Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseBy 1987 Israel had held the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for twenty years, since the Six-Day War of 1967. More than a million Palestinians lived there under Israeli military rule. They had no vote in the government that ruled them. Soldiers could set curfews, close schools and arrest people. Israeli settlements kept spreading on land in the West Bank and Gaza. Many Palestinians worked in Israel for low pay, and the crowded refugee camps in Gaza offered little work and few chances.
A new generation had grown up knowing nothing else. They also felt forgotten. The PLO had been forced out of Lebanon in 1982 and now ran its affairs from Tunis, far away. An Arab summit in Amman in November 1987 spent most of its time on the Iran-Iraq war, not on the Palestinians. Many young Palestinians decided that no one else would act for them.
Key terms:
On 8 December 1987 an Israeli army truck crashed into vehicles carrying Palestinian workers at a checkpoint in Gaza. Four Palestinians died. Many people believed it was deliberate. Anger boiled over at the funerals in Jabalia refugee camp, and protests spread across Gaza and the West Bank within days.
The uprising was not planned by the PLO in Tunis. It began on the streets, and local committees organised it. A secret group, the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising, linked to the PLO, soon issued leaflets telling people when to strike.
Young people threw stones, built barricades and burned tyres. Shopkeepers closed their shops on strike days. Palestinians boycotted Israeli goods and some refused to pay taxes. Some also used petrol bombs. Most of this was done by ordinary people, not an army.
Yitzhak Rabin, the defence minister, sent in more soldiers. They used tear gas, rubber bullets and sometimes live fire. They also set curfews, closed schools and universities, arrested thousands and deported some activists. Soldiers sometimes beat protesters with batons.
The cost was heavy on both sides. Over the next six years more than 1,000 Palestinians and over 100 Israelis died. Palestinians also killed other Palestinians whom they accused of working for Israel.
Television showed soldiers facing teenagers with stones. Many people abroad saw the Palestinians as the weaker side and criticised Israel. In December 1987 the UN Security Council criticised Israel's methods, with the USA abstaining. Some Israelis also began to say the occupation was costly and could not go on unchanged.
The PLO had been weakened by exile, but the uprising showed that Palestinians still wanted their own state. In July 1988 King Hussein of Jordan gave up Jordan's claim to the West Bank, which left the PLO as the Palestinians' voice. In November 1988 the PLO declared an independent state of Palestine and accepted UN Resolutions 242 and 338. In December Arafat said the PLO recognised Israel's right to exist and rejected terrorism. The USA then agreed to talk to the PLO for the first time.
Hamas began in Gaza in December 1987 under Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. It grew out of a religious movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. It joined the uprising and issued its own leaflets and strike days. Its charter of 1988 refused to accept Israel's existence. Hamas became a rival to the PLO, which was now ready to negotiate.
The motives of Hamas are explained in the lesson on Rabin's assassination, Netanyahu, Hamas and Hezbollah. The talks that followed are the subject of The Oslo Peace Accords, 1993.
What changed: before 1987 the Palestinian cause was fought mostly by guerrillas outside Israel, such as the PLO in Jordan and Lebanon, and by the Arab states. After 1987 it was a rising by ordinary people inside the occupied land, and the world saw it on television.
What stayed the same: the occupation continued, and so did the disputed land that had caused the conflict since 1917. The Intifada also left the Palestinians divided between the PLO and Hamas.
Explain TWO ways in which the first Intifada (from 1987) was similar to the Arab Revolt of 1936-39. [6 marks]
Remember: the Arab Revolt began in April 1936, when Palestinian Arabs began a general strike of about six months against British rule and Jewish immigration, and it lasted until 1939.
One way is that both used strikes. In 1936 the Arab Higher Committee called a general strike that lasted about six months and closed Arab shops and businesses. In the Intifada, too, shops were closed on strike days set out in leaflets, and Palestinians boycotted Israeli goods. In both cases the Palestinians used the shutting down of daily life to put pressure on the ruling power.
A second way is that the ruling power answered harshly. In the Arab Revolt the British used extra troops, mass arrests and collective punishments. In the Intifada Israel used curfews, arrests, deportations and live fire, and more than 1,000 Palestinians died. Both rebellions were met with force, but neither force ended the Palestinians' demands.
This is a top answer because each way compares both events and uses specific facts about each.
In a "similar" question, name the point for one event, then say what the other event did on the same point, using a fact for each.