THE PALESTINIAN INTIFADA

Also by Edgar 0'Ballance

ARAB-GUERILLA POWER

CIVIL WAR IN BOSNIA: 1992-94

CIVIL WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA

ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISM

NO VICTOR, NO VANQUISHED : The Middle East War, 1973

TERRORISM IN IRELAND: The Story of the IRA

TERRORISM IN THE 1980s

THE ALGERIAN INSURRECTION: 1954-62

THE ARAB-ISRAELI WAR: 1948-49

THE CYANIDE WAR

THE ELECTRONIC WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: 1968-70

THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION

THE GULF WAR

THE INDO-CHINA WAR: 1946-54

THE LANGUAGE OF VIOLENCE

THE KURDISH REVOLT: 1961-70

THE KURDISH STRUGGLE: 1920-94

THE MALAYAN INSURRECTION: 1948-60

THE RED ARMY OF CHINA

THE RED ARMY OF RUSSIA

THE SECOND GULF WAR: The Liberation of Kuwait

THE SECRET WAR IN SUDAN: 1955-72

THE SINAI CAMPAIGN, 1956

THE THIRD ARAB-ISRAELI WAR: 1967

TRACKS OF THE BEAR: US-USSR Relation s in the 1970s

WARS IN AFGHANISTAN: 1839-1992

WARS IN THE CAUCASUS: 1990-95

WARS IN THE YEMEN: 1962-69

WARS IN VIETNAM: 1954-60

The Palestinian Intifada

Edgar 0'Ballance

First published in Great Britain 1998 byMACMILLAN PRESS LTDHoundmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and LondonCompanies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-349-26108-6 ISBN 978-1-349-26106-2 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-26106-2

First published in the United States of America 1998 by

ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,Scholarly and Reference Division,175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

ISBN 978-0-312-21172-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Public ation DataO'Ballance, Edgar.The Palestinian Intifada / Edgar O'Ballance.p. em.Includes bibliograph ical references and index.ISBN 978-0-312-21172-1 (cloth)I . Intifada, 1987- 2. Arab-Israeli conflict, 1993-DSI19.75.022 1997956.95'3044-<lc21

I. Title.

97-38060CIP

© Edgar O'Ballan ce 1998

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998

All rights reserved. No reproduction , copy or transmission of this publication may be madewithout writtcn permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, cop ied or transmitted save withwritten permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright , Designs andPatents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued bythe Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable tocriminal prosecution and civil claims for damages .

The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordancewith the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed andsustained forest sources.

10 9 8 7 6 5 407 06 05 04 03 02 01

3 2 100 99 98

Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgements x

List of Abbreviations xi

Chronology xii

Maps xviii

1 Palestinian Resistance 1

2 The Intifada: December 1987 to July 1988 25

3 An Independent Palestine 51

4 The Third Year: 1990 75

5 Conflicting Plans: 1991 95

6 Negative Peace Talks: 1992 116

7 The Faltering Intifada 137

8 The Oslo Accords 155

9 The Palestine National Authority 171

10 Assassinations and Suicide Bombings 189

11 Operation Grapes of Wrath 207

12 The Hebron Agreement 222

13 Retrospect and Prospect 231

Appendix 1 UN Resolution 181(lI)A, 29 Nov ember 1947 236

Appendix 2 Security Council Resolution 242,22 November 1967 238

Appendix 3 Security Coun cil Resolution 338,22 October 1975 239

Bibliography 240

Index 241

v

Preface

The Palestinian Intifada (struggle), which lasted some nineyears (1987-96), was between Palestinians and Israelis strug­gling for absolute possession of the same piece of land. Nowis an appropriate time to write the story as I saw it , beforepartisan exaggeration, omission or legend distorts what ac­tually happened beyond truthful recognition.

The Palestinian Intifada was an explosion waiting to hap­pen, and its first accomplishment was that it stopped theimperceptible slide of Palestinians into oblivion as an en­tity, which was more of a probability than a possibility astime and sympathetic US administrations were on the Is­raeli side, the Palestinians being regarded as losers. The nextimportant Intifada accomplishment was to indicate to Israel,and the United States, that the Palestinians could not bewritten off so easily, and that they were not a disappearing,spineless, lost cause.

In political terms, when it was realised that the Israelisecurity forces were only just managing to contain the Intifada,secret Oslo negotiations were followed by the Declarationof Principles, which catered for the withdrawal of Israelitroops from the Occupied Territories and the establishmentof a Palestine National Authority. This was the culminationof a succession of multistranded Middle East peace negotia­tions, promoted by the United States in an attempt to takethe heat out of the Intifada and impose a comprehensiveMiddle East peace agreement.

