Friday evening in Neve Jaakov, a Jewish settlement near East Jerusalem. A 21-year-old Palestinian terrorist who grew up in East Jerusalem waits outside a synagogue until Shabbat prayers are over and then opens fire. He kills seven people and injures three others. The assassin also dies, the police shoot him in a chase. Terror is back in Israel.
Friday’s attack was the deadliest in Israel in 15 years. It follows the Israeli army’s most momentous military operation in almost two decades. Ten Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured in an anti-terrorist operation in the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday.
The army justified the operation by saying that there was an imminent threat to Israel’s security. Israel is “carrying out a massacre of the Palestinians,” the Palestinian side said.
The next attack happened on Saturday morning. A 13-year-old Palestinian shot himself near the Old City of Jerusalem, wounding a Jewish Israeli and his son.
Is a new Palestinian uprising imminent?
Like the assassin on Friday, he is said not to have been involved in militant networks. That would confirm the fears of observers. Accordingly, although there is no threat of a new Intifada, i.e. an uprising by the Palestinians, one must reckon with more individual perpetrators.
The situation is as serious as it has been since the second intifada (2000-2005). The Palestinians are not politically united. There are signs of a power struggle between Fatah, which still governs the West Bank, and the radical Islamist Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
In between there is a frustrated, disillusioned population and terrorist organizations like “Islamic Jihad”. Young Palestinians in particular see the Israeli occupation as an opponent who is easier to fight than their own politically weak Palestinian Authority, which is constantly confronted with allegations of corruption.
According to experts, there is moral support for terrorism within the Palestinian population because it is glorified as resistance against Israel. This was also evident on Friday evening, when there were spontaneous celebrations and sweets distributed after the attack in Jerusalem in the West Bank.
A Hamas spokesman said the attack was a “natural reaction” to the anti-terrorist operation in Jenin on Thursday. The Islamists have recently behaved cautiously, but are increasingly under pressure, explained the Palestinian political analyst Jumana Jaouni in an interview with the daily mirror at the beginning of the week. “Among the Palestinians there is growing support for violent resistance and the expectation that Hamas will not stand idly by the Israeli provocations.”
There is growing support among Palestinians for violent resistance and the expectation that Hamas will not stand idly by the Israeli provocations.
Jumana JaouniPalestinian political analyst
Three weeks ago, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s new Minister of National Security and a criminal record holder for terrorism, visited the Temple Mount, angering the Arab world. On Friday evening he appeared at the scene of the terrorist attack. Residents, shocked and desperate, called his name, hugged him, sought comfort. Citizens must be armed now to prevent such attacks in the future, Ben-Gvir said.
Ben-Gvir didn’t want to talk to the press. But the pictures of the evening speak for themselves. With his positions, the minister finds support in parts of the Jewish Israeli population, at least among those who long for more protection and tougher action against Palestinian terror.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appeared at the scene of the attack on Friday evening. He warned that one must now act resolutely but calmly and called on the population not to take vigilantism. However, no crowds gathered around him during his visit on Friday night; the impression was created that his former constituency long ago chose a new king – Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The Israeli population differs fundamentally from the Palestinian population in one respect: Jewish Israelis are deeply divided, and resistance to the coalition’s domestic political plans is growing.
More than 70 percent reject a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute according to the planned judicial reform, which could massively weaken the rule of law. 130,000 people demonstrated against the reform last week, the largest protests in years. New demonstrations have been announced for Saturday evening.
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