intifada

intifada, either of two popular uprisings of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip aimed at ending Israel’s occupation of those territories and creating an independent Palestinian state. The first intifada began in December 1987 and ended in September 1993 with the signing of the first Oslo Accords, which provided a framework for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The second intifada, sometimes called the Al-Aqsa intifada, began in September 2000. Although no single event signaled its end, most analysts agree that it had run its course by late 2005. The two uprisings resulted in the death of more than 5,000 Palestinians and some 1,400 Israelis.

The first intifada

The proximate causes of the first intifada were intensified Israeli land expropriation and settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the electoral victory of the right-wing Likud party in 1977; increasing Israeli repression in response to heightened Palestinian protests following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982; the emergence of a new cadre of local Palestinian activists who challenged the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a process aided by Israel’s stepped-up attempts to curb political activism and break the PLO’s ties to the occupied territories in the early 1980s; and, in reaction to the invasion of Lebanon, the emergence of a strong peace camp on the Israeli side, which many Palestinians thought provided a basis for change in Israeli policy. With motivation, means, and perceived opportunity in place, only a precipitant was required to start an uprising. This occurred in December 1987 when an Israeli vehicle struck two vans carrying Palestinian workers, killing four of them, an event that was perceived by Palestinians as an act of revenge for the death by stabbing of an Israeli in Gaza a few days earlier.

Most of the Palestinian rioting took place during the intifada’s first year, after which the Palestinians shifted from throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli targets to attacking them with rifles, hand grenades, and explosives. The shift occurred mainly because of the severity of Israeli military and police reprisals, which intensified after Palestinian attacks became more violent. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, nearly 2,000 deaths due to violence occurred during the first intifada; the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths was slightly more than 3 to 1.

Pragmatism crystallized alongside the violence, however. In 1988 the PLO accepted American conditions for opening a U.S.-Palestinian dialogue: rejection of terrorism, recognition of Israel’s right to exist, and acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 (which called upon Arab states to accept Israel’s right “to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries”) and 338 (which called for the implementation of Resolution 242 “in all its parts”). With the intifada proving to be politically and economically damaging to Israel, a new Israeli government was elected in 1992 with a mandate to negotiate for peace. In the following year secret talks between Israel and the PLO under the auspices of the Norwegian government resulted in the Oslo Accords, a series of agreements signed in 1993–95. The accords reiterated the PLO’s 1988 commitments, and Israel recognized the PLO as the Palestinian people’s legitimate representative, agreed to withdraw in stages from areas of the West Bank and Gaza, and allowed the creation of a Palestinian Authority to govern those areas. Outstanding matters in achieving a two-state solution were to be settled over the next five years.

Negotiations and continued violence

Just as the PLO turned to pragmatism, however, a new organization, Hamas, headed in the opposite direction, articulating a vision of an Islamic state in all of historical Palestine. Hamas rejected the Oslo Accords and, in a move to scuttle peace talks, initiated a series of suicide attacks against Israeli targets.

Meanwhile, Israel continued to build settlements in the occupied territories, and the Palestinians imported arms and built up their security forces, in violation of the terms of the Oslo Accords. As a result, talks broke down in 2000 in a wave of frustration and mutual recrimination. Shortly afterward, Likud’s prime ministerial candidate, Ariel Sharon, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as an assertion of Israel’s sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. Rioting broke out, Israeli police responded with lethal force, and unrest quickly spread throughout the occupied territories. The second intifada had begun.

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The second intifada

The second intifada was much more violent than the first. During the approximately five-year uprising, more than 4,300 fatalities were registered, and again the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths was slightly more than 3 to 1.

In March 2002, following an especially horrific suicide bombing that killed 30 people, the Israeli army launched Operation Defensive Shield to reoccupy the West Bank and parts of Gaza. One year later Israel started building a separation barrier in the West Bank to match a similar barrier erected in Gaza in 1996. Also helping to suppress the uprising were more than 200 state-directed assassinations of Palestinian military operatives and political leaders.

Although the violence had nearly subsided by the end of 2005, the conditions causing it had in some respects worsened. Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank continued, and tight controls were placed on the movement of Palestinian goods and people, stifling economic growth. Negotiations were at a standstill. In addition, the Palestinian Authority lost support amid charges of widespread corruption. Many Palestinians now turned to Hamas, which won the 2006 legislative elections and took power by force in Gaza in 2007.