Ramallah, March 17: Tensions over Israeli-occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem sparked the worst riots in years but are unlikely to ignite a new intifada, or uprising.
The democratically elected Palestinian movement Hamas has repeatedly called for a new intifada, but the Palestinian Authority appears determined to preserve calm.
The calls for a new uprising came amid the most widespread protests in years in Israeli-occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem following Israeli announcements of new illegal settlement plans, as well as the reopening of a synagogue in the Old City several hundred meters (yards) from the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site.
As thousands took to the streets in demonstrations in Gaza, Hamas’s exiled deputy politburo chief Mussa Abu Marzuk called for a new “intifada” along the lines of massive popular uprisings in 1987 and 2000.
But the inside Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank, Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas said he remained “determined to reach peace through negotiations. There is no other way.”
“Right-wing Israeli governments since 1996 have tried to provoke the Palestinians and drive them to violence, because this is the court where Israel prefers to play,” said a spokesman for West Bank security forces loyal to Abbas.
The lack of interest in a new intifada is also linked to the bitter factional infighting between Abbas’s Fatah movement and its rivals in Hamas.
“Any intifada requires popular leadership,” a Hamas official in the West Bank said. “At the moment there is no unified Palestinian leadership to lead any intifada, even in Jerusalem.”
The Palestinians have repeatedly expressed outrage at Israel’s expansion of settlements and threats to Muslim and Christian holy sites in Palestinian East Jerusalem, under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967.
But there has not been a single suicide bombing in Israel in more than two years.
“Two-thirds of the Palestinian public believe the Israelis respond more to violence than to other kinds of gestures, but we do not yet have a majority today of Palestinians supporting violence,” said Khalil Shikaki of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research.
Another factor that may limit Palestinians’ interest in a new uprising is the United States, which has been pressuring Israel for months to halt illegal settlements and revive peace talks suspended during the 2008-2009 devastating Israeli war on Gaza.
A few days before the riots erupted, Washington slammed Israel for announcing the new settlement plans during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden last week to press peace efforts.
“The US-Israeli confrontation is good news for the Palestinians,” Shikaki said.
“In the absence of violence, the only way Palestinians believe Israelis will respond positively is by pressure from the US. In other words, pressure from the US is the substitute for Palestinian violence.”
—-Agencies