Front Page
Politics
Economy
International
Sports
Society
Culture
Videos
Newspapers
Ahram Online
Al-Ahram Weekly
Albawaba
Almasry Alyoum
Amwal Al Ghad
Arab News Agency
Bikya Masr
Daily News Egypt
FilGoal
The Egyptian Gazette
Youm7
Subject
Author
Region
f
t
مصرس
ExxonMobil's Nigerian asset sale nears approval
Argentina's GDP to contract by 3.3% in '24, grow 2.7% in '25: OECD
Chubb prepares $350M payout for state of Maryland over bridge collapse
Turkey's GDP growth to decelerate in next 2 years – OECD
EU pledges €7.4bn to back Egypt's green economy initiatives
Yen surges against dollar on intervention rumours
$17.7bn drop in banking sector's net foreign assets deficit during March 2024: CBE
Norway's Scatec explores 5 new renewable energy projects in Egypt
Egypt, France emphasize ceasefire in Gaza, two-state solution
Microsoft plans to build data centre in Thailand
Japanese Ambassador presents Certificate of Appreciation to renowned Opera singer Reda El-Wakil
WFP, EU collaborate to empower refugees, host communities in Egypt
Health Minister, Johnson & Johnson explore collaborative opportunities at Qatar Goals 2024
Egypt facilitates ceasefire talks between Hamas, Israel
Al-Sisi, Emir of Kuwait discuss bilateral ties, Gaza takes centre stage
AstraZeneca, Ministry of Health launch early detection and treatment campaign against liver cancer
Sweilam highlights Egypt's water needs, cooperation efforts during Baghdad Conference
AstraZeneca injects $50m in Egypt over four years
Egypt, AstraZeneca sign liver cancer MoU
Swiss freeze on Russian assets dwindles to $6.36b in '23
Amir Karara reflects on 'Beit Al-Rifai' success, aspires for future collaborations
Climate change risks 70% of global workforce – ILO
Prime Minister Madbouly reviews cooperation with South Sudan
Ramses II statue head returns to Egypt after repatriation from Switzerland
Egypt retains top spot in CFA's MENA Research Challenge
Egyptian public, private sectors off on Apr 25 marking Sinai Liberation
Debt swaps could unlock $100b for climate action
President Al-Sisi embarks on new term with pledge for prosperity, democratic evolution
Amal Al Ghad Magazine congratulates President Sisi on new office term
Egyptian, Japanese Judo communities celebrate new coach at Tokyo's Embassy in Cairo
Uppingham Cairo and Rafa Nadal Academy Unite to Elevate Sports Education in Egypt with the Introduction of the "Rafa Nadal Tennis Program"
Financial literacy becomes extremely important – EGX official
Euro area annual inflation up to 2.9% – Eurostat
BYD، Brazil's Sigma Lithium JV likely
UNESCO celebrates World Arabic Language Day
Motaz Azaiza mural in Manchester tribute to Palestinian journalists
Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban
It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game
Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights
Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines
Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19
Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers
Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled
We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga
Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June
Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds
Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go
Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform
Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.
OK
The Intifada -- to be continued
Graham Usher
Published in
Al-Ahram Weekly
on 04 - 10 - 2001
For Palestinians, in the occupied territories and
Israel
alike, the uprising is not over yet. Graham Usher writes from Ramallah and Nazareth
The Intifada -- to be continued
In Tel Aviv, Palestinian security chiefs met with their
Israeli
counterparts to put in place the cease-fire agreed between Yasser Arafat and
Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on 26 September. In Ramallah Palestinians marched, more or less peacefully.
In East
Jerusalem
they observed a general strike, unable to do much else given a massive police cordon around the city that barred access to all West Bank Palestinians and worship to any East
Jerusalem
Palestinian under the age of 40.
And in Gaza, Hebron, Bethlehem and at Silat Al-Dhahr village near Tulkarm they got killed -- 18 in 96 hours. This is how Palestinians passed the first anniversary of the Intifada by reliving and re-dying its first days. "You think the Intifada is over because of the cease-fire?" asked one Fatah leader in Ramallah. "It's barely started."
On the evidence of the anniversary he would seem to be right, as the cease-fire collapsed before it was built, with the
Israeli
army as the main saboteurs. As with its origin, it was Gaza where the flames really took hold, lit by the army in two separate events.
