Violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

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The conflict between various Palestinian groups and Israel has existed in one form or another since the first half of the 20th century, and has left much bitterness and death on both sides. This article summarizes some aspects of the violence.

Overview and Background

The conflict has undergone 5 or 6 distinct phases since it began. (Timings are approximate):

Prior to 1940-45

Up until World War II, violence in Palestine was sporadic, and intensified in relation to increased Jewish immigration as part of the Zionist movement, which sought to create a Jewish state in a land that was overwhelmingly Arab. .

Jews settled in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire, which includes modern day Israel, Jordan and other territories. They bought land for farming, and became resented and distrusted both for the scale of immigration and stated intent of making a Jewish homeland there. Violence was sporadic and minimal, and for the most part limited to displays of displeasure.

After 1917 and the Balfour Declaration, resident Arabs became concerned at the British support and influx of Jews, whose policy was to buy land and immigrate to what was then Palestine (now Israel and Jordan combined). Initial violence was small and localised, such matters as new land purchases, or synagogue locations. After the Riots in Palestine of 1920 the Jewish Yishuv (community) set up its own defence irregulars, Haganah, and intelligence operation. The aim at this time was to gain foreknowledge of future attacks and be able to protect the Yishuv against such attacks. In 1929 a large number of Jews were attacked at the Wailing Wall (the Western wall of Judaism's most sacred site - Solomon's Temple), and muskets were fired, despite some injuries, nobody was killed. However, in Hebron, the entire Jewish community was massacred, as Arab rioters killed at least 67 Jews.

On the 1936, the Arabs - led by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini - launched the Great Arab Revolt, a campaign of violent riots and attack on Jews - which lead to hundred of casualties and ended after the British officers deported Husseini and hanged many rioters. The riots led Jewish militant groups, such as Hagganah and Irgun to retaliate, furthering chaos in the region.

WW2 and prior to formation of State of Israel

With the rise of the Nazi party in Europe, and again after World War II, Jews sought to relocate to this area in larger numbers. Although this plan to create a Jewish state in Palestine has its roots as far back as the 1897 First Zionist Congress in Basel, the Nazi Holocaust provided an urgency to the Zionist project.

Intense conflict arose as the Arab and Jewish sides jockeyed for position and the land, under British rule. The first Jewish defence forces such as Haganah were set up, along with the Lochamei Herut LeIsrael (led by Yitzhak Shamir) and the Irgun Tzvai Leumi "Etzel" (led by Menachem Begin), which sought to obtain security for the Jewish community, but were also preparing for the day when open conflict would break out. At this point the conflict was characterised by sporadic violence, and small scale terrorst incidents and guerrilla attacks, until 1946.

In 1944, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, the senior Islamic religious authority of the Palestinian Arabs and close ally of Adolf Hitler, sponsored an unsuccessful chemical warfare assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Five parachutists were supplied with maps of Tel Aviv, canisters of a German–manufactured "fine white powder," and instructions from the Mufti to dump chemicals into the Tel Aviv water system. District police commander Fayiz Bey Idrissi later recalled, "The laboratory report stated that each container held enough poison to kill 25,000 people, and there were at least ten containers." [1]

On the 22nd of July 1946, the conflict took a significant turn with the bombing of the King David Hotel - Jerusalem's most famous hotel and the fortified military and civilian headquarters of the British occupation. Operation Malonchik was led by Menachim Begin, head of the militant Zionist underground assault unit, the Irgun. Dressed as Arabs, the Irgun militants drew a truck up to the kitchen of the King David Hotel and began to unload a cargo that looked like milk, but was in fact at least 500 lb of high explosives. Despite several warning phone-calls from the Irgun, the British commander refused to believe them, and refused to evacuate. As the BBC put it "the entire wing of a huge building was cut off as with a knife" [2]. At least 88 people were killed - including British, Arabs and 15 Jews who worked inside.

As Begin - later elected Prime Minister of Israel - wrote in his famous book The Revolt: Story of the Irgun: "The revolt sprang from the earth... A new generation grew up which turned its back on fear. It began to fight instead of to plead. For nearly two thousand years, the Jews, as Jews, had not borne arms, and it was on this complete disarmament, as much psychological as physical, that our oppressors calculated... We fight, therefore we are" [1].

As David Ben Gurion admitted to the Jewish Agency in regard to stopping the upsurge in Jewish terrorism in Palestine: "We cannot do it because, as I told you, it is futile, sir, it is futile." [3]

1947 to 1970 (approx)

The conflict at this point was characterised by being inter-state. Israel was invaded several times by its neighbours, notably the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 1970 War of Attrition and 1973 Yom Kippur War, and launched its own invasions, most notably the 1967 Six Day War, in the course of which, Israel occupied territories such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Golan and Sinai, areas which included a very hostile Arab population and several million Palestinian refugees. This, together with Arab anger over what they saw as Western countries interfering non-neutrally in their affairs, became a breeding ground for mass anger. The Middle East was turbulent and Islamic Fundamentalism came to the forefront during this time, but neither the mass terrorism nor the large-scale Israeli settlements building program had fully emerged during this juncture.

