Spate of violence sparks fears of new Palestinian Intifada
A SERIES of Palestinian attacks that killed several Israeli civilians has prompted the government to take unprecedented security measures amid growing public debate over whether the spectre of another Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, is on the horizon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a ‘‘harsh offensive’’ to counter rising violence that has focused in recent weeks on Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, in a series of so-called ‘‘lone wolf’’ Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
Palestinians are temporarily barred from Jerusalem’s Old City, the first time Israel has taken this step since it captured the Old City in the 1967 Mideast War.
The latest spike in violence comes at a time when many Palestinians no longer believe that statehood through negotiations with Israel is possible.
Israeli commentators have raised the possibility of a third uprising, though Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so far prevented major outbreaks of violence despite his growing friction with Netanyahu.
Israel’s leading newspaper commentator, Nahum Barnea, has called the recent violence the ‘‘Third Intifada’’, referring to Palestinian uprisings in the 1980s and the early 2000s.
But Hani al-Masri, a Palestinian political analyst, said it was not likely to be the start of a new uprising.
‘‘Intifada needs a leadership, and the Palestinian political leadership is against it,’’ he said.
Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting of top security officials and said he had ordered ‘‘additional steps to deter terror and punish terrorists’’. This included ‘‘fast-tracking the razing of terrorists’ homes’’, beefing up security in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and ‘‘banning those that incite [violence] from the Old City and the Temple Mount’’.
A Palestinian teenager stabbed and moderately wounded a 15-year-old Israeli on Sunday in Jerusalem before being shot dead by an Israeli police officer. He wrote the day before on his Facebook page: ‘‘Either martyrdom or victory.’’
Just hours earlier, another Palestinian attacked a family as they walked in the Old City, killing the father, seriously wounding the mother and lightly injuring their 2-year-old toddler before proceeding to stab another Israeli man to death.
The 19-year-old wrote on Facebook before the attack: ‘‘What’s happening to our holy places? What’s happening to our mothers and sisters in the Al-Aqsa mosque? We are not the people who accept humiliation. Our people will revolt.’’
Last week suspected Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli couple in front of their children as they drove in the West Bank.
Another Israeli died when his car was pelted with stones last month, and there have been numerous incidents of Palestinians attacking Israelis and throwing stones at passing vehicles.
Abbas last week seemingly made good on his threat to drop a ‘‘bombshell’’ in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, when he declared that the Palestinians cannot continue to be bound by 20-year-old Olso Accords and their accompanying security and economic Israel.
Yet his warning, while potentially a game-changer for IsraeliPalestinian relations, lacked a timetable and specifics, suggesting little will change on the ground for now.
Much of the recent violence has stemmed from tensions at the sacred hilltop compound known to
agreements
with Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
There have been several days of clashes at the site over the past few weeks as Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the AlAqsa mosque while hurling stones, firebombs and fireworks at police. The unrest spread to Arab neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem and to the West Bank.