Zionist political violence: Difference between revisions

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Template:Totallydisputed This article is about militant actions, which critics have termed terrorist, against Palestinians and others, by Jewish groups within the British Mandate of Palestine, and later, by Israelis. These militant actions were not all directly connected with the "mainstream" pre-Statehood Jewish leadership, who condemned these attacks publicly, and often extradited their members. Strong ties remained, though, between the formal Jewish leadership and its underground counterparts. See also: terrorism against Israel.

Pre-Statehood Jewish terrorism

In the 1930s and 1940s, two Jewish underground organizations, the Irgun and the Stern gang, were responsible for a number of violent acts in their campaign against the British for a Jewish national homeland:

During the period 1937-1939, the Irgun conducted a campaign of marketplace bombings and other acts of violence that in total killed hundreds of Arabs.
The King David Hotel bombing on July 26, 1946, killing 91.
The bombing of the British Embassy in Rome, also in 1946.
Assassinated British minister Lord Moyne in Cairo in 1944.
Assassinated the UN mediator Count Bernadotte in September, 1948 for his allegedly pro-Arabic conduct during the cease-fire negotiations.
Are claimed to be responsible for the massacres of hundreds of Arab villagers and the forced exile of thousands. In particular, on April 9th, 1948 a military operation at Deir Yassin. However, it should be noted that substantial evidence exists that the Arab leadership of the countries surrounding Israel convinced the Arab population of Israel at the time that when those surrounding Arab nations attacked Israel the local populace should leave temporarily, that the Jews would then be slaughtered and that they would then be allowed to return.
In 1947, killed two British hostages, sergeants who had been taken prisoner and later killed in response to British refusal to cancel the death sentence of two Jewish activists in Akko prison. Also, killed several suspected collaborators with the Haganah and the British mandate government.
Attacked British military airfields and railways several times in 1946.
Destroyed bridges over the Jordan River.
A number of military actions resulting in deaths of Arabs before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, see List of military actions resulting in deaths by both parties to the conflict.

Actions following the establishment of the State of Israel

An incomplete list of Israel's alleged attacks in the period after 1948:

