Violence
likely to escalate as individuals pose challenge for Israeli and Palestinian
leaders
Tue, Nov 18, 2014
The attack
yesterday by Palestinian cousins on a synagogue in west Jerusalem stunned
Israelis but was welcomed by the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) and explained as “revenge” for Israeli killings of
Palestinians by Hamas.
Issued by a
spokesman based in Gaza, these comments could prompt Israel’s prime minister
Binyamin Netanyahu to retaliate against the Palestinian enclave, governed by
Hamas. Netanyahu has also accused Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of
inciting violence, suggesting this makes him an invalid interlocutor in
negotiations.
However,
neither the PFLP nor Hamas appear to have organised the synagogue operation and
Abbas condemned it. Israeli police commissioner Yochanan Danino said it was a
“grassroots, independent” operation carried out by “lone wolves”.
The
perpetrators were Uday and Rassan Abu Jamal, cousins from the occupied east
Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukhabaer, which lies next to Silwan, a
location where Israeli settlers constantly challenge Palestinians. While the
PFLP claimed the cousins were members of its armed wing, relatives have
insisted they belonged to no armed group.
They appear
to fit into a pattern set in June/July after the collapse of US-brokered peace
negotiations. The seminal event was the abduction of three Israeli teenagers by
a “lone cell” – a term used by Israelis – of three Palestinians, two from the
Qawasmeh family, based in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.
Although
Hamas disavowed the act (a veteran Hamas official later said the group was
responsible, a claim not supported by any other member of Hamas), the movement
was blamed by Netanyahu, who retaliated by launching a 50-day campaign in Gaza
in which 2,130 Palestinians, 71 Israelis and a Thai worker were killed.
Palestinian
assaults on Israelis have surged over the past month. In addition to the four
killed yesterday at the synagogue, five Israelis and a foreign visitor have
died after being deliberately struck by cars or stabbed. There have been other
non-fatal stabbings and a shooting of Israelis, while a dozen Palestinians –
including perpetrators of attacks and protesting youths – have been killed by
Israeli police.
An “intifada
of individuals” is a very dangerous proposition for both the Israeli and
Palestinian leaderships. Their intelligence agencies cannot easily identify
potential or actual perpetrators, pre-empt attacks, or arrest those involved.
Thanks to collaborators and surveillance, it is far easier to discover members
of a movement, uncover plots, and track down perpetrators.
Motivated by
rising anger over Israel’s continuing settlement activities or fury over a single
event, individuals have mounted attacks with knives, screwdrivers, vehicles and
pistols. Hamas attributed the cousins’ attack to Sunday’s death by hanging of a
bus driver Yusuf Hassan al-Ramuni, said by Israel to be a suicide but alleged
by Palestinians to have been murder by an Israeli settler.
Agent of
control
Israel’s
refusal to permit the Palestinian Authority (PA) to exercise even limited
authority over or monitor Palestinians in east Jerusalem means Israel has to
exercise full control over some 385,000 Palestinian residents. During the first
intifada (1987-1991) and the second uprising (2000-2005), the Palestinian
leadership maintained some control. Today, the PA opposes armed action and
seeks to prevent attacks and suppress protests, drawing on itself popular
condemnation.
The violence
is likely to escalate. Each individual Palestinian attack emboldens others and
elicits street protests against the Israeli occupation to which Israel responds
with tear gas, rubber bullets, live fire and arrests, sustaining the cycle of
violence.
The latest
attacks have taken place in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Tel Aviv and central
Israel. Protests erupted in Galilee where a Palestinian citizen of Israel was
killed by Israeli police after he struck their car. East Jerusalem is
particularly sensitive to both Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Heavy-handed
Israeli action there could result in widespread demonstrations in West Bank
Palestinian enclaves and Palestinian cities, towns and villages in Israel
proper, expanding the area of confrontation to the whole of Israel, east
Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Michael
Jansen
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