THE ISRAELI-Hamas conflict and horrendous killings in Gaza Strip has drawn massive worldwide protests, and this includes protests in Israel too. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always perturbed the civil society in India, and Indian Muslims particularly continue to remain concerned about this. Muslims in Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and other places in the country staged demonstrations calling immediate halt to merciless killings inflicted upon women, children and other residents of Gaza.

After three-week-long air and ground offensive by the Israeli army in Gaza, a unilateral ceasefire came into effect on 18 January 2009 with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announcing that troops would stop fighting. The Hamas movement, against whom this operation was directed, however said that it would not respect any ceasefire so long as Israeli troops remained in the Gaza Strip.

This truce, which is undoubtedly a temporary one, is being again seen as yet another lull before the storm. But, after all, who is responsible for this? The entire world accuses Israel of indulging in war crimes against the helpless Palestinian people, and its godfather United States collaborating in these crimes. However, to me, it is not only Israel and US alone, but also Fatah-Hamas duo that are greatly responsible for the sufferings of their own Palestinian people. In fact, sometimes it seems as though Fatah and Hamas are both playing into the hands of Israel and US.

The genesis of the Israeli bombardment in Gaza lies in the ongoing Fatah-Hamas conflict, also referred to as the Palestinian Civil War. The conflict is called ‘Wakseh’ among Palestinians, meaning humiliation, ruin, and collapse as a result of self-inflicted damage. This Conflict of Brothers began in 2006 and has continued, in one form or another, into 2009. The majority of the fighting is occurring in the Gaza Strip where fighting began after Hamas’ legislative victories. Hamas remains in control of the Gaza Strip. The tensions between Hamas and Fatah began to rise in 2005 after the death of longtime PLO leader Yasser Arafat who died on 11 November 2004, and intensified after Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian National Authority elections of January 2006. In his nationally televised speech on 21 June 2008, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Hamas’ leaders as “murderous terrorists” who had carried out a “coup” in the Gaza Strip. President Abbas dismissed the 3-month-old “national unity” government headed by PM Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, outlawed Hamas affiliated militias and appointed an “emergency” government led by former World Bank economist Salam Fayyad. Hamas has since refused to recognise the legitimacy of the Abbas’s appointed emergency government.

Israel, the US and the European Union, which had previously demanded a popularly elected PA government, responded to Hamas’s 2006 election win by imposing a crippling financial embargo on the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. US President George Bush accused Hamas of “assaulting” Palestinian democracy, and lifted the financial embargo only after President Abbas dismissed Haniyeh-led government. Israel has been working relentlessly to deepen the rift between Hamas and Fateh. This is very much obvious as seen in the recent killings in Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip and sparing Fatah-dominated West Bank. Israel has also worked very hard to weaken Fatah and President Abbas by undermining their credibility by not honouring the promises it made to them. Israel used the Oslo accords and the “peace process” to divide Palestinians. President Abbas rejects the armed nature of the intifada and adamantly supports popular and peaceful resistance and political negotiations to achieve Palestinian national rights. On the contrary, Hamas continues to call for the destruction of the State of Israel. This conflict of interests between Fatah and Hamas has subsequently weakened the Palestinian national movement. The power mongering by both the parties in controlling the Palestinian enclaves West Bank and Gaza Strip individually has only inflicted a severe blow on the psyche of Palestinian people and thereby leading to incessant bloodshed and brutalities being inflicted by the Israeli army. The actions of both Hamas and Fatah have only buttressed the Israeli expansionist policy and extending its continued occupation of Palestinian territories forever. Why can’t one believe that under the circumstances Hamas and Fatah are increasingly acting as mere pawns in the hands of Israel and US. Israel wants a Palestinian Authority with authority only to control its people rather than any land and that it continues to act as Israel’s policeman. Fatah and Hamas need to see through this Israeli design and join hands to strengthen the Palestinian national movement and allay the sufferings of their people.

