A Case Study in Fourth Generation Warfare:

The "Al-Aqsa" Intifada

December 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:

  1. Al Aqsa Intifada:  Cumulative Deaths, 28 Sept 2000 to Present

  2. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, 22 Nov 1967

  3. Middle East Peace Process:  Common Theme

  4. Israeli Settlers on West Bank and Israeli Settlers in Gaza

  5. Facts on the Ground

  6. West Bank:  Facts on the Ground, Jan 2000

  7. Ethnic Mix in Jerusalem

  8. Gaza Strip:  Fact on the Ground, 2000

  9. Access Roads: Keys to Israeli Security and Control

  10. Israeli Settlements:  Golan Heights, 2000

  11. Water and Golan

  12. West Bank Aquifers

  13. 33 Years after 1967 War, 21 Years after Camp David Accords

Chronology

Day-by-day coverage of activities on the ground.  Courtesy of EmergencyNet News Service.

  1. October 13 to Present

  2. September 28 to October 12

Background

10/1/03 Map of the Israeli security fence.  From the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem, with their report (456 KB PDF file.)

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.

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)

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.