According to the Israeli secret service, Shin Bet, the Israeli Annexation Wall that has been constructed on Palestinian land over the last six years has fueled resentment and anger that brought on the spate of recent attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The announcement by Shin Bet comes just two days after a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem plowed his car into a crowd of Jewish-Israeli pedestrians, mainly soldiers. Two similar attacks using vehicles have occurred in the last three months in Jerusalem.
Shin Bet has a reputation for advocating a strong military approach to the Palestinian civilian population, so their recognition of the resentment brought about by the construction of the Wall marks a change in the agency's approach.
"In the past, terrorists from East Jerusalem acted mainly as support units for attacks, usually under instruction by outside networks in the Gaza Strip [and] West Bank," said Shin Bet in their statement, adding that the recent attacks appeared to have been individuals acting on their own without direction from any resistance group.
There have been 5,077 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2000 (according to medical sources), an estimated 80% of which were non-combatants, and 726 Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian fighters engaged in the uprising against the Israeli occupation.
Now, with Israeli authorities continuing their expansion of Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land, and the construction of the Wall in a way that absorbs much of the Palestinian land in the West Bank into Israel, further disenfranchising tens of thousands of Palestinian residents, the Israeli secret service Shin Bet says they recognize the fact that such ongoing actions by Israel are breeding resentment and fury among the disenfranchised indigenous Palestinian population.