Israeli And Palestinian Sources example essay topic
430 words
JERUSALEM, Sept. 28 -- Palestinians marked the third anniversary of the outbreak of their uprising, or intifada, by taking to the streets today in support of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, while a recent opinion poll showed that roughly two-thirds of Israelis expect the conflict to continue for at least another year. Witnesses reported that about 4,000 people marched in the West Bank city of Nablus, carrying pictures of Arafat, chanting slogans and beating drums. News services reported smaller demonstrations in recent days in other West Bank cities and in the Gaza Strip. More than 2,000 Palestinians and 800 Israelis have been killed since Sept. 28, 2000, when Ariel Sharon, then the leader of Israel's political opposition, toured the site in Jerusalem's Old City revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Violence erupted immediately and spread quickly throughout a Palestinian population already disillusioned by the breakdown of statehood negotiations at Camp David just weeks before. Sharon, who was elected prime minister in February 2001, said Friday in an interview with the newspaper Yedioth Aharon oth that after three years of conflict, he remains committed "to reach peace and security. At the same time, those who thought this would be short were wrong. I didn't think it would take a few months". In a poll of Israelis conducted by the newspaper Maar iv, 65 percent of respondents said they did not think the intifada would end within the next year.
At the same time, when asked to rate their mood on a scale of 1 to 10, those polled averaged 6.2, and 76 percent said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their lives. Israeli and Palestinian sources today identified the gunman who carried out the most recent attack. Mahmoud Hamdan, 22, infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Nega hot in the West Bank on Friday night, the start of the Jewish New Year, killing a man and an infant girl before being slain by Israeli soldiers. The newspaper Haaretz identified the victims as Eyal Yiberbaum, 27, and Shared Avraham, 7 months. The Web site of Islamic Jihad, one of the largest Palestinian militant groups, said Hamdan was a supporter of the group. Hamdan, a resident of the West Bank village of Tameka, was released from an Israeli prison on July 28 after serving nearly 14 months on a conviction of intending to carry out a terrorist attack, according to an Israeli security source who spoke on condition of anonymity..
