Zionist political violence: Difference between revisions

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Template:Totallydisputed This article is about militant actions, which critics have termed terrorist, against Palestinians and others, by Jewish groups within the British Mandate of Palestine, and later, by Israelis. These militant actions were not all directly connected with the "mainstream" pre-Statehood Jewish leadership, who condemned these attacks publicly, and often extradited their members. Strong ties remained, though, between the formal Jewish leadership and its underground counterparts. See also: terrorism against Israel.

Pre-Statehood Jewish terrorism

In the 1930s and 1940s, two Jewish underground organizations, the Irgun and the Stern gang, were responsible for a number of violent acts in their campaign against the British for a Jewish national homeland:

During the period 1937-1939, the Irgun conducted a campaign of marketplace bombings and other acts of violence that in total killed hundreds of Arabs.
The King David Hotel bombing on July 26, 1946, killing 91.
The bombing of the British Embassy in Rome, also in 1946.
Assassinated British minister Lord Moyne in Cairo in 1944.
Assassinated the UN mediator Count Bernadotte in September, 1948 for his allegedly pro-Arabic conduct during the cease-fire negotiations.
The 1947 killing of two British sergeants who had been taken prisoner in response to British refusal to cancel the death sentence for two Jewish activists in Akko prison.
The killings of several suspected collaborators with the Haganah and the British mandate government.
Attacked British military airfields and railways several times in 1946.
Destroyed bridges over the Jordan River.
A number of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, most famously the Deir Yassin massacre, in which over a hundred Palestinians were killed.
Forced exile of a large number of Palestinians during the Palestinian exodus of 1948; the largest single expulsion was at Lydda and Ramle on July 14, of 60,000 people, while expulsions were also ordered for Operation Hiram. These direct expulsions do not account for all Palestinians that left during this period, however.

Actions following the establishment of the State of Israel

An incomplete list of Israel's attacks in the period after 1948:

Qibya massacre, carried out among others by Unit 101 under the command of Ariel Sharon. It lead to the death of over 50 villagers, two-thirds of them women and children.
Operation Suzannah (also known as the Lavon Affair), conducted in 1954. The Mossad intelligence agency attempted to discredit the Egyptian government and disrupt British plans to hand over control of the Suez Canal by firebombing the offices of the United States Information Service and other Western targets in Cairo.
Kafr Qasim massacre, carried out by the Israeli border police in 1956. 49 Israeli Arabs were killed, including 15 women and 11 children.
Qana Massacre in 1996 when a UN compound in the town of Qana in Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon was shelled by the IDF, killing over one hundred civilians. Israel expressed regret, claiming that the compound was hit due to "incorrect targeting based on erroneous data."
Various attempts by Mossad to assassinate or kidnap opponents of Israel in foreign territory. Examples include the 1986 seizure of Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli citizen, from Italy at a time when he was wanted by Israel for revealing details of Israel's nuclear program (which Israel considered treason), and a foiled 1997 poisioning of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan that led to a prisoner exchange for the Mossad assassins for the release of the late Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin;
Numerous incidents during the al-Aqsa Intifada in which Israel has assassinated individuals involved in violence against Israeli civilians, in many cases also killing civilians around them in the process (which Israel sees as collateral damage.) The targeted individuals were members of militant organizations, including Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad; and some were simultaneously employed by the Palestinian Authority security forces.
According to Amnesty International, a campaign of killing (2,500 Palestinian civilians killed, most of them unarmed, but also "more than 900 Israelis, most of them civilians and including more than 100 children, have been killed by Palestinian armed groups"), and the destruction of Palestinian homes, orchards and groves. On the other hand, the Amnesty International site states "...Palestinian armed groups deliberately target Israeli civilians in suicide bombings and other attacks on buses, restaurants and other public places".
Operation Days of Penitence, an Israeli military operation in the northern Gaza Strip conducted between September 30, 2004 and October 15, 2004 that focused on the town of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia and Jabalia refugee camp, in response to missiles being launched into Israel by militants. According to pro-Palestinian sources the operation killed between 104 and 133 Palestinians, including 62 to 87 militants and 18 to 31 children, while other pro-Israeli sources claim that while there were several unintended deaths in the fighting, the vast majority of victims were militants.

Actions by Israeli allies

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was perpetrated during September 1982 in Beirut, Lebanon by the Phalangist Lebanese Christian militia; commonly cited estimates of the death toll range from 700-3000. The Israelis surrounded the camps and sent the Phalangists into the camps to clear out PLO fighters, and provided the Phalangists with support including flares, food, and ammunition. An Israeli investigation found a number of officials (including the Defense Minister of that time, Ariel Sharon) "indirectly responsible" for not preventing the killings. The Kahan Commission wrote: "responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps."

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