The Intifada also prompted Israel to undertake a painfulnational security reappraisal. The danger of armed rebel­lion in the OTs, the weight of critical international opinionon human rights issues, and the Arab birth explosion servedto concentrate Israeli minds.

Only two stark alternatives seemed feasible. Either Israelcould continue as a fortress state, with an increasingly re­bellious Palestinian population and surrounded by hostileArabs states, held at bay only with US assistance. Or it couldsettle for the ' two state ' solution and exchange 'lan d for

Vll

VIll Preface

peace', which would leave it free to develop economicallywithout internal security worries such as suicide bombings,and allow it to develop trading links with adjacent Arab states,eventually to become not only viable, but prosperous as well.Israelis still seem to be almost equally divided over the meritsand demerits of these two options. All want peace, but thereis hesitation as all want security too; some are able to takea long-term view, but others are shorter-sighted.

The Intifada erupted suddenly in December 1987, after along period of almost contemptuous Israeli restriction andrepression. The uprising was spontaneous, although the distantPLO HQ in Tunis hastened to impose its stamp on it and,with others, claim credit for the resistance movement. People'scommittees sprang up at village level and were harnessed intoa disciplined body, the PLO's instructions being circulatedvia leaflets. Palestinian youths threw stones at Israeli securityforces, which replied first with tear gas, then with rubber andplastic bullets, and eventually with live ammunition, thus givingrise to the Intifada slogan of 'stones against bullets'. Casualtiesbegan to mount, but still Arafat forbade the use of firearms.As Israel's frustration mounted, its methods became harsher,giving rise to allegations by Amnesty International, and otherinternational monitoring bodies of inhuman behaviour.

For the first two years the Israeli security forces managedto contain the ferocity of the Intifada, but only just, and itpaid a high price in international condemnation and casu­alties. Yassir Arafat proposed a 'two states' policy, but thiswas rejected by Israel. The assassination of key Intifada or­ganisers by Israeli Mossad and Shin Bet agents caused it tolose some of its momentum, but it continued to grind onrelentlessly. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in Au­gust 1990 and the Gulf confrontation began, Arafat backedthe wrong side, incurring US and Allied displeasure, whichtook some time to overcome.

The Madrid Conference in October 1991, which was thestarting point of a long series of Middle East peace talksand processes, can be seen as the first real political successfor the Intifada. However Hamas and Islamic Jihad-(P), bothof which are Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist groups, andcertain other groups were opposed to the process and be­gan to mount attacks in Israel, introducing suicide bomb­ing into the scenario.

Preface ix

The main breakthrough came with the signing in Wash­ington of the Declaration of Principles by PLO and Israelirepresentatives, being the first step towards Israeli withdrawalfrom the OTs.

The Palestine National Authority (PNA) was establishedin May 1994, and the following month Arafat arrived in thenew 'Gaza-Jericho' Palestinian territory to be elected presi­dent of the PNA. However 1995 saw the return of funda­mentalist suicide bombings, and terrorist explosions occurredin several Israeli cities. The Israeli security forces then adopteda 'shoo t to kill ' policy - they assassinated a number of promi­nent Islamic fundamentalist leaders and imprisoned manyothers. In November, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabinwas himself assassinated by a fellow Israeli who was opposedto the ' land for peace' policy. Another spate of suicide bomb­ings followed in early 1996, killing more than 60 Israelisand injuring hundreds of others .

In May the Israeli general election was narrowly won byBinyamin Netanyahu, the right-wing leader of the Likud Party,who frowned on Rabin 's moderate policies, and the Dec­laration of Principles. The Middle East negotiations moreor less stopped as the Palestinians, and the Arab states in­volved, recoiled from Netanyahu's uncompromising attitude.The fruits of the Intifada began to wither.

In September the so-called Temple Mount riots broke outin Jerusalem and quickly spread to other parts of the Occu­pied Territories. More than 75 people were killed, and prob­ably over 1500 were injured. This was caused by Netanyahuauthorising the opening of an ancient tunnel that led intothe Temple Mount compound, a Muslim Holy site. Pales­tinians began to speak of a second Intifada, this time withguns. Netanyahu seemed to bring more problems than hesolved.

Having covered all the Arab-Israeli wars and major con­frontations since 1948 as a journalist and author, I havedeveloped a deep interest in the fate and fortunes of bothpeoples. Consequently I have followed the course of theIntifada closely, both visiting and interviewing, and chroni­cled it as I saw it unfold, warts and all. Any deductions andopinions, unless stated otherwise, are my own .

