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PA and Fatah Implementing "Popular Resistance" in West Bank

(Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center) The concept of Palestinian "popular resistance" (almuqawama al-sha'abiya), as adopted by the sixth Fatah conference in August 2009, has been implemented in Judea and Samaria by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah, and has become a main component of PA policy. "Popular resistance" creates constant, controlled tension in Palestinian relations with Israel in order to exert pressure on Israel. Internally, the PA and Fatah have presented the Palestinian public with "popular resistance" as an acceptable alternative to Hamas' "armed resistance," which the PA and Fatah feel is not useful at the present time. "Popular resistance" is not the placid, non-violent protest the PA pretends it is. It makes massive use of violence, employing firebombs, stones, knives, and hit and run attacks on Israeli security forces and civilians. In 2012 the number of "popular resistance" attacks reached several hundred every month and the numbers have continued to rise throughout the first half of 2013. In 2012 two Israeli civilians were killed in Judea and Samaria: one was stabbed to death and the other was the victim of a hit and run attack. Some 35 Israelis were wounded, more than half of them by stones and firebombs. While the PA has invested effort in preventing terrorism resulting from armed military-terrorist activity, the "cold weapon" violence built into "popular resistance" is not being prevented. On the contrary, both the PA and Fatah encourage it, nurture its continuation, and accompany it with ongoing anti-Israeli propaganda and incitement. According to the Fatah political platform of August 2009, an armed campaign remains a future option, dependent on the political and social conditions of the conflict with Israel. In addition, the PA and Fatah preserve the legacy and symbols of the armed campaign against Israel, manifested in commemorating the martyrs (of all the terrorist organizations) killed while carrying out terrorist attacks. Anti-Israeli Palestinian violence did not disappear, it merely changed form, became more sophisticated, more controlled, and more easily digested by the U.S. and the international community.
2013-06-07 00:00:00
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