AP News, September 28th, 2007
Every year, large rallies in the territories and abroad commemorated the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising that broke out in 2000. But this year, there was nothing and Palestinians are asking themselves whether anything at all was gained from the revolt.
Many Palestinians say they are worse off now, increasingly worried about internal fighting and further from statehood than when the uprising erupted on Sept. 28, 2000, after former Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visited a disputed holy shrine in Jerusalem and a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace summit failed.
"It is a silent admission on the part of Palestinians that the uprising has been an unmitigated disaster," prominent pollster Khalil Shikaki said of the absence of commemorations.
For years, Palestinians hit Israel with suicide bombers and rockets, and Israel struck back with aerial attacks, ground incursions and arrest raids.
But the vastly outgunned Palestinians have been exhausted by the armed confrontation. A total of 4,453 Palestinians have been killed, along with 1,114 Israelis. Israel has built a West Bank barrier which it says was designed to keep out attacks. But the enclosure dips into the West Bank at various points, putting 8.5 percent of the territory on the "Israeli" side. In Palestinian eyes, it is a thinly veiled land grab.
Israel has reoccupied West Bank towns and cities, sharply restricted Palestinian movement within the West Bank, and banned traffic between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dependence on foreign aid has soared, and most Gazans survive on less than $2 a day.
The number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, meanwhile, has soared from about 1,650 to 11,000.
"Everything came to a standstill for seven years. We didn't move forward but backward," said Adnan Attari, a 30-year-old merchant from a village near the West Bank town of Ramallah.
But the lack of commemoration reflects more than the uprising's failures. With the militant Islamic Hamas and Fatah factions locked in a battle for power, Palestinians are more concerned about their internal security than their conflict with Israel, polls show.
Fierce infighting began after the Islamists won 2006 parliamentary elections, then came to a head in June, when Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from Fatah. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah immediately expelled Hamas from power and set up his own rival government in the West Bank.
The Israeli and Egyptian borders with Gaza have been sealed almost hermetically to traffic and goods, and last week Israel declared Gaza a "hostile territory" because of Palestinian rocket fire into Israeli towns.
Israeli military strikes against Gaza militants are increasing, meanwhile, and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has suggested another large-scale operation is in the offing.
Manal Shaheen, a 36-year-old Gaza mother of three, said the current hardships following the Gaza-West Bank breach have eclipsed the uprising.
"Our terrible state has made us even forget important dates in our lives," Shaheen said.
Hamas, which led the armed struggle at its height, vowed the uprising would continue until Israel is expelled from Palestinian territories.
"The blessed uprising continues in all its vigor," Hamas said in a statement Friday. "Resistance is the only way to recover usurped rights."
David Baker, an Israeli government official, said the Palestinians have exchanged their "strategic decision to confront Israel via this terror" for a decision to work for a two-state solution. The U.S. hopes to build on new peace momentum with an international peace conference in the U.S. in November.
"We do believe that something has happened and for the better," Baker said.