EDGAR O'BALLANCE

Acknowledgements

Much of the background information in this book was gath­ered during my time as a journalist reporting on the Arab­Israeli conflicts. During the Intifada I made several visits tothe Middle Eastern countries concerned, attended briefingsand press conferences, and interviewed VIPs , protagonistsand victims on both sides.

Map sources include The Times Atlas oj the World, The Times,The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Middle East andthe United Nations.

The television and radio broadcasters, news agencies andperiodicals consulted (some in translated extracts) includethe following. When quotations or contemporary matter areused, appropriate credit is given within the text.

UK

Israel

Palestine

Lebanon

CanadaFrance

KuwaitUSA

TV and radio: BBC, lTV, Channel 4. Periodicals:al-Hayah, Daily Telegraph, The Economist, FinancialTimes, Guardian, Middle East, Middle East EconomicDigest, Middle East International; The Sunday Times,The Times. News agency: Reuters.TV and radio: Israel TV, Israel Radio, Voice ofIsrael, SLA Radio. Periodicals:Jerusalem Post, Haretz,Maariv. News agencies: Jewish Telegraph Agency,Media Information Centre.Radio: al-Fajr, Radio Quds, Voice of Palestine.Periodical: Al-Watan. News agencies: Palestine PressService, WAFA.TV and radio: al-Manar (TV), Beirut TV, RadioBeirut, Radio Lebanon.Toronto Star.Periodical: Le Monde. News agency: Agence FrancePresse.An AnbaaTV: CNN. Periodicals: International Herald Trib­une, News Week, New York Times, Time, WashingtonPost, USA Today.

x

List of Abbreviations

ALFAPFDFLPDoPDPUECEECFatah-PRCFatah-RCIAFIDFIMFJANDAKGBMNFOTsPCPPFLPPFLP-GCPLAPLFPLOPNCPNFPNSFPSFSLAUNUNIFILUNWRA

USUSSRWAFA

Arab Liberation FrontAlliance of Palestinian ForcesDemocratic Front for the Liberation of PalestineDeclaration of PrinciplesDemocratic Palestinian UnionEuropean CommunityEuropean Economic CommunityFatah-Provisional Revolutionary CouncilFatah-Revolutionary CouncilIsraeli Air ForceIsraeli Defence ForceIn ternational Monetary FundJordanian Arab National Democratic AllianceSoviet State Security CommitteeMulti-National ForceOccupied TerritoriesPalestine Communist PartyPopular Front for the Liberation of PalestinePFLP-General CommandPalestine Liberation ArmyPalestine Liberation Fron tPalestine Liberation OrganisationPalestine National CouncilPalestine National FundPalestine National Salvation FrontPalestine Struggle FrontSouth Lebanon ArmyUnited NationsUN Interim Force in LebanonUN Relief and Works Agency for PalestinianRefugees in the Near EastUnited StatesUnion of the Soviet Socialist RepublicsThe Palestine News Agency

Xl

Chronology

1882-19031903-1914191619171920-4819471948

195519561964

19671968197019731974

19771978

19791982

19831984

1985

19861987

First Aliya (Jewish immigration wave)Second AliyaSykes-Picot secret treatyBalfour DeclarationBritish Mandate of PalestineUN Resolution 181, and Partition PlanState of Israel declared. Abdullah declares theKingdom of Jordan (to incorporate EastJerusalem and the West Bank)Foundation of FatahThe Sinai campaignFoundation of the Palestine LiberationOrganisationArab-Israeli war (Israelis gain territory)Arafat becomes chairman of the PLOPLO expelled from JordanArab-Israeli war (October War/Yom Kippur War)Arafat's 'olive branch' speechMunicipal elections in the OTsPresident Sadat visits IsraelFirst Israeli invasion of LebanonCamp David Peace ConferenceCamp David Peace Treaty (Egypt-Israel)Second Israeli invasion of LebanonIsraelis complete withdrawal from SinaiFatah mutinyIsraeli general election (Likud-Labour alignmentto power)Amman Accords (cancelled February 1986) . For­mation of the Palestine National Salvation Front(dissolved in 1987). Israelis strike at PLO HQ(Tunis) . Achille Lauro incident. Abu Nidal at­tacks Rome and Vienna airports. Arafat's CairoDeclaration (on terrorism)Fatah mutiny in Jordan.'War of the Camps'. The Tripoli (Libya)

xii

Chronology XIII

1988

JanuaryFebruary

March

AprilJuly

AugustSeptemberOctoberNovember

December

1989

January

FebruaryMarch

April

MayAugustSeptemberOctoberDecember

Document. PNC (reunification) session, Algiers.Hang-glider raid on Kiryat Shimona. Intifadabegins (December)

