Folks, the chronology of Palestinian moves leading up to the outbreak of violence four years ago shows it was planned in advance and ignited over Jerusalem and Ariel Sharon's prayer visit to the Temple Mount, Judaism's Holiest site.
During Rosh Hashana 2000, for those who don't recall, the Prime Minister of Israel was Ehud Barak, not Ariel Sharon, although palestinian Muslims and terrorist apologists love to blame Ariel Sharon for the Palestinian's own failed attempt to forge their kleptocracy neo-nation, instead of on their own culture, their leaders or their religion.
In fact, even Palestinian Authority spokesman Imad Al-Faluji has stated on more than one occasion, Palestinian military action against the Jewish state was planned long before Mr. Sharon's "provocative visit" to Judaism's most holy site.
There were several attacks by PLO Palestinian police against Israelis prior to the start of the Rosh Hashanah War 2000 on September 23rd. One Palestinian policeman point-blank killed the Israeli with whom he was on joint patrol 2 days before Sharon went to the Temple Mount. There were several other incidents preceeding Rosh Hashanah.
Four years earlier, following the September 1996 opening of the Hasmonean Tunnel in Jerusalem, Palestinian policemen and Israeli soldiers exchanged fire throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip leaving 85 Palestinians and 16 Israelis dead, and more than 1,200 Palestinians and 87 Israelis wounded. Arafat ordered the Hasmonean tunnel riots in which 18 Israeli soldiers were killed by PA forces. These were also called the "September riots".
Two incidents in October 2000--the destruction of the Jewish holy site Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and the murderous attack on the Palestinian police station in Ramallah where two Israeli soldiers were held by the police--and mutilated, showed the Palestinian police's lack of humanity. In many cases, Palestinian policemen took off their uniforms, joined the demonstrators and opened fire on IDF troops.
PA-appointed imams in West Bank and Gaza Strip mosques began referring to Israel as "the Zionist enemy" and urged all Muslims to mobilize for the war against the "infidels." In the words of one Gazan preacher, "All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshipers of the calf and idol worshipers."
Other imams spoke of the need and duty to liberate Palestine from the Zionist aggressors. This time the talk was not only about liberating the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Now the demand was for Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Ashkelon.
Israel was also being accused of distributing drugs among young Palestinian men and women in order to corrupt them and bring about the disintegration of Palestinian society. In addition to the drugs, the Israelis were also believed to be behind sexually-arousing chewing gum found in Palestinian shops. The alleged goal: to turn Palestinian women into prostitutes. As the tensions intensified, PA officials this time accused Israel of spreading "radioactive belts" that cause cancer.
West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti (sentenced on June 6, 2004, his birthday, to five life sentences for five murders and 40 years imprisonment for attempted murders in terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians) gave an interview on October 22 to the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat in which he admitted that he had played a direct role in igniting the intifada.
He said: "I knew that the end of September was the last period [of time] before the explosion, but when Sharon reached al-Aksa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada... The night prior to Sharon's visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to al-Aksa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif [the Temple Mount] just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aksa in the morning.... We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in al-Aksa compound at the time.... After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all [the Palestinian] factions."
Excerpts from various articles, including: How the war began , http://www.washingtontimes.com/, and PALESTINIAN MILITARY PERFORMANCE AND THE 2000 INTIFADA and Pa Minister: Intifada Was Planned From The Day Arafat Returned From Camp David
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