The Attempts to Find a Lasting Peace, 1987-2012 » The Second Intifada and the Roadmap for Peace

The second Intifada, 2000

An Intifada is a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule. The first one began in 1987. The second began in September 2000, seven years after the Oslo Accords had raised hopes of peace.

Key terms:

• Roadmap for Peace: a plan of 2003 that set out step-by-step stages towards two states, Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side.
• Quartet: the four sponsors of the Roadmap: the USA, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
• Unilateral: done by one side alone, without agreement or talks with the other side.

Causes of the second Intifada

The spark. On 28 September 2000 Ariel Sharon, the leader of the Likud party, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, escorted by hundreds of Israeli police. The site is holy to Jews, and to Muslims it is the place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif. Many Palestinians saw the visit as a challenge to their claim to East Jerusalem. Protests and clashes began the next day and spread across the West Bank and Gaza.

Features of the second Intifada

• More violent than the first. The first Intifada was mostly stones, strikes and boycotts. In the second, Palestinian gunmen and groups such as Hamas carried out many suicide bombings in Israeli cities, and Palestinian police and militias took part in the fighting.
• A strong Israeli military response. The Israeli army used tanks and air strikes, and killed named militants in targeted attacks. In spring 2002 it re-entered West Bank towns that had been handed to the Palestinian Authority.
• Separation. From 2002 Israel began building a barrier through and around the West Bank. Israel said it stopped bombers. Palestinians said it cut them off from their land and took more of it.
• Heavy losses. Thousands of Palestinians and about a thousand Israelis died, most of them in the first few years. Fighting faded in 2005, after Arafat's death in November 2004 and a ceasefire agreed that February.

Sharon won the February 2001 election and became Israel's prime minister. His government refused to talk while the violence went on, and the Oslo peace process was in ruins.

The 2003 Roadmap for Peace

In June 2002 US President George W. Bush said that he wanted a Palestinian state living alongside Israel, but that the Palestinians needed new leaders who were not tied to terrorism. The Quartet then drew up the Roadmap, which was launched in April 2003. It had three phases:

1. Phase 1: the Palestinians stop the violence and reform their government, while Israel pulls back to where it was before the Intifada and freezes settlement building.
2. Phase 2: a Palestinian state with temporary borders.
3. Phase 3: talks to settle the hardest questions (borders, Jerusalem and refugees) and a final deal, aimed for 2005.

The USA and Israel would not deal with Arafat, so a new post of Palestinian prime minister was created, and Mahmoud Abbas took it in 2003. Bush, Sharon and Abbas met at Aqaba in June 2003. Abbas resigned in September 2003, after fewer than six months, saying that he had too little support from either Israel or the USA.

Why the Roadmap failed

• Neither side did its Phase 1 tasks. Bombings and attacks went on, and armed groups were not disarmed. Israel kept building settlements and carried on military action in the West Bank. Each side said the other had to move first.
• Weak leadership and distrust. Arafat, who still had the loyalty of many Palestinians, was shut out. Abbas had little power over the armed groups.
• Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, 2005. Sharon decided to leave Gaza without a deal. In August and September 2005 Israel removed its soldiers and all 21 settlements from Gaza (and four in the north of the West Bank). Many people hoped it would lead to more peace. In fact, because it was unilateral, it did not bring the two sides back to negotiate. Israel still controlled most of Gaza's borders, its sea and its airspace. Hamas claimed that its attacks had pushed Israel out, which made it stronger against Abbas's Fatah party.
• Hamas's election win, 2006. In the January 2006 election for the Palestinian parliament, Hamas won 74 of the 132 seats and Fatah only 45. Many voters were angry at Fatah's corruption and its failure to deliver. The USA, the EU and Israel would not deal with a Hamas government unless it gave up violence, recognised Israel and accepted earlier agreements. Hamas refused, so aid was cut and the Roadmap, which needed a Palestinian partner for peace, was stalled.

The Palestinians were now split between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas, which took full control of Gaza in 2007. Israel would not talk to Hamas, and Abbas could not speak for all Palestinians.

Change and continuity

What changed: the hope of the Oslo years gave way to open fighting, and Israel moved to unilateral steps, such as the barrier and the Gaza withdrawal, rather than negotiated ones. The Palestinian side was divided for the first time between two rival governments.

What stayed the same: Jerusalem, borders, settlements and refugees were still unresolved, and the USA was still the main outside power trying to broker peace.

Exam-style question

Explain TWO causes of the failure of the 2003 Roadmap for Peace. [8 marks]

Remember: one cause on its own can score no more than half marks. Give each cause precise facts and show how it led to the failure.