The Fall 2000 Uprising
The deeply flawed
"peace process"
initiated at Oslo,
combined with the
daily frustrations and
humiliations inflicted
upon Palestinians in the
occupied territories,
converged to ignite a
second intifada
beginning in late
September 2000. On
September 28, Likud
leader Ariel Sharon
visited the Noble
Sanctuary (Temple
Mount) in the company
of 1000 armed guards;
in the context of July's
tense negotiations over
Jerusalem's holy
places, and Sharon's
well-known call for
Israeli annexation of
East Jerusalem, this
move provoked large
Palestinian protests in Jerusalem. Israeli
soldiers killed six unarmed protesters. These killings
inaugurated over a month of demonstrations and
clashes across the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. For a brief period, these demonstrations
spread into Palestinian towns inside Israel.
In relative terms, the second intifada is already
bloodier than the first. As in the previous
intifada, Palestinians threw stones and Molotov
cocktails at Israeli soldiers, who responded
with rubber-coated steel bullets and live
ammunition. But both sides have employed greater
force than in 1987-1991. The militant wing of
Fatah, which has coordinated many street
actions, now has a substantial cache of small arms
and has fired often on Israeli troops. The
Israeli military response escalated dramatically
after two soldiers, allegedly "lost" in the
PA-controlled West Bank town of Ramallah, were
killed October 12 by a Palestinian mob
returning from the funeral of an unarmed young man
whom soldiers had shot dead the day
before. The IDF attacked PA installations in
Ramallah, Gaza and elsewhere with helicopter
gunships and missiles. Subsequently, the IDF has
not always waited for Israelis to die before
answering Palestinian small arms fire with tank
shells and artillery, including the shelling of
civilian neighborhoods in the West Bank and Gaza.
For these actions and the use of live ammunition
to control demonstrations of unarmed
Palestinians, several international human rights
organizations have condemned Israel for use
of excessive force. The UN Security Council passed
a similar condemnation, from which the
US abstained, and on October 20, the UN General
Assembly approved a resolution
condemning Israel. Israel, the US and four
Polynesian island nations voted no, and a third of
the assembly abstained. Despite a truce agreement
at Sharm al-Sheikh, a later agreement to
quell violence between Arafat and Shimon Peres and
Bill Clinton's attempts to restart
negotiations in January 2001, the second intifada
did not look like it would end soon. In
December 2000, Barak called early elections for
prime minister to forestall a likely vote of no
confidence in the Knesset. He will face Ariel
Sharon in the February 6 election. To date over
350 people, about 90 percent of them Palestinian,
have been killed in the violence. While the
outcome of the uprising is very unclear, it is
probably impossible to resume the Oslo peace
process without major modifications to its basic
framework. The Palestinian street has
definitively rejected Oslo, and top officials of
the PA now say that UN resolutions must form
the basis of future final status talks.
For a more in-depth look at the Fall
2000 uprising,
check out MERIP's Primer of the
Palestinian Uprising
Back to Table of
Contents
____________________________________________________________
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The deeply flawed
"peace process"
initiated at Oslo,
combined with the
daily frustrations and
humiliations inflicted
upon Palestinians in the
occupied territories,
converged to ignite a
second intifada
beginning in late
September 2000. On
September 28, Likud
leader Ariel Sharon
visited the Noble
Sanctuary (Temple
Mount) in the company
of 1000 armed guards;
in the context of July's
tense negotiations over
Jerusalem's holy
places, and Sharon's
well-known call for
Israeli annexation of
East Jerusalem, this
move provoked large
Palestinian protests in Jerusalem. Israeli
soldiers killed six unarmed protesters. These killings
inaugurated over a month of demonstrations and
clashes across the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. For a brief period, these demonstrations
spread into Palestinian towns inside Israel.
In relative terms, the second intifada is already
bloodier than the first. As in the previous
intifada, Palestinians threw stones and Molotov
cocktails at Israeli soldiers, who responded
with rubber-coated steel bullets and live
ammunition. But both sides have employed greater
force than in 1987-1991. The militant wing of
Fatah, which has coordinated many street
actions, now has a substantial cache of small arms
and has fired often on Israeli troops. The
Israeli military response escalated dramatically
after two soldiers, allegedly "lost" in the
PA-controlled West Bank town of Ramallah, were
killed October 12 by a Palestinian mob
returning from the funeral of an unarmed young man
whom soldiers had shot dead the day
before. The IDF attacked PA installations in
Ramallah, Gaza and elsewhere with helicopter
gunships and missiles. Subsequently, the IDF has
not always waited for Israelis to die before
answering Palestinian small arms fire with tank
shells and artillery, including the shelling of
civilian neighborhoods in the West Bank and Gaza.
For these actions and the use of live ammunition
to control demonstrations of unarmed
Palestinians, several international human rights
organizations have condemned Israel for use
of excessive force. The UN Security Council passed
a similar condemnation, from which the
US abstained, and on October 20, the UN General
Assembly approved a resolution
condemning Israel. Israel, the US and four
Polynesian island nations voted no, and a third of
the assembly abstained. Despite a truce agreement
at Sharm al-Sheikh, a later agreement to
quell violence between Arafat and Shimon Peres and
Bill Clinton's attempts to restart
negotiations in January 2001, the second intifada
did not look like it would end soon. In
December 2000, Barak called early elections for
prime minister to forestall a likely vote of no
confidence in the Knesset. He will face Ariel
Sharon in the February 6 election. To date over
350 people, about 90 percent of them Palestinian,
have been killed in the violence. While the
outcome of the uprising is very unclear, it is
probably impossible to resume the Oslo peace
process without major modifications to its basic
framework. The Palestinian street has
definitively rejected Oslo, and top officials of
the PA now say that UN resolutions must form
the basis of future final status talks.
For a more in-depth look at the Fall
2000 uprising,
check out MERIP's Primer of the
Palestinian Uprising
Back to Table of
Contents
____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send a newsletter, share photos & files, conduct polls, organize chat events. Visit http://in/ groups.yahoo.com