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Revision as of 14:24, 22 May 2002 by RK (talk | contribs) (rewriting a poorly written article.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The expression Palestinian terrorism is used to briefly indicate terrorist acts committed by some Palestinians against other nations.
In the 1970s and early 1980s the various arms of the PLO carried out a wave of terrorist bombings across Israel and Europe, massacres in synagogues and in public airports in Europe, and airplane hijackings in Europe.
Before the Oslo peace accords were signed, the various arms of the PLO officially sanctioned these attacks. Since Oslo, Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas the certain PLO factions still fund and encourage terrorist acts. In contrast, the central Palestinian Authority has gone on record a number of times as being against terrorist acts. Since Israel's recent military incursion into the West Bank (including the town of Jenin) the Israeli government has recovered an dpublished hundreds of pages of internal Palestinian Authority documents showing 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 indisputable proof that the PA in fact covertly does support 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.
An international consensus on the proper definition of terrorist acts against Jews has not yet been achieved. The State of Israel complains that similar acts taken against European citizens are always labeled as terrorist, but that similar actions against Jews in Israel are almost never labeled as such.
Many Palestinian groups are involved in terrorist activity. Over 30 homicide bombers (also called suicide bombers) have launched attacks against Israeli civilian targets, killing a large number of civilians. These groups have at their disposal enormous quantities of weapons and explosives, which all sides agree are not made by the individual bombers themselves; they are mass produced in informal factories in the West Bank and Gaza.
Palesintian spokespeople claim that terrorism is a forgiveable and understandable effect of the unsatisfactory situation in which Palestinians live. They feel that their national sentiment is internationally little respected. 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 6year olds teaching them songs about murdering Jews. Given such an inculation of hatred over so many years, it is not surprising that a small number of Palestinian children eventually are convinced to become mass murderers.
This terrorism is mainly directed against the State of Israel.
See also: Terrorism against Arabs.