Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - First Intifada
The first Intifada
was a Palestinian uprising that took place from 1987 to 1991 or 1993
(see Intifada). It was sometimes also called "the war of stones",
because the Palestinians generally used stones and other makeshift
weapons in its first year.
Background
The intifada was a spontaneous phenomenon; after it began, the PLO
claimed that it had organized it, but historians view this as an
after-the-fact attempt to assert more control than it really had.
In the months leading up to the first intifada, numerous events occurred
that increased the hostility between Palestinians and Israelis. On
October 1, 1987 Israeli military ambushed and killed seven men from Gaza
believed to be members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Several days
later an Israeli settler shot a Palestinian schoolgirl in the back. On
the other hand, Palestinian militants attacked and killed many innocent
Israeli citizens as well as Israeli soldiers. Daily, the riots escalated
throughout the occupied territories and were particularly severe in the
Gaza Strip.
Under these already heated circumstances, incorrect rumors easily
spread. The mere presence of stories, reinforced by the real incidents
above, caused wild panic and street fights against Israeli policemen and
soldiers. It is well documented that the combined effect of these events
constituted the proximal spark of the first intifada. The Intifada was
the climax of growing tension and violence between the Israelis and the
Palestinians.
Palestinians maintain that the Intifada was a protest of Israel's brutal
repression which included extra-judicial killings, mass detentions,
house demolitions, indiscriminate torture, deportations, and so on.
In addition to the political and national sentiment, further causes to
the Intifada can be seen in the Egyptian withdrawal from their claims to
the Gaza Strip as well as the Jordanian monarchy growing weary of
supporting Jordanian claims to the West Bank.
Rapid rates of birth (common in poor areas) and the limited allocation
of land to new building or agriculture under the Israeli rule
contributed to the increasing density of population. Unemployment was
growing, and while income from jobs in Israel allowed Palestinians to
provide university education for their children, few jobs were available
for the graduates afterwards.
Others point out that Palestinians felt abandoned by their Arab allies
and the PLO had failed to destroy Israel and establish a Palestinian
state in its stead as promised. However, it did manage to block the
Israeli attempts to call for an election inside the territories
(beginning with 1974), and as it seemed to many of them, they would
spend the rest of their lives as second class citizens, without full
political rights.
Considering all of the above and the mass scale of the uprising, it is
of little doubt that it was not initiated by any single man or
organization. However, the PLO was very quick to take matters into its
hands, sponsoring riot provocateurs and enhancing their presence in the
territories (called the "tandhim", or "organization") that was to
guarantee the continuation of riots. The PLO was not uncontested,
however, competing in its activities for the first time with radical
Islamic organizations - Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which also
had a share in inducing further violence.
Much of the intifada was low-tech; dozens of Palestinian teenagers would
ambush small patrols of Israeli soldiers, showering them with large
rocks, attempting to kill with brute force and vastly superior numbers.
However, this tactic soon gave way to using thousands of Molotov
cocktail attacks, over 100 hand grenade attacks and more than 500
attacks with guns or explosives. Many Israeli civilians and soldiers
were killed this way.
Additionally, over 1,000 alleged informers were killed by Arab death
squads, though Palestinian Arab human rights groups contend many were
not "collaborators" but victims of revenge murders.
In 1988, middle-class Christian merchants initiated a nonviolent
movement (or as some analysts hold it, were forced by the PLO) to
withhold taxes - the legality of which under international law is
disputed - collected and used by Israel to pay for the administration of
territories. When time in prison didn't stop the activists, Israel
crushed the boycott by imposing heavy fines while seizing and disposing
of the equipment, furnishings, and goods from local stores, factories,
and even homes.
Outcome
By the time the Oslo Accords were signed, 1,162 Palestinians and 160
Israelis had died [1]; in the first thirteen months of the intifada, 332
Palestinians had been killed, as opposed to only 12 Israelis in the same
period. This initially high fatality rate on the Palestinian side was
due largely to the Israel Defense Force's lack of resources and
inexperience in pacification and crowd control. Often when facing
demonstrators IDF soldiers had no riot control munitions and would feel
compelled to shoot unarmed demonstrators with live fire.
As the intifada progressed, Israel progressively introduced various riot
control methods (some, including a machine that broke up rocks and spat
them at crowds, being rather exotic) that had the effect of reducing
Palestinian casualties, although they still remained fairly high.
Another possible contributor to the high initial casualties was Yitzhak
Rabin's aggressive stance towards the Palestinians (notably including an
exhortation to the IDF to "break the bones" of the demonstrators). His
successor Moshe Arens subsequently proved to have a better understanding
of pacification, which perhaps reflects in the lower casualty rates for
the following years.
The Intifada was never a military endeavour in either a conventional or
guerilla sense. The Palestinian leadership (who had limited control of
the situation in any event) never expected the uprising to make any
direct gains against the Israeli state. However, the Intifada did
produce a number of positive results for the Palestinians:-
1. By engaging the Israelis directly, rather than relying on the
authority or the assistance of neighbouring Arab states, the
Palestinians were able to globally cement their identity as a separate
nation worthy of self-determination. The era marked the end of the
Israelis referring to Palestinians as "South Syrians" and largely ended
Israeli discussion of a "Jordanian solution".
2. The harsh Israeli countermeasures (particularly during the earlier
years of the Intifada) resulted in adverse media publicity for Israel.
The fact that 159 Palestinian children below the age of 16 (mostly stone
throwers) had died was especially concerning for international
observers. Significantly, numerous American media outlets openly
criticised Israel in a way that they had not previously. Furthermore,
the conflict succeeded in putting the Palestinian question back on the
international agenda, particularly in the UN, but also for Europe and
the United States as well as the Arab states. Europe became an important
economic contributor towards the nascent Palestinian authority, and
American aid and support of Israel became more conditional than it was
previously.
3. The intifada also dealt a heavy economic blow to Israel. The Bank of
Israel estimated it cost the country $650 million in lost exports. The
impact on the services sector, including the important Israeli tourist
industry, was notably bad.
4. The uprising lead directly to the Oslo accords, and thereby to the
return of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation from their Tunisian
exile. Although the negotiations failed to fulfil their potential, it is
notable that prior to the first Intifada, it was doubtful whether there
would ever be a Palestinian state. After the Oslo accords, an
independent Palestine of some sort, at some time in the future seemed
relatively certain.
Ultimately, Israel was successful in containing the Intifada. As the
Palestinians' force was inferior in relation to the well equipped and
trained Israel Defense Forces, and were generally unarmed. However, the
Intifada pinpointed numerous problems with the IDF's conduct in the
operative and tactical fields, as well as the general problem of
Israel's prolonged control of the Palestinian territories. These
problems were noticed and widely criticized, both in international
forums (in particular, when humanitarian questions were at stake), but
also in Israeli public opinion, in which the Intifada had caused a
split.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Intifada
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