The world governments and civil society cannot remain oblivious and mute spectators of the holocaust being inflicted on the Palestinian people. Former US president Jimmy Carter in a June 19 speech at a human rights conference in Dublin also criticised Bush’s policy toward Hamas, saying Washington’s refusal to accept the outcome of the “free and fair” January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council election was “criminal”. Carter said, “The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah.” Even former national unity government information minister Mustafa Barghouti in an interview with the Australian Lateline TV program on June 19 observed that the division of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) between a Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and a Fatah-controlled West Bank “serves exactly the Israeli interests of imposing their own reality on the ground which we see through the building of the [separation] wall, the expansion of settlements and transforming the Palestinian entity into clusters of prison-like ghettos. If the Israelis want to empower Mr Abbas really, they will declare they are ready to end occupation, stop building the wall, stop settlements building, announce they are ready to allow East Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestinian state and then Mr Abbas will be the hero of all Palestinians.” He went onto say that this would not happen because the Israeli plan for the PA “is only a limited self-governing government that has control on people but not on land, not on water, not with sovereignty” and that Tel Aviv wants a PA regime that will “suppress its own people on behalf of the Israelis, some kind of a security sub-agent for the Israeli side. That was the dream of Israelis when they signed Oslo… The problem remains the same. The cause of all what we see today is this Israeli military occupation, which has been here for 40 years, longer than any other occupation in modern history.”

Shamshul Islam, a noted intellectual, has compiled a chronological record of the terrorist activities of the State of Israel. Shamsul Islam is Reader in political science in Satyawati College, University of Delhi. He is a well-known authority on communal politics, religious fundamentalism, human rights, street theatre, Dalit and gender issues. He writes in leading publications of English, Hindi and Urdu. He has also authored several books. Besides, he is a noted theatre activist and is Director of street theatre group Nishant Natya Manch. Presented here is his scholarly and valuable compilation. – Danish Ahmad Khan

Israel As Fountainhead Of World Terrorism: A Chronological Record Of Its Terrorist Activities

Israel, a Zionist theocratic state is the real harbinger of the modern terrorism, is a fact known to the whole civilized world, specially the people of Palestine, who have been at the receiving end of the Zionist terror-network for more than 6 decades. Israel as a state was forced on the peace-loving people of Palestine in 1948 but long before it the Zionist terrorist groups had been blasting buildings, burning villages and killing people. The Zionist terrorist gangs were not targeting only Palestinians both Muslims and Christians and their properties but also UNO officials and its offices in the West Asia who were there to supervise peace. Today Israel and its patron in barbarism; USA (and its lackeys) and United Nations itself may be oblivious of this reality but here are reproduced two sets of UNO documents, which long back underlined the fact that Israel and Zionist gangs are the fountain-head of modern day terrorism.

The first document was prepared by a UN Committee and released on October 1, 1948. It was prepared for Mr. Ralphe Bunche, New UN Commissioner to Palestine who assumed charge after the tragic assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte by identified Jewish terrorists on September 17, 1948.

The foreword of the report said:
"This report is a compilation of all identified terrorist attacks on British, American and Arab individuals and entities in the assassination of the British Resident Minister in the Middle East on November 6, 1944 by members of the terrorist Jewish Stern gang to the assassination of Count Bernadotte on September 17, 1948 by members of this same gang of fanatics.

This information is compiled from reports of the US Department of State, the British Foreign Office and various American and British press services."

This report listed 167 major terrorist acts indulged by the Zionist gangs between 1944 and 1948, not only in West Asia but in Europe also. We are reproducing here some of the prominent acts of Israeli terrorism from the UN report in a chronological order as listed in the original report. It is to be noted that there was no Al-Qaeda or Jehadi terrorism when Palestine and world was brutalized by the Zionist terrorism. However, this report also throws light on how west had started capitulating to Zionist terrorism.

November 6, 1944, Cairo. Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East, and his driver were assassinated outside the minister's Cairo residence. Two murderers were involved. One was injured, and both were immediately arrested.

January 18, 1945, Cairo. The British supreme military court sentenced the murderers of Lord Moyne to death. Both killers admitted their act and also admitted their membership in the Stem gang (a Zionist terrorist gang) which they said ordered the killings as a warning to the British not to interfere with future Jewish immigration to Jerusalem.

January 12, 1946, Palestine. A train was derailed by Jewish terrorists at Hadera near Haifa by a bomb and robbed of £35,000 in cash. Two British police officials were injured.

January 19, 1946, Jerusalem. Jewish terrorists destroyed a power station and a portion of the Central Jerusalem prison by explosives. Two persons were killed by the police.

June 29, 1946, Palestine. British military units and police raided Jewish settlements throughout Palestine searching for the leaders of Haganah, a leading Jewish terrorist agency The Jewish Agency for Palestine was occupied and four top official arrested. At the end of June, 1946, 2,000 were arrested and four Jews and one British soldier were killed.

July 1, 1946, Palestine. British officials announced the discovery of a large arms dump hidden underground at Meshek Yagur. 2,659 men and 59 women were detained for the three day operation in which 27 settlements were searched. For were killed and 80 were injured.