The first was on 27 September. Coming a few hours after the Arafat meeting with Peres, and in apparent reprisal for a bomb attack on an army base the day before,
Israeli
tanks and bulldozers invaded Rafah in a pre-dawn raid. Four Palestinians were killed, 30 injured, five critically, and 14 homes destroyed or damaged.
The next morning hundreds of Palestinian youths fanned out along the border with
Egypt
looking to take on tanks with machine-guns, rocks and pistols. "It was utterly explosive," said one eyewitness.
It exploded that night. Four Palestinians were killed near an army base on the border. The army said they were guerrillas from Rafah's cross-factional Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) who had perished from their own bombs. Palestinians said they were killed in a minefield deliberately left for them by the army.
And the anger turned inward. Fuelled by rumours that Arafat had dispatched 400 police to curb the fighting in Rafah, a Palestinian mob assailed and torched three PA security offices. It took the intervention of the PRC to steer the rage to an older enemy, as the funerals became demonstrations and the demonstrations turned into confrontations at such flash points as Gaza's Kfar Darom settlement and the Karni crossing into
Israel
.
Two Palestinian youths were killed at these sites and 55 were wounded, most of them from live army ammunition, all aged between 12-22.
A similar dynamic was happening in Hebron, as the army shelled the partitioned city and Palestinians responded with gunfire. Over three days of battles fought between Palestinian guerrillas and
Israeli
snipers and occasional tanks, four Palestinians were killed.
One was an Islamic Jihad activist, apparently killed by his own explosives. Another was a 48-year old man struck down by an
Israeli
bullet as he tried to cross the battlefield that was once Hebron's market. A third was a 10-year-old boy, caught in a firefight between
Israeli
soldiers on one roof and Palestinian fighters on another. The fourth was an officer in the PA's Preventive Security force, killed, say Palestinians, by an
Israeli
sniper while trying to move youths from his range.
Two more Palestinians were slain, in similar circumstances and by similar means, in and near Bethlehem.
But the cruellest slaughter occurred away from the frontlines. Early Sunday morning four Palestinian taxis were on their usual run ferrying Palestinians from Nablus to their jobs in
Israel
. Near the village of Silat Al-Dhahr the convoy stopped to remove a roadblock. Soldiers emerged from an olive grove. One of the taxi drivers, Ahmed Jaber Yusuf, describes what happened next.
"One soldier shouted at us. We got back in our cars and started to reverse. Then they [the soldiers] opened fire."
Two Palestinians were killed, 10 other passengers were injured, six seriously. The army said it would open an investigation into the incident.
Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, has been investigating Palestinian "breaches of the cease-fire." He is aware there are some members in his cabinet (and some in the US State Department) who suspect he ordered the incursion into Rafah less out of "self-defence" than to scupper the cease-fire. He, therefore, responded with "restraint."
Following a security cabinet meeting on Saturday, he gave the PA an extra 48 hours to bring "quiet" to the occupied territories but detain immediately eight "ticking bombs" from a list of 108 Palestinians whose arrest is demanded by
Israel
.
In the current mood among Palestinians, Arafat can no more make arrests than beat back the ocean with a stick. On Monday a car bomb exploded in West
Jerusalem
, the first Palestinian military operation inside the Green Line since the cease-fire. Two
Israelis
were lightly injured and three cars damaged. It was claimed by Islamic Jihad as "a response to the
Israeli
occupation."
And there is the rub. Now into its second year Arafat has sometimes ridden with Intifada, sometimes tried to cool it down, often exploited it for diplomatic ends. But he has never controlled it, and deliberately so.
What "controls" the uprising is the level of violence the occupation inflicts on Palestinians in Gaza, Hebron, Bethlehem and everywhere else in the occupied territories. When the occupation withdraws, so will the resistance. But not before, at least on the evidence of this anniversary, and no matter what "cease-fires" are declared.
Recommend this page
Related stories:
Umm Mohamed, mother of a martyr
See Intifada: year one 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
Intifada in focus
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor
Clic
here
to read the story from its source.
Related stories
Things to come
Splinting the reeds
Walking on a precipice
The Intifada next time
Abu Mazen's enormous task
Report inappropriate advertisement