ISRAEL plans to step up arrests of suspected militants in the occupied West Bank to prevent a rising tide of low-intensity conflict and civil unrest from turning into an uprising, security sources say.
‘There is a certain Palestinian awakening and, as a consequence, a decision was taken within the security establishment to increase intelligence activity and arrests among members of Hamas or activists against Israel,’ said an Israeli security official.
He added: ‘It started in the past few days and will increase.’
Recent events, however, suggest that such a policy could backfire.
On Tuesday, undercover Israeli troops attempting to arrest a suspected Islamic Jihad militant were pelted with rocks by an angry crowd.
The squad made their arrest, but Palestinian security sources said dozens were lightly injured when soldiers fired rubber bullets, live rounds and tear gas at their attackers.
Israeli public radio’s military affairs reporter quoted military sources on Wednesday as saying the arrest operation was routine, but the Palestinian response was anything but so.
‘What is exceptional is the grave disturbances,’ she quoted her Israeli sources as saying. ‘An operation like this would not in the past have brought disturbances of this kind.
‘There is a certain rise in disturbances in the territories but talk of a third intifada is premature,’ she added.
Earlier this month, troops in a southern West bank village were forced to abort an attempt to arrest a Palestinian policeman suspected of militant activity when crowds of local residents pelted them with rocks.
The troops seized the man later at a military checkpoint near Hebron.
The Palestinians have twice risen up against their Israeli occupiers in intifadas (uprisings) – in December 1987 and September 2000.
But neither movement succeeded in ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank that began in 1967.
Now, with direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians on hold since September 2010, observers have raised the spectre of a third uprising breaking out.
Ghassan Khatib, a veteran of the first intifada, who later became a Palestinian cabinet minister and now teaches at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, does not see a guiding hand in the current round of clashes.
He considers as ‘spontaneous’ the daily confrontations between Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers, the hurling of rocks and petrol bombs at Israeli motorists in Palestinian areas, and the clashes with troops.
‘I don’t think that it can be connected to any specific event; it’s been building up gradually,’ he said.
‘I think it’s a result of the dangerous combination of a complete absence of any political horizon together with a serious economic and financial crisis that is leading to increased unemployment and poverty,’ he added, noting an increase in settlement activity.
‘In my view the situation is not sustainable,’ he said.
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service tied an upswing in clashes to November’s eight-day battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
‘In response to the operation, Jerusalem and the West Bank also saw an increase in the level of violence,’ Shin Bet said in its monthly summary for November.
It recorded 122 Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank, compared with 39 in October, and 44 incidents in Jerusalem, up from 31 the month before.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Palestinian youngsters seemed to be heavily involved in the unrest, which some Israeli media are already calling ‘a mini-intifada’.
‘In general there’s been an increase in the number of incidents that have taken place, stone-throwing incidents as well as Molotov cocktails on the main highways,’ he said.
‘The majority of incidents take place in the morning when Palestinian children are on their way to school and in the afternoon when Palestinian children are returning from school,’ he said.
• Protesters clashed with Palestinian security forces in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday evening, in a demonstration against a recent deal to end refugees’ exemption from electricity costs.
Around 200 Palestinians gathered at the Shuhada junction in the city and burned tyres, drawing dozens of security officers and a firefighting crew to the scene.
The protesters were calling for the debt-cancellation clause of the deal to be applied to non-refugees.
Protesters threw stones and glass bottles at the security forces, and more than 20 officers were light to moderately wounded, according to Red Crescent officials.
Nablus governor Jibrin al-Bakri warned that, while he supports peaceful protests, any protester who destroys private and public properties will be held to account.
The electricity deal, signed by PA premier Salam Fayyad on Sunday, ends refugees’ exemption from electricity costs, but cancels all their outstanding debt.
Opposition within the popular committee in Nablus insists that refugees should not be forced to pay bills and is also demanding non-refugees also have their debt cancelled.
On Tuesday, the popular committees of refugee camps in Nablus called upon the Palestinian government to be just, and support all classes of Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, Fatah in Nablus called on the North Electric Company to freeze all previous debts.
Mahmud Ishtayeh, Fatah Secretary in Nablus district, urged the supplier to freeze all debts and delay fines before the end of 2012 until they reach an agreement with the PA cabinet.
Ishtayeh said that they have to take into consideration the difficult situation Palestinians go through, and to support their steadfastness. On the other side, they should pay attention to the importance of strengthening the capacity of electricity companies.
Palestinian power companies said the gap in payments from refugees was the main reason for their accumulating debts. In the summer, Palestinian officials said Israel was threatening to cut off power over the unpaid debts, which total around $100 million after this month’s tax seizure.
