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The expression Palestinian terrorism is commonly used to indicate terrorist acts committed by Palestinians, in particular against Israelis, and occasionaly against nationals of other countries.

Early history

Roots of Palestinian terrorism go back to the 1930s. Of mentioning is Sheikh Izz Ad-Din El-Kasam, after whom the military wing of Hamas is named, and who created the first ever terrorist network in the history of the British Mandate of Palestine. The network, called the Black Hand, was responsible for the deaths of at least 10 Jews. After it killed a Jewish police officer, El-Kasam was hunted down and killed by British police.

Although the first bombing ever in the history of the British Mandate of Palestine was carried out by a Jewish extremist group, the Irgun, the Arabs were quick to adopt the technique, which was later used methodically and extensively. During the Arab Great Rebellion of 1936-1939, bombings, riots, and murders, all of them carried out on a systematical basis, have left hundreds of Jews dead.

The same techniques were used by Arabs in the first stage of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. However, efficient conduct by the Hagana managed to constrain the attacks. Eventually, the war turned into a wide conflict with Arab nations invading from abroad, in which Israel obtained independence, and Jordan and Egypt took over parts of Mandatory Palestine.

History between 1948 and 1967

The years between Israel's independence and the Six-Day War were characterized by incessant terrorist activity, sponsored by the Arab nations and carried out by Palestinians. These took the form of infiltrations of armed guerillas into Israeli territory. In the first stage (up until 1956), the guerillas infiltrated mainly through the Israeli borders with Egypt and Jordan. In Jordan the guerillas did not have a formal status; in Egypt, however, they formed a battalion-sized unit called the "Fedayeen", which belonged to the Egyptian army. More than 200 people were killed in the these raids.

In spite of powerful retaliatory acts on behalf of Israel (which included, up until 1953, the deliberate targeting of civilians, which was stopped later), the infiltrations never stopped. In 1956, Israel decided to accept the offers made by British and French, and to attack Egypt. Israel succeeded in taking over the Sinai Peninsula, and agreed to withdraw only when Egypt has promised to disband the fedayeen and stop their raids.

In Jordan, the Palestinian guerillas were never a great favorite of the authorities, as they gradually began to subverse the Jordanian monarchy. For a while, the Jordanians have managed to constrain them and to limit the extent of their activities. However, after several years of quiet, Syria decided to carry out a program of subverting Israel's water supply. In order to intensify the hostilities, Syria decided to resort to Palestinian terrorism. It had led a move to transform the Fatah organization from a moderately successful group with political aspirations led by Ahmad Shukeiry, into a full-fledged terrorist network enjoying Arab and Palestinian popular support, and led by Yasser Arafat. In late 1964, the PLO was formed. The PLO's first attacks in February 1965 were aimed at - unsirprisingly - Israel's water installations in the north. However, they never caused much damage and the PLO remained only a minor power.

After 1967

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories on which then lived more than a million Palestinians. Many of these belonged to the various militant movements. The PLO's earlier influence in these lands was limited by Egypt and Jordan (who saw it as a Syrian proxy); however in 1967 it began to rapidly take over the existing infrastructure. A big number of Palestinians, many of whom belonged to the PLO, fled into Jordan and de-stabilized its political system. Within months, Israel was again the target of a wave of attacks (at that time mainly consisting of, but not limited to bombings), that originated either in the Palestinian population within the captured territories, or in Jordan, which was no longer able to contain them.

Israel's army and security services reacted gravely to these attempts, and enventually devised tactics that made it possible to stop the attacks. By 1970, members of most major Palestinian terror networks in West Bank and Gaza were identified and arrested, while the PLO's attempts to take over Jordan only led to armed response by King Hussein, and the formers' exile. Yasser Arafat and the PLO moved to South Lebanon.

The PLO has launched numerous terrorist raids on Israeli targets from Lebanon that again led to hundreds of Israeli casualties. In addition, in the 1970s and early 1980s various arms of the PLO have carried out a wave of terrorist bombings, massacres in synagogues and in public airports and airplane hijackings across Europe. All of these activities were oficially sanctioned by the PLO and Yasser Arafat, its head.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon in order to expell the PLO from there. Although it suceeded in making Arafat flee again, to Tunis, Israel became entangled with the local population. Although By 1985 Israel withdrew from all of South Lebanon but for a strip of about 10 miles wide (intended at preventing mortar and rocket fire at Israel's northern cities), Israel's prolonged stay and Arab and Iranian support, however, had led to the strengthening of the Shi'ite-Muslim group Hizballah (classified as terrorist by the U.S. State Department), that began soon to carry attacks against Israeli and Western targets, military and non-military alike.

First Intifada

To be written

PA: Prevention or complicity?

In 1993, Israel completed a series of negotiations with the PLO, resulting in mutual recognition, the agreement on the cessation of violence, and the forming of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA). One of PA's goals, as stated in the Oslo Accords, was the prevention of Palestinian terrorism against Israel.

Initially, the PA carried out its obligations, in accordance with the agreement. The Intifada infrastructure was transformed into a government-like apparatus. However, several times in the years since 1993, there were waves of Palestinian attacks. The Palestinian Authority quickly acted against them - however their regularity - many waves came when the Israeli public reaction could be beneficial to some Palestinian aim during negotiations - indicated that PA complicity could be taking place. Nevertheless, Israel chose to ignore this at that time.

Second Intifada

In Autumn 2000 began the Second Intifada. While the Palestinians blame Ariel Sharon, then the Israeli opposition leader for starting it, while Israel claims, the PA started it intentionally to improve the Palestinian positions at the negotiating table.

Over 100 suicide bombings have taken place in Israeli targets, killing more than three hundred civilians. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah are said to have at their disposal enormous quantities of weapons and explosives, which all sides agree are not made by the individual bombers themselves but at informal factories in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel names the towns of Jenin, Nablus and Ramalla as centers of this activity.

The PA has taken a shady position regarding the Intifada from the very start. While condemnding most terrorist attacks, it has never arrested figures of importance in the terrorist networks, confiscated their weaponry or even publicly denounced future violence against Israelis. Indeed, operatives from the Fatah movement of Yasser Arafat, the head of the PA, are known to have participated in a large number of attacks themselves.

Palestinian spokespeople claim that the bombings are forgiveable and understandable effects of the unsatisfactory situation in which Palestinians live. They feel that their national sentiment is little respected internationally. In contrast, Israelis and Americans point out that many millions of people live in similar and worse conditions all over the world, and that these people never resort to waves of suicide bombings. Israelis and Americans hold that the real cause of the suicide bombings is the indoctrination of Palestinian children, from kindergarten to college age, with pro-suicide propaganda, including official Palestinian Authority television shows for 5 and 6 year olds teaching them songs about murdering Jews. Given such a climate of hatred over so many years, it is not surprising that some Palestinian children are eventually convinced to become terrorists.

Since Israel's recent military incursion into the West Bank (including the town of Jenin) the Israeli government has obtained and published hundreds of pages of internal Palestinian Authority documents which they allege to show that the PA has been covertly funding, and possibly directing, many suicide bombings. Many government officials in the United States have gone on record as saying this is proof that the PA still supports terrorism. The PA initially responded by saying that these documents were taken out of context; their position now is that the documents never existed, and that they are all fabrications.

As an international consensus on the proper definition of terrorism (against Israel or any other country) has not been achieved yet. Notwithstanding the continued European general condemnation of any violence towards civilians, the State of Israel continues to complain that acts taken against European citizens are always labeled as terrorist, but that similar actions against Israel are seldom labeled as such.

See also: Terrorism against Israel. Contrast: Terrorism against Arabs.