Palestinian political violence

Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Palestinians with the intent to accomplish political goals in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Palestinian groups include self-determination in, sovereignty over the region of Palestine, and seeking the one-state solution, or the recognition of a Palestinian state. This includes the objective of ending the Israeli occupation. Goals also include the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and recognition of the Palestinian right of return.

Palestinian groups that have been involved in politically motivated violence include the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Nidal Organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. Several of these groups are considered terrorist organizations by the governments of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand and the European Union.

Attacks have taken place both within Israel and Palestine as well as internationally. They have been directed at both military targets and civilians of many countries. Tactics have included hostage taking, plane hijacking, boat hijacking, stone throwing, improvised explosive device, knife attacks, shooting sprees, attacks with vehicles, car bombs and assassinations. In the 1990s, groups seeking to stop Israeli-Palestinian negotiations began adopting suicide bombings, predominantly targeting civilians, which later peaked during the Second Intifada. In recent decades, violence has also included rocket attacks on Israeli urban centers. The October 7 attacks resulted in massacres and hostage-taking.

Suicide bombings constituted 0.5% of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the first two years of the Second Intifada; though this percentage accounted for half of the Israelis killed in that period. As of 2022,^[update] a majority of Palestinians, 59%, believe armed attacks against Israelis inside Israel are an effective measure to end the occupation, with 56% supporting them.

In protest against the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which proposed a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, both Muslim and Christian Palestinians began to organize in opposition to Zionism. By the end of Ottoman rule, the Jewish population of Palestine was 56,000 or one-sixth of the total population. Hostility to Jewish immigration led to numerous incidents such as the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, the 1921 Jaffa riots, the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The Arab revolt was suppressed by British security forces and led to the deaths of approximately 5,000 Palestinians. After the passing of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947 which called for the establishment of independent Arab and Jewish States, the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine broke out. Following the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 15, 1948, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War began, involving intervention by neighboring Arab states. Casualties included 6,000 Israelis and, according to the 1958 survey by Arif al-Arif, 13,000 Palestinians. Additionally some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled during the Nakba subsequently becoming refugees.

In the Six-Day War, a further 280,000–360,000 Palestinians became refugees, the West Bank including Jerusalem was captured and occupied from Jordan and Gaza was occupied from Egypt. These occupied Palestinian territories later began to be settled by Jewish and Israeli settlers, while the Palestinians were placed under Israeli military administration. Historically, Palestinian militancy was fragmented into several groups. The Palestine Liberation Organization led, and eventually united, most factions, while conducting military campaigns, varying from airplane hijackings, militant operations, and civil protest. In 1987, the First Intifada, a revolt of predominantly civil resistance, broke out. It led to the Madrid Conference of 1991, and subsequently to the Oslo I Accord. Oslo I produced an interim understanding allowing the new Palestinian National Authority to exercise limited autonomy in 3%, later 17%, of the West Bank, and parts of the Gaza Strip, which were not used or designated for Israeli settlement. Unsatisfied with concessions, Islamist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad adopted the usage of suicide bombings, predominantly against Israeli civilians. Frustration over the perceived failure of the peace talks to yield a Palestinian state led to the outbreak of the Second Intifada from September 2000 until 2005, coincident with Israel's unilateral disengagement plan^{[citation needed]}. The rise of Hamas, the use of Palestinian rocketry and Israel's control of Gaza's borders, has led to further chronic violence, culminating in a further two conflicts, the Gaza War of 2008–09 and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

Since 1967, some reports ^[which?] estimate that some 40% of the male population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been arrested or detained in Israeli prisons for political or military reasons.

Following the Balfour Declaration in November 1917 which encouraged Jewish migrants to settle in Palestine, violence against the Jews increased in the region. At this time Arabs were the majority, both geographically and demographically compared to the Jewish population. The majority of Arab Palestinians were distributed throughout the highlands of Judea, Samaria and Galilee whereas the Jewish population was scattered in small towns and rural communities. Arabs hostile to the Jewish population adopted a "war of attrition" tactic which was advantageous to the more numerous Arab community.