Qibya military action, carried out among others by Unit 101 under the command of Ariel Sharon. It lead to the death of almost 70 people claimed to be civilians.
Operation Suzannah (also known as the Lavon Affair), conducted in 1954. The Mossad intelligence agency attempted to discredit the Egyptian government and disrupt British plans to hand over control of the Suez Canal by firebombing the offices of the United States Information Service and other Western targets in Cairo.
Kfar Kassem encounter, carried out by the Israeli border police in 1956. The Arab side alleges that 49 Israeli Arab people claimed to have been civilians were killed. They claim it included 11 children.
Qana encounter in 1996 when the Qana refugee camp in Israeli occupied Southern Lebanon was shelled by the IDF allegedly killing over one hundred civilians. Southern Lebanon was occupied by the IDF as a result of a long history of Arab cross-border attacks into Israel in which Israeli civilians were killed. The Arab attackers often lived within the refugee camps in Lebanon, and following their attacks retreated to and hid among the refugee camp population, thus making it difficult to impossible to distinguish between Arab militants and Arab civilians.
Various attempts by Mossad to assassinate or kidnap opponents of Israel in foreign territory. Examples include the 1986 seizure of Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli citizen, from Italy at a time when he was wanted by Israel for revealing Israel's nuclear ambitions (which Israel considered treason), and a foiled 1997 poisioning of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan that led to a prisoner exchange for the Mossad assassins for the release of the late Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin;
Numerous incidents during the al-Aqsa Intifada in which Israel has assassinated individuals involved in violence against Israeli civilians. These individuals were members of militant organizations, including Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad; and some were simultaneously employed by the Palestinian Authority security forces. Israel states that the assassination policy is their best alternative because demands to the Palestinian Authority to either arrest Palestinian militants or extradite them to Israel go unheeded (alleged by some to be because of failure by the Palestinian Authority security apparatus destroyed by numerous Israeli attacks, and/or because the perception of collaboration with Israel could lead to a Palestinian civil war, but as alleged by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatus often themselves were complicit and even active in perpetrating shootings and bombings of Israeli civilians). Palestinians claim that the assassinations of terrorist leaders constitute state terrorism, especially in light of the many civilians not directly targeted, but rather, inadvertently killed as a result of this policy (see: collateral damage), and also because they attempt to draw a parallel between the leadership of militant organizations and Israel's elected leadership and argue that an attack on the Israeli political leadership would also be considered terrorism. Israel claims that all its killings were planned on the basis of specific opportunities having arisen to kill the intended person when he was nearly isolated, or due to a specific security alert intended to prevent the deaths of Israeli civilians, and blames the Palestinian Authority for its failure to fulfill its obligations to end terrorism as required by the Oslo Accords. Opponents of Israel do not recognize a distinction between the admitted deliberate killing of innocent civilians by Arab militant groups and the incidental killing of innocent civilians by Israel in pursuing military action against the militant groups.
According to Amnesty International, a campaign of killing (2,500 Palestinian civilians killed, most of them unarmed, but also "more than 900 Israelis, most of them civilians and including more than 100 children, have been killed by Palestinian armed groups"), and the destruction of Palestinian homes, orchards and groves. On the other hand, the Amnesty International site states "...Palestinian armed groups deliberately target Israeli civilians in suicide bombings and other attacks on buses, restaurants and other public places".
Operation Days of Penitence, an Israeli military operation in the northern Gaza Strip conducted between September 30, 2004 and October 15, 2004 that focused on the town of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia and Jabalia refugee camp, in response to missiles being launched into Israel by militants. According to pro-Palestinian sources the operation killed between 104 and 133 Palestinians, including 62 to 87 militants and 18 to 31 children, while other pro-Israeli sources claim that while there were several unintended deaths in the fighting, the vast majority of victims were militants.

Actions by Israeli allies

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was perpetrated during September 1982 in Beirut, Lebanon by the Phalangist Lebanese Christian militia; commonly cited estimates of the death toll range from 700-3000. The camps were externally surrounded by Israeli soldiers, who provided the Phalangists with flares, food, and ammunition throughout the massacre, and the Israelis had sent the Phalangists into the camps. An Israeli investigation found a number of officials (including the Defense Minister of that time, Ariel Sharon) "indirectly responsible" for not preventing the killings. The Kahan Commission wrote: "responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps."

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 === Actions by Israeli allies ===
-* The '''Sabra and Shatila massacre''' was perpetrated during September [[1982]] in [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]] by the [[Phalangist]] [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] [[Christianity|Christian]] [[militia]]; commonly cited estimates of the death toll range from 700-3000. Some allege that the army was a proxy for the [[Israeli Defence Force]], and that Israel therefore bears some level of responsibility. Israel contends that the use of the word "proxy" is just propaganda and that the Phalangists were simply allies fighting a common, brutal enemy. An Israeli investigation found a number of officials (including the Defense Minister of that time, [[Ariel Sharon]]) "indirectly responsible" for not preventing the killings. The Kahan Commission wrote: "responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps."  For more information see [[Sabra and Shatila massacre]].
+* The [[Sabra and Shatila massacre]] was perpetrated during September [[1982]] in [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]] by the [[Phalangist]] [[Lebanon|Lebanese]] [[Christianity|Christian]] [[militia]]; commonly cited estimates of the death toll range from 700-3000.  The camps were externally surrounded by Israeli soldiers, who provided the Phalangists with flares, food, and ammunition throughout the massacre, and the Israelis had sent the Phalangists into the camps.  An Israeli investigation found a number of officials (including the Defense Minister of that time, [[Ariel Sharon]]) "indirectly responsible" for not preventing the killings. The Kahan Commission wrote: "responsibility is to be imputed to the minister of defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into the camps."
 == See also ==