Ala Jaradat, Birzeit student from Jenin, talks to Adam Hanieh about the Birzeit project to build a memorial website for those who lost their lives in the September 1996 clashes. Reports from a Town become Battlefield website. Ala was a main impetus behind the project to design a website as a memorial for the martyrs of September 1996. Today, we re going to talk with 'Ala about the project and also about some of his experiences in the events of September 1996. To begin with, 'Ala could you explain a bit about why the opening of the tunnel under the Al-Aqsa Mosque provoked the clashes in September 1996.
Many people claim that the opening of the tunnel was the only reason behind the clashes.
Actually, the opening of the tunnel was the straw that broke the camel s back. After the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel, the Palestinians hoped that these peace talks would work, but two years after the start of the peace process, Palestinians were unsatisfied with the results of the peace process. They didn t succeed in bringing peace, the real peace that they hoped for. The confiscation of land kept on, the building of settlements kept on, the evacuation of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem kept on, quietly and slowly. Then came the opening of the tunnel, and like I said, it was the straw that broke the camel s back.