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The expression Palestinian terrorism is commonly used to indicate terrorist acts committed by some 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.

In the 1970s and early 1980s 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, some arms of the PLO officially sanctioned these attacks. Since Oslo, Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizballah, and some PLO factions have continued to 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 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.

An international consensus on the proper definition of terrorist acts against Israel has not yet been achieved. Notwithstanding continued European condemnation of Palestinian terrorism, 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 almost never labeled as such.

Over 30 suicide bombers have recently launched attacks against Israeli targets, killing a large number of civilians. These groups 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.

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.

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