Editing Second Intifada (section)

=== Contributing factors ===
Palestinians have claimed that Sharon's visit was the beginning of the Second Intifada,<ref name=bbctimeline/> while others have claimed that Yasser Arafat had pre-planned the uprising.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Suha-Arafat-admits-husband-premeditated-Intifada|title=Suha Arafat admits husband premeditated Intifada|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=29 December 2012|access-date=28 September 2014|archive-date=14 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114101835/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Suha-Arafat-admits-husband-premeditated-Intifada|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some, like [[Bill Clinton]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Clinton |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Clinton |title=My Life |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4000-3003-3}}</ref> say that tensions were high due to failed negotiations at the [[2000 Camp David Summit|Camp David Summit]] in July 2000. They note that there were Israeli casualties as early as 27 September; this is the Israeli "conventional wisdom", according to Jeremy Pressman, and the view expressed by the [[Israeli Foreign Ministry]].<ref name="pressman_backgroundsandcauses"/><ref name=jpost2000sep29>{{cite news |agency=[[ITIM (news agency)|ITIM]] |url=http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/CasualtiesOfWar/2000_09_27.html |title=Fallen soldier's father: I never thought this would happen |date=29 September 2000 |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030219211334/http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/CasualtiesOfWar/2000_09_27.html |archive-date=19 February 2003}}</ref> Most mainstream media outlets have taken the view that the Sharon visit was the spark that triggered the rioting at the start of the Second Intifada.<ref name=bbc2000sept28/><ref name=nytimes2008sept30>{{cite news |title=Battle at Jerusalem Holy Site Leaves 4 Dead and 200 Hurt |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/30/world/battle-at-jerusalem-holy-site-leaves-4-dead-and-200-hurt.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 September 2000 |first=Deborah |last=Sontag |access-date=28 September 2014 |quote=This morning, both sides started out tense, after clashes on Thursday [September 28, 2000] provoked by Mr. Sharon's visit. |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129070952/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/30/world/battle-at-jerusalem-holy-site-leaves-4-dead-and-200-hurt.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=cnn2008sept28>{{cite news |title=Israeli troops, Palestinians clash after Sharon visits Jerusalem sacred site |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/09/28/jerusalem.violence.02/ |publisher=CNN |date=28 September 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108060716/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/09/28/jerusalem.violence.02/ |archive-date=8 November 2005 |quote=A visit by Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon to the site known as the Temple Mount by Jews sparked a clash on Thursday [September 28, 2000] between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli troops, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.... Also Thursday [September 28, 2000], an Israeli soldier critically injured in a bomb attack on an army convoy in the Gaza Strip died of his wounds.}}</ref><ref name=telegraph>{{Cite news |title=Riot police clash with protesters at holy shrine |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1357329/Riot-police-clash-with-protesters-at-holy-shrine.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1357329/Riot-police-clash-with-protesters-at-holy-shrine.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=29 September 2000 |first=Ohad |last=Gozani |access-date=23 May 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In the first five days of rioting and clashes after the visit, Israeli police and security forces killed 47 Palestinians and wounded 1885,<ref name="autogenerated2"/> while Palestinians killed 5 Israelis.<ref name=btselem-idf-OT>{{cite web|url=http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Casualties_Data.asp?Category=7&region=TER |title=B'Tselem – Statistics – Fatalities – Israeli security force personnel killed by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories |publisher=[[B'Tselem]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605010429/http://www.btselem.org/english/Statistics/Casualties_Data.asp?Category=7&region=TER |archive-date=5 June 2011 }}</ref><ref name=btselem-civ-OT>{{cite web|url=http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Casualties_Data.asp?Category=5&region=TER |title=B'Tselem – Statistics – Fatalities – Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories |publisher=[[B'Tselem]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605010359/http://www.btselem.org/english/Statistics/Casualties_Data.asp?Category=5&region=TER |archive-date=5 June 2011}}</ref>

