Word: intifadehs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Israel tightened its closure around Palestinian towns early last week, blockading Ramallah, the "intifadeh capital" of the West Bank, because it said it had uncovered a terrorist cell planning further attacks on Israelis. But E.U. ministers warned that they might suspend a key agreement with Israel if the economic stranglehold of Palestinian areas was not relaxed. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave military officials discretion to ease restrictions, but many roads to Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank remained blocked by trenches or piles of rubble set up by the Israeli army...
Dahlan, 39, is a veteran leader of the first intifadeh. With his looks and street smarts, he could have been John Travolta if he had been born in California instead of Khan Yunis. Like most Palestinians, he insists that the talks center on how, not whether, Israel should evacuate the territories it conquered in 1967. U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 stipulated a "land-for-peace" formula, a principle that had formed the basis for the Madrid Peace Conference cosponsored by the U.S. in 1991, as well as the Oslo accords. By recognizing the state of Israel at Oslo, Palestinians felt...
There's always the old way, of course: the armed struggle, terrorism, intifadeh. But Arafat is getting a little old to lead another guerrilla war. And that way didn't work either...
Arafat was clearly apprehensive about inflaming the streets. Three days before the intifadeh, he warned Barak personally that he would not be able to prevent the mayhem if Sharon went ahead with his visit to the Haram. "Please stop Sharon," Arafat pleaded during a dinner, according to an aide who was present. He instructed his chief negotiator, Saeb Erakat, to bring it up with Israeli negotiators and U.S. mediator Dennis Ross the next day. Says Erakat: "I told Dennis, 'This is our worst nightmare, for you, for us and for Barak. Do something about it.' He said...
Meanwhile, Arafat's personal Force 17 commando group has taken control of the streets after fresh rumblings of discontent. Recently, an angry mob besieged a police station and set free a youth arrested by one of Arafat's officers for gun running. With each passing day the intifadeh becomes more of a guerrilla war, including armed attacks by Arafat's security men working underground. Last week in Gaza, as Sharon forged a unity government with Barak, Israel assassinated a Force 17 commander, alleging he attacked a Jewish settlement. The following day, a Gaza bus driver in Israel killed eight Israelis...