CS Monitor: Israeli Activists Fear a New Intifada

With low expectations surrounding US Mideast envoy George Mitchell's visit with acting Palestinian chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu-Mazen) on Friday, some inside 'Israel' warn a new intifada could break out if progress isn't made soon, Christian Science Monitor reports.

US peace envoy George Mitchell met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to try to break a diplomatic impasse that some say could give rise to a new Palestinian uprising, or Intifada.

"Since June we feel arrests have increased," said Mohammed Khatib, an activist from the village of Bilin, where weekly protests against Israel’s separation fence have been held for years. "The struggle is becoming more effective in and outside of Palestine. Israeli authorities want to stop it before it will become a third intifada.’ "

In the past six months, the army has detained some three dozen activists in the village, roughly comparable to the number of arrests going back several years, he said.

"The Israelis are afraid of the popular protest model spreading," said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli peace activist who said the army has carried out 15 round-ups of anti-barrier protesters in the village of Niilin in a month. "They are terrified of this model gaining momentum, and are setting out to quash it."

Zionist regime’s premier Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have accused each other of taking steps that are not far-reaching enough to renew political talks. The daily newspaper Haaretz reported Thursday that Israeli President Shimon Peres said he warned Abbas that a new intifada is liable to break out if the renewal of peace talks continues to be delayed.

"Israel is taking very seriously these weekly demonstrations. I’m sure the Shin Bet [security service] is aware of what is going on," Gershon Baskin, the copresident of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information said. Though it’s not yet a mass movement, "if settlement building continues … anything could spark it."