The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict #54: Non-Violent Resistance, Except For Stones, Hand Grenades, Molotov Cocktails, Guns, And Explosives
Stone Them
At the beginning of the intifada, most of the terrorist attacks and hostilities were carried out by improvised means. Dozens of ten-year-old Palestinian youths ambushed small patrols of IDF soldiers. They threw large stones at them while trying to damage the strength of the arm and a huge numerical advantage, and many demonstrations were also held. During this period, an attempt was made to avoid using firearms against the IDF and the settlers, despite instructions and contradictions that came from the leadership of the PLO. While this attempt was initially successful, its success dissolved as time went by.
The Israeli civil government in the territories practically collapsed in the first month of the intifada. Large areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip declared themselves "liberated" and refused to cooperate with the civilian government. The absolute majority of Palestinian police officers, as well as many government officials, resigned. At the same time, many general strikes were held, a full trade strike was announced, which lasted 40 days, and then a partial trade strike that set only certain hours for the shops to open.
Starting from February 1988, many attempts were made for civil uprisings, with or without the support of parallel violence. Most of these attempts were based on the ideas of Mubarak Awad, whom Israel deported. These attempts were relatively successful at first, but with the collapse of the local organization and the transfer of the center of gravity to the foreign leadership, they dissolved, and the military "shock forces" (the military arm of the Popular Committees) became the significant factor. During the same month, the Shayetet 13 blew up the PLO's return ship docked in Limassol, Cyprus. This ship was intended to draw international attention to the intifada by arriving, accompanied by many journalists, at the port of Haifa and being received by representatives of the Arab citizens of Israel. At the same time, middle-class Christian merchants were forced by the PLO to initiate a non-violent protest against the non-payment of taxes collected by Israel and used to finance the administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. When the arrests did not end the tax revolt, Israel eliminated it by imposing heavy fines and confiscating property, equipment, goods, and furniture from shops, factories, and even private homes.
As the intifada continued, the executions of real and imagined collaborators with Israel increased, and the chaos increased in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These phenomena, as well as the form of the organization, were similar to the Arab revolt against the British Empire in Palestine in 1936–1939. For example, 90 Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel were violently murdered, which even led the national headquarters to announce a demand to avoid killing collaborators without approval from the top leadership.
Does Anyone Know What The Definition Of A Non-Violent Uprising Is?
In the middle of 1988, the PLO began organizing the shock troops into military organizations. As a result, the tactics of action to attack IDF soldiers changed, which led to thousands of incidents of using Molotov cocktails, over 100 throwing hand grenades, and over 500 attacks with guns and explosives. Despite this, the Palestinians continued to present these events as a non-violent uprising.
Something To Think About
The first intifada broke out in 1987, three years after the autobiography of Yasser Arafat was published. Quoted by Alan Hart in his 1984 book, "Arafat: A Political Biography," PLO leader Yasser Arafat said:
领英推荐
A Question For The Weekend?
How would you react to this violence against the community you are responsible for protecting?
That's all for today, class. We'll continue on Sunday.?
Take care.
Founder & CEO, Group 8 Security Solutions Inc. DBA Machine Learning Intelligence
9 个月Thanks for putting this up!