Israel and the Arab World

1. Israel and the Arab World

3. Living in Fear: Rocket Attacks Israeli Citizens have to deal with rockets being launched at them as well as suicide attacks in their homeland.

4. 2011 Human Rights Watch reports that during 2011 Palestinian armed militias in Gaza launched hundreds of rocket attacks (at least 316 rockets) at Israeli cities and towns, killing two civilians and wounding nine others.

5. Living in Fear: Suicide attacks

6. Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis aim to kill and injure as many people as possible, and create the greatest amount of fear. The victims are, most often, civilians going about their daily life.

7. The attacks, and the death, injury and destruction they cause, have become one of the hallmarks of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

8. What happens during attacks? In one of the bloodiest attacks, in March 2002, 28 Israelis were killed and more than 100 injured as they sat in a hotel dining room in Netanya to celebrate the Jewish Passover. The attacker was a 25-year-old man from the West Bank.

9. What is the point of the attacks? For the attackers and the organisations that send them on their missions, the horror, death and destruction is the point.

10. Terrorism against Israelis

11. Who is responsible for the attacks? Palestinian officials are often accused by Israel of not doing enough to stop the attackers and of celebrating the "martyrdom" of the attackers after the attacks.

12. Who is responsible for the attacks? Israel has also accused the Palestinian Authority of funding some suicide attacks and rewarding the families of attackers. Evidence for this has been sketchy.

13. Where do the attacks occur?

14. Why are “human bombs” used in the attacks? Yahya Ayyash, a leading Hamas bomb maker who was killed by Israel in 1996, was quoted as saying that the use of "human bombs" was a way to "make the [Israeli] occupation that much more expensive in human lives, that much more unbearable".

15. Why are “human bombs” used in the attacks? Many Palestinians see suicide attacks as the only form of armed resistance to occupation available to them, given the vast superiority of the Israeli army.

16. Why are “human bombs” used in the attacks? Palestinians often attempt to explain the attacks as desperate acts or revenge born of their suffering under occupation. They point to the large number of Palestinian civilian deaths as a result of actions by the Israeli army.

18. Why are “human bombs” used in the attacks? Polls taken in the West Bank and Gaza have in recent years suggested that about 60% of Palestinians support suicide attacks to some degree.

19. Who are the attackers? Suicide bombers are typically unmarried men in their 20s - though there have been a number of attacks by women.

20. Where do the attacks occur?

21. Who are the attackers? • The individual bombers do not necessarily have a background of being religiously devout, but their actions are almost always framed as acts of self-martyrdom. • For the attackers and the groups that send them, this gives their deaths religious sanction and means their suicide can be celebrated.

22. Who are the attackers? The attackers, who are often recorded on video declaring their intentions to murder Israelis, most often cast their attacks as acts of revenge, which will send them to paradise after they die.

23. Who are the attackers? Part of the pact between a bomber and the group that sends him is that the attacker's death will be celebrated and his family provided for.

24. Where do the attacks occur?

25. Who are the attackers? • Suicide attacks are often launched at short notice. • The group behind the attack will usually select a target, arrange for the transport of the bomber into Israel and supply the explosive device, which is usually wrapped closely around the attacker or sewn into clothing.

26. Are the attacks condemned? Across the world they are widely condemned as brutal acts of terrorism - though the attacks are pointedly not condemned by some Arab or Islamic governments.

27. Are the attacks condemned? Palestinian officials routinely condemn suicide attacks, though they tend to phrase this in terms of condemnation of the killings of all civilians on both side.

28. What are responses after the attacks? Suicide attacks routinely draw a severe military response from the Israeli army ranging from direct attacks against alleged militants or the planners of attacks to 24-hour curfews in urban areas.

29. What are responses after the attacks? Israel insists that there can be no political progress before a cessation of suicide attacks.

30. Where do the attacks occur?

31. When was the first Palestinian suicide attack? The first Palestinian suicide attack in Israel killed eight people in April 1994 in the centre of Afula.

32. When was the first Palestinian suicide attack? Hamas said it carried out the attack in response to the killing of 29 praying Muslims in February of that year by West Bank settler Baruch Goldstein.

33. How many Israelis’ have been killed by the attacks? Between 2000 and September 2008, some 1072 Israelis were killed in suicide attacks.

34. How many Israelis’ have been killed by the attacks? The number of injured Israeli citizens is not included in the previous slide.

35. How are Israelis’ killed in the attacks? A series of attacks in 1996 and 1997 cemented the tactic of targeting crowded buses or cafes with nail bombs.

36. What organizations are responsible for the attacks? The main organisations behind the suicide attacks are Hamas (an acronym in Arabic of The Islamic Resistance Movement), Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

37. What organizations are responsible for the attacks? Hamas, a popular organization, is committed to an Islamic state in Israel and the Palestinian territories – though it does negotiate with the Palestinian Authority and to call ceasefires when it believes there are opportunities for political progress.

38. WHY IS HAMAS SUPPORTED? Much of the popular support for Hamas among Palestinians comes from the social services that the organisation provides - schools, clinics and food distribution centres.

39. Where do the attacks occur?

40. What organizations are responsible for the attacks? The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Islamic Jihadhave each claimed responsibility for suicide attacks.

41. What has Israel done to counter the bombers? In response to the suicide attacks, Israel has adopted a range of security measures - none of which have been entirely successful.

42. Where do the attacks occur?

43. What has Israel done to counter the bombers? One tactic against attacks has been the effective re-occupation of the West Bank with soldiers.

44. What has Israel done to counter the bombers? Other staple measures are raids against suspected militants plotting attacks, mass arrests, curfews, and stringent travel restrictions.

45. What has Israel done to counter the bombers? Israel's controversial West Bank barrier, a fence between Gaza and Israel, is another attempt to prevent suicide attacks.

46. What has Israel done to counter the bombers? • Israel has also practised "targeted assassination" since the 1970s. • Some of these tactics are criticised by human rights groups as collective punishment.

47. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION From a human rights perspective, Suicide Bombings and the rocket attacks endured by Israeli citizens are violations that leave the Israeli people in constant fear of attack as they move throughout their days.

48. SOURCE Primary sources: BBC NEWS: Tarik Kafala 2004/03/02 http://www.ifamericansknew.org

49. 2012 info available here http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/01/female_suicide_bombers.html http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/6/book-review-terrorist-suicide-bombings/