March 27, 2008
IICC
The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad again admits that the Israeli security fence built by Israel in Judea and Samaria prevents the terrorist organizations from reaching the heart of Israel to carry out suicide bombing attacks
Overview
1. PIJ leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah was interviewed in Damascus by the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq. He said that the second intifada was currently characterized by rocket fire , which had replaced the previous stage of suicide bombing attacks. That, he said, was because the enemy [i.e., Israel ] had found ways and means to protect itself from such attacks: For example, they built a separation fence in the West Bank . We do not deny that it limits the ability of the resistance [i.e., the terrorist organizations] to arrive deep within [Israeli territory] to carry out suicide bombing attacks , but the resistance has not surrendered or become helpless, and is looking for other ways to cope with the requirements of every stage [of the intifada] (Al-Sharq, March 23, 2008 ).
2. It was not the first time that senior figures of the PIJ and Hamas, the two terrorist organizations which carried out the greatest number of suicide bombing attacks against Israel, have publicly admitted that the security fence makes it difficult for them to carry out suicide bombing attacks within Israel :
- PIJ leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah told Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV that the terrorist organizations had no intention of abandoning suicide bombing attacks but that their timing and the possibility of carrying them out from the West Bank depended on other factors. For example, he said, there is the separation fence which is an obstacle to the resistance [i.e., the terrorist organizations], and if it were not there, the situation would be entirely different 1 (Al-Manar TV, November 11, 2006 ).
- Mousa Abu Marzouq , deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau in Damascus , was asked by a group of Egyptian intellectuals and politicians why the suicide bombing activity had decreased during since the Hamas government came to power. He said that [carrying out] such attacks is made difficult by the security fence and the gates surrounding West Bank residents 2 (Abd al-Muaz Muhammad, Ikhwan Online, the Muslim Brotherhood Website, June 2, 2007 ).
- The security fence (which is still under construction) and successful Israeli security forces' counterterrorist activities are the two main factors behind the sharp decrease in suicide bombing attacks carried out by the PIJ, Hamas and other terrorist organizations. PIJ and Hamas leaders, when asked why there have been fewer suicide bombing attacks, repeatedly admit that the security fence is in fact an obstacle to their capabilities to infiltrate Israel to carry out suicide bombing attacks . That is in direct contradiction to Palestinian propaganda (including propaganda disseminated by the Abu Mazen-led Palestinian Authority), aimed chiefly at Western ears, which represents the security fence as an apartheid measure whose objective is to isolate and oppress the Palestinian people, and which demands that Israel dismantle the sections already built.
1 For further information see our November 15, 2006 Bulletin entitled Ramadan Shalah admits that Israel 's security fence is an important obstacle to the terrorist organizations .
2 For further information see our June 7, 2007 Bulletin entitled Moussa Abu Marzouq, Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, admits that the Hamas government supports terrorism and confirms that the Israeli security fence in the West Bank makes suicide bombing attacks more difficult .
SOURCE:IICC
