Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first generation had patience," says Sheik Ahmad Yasin, reclining on the floor of a chilly room in his house in the Gaza Strip as he talks about Palestinian frustrations under Israeli rule. "But this patience will not be repeated by the new generation," he adds, choosing his words with care lest he be arrested by the Israelis. Sheik Yasin, 51, is a spiritual leader of the Islamic fundamentalist movement in Gaza and thus a prime force behind the religious gale that has recently fanned the flames of unrest in the occupied territories...
...arms cache in the cellar of his mosque. Sheik Yasin and several dozen followers were charged with illegal possession of weapons and intent to destroy the state of Israel; though he was sentenced to 13 years in jail, he was freed ten months later in a mass exchange of Palestinian political prisoners for Israeli POWs in Lebanon...
Bundled in a faded blanket and offering his visitors oranges and tea, Sheik Yasin decries the nationalist ideology of the Palestine Liberation Organization and instead insists that Palestinian aspirations can be realized only by creating an Islamic state. "If God wants an Islamic solution, then God's wish will be implemented," declares the sheik. He professes to have abandoned violence, but he adds confidently, "Believing in God and in Islam means having the readiness...
According to Israeli security sources, an underground Palestinian steering committee has now been set up to organize and encourage future disturbances. It is made up of six to eight people, at least three of them Islamic fundamentalists and the rest with ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The P.L.O., initially caught off guard by the spontaneous uprisings, said its main arm, Fatah, was responsible for an attempted raid into northern Israel by three Palestinians. The trio entered the country by cutting a large hole in the security fence along the Lebanese border and apparently intended to attack a nearby kibbutz...
Members of Israel's national-unity government, a coalition of the center- left Labor Party and right-wing Likud bloc, have begun moderating their positions, partly in anticipation that the Palestinian unrest will be a major issue in national elections scheduled for November. Even Prime Minister Shamir said last week he "would not object to the idea" of negotiating with non- P.L.O.. Palestinian leaders. But he also continues to insist with more fervor than ever that Israel will never give up the West Bank, and never consider altering the settlement policy that has allowed 65,000 Jews...