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Palestinians Vow to Continue Uprising Against Israel
On the occasion to mark the 13th anniversary of the 1987 Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israel Saturday, December 9, Palestinians vowed to carry on the ongoing Al Aqsa Intifada until the establishment of an independent state.
Fatima, widow of Isam Mohamed Hamoud, whose killing by an Israeli truck in 1987 sparked the first Palestinian Intifada against Israel, said "It is time to end the 33-year Israeli occupation at any cost."
Fatima said that her five-member family had a "very comfortable" life before the death of Isam who could earn about US$500 a month. And now, Fatima and her children, who were still living in the shabby building at the Jabalia refugee camp in western Gaza Strip, can only get 100 dollars a month from the Palestinian National Authority's Jihad (holy war) Fund.
But Fatima stressed the Palestinian people have gained relative safety, freedom and national dignity within the Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian first uprising against Israel broke out in Gaza following the killing of Isam and three other Palestinian workers by an Israeli truck at the Erez crossing point on December 9, 1987.
The intifada had been raging until Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo peace accords in 1993 and the PNA gained self-rule over some areas in the West Bank and Gaza.
The 13th anniversary of the first Palestinian intifada came amid raging bloody clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians, which were triggered by Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to a disputed site in East Jerusalem on September 28.
The Palestinians termed the current defiance against Israel Al Aqsa Intifada, during which nearly 300 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured, in addition to 2 billion dollars in economic loss to the Palestinians.
To observe the first Intifada, tens of thousands of Palestinians staged a peaceful march in Gaza.
Riyad Abdel-Khalik Dawood, 23, a law student at the Al-Azhar University in Gaza, expressed his disappointment with the peace process negotiations which did not give the Palestinians any access to full independence.
"It is right to choose the peace process but it is wrong to pin our hopes on it as Israel only knows force and uprising," said Riyad, who was also living at the Jabalia camp. He could not attend his classes because of the Israeli closure of the Palestinian territories.
"Israel only wants its own peace, shrugging off the Palestinians' legitimate rights," said Riyad. "Just peace acceptable to both parties can get foothold," he added.
Many of the demonstrators were determined to carry on the uprising until their long-cherished dream of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital could be realized.
The Palestinians want the Arab East Jerusalem seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war as the capital of their future state while Israel has claimed the whole Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided capital."
The Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations have been stalled since last July mainly due to the dispute over the status of Jerusalem and the current clashes have further damaged the fragile trust between the two sides.
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