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Palestinian stone-throwing is a Palestinian political tactic or action in which projectiles such as rocks, stones, bricks, chunks of concrete and similar materials, are thrown, hurled or catapulted at Israeli civilians or security forces, or those mistaken for such, and/or at the vehicles in which they are riding, producing damage to said vehicles, and often casualties and sometimes fatalities among civilians, including infants.

Conceptualizations

While Israel has justified its use of phosphorus munitions in areas where the civilian density is high, as in Gaza, as legitimate in international law, it criminalizes stone-throwing as a threat to the security of the State.

According to journalist Jodi Rudoren, many Palestinians see stone-throwing as, "a rite of passage and an honored act of defiance".

Amira Hass has defended Palestinian stone–throwing as the, "birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule", and as "a metaphor of resistance".

Marouf Hasian and Lisa A. Flores have the interpreted stone-throwing that took place during the First Intifada as a means of creating a collective identity, a historical tradition, and – ultimately – a Palestinian nation. David A. MacDonald understands stone throwing as, "resistance performance... strategically engineered to reinforce the sacred relationship between the nation and the land".

On 3 July 2000 while visiting Lebanon Palestinian intellectual Edward Said threw a stone across the border towards an Israeli guard post. When the incident attracted international attention, Said justified it as a, 'symbolic gesture of joy' at the end of Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.

Effectiveness as a tactic

Gene Sharp classifies stone-throwing as a form of "limited violence", writing that, "Palestinians see the stones as a way of expressing their defiance and rage", but, in Sharp's opinion, the tactic is "counterproductive" because Israelis "almost never see a stone thrown at them as a relatively nonviolent (form of) expression".

Colonel Thomas Hammes, an analyst of asymmetrical warfare, considers that the tactical use of stone-throwing in the First Intifada was the key strategic move that enabled the Palestinian movement to "transformed (Israel) from the tiny, brave nation surrounded by hostile Arab nations to the oppressive state that condoned killing children in the street".

According to Robert Fisk, Palestinian stone-throwers use slingshots "to give their stones velocity." Slingshots are often loaded with large ball bearings instead of stones.

In certain documented cases, Israeli undercover units have thrown stones at uniformed IDF and police alongside Palestinians.

Legal status

In November 2014, the Israeli Cabinet approved a bill that will, if passed, increase the legal penalties for stone-throwing to up to 20 years imprisonment.

In response to the Killing of Sergeant Almog Shiloni and the 2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Prime Minister Netanyahu convened a Security Cabinet meeting in which he announced that fines would be imposed on the parents of minors caught throwing stones.

In November 2014, an Israeli court decided, for the first time, not to release a minor who was awaiting trial for stone throwing due to an upsurge in stone throwing in the Isawiya neighborhood in Jerusalem, where the 15-year-old lived.

Annually, Israeli military courts sentence approximately 700 Palestinian children, predominantly on charges of throwing stones. Between 2000 and 2008, 6,500 children were arrested, mostly for this activity. One study has found that of 853 Palestinian children indicted by Israeli for stone-throwing between 2005 and 2010, 18 had ages of between 12-13,255 were between 14 and 15, 60% received jail sentences of up to 2 months, 15% got over 6 months and 1% served time in prison for a year.

Deaths and casualties

On 5 June 2001, Yehuda Shoham, a 5-month-old baby, was killed when a rock hurled by stone-throwing Palestinians crashed through the window of the car he was riding in, crushing his skull.

On 23 September 2011, Asher (25) and Yonatan Palmer (1) were killed when the car Asher was driving was attacked by stone-throwing Palestinians, causing it to crash killing him along with his infant son.

On 14 March 2013, the Biton's family car was attacked, near neighboring village of Kif el-Hares, with stones which caused it to get out of control and collide with a truck. Adele Biton was critically injured along with her mother and 3 sisters who were moderately injured. After almost two years in different hospitals and home care, she passed away on February 17, 2015.

On 24 February 1989, a cement block was dropped from a rooftop by a Fatah activist, Samir Na’neesh, onto the head of Staff Sergeant Binyamin Meisner, while he was patrolling the casbah in Nablus. The block crushed his skull, killing him.

In popular culture

Slingshot Hip Hop is a 2008 documentary film about Palestinian youth culture and hiphop music.

The 2012 film Rock the Casbah deals with the struggle of Israeli soldiers and Arab civilians to deal with, "asymmetrical warfare i(n which) one side has guns, the other merely rocks," after an incident where a washing machine is dropped onto, and kills, a soldier.

