File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_2001/foucault.0109, message 40


Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 23:38:28 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?eldorra=20mitchell?= <manynotone-AT-yahoo.co.in>
Subject: The AlAsqua UpRising 


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

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