Thread by @theIMEU

Today marks the 21st anniversary of the start of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel's illegal occupation & apartheid.

Here is what happened 21 years ago:

Former Israeli "Defense" Minister & war criminal Ariel Sharon (who, according to an Israeli commission, bears "personal responsibility" for the 1982 massacres of Sabra & Shatila), intruded on Al-Aqsa, Palestinians' holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem, w/1,000 heavily armed soldiers.

The intrusion led to a confrontation with unarmed Palestinian demonstrators at the Noble Sanctuary, and resulted in several unarmed Palestinians being killed, triggering the 2nd intifada. But that was only the last straw after years of Israeli brutality and land theft.

Throughout the 1990s, while Israel was allegedly "negotiating" to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, it actually doubled the number of Israeli settlers on Palestinian land during the so-called "peace process."

Then came the Camp David II "peace" summit in July 2000, when Israel revealed that the process was a sham, and refused to recognize Palestinian rights, from illegal settlements to Jerusalem and the Right of Return.

Sharon's violent intrusion was the cherry on top.

Very quickly, the intifada saw some of the cruelest, most brutal acts of Israeli repression. The goal was clear: crush Palestinian resistance. Around 1.3 million bullets were fired by Israeli soldiers within just the first few days of the uprising.

Israel rejected Palestinian efforts to end the violence. Instead, it used the intifada as an excuse to seize more land and control in the name of “security.” Around 5,000 Palestinians were killed over the course of the Second Intifada, including at least 1,262 children.