The First Intifada - 1987
Israeli NarrativeThe political context of the First Intifada began after the Jewish expulsion of Jordanian & Egyptian forces from the West Bank and the Gaza strip in the Six Day War. The subsequent Jewish military occupation of the region brought about great resentment in the Palestinian people, leading to violence. The incident Israelis see as the beginning of the First Intifada was the stabbing of a Jewish businessman on December 6, 1987. The second incident was when a 17-year-old Palestinian threw a Molotov cocktail at a tank and was then gunned down. The IDF reported over 3,600 Molotov cocktail attacks, 100 hand grenade attacks, and 600 assaults with guns or explosives in the first 4 years of the “nonviolent” Intifada. Arafat’s defense of Palestinians killing other Palestinians deemed collaborators with Israel, in the minds of Israelis, made him untrustworthy. With pressure from the US, the UN, and the international media, Israel was forced by the Intifada, because of their status as a democracy, to recognize the Palestinian desire for independence and seek a political solution over a military one. This led naturally into the Oslo Accords. However, with the birth of groups like Hamas committed to violent attacks on Israel, the IDF refused to leave occupied areas.[1]
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Palestinian NarrativeWhat provided context for the First Intifada was as old as the modern state of Israel. Acts of Jewish oppression including: illegal occupation and acts of brutality such as house demolition, deportation, extrajudicial killings, and mass detentions, made the social-political ground for “the uprising.” Most Palestinians cite the following incident as the event that started the intifada: On December 8, 1987, an Israeli tank ran into a group of Palestinians in a Jabalia refugee camp, killing 4 and injuring 7. Palestinians see it as a deliberate attack, though Israeli leaders claim it was an accident. Additionally, from 1984 to 1988, Jewish settlements in the West Bank alone nearly doubled from 35,000 to 64,000. Also, during the 80s, several mainstream Israeli politicians spoke of transferring the Palestinian population out of various territories. These factors, and more, coalesced in the Palestinian community, inciting a desire to strive for independence. The Intifada of 1987 was the first time large numbers of Palestinians united in opposition to Israel and the media attention it drew brought UN criticism against the actions of Israel.[2]
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