The First Intifada

The Palestinian struggle has persisted in various forms.

• One defining moment is the First Intifada (1987-1993) also known as the Stone Uprising.
• Over decades, Palestinians in different areas of historic Palestine endured what Israel attempted to project as ‘an enlightened occupation,’ characterised by restrictive policies and no negotiation prospects (Akevot, 1985).

Internationally, and in the Arab scene, the Palestinian cause waned in priority, leaving Palestinian people more vulnerable to Israel’s occupational policies. To secure a basic respect for their human rights, they had to respond promptly and by their own hands.

Long term causes:

• The brutal Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip began in 1967 and has since ruled Palestinians with an iron fist, creating dependency, and blocking economic development. For instance:

• While Israel allowed the establishment of universities in the West Bank and a college in Gaza, they enforced repressive measures to prevent the establishment of a developed economy to absorb these graduates through limiting indigenous industrial or agricultural development.
• Israel sought to preserve its own industries and civil administration. To this end, it prevented Palestinian Arabs from setting up large businesses and manufacturing plans so they could utilise them as a slave market and dump ground for Israeli goods.
• While around 120,000 or more than 40% of the labour force in Israel were Palestinian Arabs in 1987, they earned very little and were denied all social and fringe benefits by the Israeli government.
• Moreover, similar to current events relating to settlement funding, approval, and expansion in the Occupied Palestinian territory, the National Unity Government in Israel (1984-1988) boosted a substantial increase in settler numbers, and settlement construction and expansion at the expense of Palestinians (Morris, 2001).
• Tens of Palestinians were prisoners of conscience or subject to administrative detention, with no judicial involvement, charge or trial (Amnesty, 1982).
• Palestinians were subject to daily identity checks and body searches, accompanied by verbal and physical abuse in most cases.

The settlements’ expansion, discriminatory economic policies, administrative detention, daily verbal and physical abuse created an unbearable economic and political reality for the Palestinians, and a brutal and mortifying experience for both the occupier and the occupied.

Immediate trigger:

• On Dec 8th 1983, four Palestinians were killed by an Israeli Forces truck in the Jabalia refugee camp.
• The day after, thousands of Palestinians poured out of the camp to attend the funeral, marking the real beginning of what would later be known as the First Intifada.
• Palestinians sought to get rid of the Israeli occupation and better their economic situation by refusing to lose more civilians and surrendering to the harsh and brutal Israeli rule.

It is worth noting that the riots that broke out were highly non-violent, marked by civil disobedience, strikes, and commercial shutdowns (Morris, 2001).

Expansion and Aim:

• The Intifada spread rapidly within hours to the whole of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip including much of civil society, organisations, union groups, and even ordinary populations who took over the streets in considerably large numbers.
• Although Palestinian movements were not in agreement politically, the different factions  ultimately joined effort under the Unified National Command, sharing the goal of overthrowing the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
• Resistance efforts also manifested itself in calls to stop paying taxes to Israeli authorities and resign from posts serving the Israeli government.

The intifada also resulted in the conceiving of newer Palestinian resistance movements including Hamas.

Israel’s inadequate response:

• The Israeli response was to repress Palestinians without hesitation. For example:
• Israel deployed some 80,000 soldiers and frequently used live rounds to deter riots.

• This unwise response only fueled Palestinian resistance and resulted in further escalations.
• Israel response to deal with the escalation was further unprecedented repression of Palestinians (Human Rights Watch, 1990):

• In March 1988, Israeli Occupation Forces assassinated Abu-Jihad (Khalid Al-Wazir) one of the leading strategists of the intifada.
• They introduced a curfew policy and new types of ammunition (rubber and plastic bullets) which have since become essential everyday tools used against Palestinians.
• Other approaches included beatings, collective punishment, closing universities, deportation, and large scale arrests

Although the Intifada started as a persistent campaign of civil resistance, it gradually intensified to cope with Israeli repressions. This entailed the introduction of the stone and occasionally, the Molotov cocktail as the Palestinians symbols of the Intifada. These tools were used by Palestinians to confront Israeli guns and bombs who were much better militarily equipped and responded disproportionately.

Solution:

• The Oslo peace accords (1993) marked a political resolution to the First Intifada, with earlier signs of de-escalation dating back to the Madrid Conference (1991).

Imprints:

• The Intifada marked the onset of a new era of active resistance in Palestine, introducing innovative tactics of fighting back, including organised strikes, boycotts, closures and demonstrations.
• It elevated the status of women in the Palestinian society and expanded their political, economic, and social engagement.
• It shifted leadership dynamics by replacing the traditional “notability” leadership in the territories by a new class of activists that took lead in the Palestinian society.
• Finally, the intifada set the stage for new resistance movements and prompted discourse on innovative governance.

Numbers (9th Dec 1987 – 13th Sep 1993):

Fatalities:

• Palestinian

• 1,070 by Israeli forces, and 54 by Israeli civilians in the Occupied territories.
• 17 by Israeli forces, and 21 by Israeli civilians within the Green Line.

• Israeli:

• 43 Israeli forces personnel, and 47 civilians in the Occupied territories.
• 17 Israeli forces personnel, and 52 civilians within the Green line.

• 16,000 Palestinians were imprisoned, many of whom were routinely tortured.
• 413 Palestinians were deported to the inhospitable borders with Lebanon.

The First Intifada illuminated the Palestinian cause globally but fell short of some major objectives such as an independent sovereign Palestinian state and a developed independent economy. It entailed much bereavement, suffering, and hatred, which unfortunately remain central to Palestinian life until this day.

References:

• Al Jazeera. (2003). The first Intifada. www.aljazeera.com.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/12/9/the-first-intifada
• ‌Amnesty International Annual Report (1983). Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/0001/1983/en/
• BBC. (2020). Israel, annexation and the West Bank explained. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52756427
• ‌Morris, Benny. (2001). Righteous victims : a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-2001. Vintage Books.
• The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. (2019). Fatalities in the first Intifada. B’Tselem. https://www.btselem.org/statistics/first_intifada_tables
• The man behind the “enlightened occupation.”(2022) . Akevot. https://www.akevot.org.il/en/article/gazit-davis-interview_en/
• (2022). Hrw.org. https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/israel/intifada-intro.htm