July 22, 1946, Jerusalem. The west wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which housed British Military Headquarters and other governmental offices was destroyed at 12:57 PM by explosives planted in the cellar by members of the Irgun terrorist gang. By the 26 of July, the casualties were 76 persons killed, 46 injured and 29 still missing in the rubble. The dead included many British, Arabs and Jews.

July 23, l946 Jerusalem. The Irgun Zvai Leumi terrorist group takes responsibility for the King David bombing but blames the British, calling them "tyrants."

July 24, 1946, London. The British government released a White Paper that accuses the Haganah, Irgun and Stern gangs of "a planned movement of sabotage and violence" under the direction of the Jewish Agency and asserts that the June 29 arrest of Zionist leaders was the cause of the bombing.

July 29, 1946, Tel Aviv. Police in Tel Aviv raided a workshop making bombs.

July 31, 1946, Tel Aviv. A large cache of weapons, extensive counterfeiting equipment and $1,000,000 in counterfeit Government bonds were discovered in Tel Aviv's largest synagogue.

August 29, 1946, Jerusalem. The British Government announced the commutation to life imprisonment of the death sentences imposed on l8 Jewish youths convicted of bombing the Haifa railroad shops.

August 30, 1946, Palestine. British military units discovered arms and munitions dumps in the Jewish farming villages of Dorot and Ruhama.

September 8, 1946, Palestine. Zionist terrorists cut the Palestine railroad in 50 places.

September 9, 1946, Tel Aviv. Two British officers were killed in an explosion in a public building.

September 14, 1946, Jaffa. Jewish terrorists robbed three banks in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, killing three Arabs. Thirty-six Jews were arrested.

October 2, 1946, Tel Aviv. British military units and police seized 50 Jews in a Tel Aviv cafe after a Jewish home was blown up. This home belonged to a Jewish woman who had refused to pay extortion money to the Irgun terrorist gang.

October 31, 1946, Rome. The British Embassy in Rome was damaged by a bomb, believed to have been planted by Jewish terrorists.

November 4, 1946, Rome. Italian authorities released a letter in which the Jewish terrorist gang, Irgun, took credit for the October 31 embassy bombing.

November 7, 1946, Palestine. Railroad traffic was suspended for 24 hours throughout Palestine following a fourth Irgun attack on railway facilities in two days.

November 9 through November 13, 1946, Palestine. Nineteen persons, eleven British soldiers and policemen and eight Arab constables, were killed in Palestine during this period as Jewish terrorists, using land mines and suitcase bombs, increased their attacks on railroad stations, trains and even streetcars.

November 14, 1946, London. The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned Jewish terrorist groups who threatened to export their terrorism to England.

December 2 through December 5,1946, Palestine. Ten persons, including six British soldiers, were killed in bomb and land-mine explosions.

December 26,1946, Palestine. Armed Jewish terrorists raided two diamond factories in Nathanya and Tel Aviv and escaped with nearly $107,000 in diamonds, cash and bonds. These raids signaled an end to a two- week truce during the World Zionist Congress.

January 5, 1947, Egypt. Eleven British troops were injured in a hand grenade attack on a train carrying troops to Palestine. The attack took place near Benha, 25 miles from Cairo.

January 12, 1947, Haifa. A single terrorist drove a truck filled with high explosives into the central police station and exploded it, killing two British policemen and two Arab constables and injuring 140 others. The terrorist escaped. This action ended a 10-day lull in the violence and the Stern gang took the credit for it.

January 22, 1947, London. Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones informed the House of Commons 73 British subjects were murdered by Palestine terrorists in 1946 and "no culprits have been convicted."

March 12, 1947, Jerusalem. The British Army pay corps was dynamited in Jerusalem and one soldier killed.

March 14, 1947, Palestine. Jewish terrorists blew up part of an oil pipeline in Haifa and a section of the rail line at Beer Yakov.

March 28, 1947, Haifa. The Irgun blew up the Iraq Petroleum Co. pipeline in Haifa.

March 29, 1947, Palestine. A British army officer was murdered by Jewish terrorists when they ambushed a party of horsemen near the Ramle camp. A raid by terrorists on a Tel Aviv bank yielded $109,000.

March 31, 1947, Haifa. Jewish terrorists dynamited the British-owned Shell-Mex oil tanks in Haifa, starting a fire that destroyed a quarter-mile of the waterfront The damage was set at more than $1,000,000, and the British government in Palestine has stated that the Jewish community will have to pay for it

April 16, 1947, Haifa. In spite of threats of reprisal from the Irgun, the British hanged Dov Bela Gruner and three other Irgun members at Acre Prison on Haifa Bay. Jewish communities were kept under strict curfew for several hours. Soon after the deaths were announced, a time bomb was found in the Colonial Office in London but was defused.

