Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Putatively, it was all about a hole in the ground, dug by the Israelis in Arab East Jerusalem to complete an ancient tunnel showing off the buried foundations of Judaism's sacred Western Wall. Palestinians considered the digging a provocative incursion into their terrain, but in truth, it was only the match thrown into the tinderbox of accumulated Palestinian fury. For months, Israeli and Palestinian intelligence officials had warned of an impending explosion in the territories. In August, Ali Jirbawi, a political scientist at Bir-Zeit University in the West Bank, said, "Scratch the surface, and you find a state...
After allowing the conflagration to burn for a time, Arafat began to work alongside the Israelis to damp it down. Though the disturbances continued into Saturday in a handful of places, Palestinian police by then were, for the most part, keeping the mobs from engaging the Israelis. Meanwhile, American officials frenetically tried to find diplomatic solutions to restart the peace process, including negotiations for a Netanyahu-Arafat summit...
...Arafat cronies have established virtual monopolies in a number of commodities (for instance, cement), channeling part of the revenue to the P.A. and pocketing the rest. Petty forms of corruption are common--and just as galling. Palestinian police are notorious for confiscating goods--such as stolen items or expired food products--and then reselling them to another merchant, or even back to the original offender...
...member Palestinian Legislative Council that was elected in January was supposed to check the power of Arafat's executive. But when a group of councilors was asked recently what percentage of their resolutions were implemented by the P.A., they broke out laughing. The answer was zero. Arafat has trampled on the supposedly independent judiciary as well. In mid-August the High Court in Ramallah ordered the release of 10 university students detained without being charged in a roundup of alleged Islamists. But Arafat squashed the order, explaining to a delegation from the Legislative Council that he had not been consulted...
Until last week, Palestinian officials were openly worried that a new intifadeh would be directed at them as much as, or instead of, the Israelis. The strongest warning came in July, when Arafat's gendarmes claimed a seventh torture casualty, provoking an anti-P.A. riot in the victim's hometown of Nablus. When the trouble spread to nearby Tulkarem, Palestinian security suppressed the unrest by shooting and killing a protester. The revolt sent shock waves through the P.A. and raised concerns that other insurrections would follow...