LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Al-Aqsa Intifada: Palestinian Authority
built 656 days ago
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the number of small arms in the Occupied Palestinians Territories has dramatically increased. These weapons have added a much more militant and violent “flavor� to the Palestinian uprising, being considered not only “means of resistance� against the occupation, the siege, the closures, and the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli forces, but even tools to harm fellow Palestinians and Palestinian officials. The PHRMG is particularly concerned about the high number of collaborators, 112, that have been killed since September 29, 2000. The PHRMG is convinced that the collaboration “offered� by Palestinians to the Israeli authorities represents an extraordinary mechanism for facilitating the Israeli perpetration of crimes against Palestinian people; ... the PHRMG vehemently criticizes the assassination of collaborators:violence and killing must be condemned regardless the perpetrators.
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"The Al-Aqsa Intifada emphasizes these principles and axioms. Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is wrong, even if this visit was the straw that broke the back of the Palestinian people. This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return from the Camp David negotiations, where he turned the table upside down on President Clinton. [Arafat] remained steadfast and challenged [Clinton]. He rejected the American terms and he did it in the heart of the US."
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The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade comprises an unknown number of small cells of Fatah-affiliated activists that emerged at the outset of the second Palestinian uprising or al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. Al‑Aqsa’s goal is to drive the Israeli military and settlers from the West Bank and establish a Palestinian state loyal to the secular nationalist Fatah ideology. Al-Aqsa employed primarily small-arms attacks against Israeli military personnel and settlers as the uprising spread in 2000, but by 2002 they turned increasingly to suicide bombings against Israeli civilians inside Israel. In January 2002, the group claimed responsibility for the first female suicide bombing inside Israel. After a deadly al-Aqsa bombing in March 2002, the United States designated the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
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Approximately one month into the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada, Syrian Foreign Minis- ter Farouk al-Sharaa was asked whether the Syrian government was acting in coordination with the Palestinian leadership. In response, Sharaa stressed that Syria stands fully behind "the Palestinian people and their cause," but not necessarily with the Palestinian leadership. Coordination with that leadership would be useful, Sharaa maintained, only if Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority followed Syria's direction. If not, then coordination "would be like helping Israel rather than the Palestinian people."1 This, in a nutshell, has been Syria's response, not only to the al-Aqsa intifada, but ... to the Palestinian question more generally. As Patrick Seale concisely put it, for Syria, the Palestinian question is "too important to be left to the Palestinians."2 Syria objected to the Oslo peace process from the start, has welcomed its collapse, and now argues that its failure vindicates Damascus' claim for leadership of the Arab cause against Israel.
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The al-Aqsa Intifada has witnessed a sharp increase in settler violence against Palestinian lives and properties. Testimonies indicate that often the same settlers are involved in attacks throughout the West Bank. The same faces appear in Hebron, Nablus or Beit El, pointing at some degree of organization and coordination of all the attacks. Furthermore, during the al-Aqsa Intifada, attacks often occur in full sight of the Israeli army - sometimes even under its protection or with its participation - and the army makes no attempt to stop the attacks. This reflects the widespread view that the task of the Israeli army is to protect Israeli civilians, not Palestinians. However, as an army of occupation, it is the duty of the Israeli army to protect all civilians under its control, including the Palestinians.
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The report ... pointed out that in the seventh year of the Al-Aqsa Intifada the siege imposed on the Palestinian territories is being tightened and is taking the form of racial discrimination. The Gaza Strip is now an open air prison, with Palestinian civilians deprived of their right to travel and move freely, and the movement of goods in and out of Gaza Strip is prohibited. As a result, the Palestinian economy has been destroyed and unemployment and poverty are prevalent in Palestinian society. In addition, Palestinians are being assassinated by Israeli forces in the Occupied Territories .
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