The Second (al-Aqsa) Intifada
After the Camp David talks fail, a far deadlier uprising of shootings, suicide bombings and military reoccupation kills more than 3,000 Palestinians and about 1,000 Israelis.
- Intifada — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Fatalities statistics, 1987 to the present — B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
- Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors — Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, New York Review of Books (2001)
- The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace — Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
On 28 September 2000 opposition leader Ariel Sharon, escorted by hundreds of police, visited the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. The next day Israeli police killed several Palestinian protesters at al-Aqsa mosque, and an uprising spread across the territories. In October, 13 Arab citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli police during protests inside Israel.
- Intifada — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
This intifada was armed. Palestinian groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, carried out shootings and suicide bombings in Israeli buses, restaurants and clubs; the Passover bombing of a hotel in Netanya in March 2002 killed 30 people. Israel responded with targeted killings, closures and, in Operation Defensive Shield in spring 2002, the reoccupation of West Bank cities, including fierce fighting in Jenin refugee camp. It besieged Arafat in his Ramallah compound.
- Intifada — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World — Avi Shlaim, W. W. Norton (2014)
B’Tselem’s figures put the toll at more than 3,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and about 1,000 Israelis killed by Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of them civilians.
- Fatalities statistics, 1987 to the present — B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem
- Intifada — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Arafat rejected a generous offer at Camp David and turned to terror. Israel had to retake West Bank cities and build the barrier to stop suicide bombers, and attacks inside Israel fell sharply as a result.
- The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace — Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2004)
- Israel: A History — Anita Shapira, Brandeis University Press (2012)
A revolt against an occupation that Oslo had entrenched, sparked by Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to al-Haram al-Sharif and Israel's lethal response to protests. The "generous offer" left Palestinians a fragmented state without real sovereignty.
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
- Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors — Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, New York Review of Books (2001)
In a 2004 advisory opinion the ICJ said the barrier, where it runs inside the West Bank, violates international law. Israel rejected the opinion, saying the route was dictated by security.
- Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Advisory Opinion) — International Court of Justice, ICJ (2004)
- Intifada — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
For Israelis it was a time of buses and cafés blown up, and it destroyed the peace camp: many concluded there was no partner. The separation barrier, checkpoints and a hard security outlook are its legacy.
For Palestinians it meant tanks in their cities, curfews, assassinations, the barrier cutting through their land and the siege of Arafat. It left the Palestinian Authority shattered and Hamas stronger.