Palestinians view the Second Intifada as part of their ongoing struggle for national liberation and an end to Israeli occupation,<ref name=Schulz>Schulz and Hammer, 2003, pp. 134–136.</ref> whereas many [[Israelis]] consider it to be a wave of Palestinian terrorism instigated and pre-planned by then Palestinian leader [[Yasser Arafat]].<ref name="pressman_backgroundsandcauses">{{cite journal |url=http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/JCS/Fall03/pressman.pdf |title=The Second Intifada: Backgrounds and Causes of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict |author=Jeremy Pressman |journal=Journal of Conflict Studies |date=Fall 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318174326/http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/JCS/Fall03/pressman.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009|author-link=Jeremy Pressman }}</ref>

Support for the idea that Arafat planned the uprising comes from [[Hamas]] leader [[Mahmoud al-Zahar]], who said in September 2010 that when Arafat realized that the [[2000 Camp David Summit|Camp David Summit]] in July 2000 would not result in the meeting of all of his demands, he ordered Hamas as well as Fatah and the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, to launch "military operations" against Israel.<ref name=Abutoameh>{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Arafat-ordered-Hamas-attacks-against-Israel-in-2000 |title=Arafat ordered Hamas attacks against Israel in 2000 |author=Khaled Abu Toameh |date=29 September 2010 |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |author-link=Khaled Abu Toameh |archive-date=25 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825095009/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Arafat-ordered-Hamas-attacks-against-Israel-in-2000 |url-status=live }}</ref> Al-Zahar is corroborated by [[Mosab Hassan Yousef]], son of the Hamas founder and leader, [[Sheikh]] [[Hassan Yousef (Hamas leader)|Hassan Yousef]], who claims that the Second Intifada was a political maneuver premeditated by Arafat. Yousef claims that "Arafat had grown extraordinarily wealthy as the international symbol of victimhood. He wasn't about to surrender that status and take on the responsibility of actually building a functioning society."<ref>{{cite book |author=Mosab Hassan Yousef |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qqwLB05IocC |title=Son of Hamas |publisher=[[Tyndale House]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-85078-985-7 |pages=125–134 |author-link=Mosab Hassan Yousef |access-date=8 November 2020 |archive-date=18 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118095443/https://books.google.com/books?id=6qqwLB05IocC |url-status=live }}</ref> 

[[David Samuels (political scientist)|David Samuels]] quoted Mamduh Nofal, former military commander of the [[Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine]], who supplied more evidence of pre-28 September military preparations. Nofal recounts that Arafat "told us, Now we are going to the fight, so we must be ready".<ref name=atlantic>{{Cite news |author=David Samuels |author-link=David Samuels (writer) |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200509/samuels |date=September 2005 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |title=In a Ruined Country: How Yasir Arafat destroyed Palestine |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=30 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080830024459/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200509/samuels |url-status=live }}</ref> Barak as early as May had drawn up contingency plans to halt any intifada in its tracks by the extensive use of IDF snipers, a tactic that resulted in the high number of casualties among Palestinians during the first days of rioting.<ref>{{cite book |author=David Pratt |url=https://archive.org/details/intifadalongdayo0000prat |url-access=registration |title=Intifada: The Long Day of Rage |publisher=[[Casemate Publishers]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-932-03363-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/intifadalongdayo0000prat/page/113 113] |quote=As far back as May 2000 Ehud Barak and his advisors had themselves drafted operational and tactical contingency plans of their own to halt the intifada in its tracks. These included the massive use of IDF snipers, which resulted in the high numbers of Palestinian dead and wounded in the first few days of the uprising. It was these tactics as much as any advanced planning that many believed transformed a series of violent clashes into a full-blown intifada.}}</ref>

Arafat's widow Suha Arafat reportedly said on Dubai television in December 2012 that her husband had planned the uprising: "Immediately after the failure of the Camp David [negotiations], I met him in Paris upon his return.... Camp David had failed, and he said to me, 'You should remain in Paris.' I asked him why, and he said, 'Because I am going to start an intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so,'" the research institute [MEMRI] translated Suha as saying.<ref>{{cite news |date=29 December 2012 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Suha-Arafat-admits-husband-premeditated-Intifada |title=Suha Arafat admits husband premeditated Intifada |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=14 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114101835/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Suha-Arafat-admits-husband-premeditated-Intifada |url-status=live }}</ref>

