[News] Are Palestinians on the verge of a new Intifada?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

6-10-2015 5:43 PM


  Are Palestinians on the verge of a new Intifada?

*http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=73970*

By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine

Palestinians, especially youngsters, are taking to the streets in large 
numbers to protest increasingly determined efforts by Jewish fanatics to 
take over or demolish al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam.

A number of protesters, including a child, have been shot dead by 
trigger-happy Israeli soldiers, instructed by the Israeli government to 
shoot to kill even peaceful protesters.

According to eyewitnesses, Abdul Rahman Ubaydullah, 12, was shot dead 
early Tuesday by an Israeli sniper as he was playing outside his home at 
the Ayda refugee camp near Bethlehem.

Israel murdered thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of 
children, in three devastating wars on the Gaza Strip in 2008-9, 2012, 
and 2014.

On Monday, another Palestinian youngster named Huthayfa Suleiman was 
shot dead at the Shweika neighborhood near the town of Tulkarem, in the 
northern West Bank.

Palestinian medical sources have reported that as many as 600 protesters 
were injured in the last three days, 300 by rubber-coated bullets, and 
the rest as a result of suffocation from tear-gas inhalation.

The hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to 
take "harsh” measures against "rioters."

The measures include instructions to kill stone-throwers, and demolish 
the family homes of Palestinians accused of killing Israeli settlers as 
well as imposing hefty fines on their families.

The measures seem to represent a stark contrast to the extremely lenient 
measures adopted against Jewish terrorists responsible for murdering 
Palestinians.

Nearly two months ago, Jewish terrorists burned alive an entire 
Palestinian family at the village of Duma near Nablus in the northern 
West Bank.

The father, mother and a small toddler succumbed to their massive burns 
while a second and only remaining child of the family is still fighting 
for his life in hospital.

Israel vowed to catch the perpetrators. However, two months after the 
ugly incident, none of the murderers has been apprehended.

It is widely believed that the Israeli security agencies as well as 
justice system are reluctant to pursue the Talmudic settler terrorists 
who are backed by powerful political figures as and top-ranking army 
officers.

The Israeli justice system, which is rife with right-wing judges 
sympathetic to the terrorists, often treats Jewish suspects as "innocent 
even if proven guilty," using the words of Israeli peace activist.

Al-Aqsa, the epicenter

The main reason behind current Palestinian protests is the recurrent and 
increasingly bold Jewish attempts to take over the Aqsa Mosque from 
Muslim hands in order to build on its site a Jewish temple.

Messianic Jewish groups, backed by powerful parties within the coalition 
government led by Netanyahu have been storming the Islamic sanctuary, 
nearly on a daily basis, under the protection of the Israeli security 
forces.

Muslims who tried to defend the sanctity of the place were severely 
beaten, shot at, or arrested and given hefty fines.

On Monday, crack Israeli soldiers expelled Muslim worshipers from the place.

Messianic Jews believe that the destruction of the Aqsa Mosque and 
building a Talmudic temple on its site would usher in the beginning of 
the so-called "redemption age" and appearance of a Jewish Messiah or 
redeemer, who will bring salvation for Jews and establish a world-wide 
Jewish empire.

Some Jewish circles, including religious Zionists, whose main political 
arm, ha-Bayt ha Yehudi, (Jewish home), is the second largest party in 
the current Israeli government, believe that bloodshed and violence on a 
very large scale must precede the redemption and appearance of the redeemer.

Believers in this  cataclysmic theology, who are in the hundreds of 
thousands and include most settlers in the West Bank, often seek to 
expedite these doomsday whims  by provoking violence in Occupied 
Palestine, especially by torching mosques and even churches and by 
committing outrageous acts of murder like what happened to the Dawabsheh 
family.

However, Messianic Jews know well that nothing would provoke the 
Palestinians like the recurrent storming of the Aqsa Mosque.

Life- and- death issue

In a certain sense, the millenarian Jews are correct.

Assaults on the Aqsa Mosque, even under the deceptive rubric of 
"innocent visits" do provoke Palestinians as nothing else would.

After all, the Aqsa Mosque is an integral part of the Islamic belief 
itself.  The Mosque is mentioned by name in Suratul Isra (Chapter- 17)

Most Palestinians actually believe that the majestic Muslim sanctuary, 
to which the Prophet Muhammed made his night journey from Mecca and 
subsequently flew from there to the seventh heaven in what is known in 
Muslim traditions as Israa and Mi'iraj, symbolizes their very existence 
in Palestine.

Hence, targeting the Mosque by Jews is viewed as a direct, brazen and 
flagrant attack or declaration of war on the very existence of the 
Palestinians, not only in Palestine, but also in the Levant region.

That is why; nearly every Palestinian considers the issue a matter of 
life and death even at the personal level.

A new Intifada

It is difficult to say with certainty whether an intifada or uprising is 
occurring or going to occur soon.

However, it is amply clear that the chances for a new intifada are now 
greater than ever before in light of the deep anger and indignation 
generated among most Palestinians by Israeli provocations and crimes.

Hence, it is probably logical to say that the evolution of the present 
protests in the West Bank into a full-fledged uprising depends very much 
on Israeli behaviors, especially at the Aqsa Mosque.

More to the point, the virtual death of the so-called peace process and 
the practical elimination by Israel of all realistic prospects for the 
establishment of a viable Palestinian state are likely to make the 
eruption of a third Intifada more likely if not inevitable.


/Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and political 
commentator living in the West Bank./
-- 
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