A Case Study in Fourth Generation Warfare:The "Al-Aqsa" IntifadaDecember 2000 The "Mitchell Committee" Report, with footnotes and comments by the Government of Israel and the PLO, issued May 20, 2001. Since late September 2000, the Israeli Defense Force has confronted groups of Palestinian youths in numbers not seen since the first "Intifada" (lit: uprising), from 1987 - 1993. Although inflicting the majority of the 450 Palestinian fatalities (as of 31 May 2001) and large numbers of wounded, the Israeli forces do not appear to be deterring either the incidents themselves or terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. The charts in this section, compiled from open source data, are intended to illustrate the physical dimensions of the crisis: where the Palestinians live, where Israeli settlements are located, and unfortunately, the continuing stream of casualties. Table of Contents:
ChronologyDay-by-day coverage of activities on the ground. Courtesy of EmergencyNet News Service.
BackgroundNew! Latest (28 June 2001) poll shows that one-half of the Israeli population believes that war is inevitable or nearly so and two-thirds give Sharon a positive rating for his handling of the crisis. At last July's Camp David summit the Israeli delegation spoke of "territorial concessions" to the Palestinians. But their proposals were not released in any official text still less recorded on any map. The Jerusalem Task Force from Orient House (which represents Palestinian interests in Jerusalem), drew up this map on the basis of information from the Palestinian delegation to the summit. Ehud Barak's Palestinian state is shown as a West Bank territory divided into three and further subdivided by roads reserved for Jewish settlers plus the Gaza Strip. From Le Monde Diplomatique, http://www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/maps/IMG/artoff2076.jpg. New! Palestinians and Middle East Peace: Issues for the United States, Clyde Mark, Congressional Research Service, updated May 24, 2001. Concise source for international agreements, chronologies, and unresolved issues. U.S. positions on terrorism in the region and the legal status of settlements. (157 KB .pdf) "Preparing for the war of his own choosing," by Baruch Kimmerling. Op Ed piece in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, July 12, 2001. Is war, even a major conflagration, inevitable in the Middle East? It's beginning to look that way. More details on the Barak peace plan. (On the Ha'aretz website - new window will open.) Ha'aretz on-line special on water as a fundamental source of conflict in the region. Extensive collection of articles on this intractable and often ignored subject. On the Ha'aretz newspaper's web site from Israel. (Hebrew text support is optional.) Economic and Social Repercussions of the Israeli Occupation on the Living Conditions of the Palestinian People, UN General Assembly Economic and Social Council, 14 June 2000 (114 KB .pdf file). Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. Also in .pdf format. Any uprising needs a popular base of support. This report may help explain the depth of this support and why it has held. Two reports from an Israeli human rights group that document the conditions fueling the Intifada: Oslo: Before and After and DISPUTED WATERS: Israel's Responsibility for the Water Shortage in the Occupied Territories (MS Word) "Tacit Consent," detailed report on the problem of settler vs. Palestinian violence, From The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. January 2001 (456KB MS Word document) Terrorism: Middle Eastern Groups and State Sponsors 2000. The original "assassins" were Middle Eastern terrorists, and the tradition has continued to this day. This latest CRS survey provides thorough coverage of the major groups, their sponsors, and efforts to counter them. Water and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. by Gerard Collins, former foreign minister of Ireland, member of the Dail Eireann and the European Parliament, before the Diplomatic Institute of Oman on 14 October 1997. |