Israel's [[Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon#Withdrawal from the security belt|unilateral pullout from Lebanon]] in the summer of 2000 was, according to Philip Mattar, interpreted by the Arabs as an Israeli defeat and had a profound influence on tactics adopted in the Al Aqsa Intifada.{{sfn|Mattar|2005|p=40}} PLO official [[Farouk Kaddoumi]] told reporters: "We are optimistic. Hezbollah's resistance can be used as an example for other [[Arabs]] seeking to regain their rights."<ref>{{cite news |author=Hussein Dakroub |work=Associated Press News |date=26 March 2002 |title=Arafat Aide, Hezbollah Leader Meet |url=https://apnews.com/d8a85d89c749693d000083673318b365 <!--http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-51643361.html--> |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=20 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720195913/http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2002/Arafat-Aide-Hezbollah-Leader-Meet/id-d8a85d89c749693d000083673318b365 |url-status=live }}</ref> Many Palestinian officials have gone on record as saying that the intifada had been planned long in advance to put pressure on Israel. It is disputed however whether Arafat himself gave direct orders for the outbreak, though he did not intervene to put a brake on it<ref name="Rosen">{{Cite book |last=David M. |first=Rosen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQYQ0tho6mAC&pg=PA119 |title=Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2005 |page=119 |isbn=978-0-8135-3568-5 |access-date=3 October 2016 |archive-date=20 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820043059/https://books.google.com/books?id=zQYQ0tho6mAC&pg=PA119 |url-status=live }}</ref> A personal advisor to Arafat, Manduh Nufal, claimed in early 2001 that the Palestinian Authority had played a crucial role in the outbreak of the Intifada.<ref name="Catignani" /> Israeli's military response demolished a large part of the infrastructure built by the PA during the years following the Oslo Accords in preparation for a Palestinian state.<ref name="Abufarha" >Nasser Abufarha, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WpMi4fsKu0AC&pg=PA77 ''The Making of a Human Bomb: An Ethnography of Palestinian Resistance''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820013747/https://books.google.com/books?id=WpMi4fsKu0AC&pg=PA77 |date=20 August 2020 }} [[Duke University Press]], 2009 p.77.</ref> This infrastructure included the legitimate arming of Palestinian forces for the first time: some 90 paramilitary camps had been set up to train Palestinian youths in armed conflict.<ref name="Rosen" /> Some 40,000 armed and trained Palestinians existed in the occupied territories.<ref name="Singh" />

On 29 September 2001 [[Marwan Barghouti]], the leader of the Fatah [[Tanzim]] in an interview to ''[[Al-Hayat]]'', described his role in the lead up to the intifada.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Barry M. |last1=Rubin |first2=Judith Colp |last2=Rubin |title=Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-516689-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/yasirarafatpolit00rubi/page/204 204] |author1-link=Barry M. Rubin |url=https://archive.org/details/yasirarafatpolit00rubi/page/204}}</ref>

<blockquote>I knew that the end of September was the last period (of time) before the explosion, but when Sharon reached the al-Aqsa 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 the al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aqsa in the morning.... We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in the al-Aqsa 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 (bilad) and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all (the Palestinian) factions.</blockquote>

Barghouti also went on record as stating that the example of Hezbollah and Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon was a factor which contributed to the Intifada.<ref name="Catignani" />

According to [[Nathan Thrall]], from [[Elliott Abrams]]'s inside accounts of negotiations between 2001 and 2005, it would appear to be an inescapable conclusion that violence played an effective role in shaking Israeli complacency and furthering Palestinian goals: the U.S. endorsed the idea of a Palestinian State, Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli Prime Minister to affirm the same idea, and even spoke of Israel's "occupation", and the bloodshed was such that Sharon also decided to withdraw from Gaza, an area he long imagined Israel keeping.<ref name="Thrall" >[[Nathan Thrall]], [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/aug/15/what-future-israel/ 'What Future for Israel?,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121042418/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/aug/15/what-future-israel/ |date=21 November 2015 }} ''[[New York Review of Books]]'' 15 August 2013 pp.64–67.</ref> However, [[Zakaria Zubeidi]], former leader of the [[Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades]], considers the Intifada to be a total failure that achieved nothing for the Palestinians.<ref>{{cite news |first=Matthew |last=Gutman |title=Aqsa Brigades Leader: Intifada in Its Death Throes |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=4 August 2004}}</ref>