Jerusalem attack underlines rise in ‘lone wolves’

The attack yesterday by Palestinian cousins on a synagogue in west Jerusalem stunned Israelis but was welcomed by the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and explained as "revenge" for Israeli killings of Palestinians by Hamas.

Issued by a spokesman based in Gaza, these comments could prompt Israel's prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to retaliate against the Palestinian enclave, governed by Hamas. Netanyahu has also accused Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of inciting violence, suggesting this makes him an invalid interlocutor in negotiations.

However, neither the PFLP nor Hamas appear to have organised the synagogue operation and Abbas condemned it. Israeli police commissioner Yochanan Danino said it was a "grassroots, independent" operation carried out by "lone wolves".

The perpetrators were Uday and Rassan Abu Jamal, cousins from the occupied east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukhabaer, which lies next to Silwan, a location where Israeli settlers constantly challenge Palestinians. While the PFLP claimed the cousins were members of its armed wing, relatives have insisted they belonged to no armed group.

They appear to fit into a pattern set in June/July after the collapse of US-brokered peace negotiations. The seminal event was the abduction of three Israeli teenagers by a "lone cell" – a term used by Israelis – of three Palestinians, two from the Qawasmeh family, based in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.

Although Hamas disavowed the act (a veteran Hamas official later said the group was responsible, a claim not supported by any other member of Hamas), the movement was blamed by Netanyahu, who retaliated by launching a 50-day campaign in Gaza in which 2,130 Palestinians, 71 Israelis and a Thai worker were killed.

Palestinian assaults on Israelis have surged over the past month. In addition to the four killed yesterday at the synagogue, five Israelis and a foreign visitor have died after being deliberately struck by cars or stabbed. There have been other non-fatal stabbings and a shooting of Israelis, while a dozen Palestinians – including perpetrators of attacks and protesting youths – have been killed by Israeli police.

An “intifada of individuals” is a very dangerous proposition for both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. Their intelligence agencies cannot easily identify potential or actual perpetrators, pre-empt attacks, or arrest those involved. Thanks to collaborators and surveillance, it is far easier to discover members of a movement, uncover plots, and track down perpetrators.

Motivated by rising anger over Israel's continuing settlement activities or fury over a single event, individuals have mounted attacks with knives, screwdrivers, vehicles and pistols. Hamas attributed the cousins' attack to Sunday's death by hanging of a bus driver Yusuf Hassan al-Ramuni, said by Israel to be a suicide but alleged by Palestinians to have been murder by an Israeli settler.

Agent of control

Israel’s refusal to permit the

Palestinian Authority

(PA) to exercise even limited authority over or monitor Palestinians in east Jerusalem means Israel has to exercise full control over some 385,000 Palestinian residents. During the first intifada (1987-1991) and the second uprising (2000-2005), the Palestinian leadership maintained some control. Today, the PA opposes armed action and seeks to prevent attacks and suppress protests, drawing on itself popular condemnation.

The violence is likely to escalate. Each individual Palestinian attack emboldens others and elicits street protests against the Israeli occupation to which Israel responds with tear gas, rubber bullets, live fire and arrests, sustaining the cycle of violence.

The latest attacks have taken place in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Tel Aviv and central Israel. Protests erupted in Galilee where a Palestinian citizen of Israel was killed by Israeli police after he struck their car. East Jerusalem is particularly sensitive to both Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Heavy-handed Israeli action there could result in widespread demonstrations in West Bank Palestinian enclaves and Palestinian cities, towns and villages in Israel proper, expanding the area of confrontation to the whole of Israel, east Jerusalem and the West Bank.