The third intifada is here

[Valin]

Al-Monitor:

Shlomi Eldar (Translator(s)Sandy Bloom)

November 6, 2014

 

A third intifada. People have been talking about it for more than a year already, threatening that its eruption is just around the corner and that it’s likely to be more violent and hellish than its two predecessors.

Periodic situation evaluations of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) highest command echelons warned that the harsh economic situation, lack of a diplomatic horizon and overall feeling of frustration and that there is no way out are likely to be the catalysts. Shin Bet assessments disseminated in 2013 even showed worrisome data regarding growing unrest in the West Bank, and painted the picture of the lone terrorist going out on his own to carry out an attack without the backing of organizational infrastructure. These assessments even led to closer security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the goal of detecting and thwarting the first signs of terrorist organization if and when they appear on the ground.

 

But apparently the Israeli security system didn't imagine that the third intifada it had anticipated, warned against and prepared for would erupt specifically in Jerusalem, and with such intensity.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

“Day of Rage” in Jerusalem met with riots, Molotov cocktails and bullets

Friday 7 November 2014

 

Attacks on pedestrians, mass arrests and nightly clashes with Molotov cocktails and tear gas are increasingly becoming the norm in Jerusalem. But today, the city’s security forces were braced for a particular “day of rage,” as Palestinians gathered for prayer and protest in Al-Aqsa Mosque and the troubled areas that surround the holy site.

 

In Shuafat, hundreds of youth clashed with Israeli forces, throwing Molotov cocktails and fireworks. Israeli troops responded with the heavy use of sponge-tipped bullets, causing at least five injuries. The refugee camp was the home of Ibrahim al-Akari, who was shot dead by police after ramming his car into crowds of pedestrians on Wednesday. Since that attack, heavy clashes have been taking place, continuously in the camp and so far have yet to dampen in intensity or scale, making it a new flashpoint in Jerusalem unrest.

 

Clashes were also reported in Qalandia and Issawiya, where youth attempted to remove the concrete blocks that Israeli authorities placed as roadblocks earlier this week.

 

The epicentre of Jerusalem’s present unrest, however, remained relatively quiet for the day. An estimated 15,000 people attended morning prayers at al-Aqsa, the holy site where recent incursions by extremist Jews have inflamed Palestinian fears and frustrations over access to the site. Today, Muslims over the age of 35 were permitted to pray at the mosque - a more lenient restriction than the usual lower age limit of forty or fifty. Heavy police presence dissuaded unrest.

 

(Snip)