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Fundamentalism and the Peace Process: Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

NCJ Number
123235
Journal
Terrorism Volume: 11 Issue: 5 Dated: (1988) Pages: 374-378
Author(s)
B Reich
Date Published
1988
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Gaza and on the West Bank is likely to complicate the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abstract
Islamic fundamentalists reject Arab nationalism, Western culture, democracy, and modernization. They wish to see existing regimes replaced by Islamic republics based upon Islamic law and free of all foreign influences. One announced goal is the elimination of Israel. Most of the fundamentalist organizations operating in the Israeli-occupied territories have focused their activity in the Gaza Strip. Among the more radical groups is the Islamic Jihad, a predominantly Sunni group. Cooperation between Islamic Jihad and various groups of the Palestine Liberation Organization has developed as the fundamentalists have become more militant. The emergence, credence, and growth of militant Islamic fundamentalist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are due to a number of factors, including the general resurgence of Islam and its achievements elsewhere. It has also filled the vacuum left by the failure of revolutionary secularist concepts of Arab nationalism. This development complicates the peace process, since fundamentalist perspectives do not serve Israel's quest for peace and security.

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