1970 onward

Popular Palestinian guerrilla movements came to the fore in this time. Aircraft hijackings and bombings took place, the 1972 Israeli Olympic team was attacked and eleven athletes were killed. This led Israel to launch reprise assassinations in Operation Wrath of God. Later on suicide bombings became a preferred tool of destruction. These actions were operated by a large number of groups and individuals, which made detection and prevention difficult, and were targeted not only at Israelis, but also at the nationals of other countries felt to be aiding them, principally America. Many of these actions were supported at State level, with countries such as Syria, Libya and others openly sponsoring terrorism of this kind.

In response, there were several actions by the Israeli's, including armed incursion (Lebanon 1980), segregation (cutting off the West Bank and Gaza Strip from mainland Israel), an increased level of aggression (including retaliation against houses and villages), and economic deprival.

Various peace initiatives, such as 1978 Camp David, 1993 Oslo and Camp David 2000 were brokered. That those countries which agreed to peace, such as Jordan and Egypt, were given back by Israel the land which had been occupied, upon conclusion of the peace process.

1987 onwards: The Intifadas

The popular uprising known as the Intifada in 1987, and the second Intifada in 2000, brought violence to the everyday street in a greater way than previously, and the response by the Israeli's was equally escalated.

Current

Whilst the above trends still are the broad status quo, the political map has developed. Terrorism now includes large scale terrorism, such as the 9/11 attack by Islamic extrmists on New York, and another change is the controversial (and somewhat provocative) building of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Some Features of the Violence

Arab, Palestinian and Islamic violence towards Israelis

Features to include:

Israeli violence towards Palestinians and other Arab groups

(to flesh out)

Features to include:

  • Expulsions and massacres of civilian population
  • Targeted assassinations of Palestinian militants
  • Demolition of Palestinian homes
  • Restricting travel to Israeli towns (where many Palestinians are employed)
  • Tear-gas against Palestinian rioters

Use of Children

At times, women and children have been targeted for mass killings or unwittingly used as living weapons, for example at the cafeteria at Hebrew University [4], a junior high school [5], and an 11 year old child used as a living 8 kg bomb at a border checkpoint[6] (the attempt to remotely detonate the bomb in his school bag failed).

There are no records of comparable use by Israelis of children as living weapons or willfully chosen targets in this manner. It is estimated that around 500 children have been killed by Israeli forces during 2000-2005. Statistics, however, show a higher percentage of Israeli victims who are women and children, as opposed to Palestinian women and children.

Timeline of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Distortion of Victim Numbers

One study by an Israeli Counter Terrorism Institute analysed the circumstances of Israeli-Palestinian killings during the current Intifada (2000-to date), and concluded:

"Since the violence began ... around 1,450 Palestinians have been killed, compared to about 525 Israelis. Though on the surface the figures appear to indicate rampant Israeli violence against helpless Palestinian civilians, the figures actually "lump combatants in with noncombatants, suicide bombers with innocent civilians, and report Palestinian 'collaborators' murdered by their own compatriots as if they had been killed by Israel."
"More meaningful figures show that Israel is responsible for around 568 Palestinian noncombatant deaths, while Palestinians have killed more than 420 Israeli noncombatants," said the study. "Over 50% of the Palestinians killed were actively involved in fighting - and this does not include stone-throwers or 'unknowns.'"
Furthermore, researchers found that "Palestinians are directly responsible for the deaths of at least 185 of their own number - one out of every eight Palestinians killed" in the conflict thus far.
Don Radlauer, an associate researcher with ICT, said he and his colleagues did an in-depth statistical study of fatalities on both sides of the conflict to reach their conclusions. Researchers broke down fatalities in terms of age, sex and whether or not they were combatants.

Source: Worldnetdaily.com [7], a staunchly conservative website.

This study has been criticised for significant bias in its formulation. For example, the study classes as a "Combatant":

someone killed at a location and at a time during which an armed confrontation was going on, who appears most likely – but not certain – to have been an active participant in the fighting

Also classified in the "Combatant" group are:

people who knowingly took some action which would lead to increased danger, such as entering an area in which fighting was going on or which security officials had declared off-limits.

Such a definition enables civilian Palestinians to be counted as "Combatants" by virtue of their being within an area which was entered by Israeli soldiers. (The definitions referred to above may be found in the study's "Categorization" section [8]).

Spread of violence to Palestinian and Israeli Allies

Violence against Israel has also spread to attacks on its allies, (principally) America, but also other countries in Europe (i.e. Rome and Vienna airport attacks) and elsewhere such as Argentina (see Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires) and Kenya (see Kenyan hotel bombing). Since 2002, there have also been a spate of many terrorist bomb attacks in countries such as Turkey (2003 Istanbul bombings), Spain, Bali etc. (However some of these were not related to Israel, but more to anti-America or anti-West sentiment)

Violence against Palestinians has also spread to its allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other Middle East countries. Many of these were involved in the training or support of terrorists for the Palestinians, and had their own conflicts with Israel at the same time also.

List of organisations on both sides which are or have been responsible for violence

Palestinian, Arab, Islamic

Israeli, Jewish

See also

(Neutral Point Of View note: the presence of the last 2 links are for those seeking further information on international law in general. It is not an opinion on this specific conflict)

References

  1. Begin, Menachim. The Revolt. WH Allen, London. 1951
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