English soldiers, and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who was deported.

See also: List of terrorist attacks against Israel before 1967

According to David Meir-Levi, "From 1949 to 1956, Egypt waged a terror war against Israel, launching c. 9,000 attacks from cells set up in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip." [3]. At first, Palestinians were trying to go back to houses or to retrieve property but since 1950 these acts became much more violent and included murders of citizens in nearby cities. After Israel's operation Black Arrow in 1955 which came as a result of a series of massacres in the city of Rehovot, the Palestinian fedayeen were incorporated into an Egyptian unit.[4] The Israeli government cites dozens of these attacks as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 Six-Day War". [4] [5] Between 1949 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded by fedayeen attacks. [6] [7]; according to the Anti-Defamation League "[i]n 1955 alone, 260 Israeli citizens were killed or wounded by fedayeen". [8] 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. [9]

Between 1969 to September 1970 the PLO with a passive support from Jordan fought a war of attrition with Israel. During this time, the PLO launched artillery attacks on the moshavim and kibbutzim of Bet Shean Valley Regional Council as well as attempted to launch attacks by fedayeen on Israeli civilians. These attacks came to an end after the PLO expulsion from Jordan in September 1970.

After Black September in 1970, the PLO and its offshoots waged an international campaign against Israelis. Notable events were the Munich Olympics massacre (1972) , the hijacking of several civilian airliners, the Savoy Hotel attack, the Zion Square explosive refrigerator and the Coastal Road massacre. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, Israel suffered attacks from PLO bases in Lebanon, such as the Avivim school bus massacre in 1970, the Maalot massacre in 1974 and the attack led by Samir Kuntar in 1979. 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.

In 1987, the First Intifada broke. In 1993, the Oslo Accords were signed.

Current political violence

According to B'Tselem, as of July 10, 2005, 821 Israeli civilians have been killed in acts of political violence carried out by Palestinians since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, 553 of whom were killed within the 1949 Armistice lines, mainly by suicide bombers. Targets of attacks included buses, restaurants, discotheques, shopping malls, a university, and civilian homes in Israeli settlements within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. [10],[11].

On-going polls by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, a Palestinian organization, have consistently shown some support by the Palestinian public for acts of violence against Israelis, as part of what they see as the efforts of a resistance movement. Current polls, however, show that the majority of those polled do not support "military operations" against Israeli targets and see these attacks as "harmful to the Palestinian national interest". Those that support attacks believe it is the "proper response under the current political conditions". [12]

Some allege that the Palestinian Authority (PA) does not do enough to prevent attacks, or to reduce Palestinian public support for acts of violence. Some accuse the PA of sponsoring groups that carry out acts of violence, such as Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and of using the official PA television, radio, press, and education system to facilitate attacks upon Israel. Palestinians assert that it is not realistic to expect the kind of control Israel demands from the PA to curtail these groups, as the PA does not have actual control of most cities or adequate law-enforcement resources, and has suffered infrastructural damage to much of its security apparatus during confrontations with the Israel Defense Force (IDF).

There have been numerous instances where Palestinians have exploited children for attacks, as bomb transporters and suicide bombers. On March 16, 2005, an Israeli border guard found a bomb in the school bag of 12-year-old Abdullah Quran at a military checkpoint near Nablus. His life was saved only because a cell phone rigged to detonate the 13-pound bomb failed to set off the explosive at the checkpoint as it had been designed to do.

Eight days later, on March 24, 16-year-old Hussam Abdo was captured wearing an explosive belt, having allegedly been paid by Fatah's Tanzim branch to blow himself up at the same checkpoint. The world's media watched as an EOD team disarmed the explosive belt with a police-sapper robot. [13] [14] (video). According to the BBC, the child was "paraded in front of the international media", and journalists were not allowed to interview the children and had to rely on the army's account of the incidents. In response, the Israeli government wrote to the BBC, accusing their correspondent, Orla Guerin of anti-Semitism and "total identification with the goals and methods of the Palestinian terror groups" [5]

In recent years, the Palestinians have also been using female suicide bombers, a new tactic. The profile of the female Palestinian suicide bombers is unique, and is has been the subject of study by the noted Katherine VanderKaay, most recently in her contribution to "Terror in the Holy Land," published 2006 by Praeger Press. She has also presented her profiling of the subjects at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting.

Palestinian violence is financed and sponsored by Islamist groups and others around the world. Saddam Hussein notoriously donated $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers, and $10,000 to the families of Palestinians killed during clashes between the Israeli military.[6]

List of Palestinian groups (including designated terrorist groups)

  • Formed as the political representation of the Palestinian people.

Sub-groups of the PLO

  • Left-wing Palestinian separatists
  • Joined the PLO in 1968 and became the second-largest PLO faction, after Arafat's al-Fatah, but withdrew in 1974, accusing the group of moving away from the goal of destroying Israel outright
  • Marxist-Leninist group that believes Palestinian national goals can be achieved only through revolution of the masses. Split into two factions in 1991; Nayif Hawatmah leads the majority and more hard-line faction, which continue to dominate the group. Joined with other rejectionist groups to form the Alliance of Palestinian Forces (APF) to oppose the Declaration of Principals signed in 1993. Broke from the APF — along with the PFLP — over ideological differences. Has made limited moves towards merging with the PFLP since the mid-1990s.
  • Split from PLO; part of the so-called rejectionist front, the ANO is a secular, nationalist group. Was led by Abu Nidal, widely regarded as the most ruthless of the Palestinian leaders, until his death in August 2002.
  • Fatah (founded early 1960s)
  • Palestinian nationalist political party
  • Reverse acronym for "Harekat at-Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh" ("Palestinian National Liberation Movement" in Arabic)
  • Also known as the Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine
  • Founded by Yasser Arafat in 1959. Took control of the PLO in 1968, with Arafat as chairman

Groups associated with Fatah

  • Means "organization" in Arabic
  • Loosely organized Fatah militia
  • Elite unit of the PLO once under Yasser Arafat's direct guidance.
  • Acts as a versatile unit for combat and intelligence-gathering.
  • Also known as the Fatah Special Operations Group, Martyrs of Tal Al Za'atar, and Amn Araissi.
  • Recently inactive (As of 2004)
  • Extremist off-shoot of Fatah.
  • Was involved in July 17, 2004 kidnappings in the Gaza Strip.
  • Possibly linked to the Popular Resistance Committees
  • Based in the Gaza Strip
  • Responsible for many suicide bombings and shootings of Israeli civilians
  • Responsible for executing suspected conspirators and leaders of opposition against Arafat
  • Funded by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority
  • Offshoot of this group, Fatah Hawks, has carried out guerrilla attacks against Israeli military personnel in the Gaza Strip.

Splinter groups of the PLO

  • Splinter group from the PFLP, founded by Ahmed Jibril. Declared its focus would be military, not political. Was a member of the PLO, but left in 1974 for the same reasons as PFLP.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)" - U.S. Department of State
  2. ^ "Council Common Position 2004/500/CFSP of 17 May 2004" - EU list of "persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts"
  3. ^ "The Congress determines that the PLO and its affiliates are a terrorist organization (1987)" - U.S. Code Collection
  4. ^ Haya Regev, Dr. Avigail Oren, The operations in the 1950s, University of Tel Aviv, 1995
  5. ^ McGreal, Chris. BBC accused of bias against Israel, The Guardian, Thursday April 1, 2004
  6. ^ Palestinians get Saddam funds
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