April 22, 1947, Palestine. A troop train arriving from Cairo was bombed outside Rehovoth with five soldiers and three civilians killed and 39 persons injured.

April 23, 1947, London. The British First Lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Hall, defended the Labor Government's policy in Palestine…He blamed contributions from American Jews to the Palestine terrorists as aiding terrorism there and cited the toll since August 1,

1945: 113 killed, 249 wounded, 168 Jews convicted, 28 sentenced to death, four executed, 33 terrorists slain in battles. Viscount Samuel urged increased immigration.

April 25, 1947, Tel Aviv. A Stern gang squad drove a stolen post office truck loaded with explosives into the Sarona police compound and detonated it, killing five British policemen.

May 4,1947, Acre. The walls of Acre prison were blasted open by an Irgun bomb squad and 251 Jewish and Arab prisoners escaped after a gun battle in which 15 Jews and 1 Arab were killed, 32 (including six British guards) were injured and 23 escapists were recaptured.

May 4, 1947, New York. The Political Action Committee for Palestine ran a series of advertisements in New York newspapers seeking funds to buy parachutes for young European Jews planning to crash the Palestine immigration barrier by air.

May 15, 1947, London. The Stern gang killed two British lieutenants and injured seven other persons with two derailments and three bridge demolitions.

May 19, 1947, London. The British government protested to the United States government against American fund-raising drives for Palestine terrorist groups. The complaint referred to a "Letter to the Terrorists of Palestine" by playwright Ben Hecht, American League for a Free Palestine co-chairman, first published in the New York 'Post" on May 15. The ad said, "We are out to raise millions for you."

May 28, 1947, Haifa. Jewish terrorists blew up a water main and a shed in the Haifa oil dock areas and made three attacks on railway lines in the Lydda and Haifa areas.

June 4, 1947, London. The terrorist Jewish Stern gang sent letter bombs to high British governmental officials. Eight letter bombs containing powdered gelignite explosive were discovered in London. Recipients included Ernest Bevan, Anthony Eden, Prime Minister Attlee and Winston Churchill.

June 5, 1947, Washington. President Truman asked all persons in the US. to refrain from helping Palestine terrorists. The American Jewish Committee and Jewish Labor Committee condemned Ben Hecht's campaign for Palestine terrorist funds.

June 18, 1947, Tel Aviv. Haganah disclosed that one of its men was killed by a booby trap which foiled an Irgun plot to blow up British Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv.

June 28, 1947, Palestine. The terrorist Stern gang opened fire on British soldiers waiting in line outside a Tel Aviv theater, killing three and wounding two. Another Briton is killed and several wounded in a Haifa hotel.

June 29, 1947, New York. The UN Committee votes 9-0 to condemn the acts of terrorism as "flagrant disregard" of the UN appeal for an interim truce as Stern terrorists wounded four more British soldiers on a beach at Herzila. Major Roy Alexander Farran surrendered voluntarily after his escape from custody in Jerusalem on June 19. He had been arrested in connection with the Rubowitz case.

July 19, 1947, Jerusalem. The Palestine Government charges that a Jewish "campaign of lawlessness, murder and sabotage" has cost 70 lives and $6 million in damage since 1940.

July 26, 1947. Jewish terrorists blew up the Iraqi Petroleum Co. pipeline 12 miles east of Haifa and destroyed a Mt. Carmel radar station.

July 26, 1947, Palestine. Two British soldiers were killed by a booby trap near Jerusalem, raising the week's violence toll to 12 killed and 75 wounded.

July 26, 1947, Palestine. Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun, announced from his secret headquarters that Haganah had planned the King David Hotel bombing in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946 in which 91 persons were killed.

July 30, 1947, Palestine. Irgun terrorists announced that they have hanged two British sergeants, Marvyn Paice and Jifford Martin, whom they had held as hostages since July 12, for "crimes against the Jewish community." The two were seized when death sentences on the three Irgun members were confirmed by the British authorities.

July 31, 1947, Nathanya. The bodies of the two murdered British sergeants were found hanging from eucalyptus trees one and a half miles from Nathanya about 530 AM. A booby trap blew Martin's body to bits when it was cut down. Enraged British troops stormed into Tel Aviv, wrecked shops, attacked pedestrians and sprayed a bus with gunfire killing five Jews: two men, two women and a boy.