References

1. "Shin Bet: 2 Palestinians admit throwing rocks that killed Israeli Asher Palmer and infant son". Haaretz. 6 October 2011.
2. ^ Reem Bahdi, 'Phosphorus and Stone:Operation cast Lead,Israeli Military Courts, and International Law as Dennial-Maintenance,' in Willem de Lint, Marinella Marmo, Nerida Chazal (eds.), Criminal Justice in International Society,' Routledge 2014 p.186.
3. Rudoren Jodi (3 August 2013). "In a West Bank Culture of Conflict, Boys Wield the Weapon at Hand". New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
4. Hass, Amira (3 April 2013). "The inner syntax of Palestinian stone-throwing". Haaretz. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
5. Hasian Flores, Marouf & Lisa (1997). "Children of the stones: The Intifada and the mythic creation of the Palestinian state". Southern Communication Journal. 62 (2): 89–106. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
6. Macdonald, David A. (2013). Palestinian Music and Song: Expression and Resistance since 1900, Chapter 8, Performance Politics: Folklore and Popular Resistance during the First Palestinian Intifada. Indiana University Press. p. 133. ISBN 0253011132. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
7. Dinitia Smith, "A Stone's Throw is a Freudian Slip", The New York Times, 12 November 2014.
8. Sharp, Gene (Autumn 1989). "The Intifadah and Nonviolent Struggle". Journal of Palestine Studies. 19 (1): 3–13. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
9. Hammes, Thomas X. (2006). The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century. Zenith Press. p. 108. ISBN 0760324077. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
10. Fisk, Robert (2007). The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 0307428710. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
11. Schmetzer, Uli (25 February 1988). "Palestinian Uprising Escalates Israeli Troops Ambushed In Gaza Strip". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
12. Freed, Kenneth (13 February 1988). "Israeli Soldiers Kill 2 Palestinians : Patrol Is Attacked After Muslim Service". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
13. Haklai, Oded (2011). Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 122. ISBN 0812204395. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
14. 'Undercover Israeli combatants threw stones at IDF soldiers in West Bank', Chaim Levinson, May 7, 2012, Haaretz
15. MK among 10 hurt at anti-fence protest , April 29, 2005
16. Kameel B. Nasr,[https://books.google.it/books?id=sigbIVZaDF0C&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26 Arab and Israeli Terrorism: The Causes and Effects of Political Violence:1936-1993,McFarland, 1997 p.26.
17. Samar Assad, Undercover Men Surprise Rioters -- Masked Israeli Troops Mingled With Palestinians Before Pouncing; Meanwhile, Woman Is Charged With Writing Fliers That Started Riot,' Seattle Times, 3 July, 1997
18. Revid, Barak (2 November 2014). "Home News National Netanyahu's cabinet backs bill to jail stone-throwers up to 10–20 year". Haaretz. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
19. Times of Israel Staff (2 November 2014). "Ministers advance bill jailing rock throwers for up to 20 years". Times of Israel. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
20. Adamczyk, Ed (3 November 2014). "Harsher penalties for rock-throwers as Jerusalem tensions rise". United Press Internaitonal. UPI. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
21. Shuttleworth, Kay (4 November 2014). "Palestinian stone throwers could face 20 years in jail". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
22. Winer, Stuart (11 November 2014). "Netanyahu accuses Abbas of fueling tensions, spreading lies After security cabinet meeting, prime minister unveils new measures to quell violent unrest, including fining parents of stone-throwing children". Times of Israel. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
23. Court orders rock throwing minor to stay behind bars during pretrial, jpost.com; retrieved 17 November 2014.
24. "Caught in the cross fire". The Washington Times. Associated Press. 11 September 2002. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
25. "Yehuda Shoham". MFA. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
26. Lefkovits, Etgar (7 June 2001). "'It's as if we've been abandoned'". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
27. Reeves, Phil (12 June 2001). "Settlers' baby dies after Palestinian stoning". The Independent. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
28. Shin Bet: 2 Palestinians admit throwing rocks that killed Israeli Asher Palmer and infant son Quote: "The site of the terror attack where Asher Palmer and his one-year-old son Yonatan were killed. "
29. Martin Gilbert. The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
30. Pontz, Zach (9 January 2013). "IDF Lists 2012 Terror Incidents, Including Many "You've Probably Never Heard About"". The Algemeiner. Algemeiner.com.
31. "Hundreds attend funeral for 4-year-old terror victim Adele Biton". Ynet.
32. "Toddler dies two years after stone-throwing incident left her critically injured". Haaretz. 17 February 2015.
33. "Israeli Girl Injured in Palestinian Rock-Throwing Attack in 2013 Dies". New York Times. 17 February 2013.
34. Ben Harris, 'Who Israel released,' JTA 14 August, 2013
35. JTA 27 February, 1989.
36. Meixler, Louis (27 February 1989). "Palestinian Teen-ager Wounded After Stabbing Soldier". Associated Press. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
37. "Trailer".
38. Hoffman, Jordan (31 May 2013). "Cannes Review: 'Rock the Casbah'". Film.com. Retrieved 25 February 2015.

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict