15.07.2011                      13.Tammus, 5771

Interview:

In Nablus, Palestinians play down possibility of September Intifada

Ex-militants say they won't take to streets in September, but wish Israel would disappear.

Abu-Imad's restaurant, facing the entrance to the Nasr mosque in the casbah of Nablus, has for years been one of the city's leading restaurants, but it is also a particularly well-known social institution in town. Abu-Imad, who is now 75, remembers how here, from the square between the restaurant and the mosque, demonstrations departed every Friday during the first intifada in the late 1980s. It was also here that members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade met during the second intifada, which began in 2000.
On Wednesday a reunion of sorts took place at the restaurant, attended by several leading formerly wanted men from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, coming to speak to Haaretz about the current situation, about the amnesty they received from Israel and about what they expect in the lead up to September's possible Palestinian bid for recognition of an independent state at the United Nations….