August 4, 1947, Palestine. British troops blew up a Jewish house in a Jerusalem suburb in which arms were found. Jewish terrorists robbed Barclays' Bank in Tel Aviv of $5200 and a Haganah member was killed.

August 8, 1947, Palestine. The Bank of Sharon in Ramat Can was robbed by Jewish terrorists of $8,000.

August 15, 1947, Palestine. A mine derailed a Cairo-Haifa troop train north of Lydda, killing the engineer, and Irgun terrorists claimed the incident was part of its campaign to disrupt all the Palestine rail traffic.

August 23, 1947, Jerusalem. British authorities reported that five Arabs in one family; two men, one woman and two children, were murdered by Jewish terrorists as retaliation for the British arrest of two Irgun leaders on August15.

September 7, 1947, Paris. French police state a Stern gang plot to attack London with home-made fire extinguisher bombs from the air was thwarted through the cooperation of Reginald Gilbert of St Louis, Missouri, a student and wartime RCAF and AAF pilot

October 13, 1947. Jerusalem. A terrorist bomb damaged the US. consulate general in Jerusalem, injuring two employees slightly. Similar bombings occurred at the Polish consulate general last night and at the Swedish consulate on September 27…The State Department in Washington announced it will issue no passports to American citizens who want to take part in terrorism in Palestine; Americans so involved will forfeit protection normally due US. citizens abroad.

December 13, 1947, Palestine. Jewish terrorists shifted from defense to attack in the second week of conflict with the Arabs since the UN voted for partition of Palestine. The death toll for the past 14 days was at least 220 in Palestine and 336 in the Middle East, including 111 in Aden…On December 12, Haganah launched attacks on both the Arabs and British with a death toll of 20 Arabs, five Jews and two British soldiers killed.

December 13, 1947. Jerusalem. Bombings by the Irgun killed at least 16 Arabs and injured 67 more in Jerusalem and Jaffa and burned down a hundred Arab houses in Jaffa.

December 18, 1947, Khisas. Haganah killed 10 Arabs, including five children in a reprisal raid on Khisas in Northern Palestine.

December 21, 1947, Jerusalem. The Jewish Agency gave official approval for Haganah to make reprisal raids on Arab villages and "exterminate nests of brigands."

December 26, 1947, Palestine. Armed Jewish terrorists raided two diamond factories in Nazthaanya and Tel Aviv and escaped with $107,000 in diamonds, cash and bonds.

December 29, 1947, Jerusalem. An Irgun terrorist bombing at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem killed 11 Arabs and two Britons.

January 3-10, 1948, Palestine. Extensive Jewish Agency purchases of US. war surplus high explosives with which to fight Arabs were disclosed in the New York City area. While 191 tons of TNT and the more powerful M-3 were seized before shipment, 73 tons cleared New York for Palestine. The TNT shipment was accidentally discovered when longshore men loading the American Export Lines freighter "Executor" in Jersey City on January 3, dropped a box marked "industrial machinery" and while attempting to repair the box, found cans of TNT bearing US. Army markings.

January 4, 1948, Jaffa. A series of Jewish terrorist bombings inflicted heavy Arab casualties. 14 were killed and 100 injured when the Stern gang destroyed the Arab National Committee headquarters in Jaffa.

January 5, 1948, Jerusalem. 15 Arabs were killed after Haganah bombed the Semiramis Hotel.

January 6, 1948, Jerusalem. The British Government denounced the Semiramis attack as "wholesale murder of innocent people"…14 Arabs were killed by two Irgun terrorist bombs at Jerusalem's Jaffa gate.

January 12, 1948, Tel Aviv. Stern gang members looted Barclays Bank in Tel Aviv of $37,000.

January 14-15, 1948, New York. The FBI arrested six Newark men on charges of trying to ship Haganah 60,000 pounds of TNT [explosives], which was seized in Jersey City after having been bought from the Letterkenny Arsenal Ordnance Depot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

January 16-17, 1948, Haifa. Zionists claimed they had murdered 82Arabs, mostly civilians, in a 24 hour period. In retaliation for the massacres, Arabs machine-gunned 35 Haganah men who were en route to attack another Arab farming settlement.

January 17, 1948, Jerusalem. The official death toll of Arabs killed by Jewish terrorists since November 29 had risen to 831.

February 10, 1948, Palestine. Jewish terrorist groups murdered ten Arabs near an RAF camp in central Palestine A further 23 Arabs were murdered by Jewish groups throughout Palestine.

February 15, 1948, Galilee. Jewish terrorists raided an Arab settlement in upper Galilee, killing 30 Arabs, including 10 children, and blew up bridges.