Temple Mount incidentPalestinians buried alive. First collaboratorkilled by PalestiniansHijack of Israeli bus. Day of Anger(Palestinian)Assassination of Abu JihadJordan renounces sovereignty over the WestBankHamas issues its covenantArafat addresses EC in StrasbourgPLO: Tunis meetingIsraeli general election. PNC Algiers meeting:(declaration of Palestinian independence)Arafat addresses UN General Assembly inGeneva. Israeli 'Unity' government formed

George Bush becomes president of theUnited Sates. EC peace plan. Rabin peaceplanSoviet peace planArafat elected president of Palestine.The Yariv ReportShamir peace plan. Nahalin incident.Day of Rage (Palestinian)Arafat's Paris Declaration5th Fatah congressMubarak peace planBaker five-po in t framework planPLO-organised ' 1990: Time for Peace' rallyin Jerusalem

XIV

1990

February

March

AprilMay

June

JulyAugustSeptember

OctoberNovemberDecember

1991

January

March

April

MayJuneJuly

Chronology

Israeli tourist bus attacked in Egypt. Sharonresigns from Israeli governmentLikud-Labour unity government collapses.US concurrent resolutionOrthodox Jews move into the Old CityRishon Le Zion incident. Arafat addressesthe UN in Geneva: five-point plan. PLFseaborne landing incidentLikud coalition government in Israel.US-PLO talks suspendedEC troika visits IsraelSaddam Hussein invades KuwaitConference of Popular Arab Movements(Baghdad)Temple Mount massacreMeir Kahane assassinated (New York)UN resolution condemns Israel. Jerusalem:two capitals under one Umbrella

Assassination of Abu Iyad by Mossad. Is­raeli proposal to withdraw from the GazaStrip. Allied air offensive against Iraq. IraqiScuds fall on Israel. Allied OperationDesert StormGulf War ends. President Bush's ' NewWorld Order' speech. Palestinian eleven­point statement. PLO rejects Israeli 'landcorridors' proposal. Syria releases Pales­tinian prisoners. PLO-US contact resumed.The Arafat initiativeBaker's regional conference plan.Rejection front initiativePLO delegation to SyriaThe Bush planIsraeli Kama Report

Chronology xv

SeptemberOctober

NovemberDecember

1992

February

June

July

AugustSeptemberNovemberDecember

1993

January

MayJulySeptember

1994

January

February

1994

April

PNC meeting in AlgiersMadrid: Middle East Peace Conference.Israel and the USSR resume diplomaticrelationsMoscow-Tel Aviv air route establishedSecond phase of the Middle East PeaceConference

Rabin becomes leader of the Israeli LabourPartyIsraeli general election . Covenant ofHonour: Fatah-HamasIsrael: Labour coalition takes power In

Israel. Nablus University siegePLO 1O-point frameworkHunger strike (Palestinian)Hamas-Iran allianceMass deportation of Hamas members fromIsrael

Contact permitted between Israelis and thePLOTreaty of Brotherhood (Syria-Lebanon)Israeli Operation AccountabilityOslo Accords (DoP) signed in Washing­ton . Common Agenda (Israel-Jordan)

Alliance of Palestinian Forces formed .Partial agreement (Israel-PLO)Hebron massacre

Fatah-Hamas Accord. Majdal Shams First(US plan)

xvi

May

JulyAugustOctoberNovember

1995

January

March

April

JuneAugust

SeptemberOctoberNovember

1996

January

February

March

11-17 AprilMay

23-8 SeptemberOctober

Chronology

Gaza-Jericho territorial entity. PalestineNational Authority established. Israelis ab­duct Hezbollah leaderIsraeli general election: Rabin to powerArafat arrives in Gaza-JerichoThe Wachman incidentThe November massacre: Gaza

Dual suicide bombings in Natanya. Israeli'shoot to kill' policyIsraelis assassinate Hezbollah ch ie f inLebanonDual suicide bombings in Gaza. Hezbollahsuicide bombing in South LebanonIsraelis kill Black Hawk leadersSuicide bombing in Jerusalem. Taba Dec­larationOslo-B agreement signedMossad assassinates terrorist leader in MaltaAssassination of Prime Minister Rabin inTel Aviv

Israeli Shin Bet assassinates 'the Engineer'.Election for the Palestinian NationalCouncilArafat assumes presidency of PLA. Suicidebombings in Jerusalem and AshkelonSuicide bombings in Jerusalem and TelAviv. Summit of peacemakersOperation Grapes of WrathIsraeli general election: Netanyahubecomes prime ministerTemple Mount riotsWashington summit

1997

Chronology xvii

January Attempted massacre (Hebron). HebronAgreement. Arafat in Hebron

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