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The 1st Intifada: When Non-Violent Protests Turned Violent | History of Israel Explained | Unpacked

Name: The 1st Intifada: When Non-Violent Protests Turned Violent | History of Israel Explained | Unpacked
Uploaded: 2019-05-30T16:00:02+00:00
Duration: 11 min 24 s
Channel: Unpacked
Description: Anders als die konventionellen Kriege Israels mit arabischen Staaten waren die Intifadas palästinensische Volksaufstände. „Intifada“ bedeutet auf Arabisch …

Unpacked11:24 116.748 Aufrufe veröffentlicht 30. Mai 2019 Auf YouTube

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- If you heard the term intifada and immediately thought of intense bloodshed,
suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, you're probably picturing the Second Intifada,
which began in the year 2000 in which over 1,100 Israelis were murdered,
the majority of whom were civilians. But, as you may have guessed,
if there was a Second Intifada, that means there was also a First Intifada.
Well, the First Intifada, which lasted from 1987 to 1993,
saw a lower level of violence but was still a watershed moment
in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What was the First Intifada?
And how is it different from all other Middle East conflicts,
both before and after? (upbeat music)
By the late 1980s, Israel had fought and won several major wars
with the Arab nations surrounding it and made peace with one of those former enemies, Egypt.
But those wars, as difficult as they were, were proved to be far more conventional
than the popular Palestinian revolts known as the Intifadas. Intifada comes from Arabic word meaning shaking off.
It was originally intended by many to mean non-violent resistance to Israeli control
over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but that's not exactly how it turned out.
So, what was going on in Palestinian society in the years leading up to the First Intifada?
While the PLO, or the Palestine Liberation Organization, was conducting major terror operations
across Israel's borders, Arabs living under Israeli rule in Gaza and the West Bank
became restless and increasingly militant. But why was this change happening?
Well, some argue that Israel's increased building of settlements,
which are communities in the West Bank and Gaza, played a major role.
But in his book Building a Palestinian State, Professor Glenn Robinson,
a researcher at UC Berkeley, argues that Israel's policy
of promoting higher education in the West Bank also contributed to the conflict.
Ironically, by bringing many poorer Palestinians into the educational system,
people who held more radical and militant views were now given a space in university campuses
to promote their ideologies. Also, although the standard of living
in the West Bank and Gaza had increased significantly under Israeli control,
high levels of unemployment still caused great frustration. Many Palestinians also saw the emergence
of leftist political groups in Israel as an opportunity to change Israeli policy
through demonstrations and achieve an Israeli withdrawal
from the territories conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War. But there was another unifying factor to throw into the mix.
Arab nationalism. Now, this movement had previously been secular.
The PLO charter made no reference to religion and the dominant factions under the umbrella of the PLO
were explicitly secular. But another kind of nationalism based on Islamic religion
had always been present in competition with the secular version.
Fundamentalist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, out of which Hamas emerged during the First Intifada,
merged religion and the national struggle into an ideology that would energize the masses into action.
Hamas in particular espouse antisemitism in its charter, endorsing the notorious forgery,
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to demonize Jews and Judaism.
As Israel entered 1987, the violence and riots increased.
It was the 20th anniversary of Israel's conquest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War.
Islamic Jihad assassinated an Israeli military police officer
and the Israeli Security Agency, in turn, killed the six jihadists involved.
A few months later, a terrorist succeeded in penetrating an IDF base
flying on a glider and killed six soldiers.
Morale among Palestinians rose, as did their readiness to stand up to army soldiers.
Then, on December 8th, 1987, a tragic event occurred that many point to
as the spark that finally ignited the Intifada. An Israeli truck driver crashed into a row of cars
containing Palestinian workers at a check-point in Gaza.
Four of the workers were killed in the collision and seven were seriously injured.
Hundreds of other Palestinians returning from work in Israel witnessed the accident.
The next day, an estimated 10,000 attended the victims' funerals.
Rumors spread alleging that the crash was intentional, an act of revenge for the stabbing death
of an Israeli in Gaza two days earlier. That day, demonstrations quickly erupted
at the Jabalia refugee camp and protests spread into the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Young people took to the streets, sealing off access to the refugee camps
with burning tires and by throwing stones. Store owners closed their shops
and Palestinians who worked in Israel stayed home on a strike.
Never before had the Arab-Israeli conflict seen this level of demonstrations.
Tens of thousands of civilians took part, including women and children.
The Intifada was now in full force, taking on a life of its own.
So, where was the PLO in all of this? Well, they were actually caught off-guard
by the popular revolt. A new group of local Palestinian activists
emerged from the community to guide the protestors, challenging the PLO's claim to represent the people.
An organization called the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising
was formed to coordinate activities and to ride social services and make-shift schools
when the official school year was suspended. Early on,
civil disobedience was the main strategy of the movement. Palestinians working in Israel went on strike.
Almost 60,000 Palestinians worked in Israel, so mass strikes effectively shut down
Israel's construction industry and impacted agriculture as well.
Palestinian businessmen refused to pay taxes to Israel and consumers boycotted all Israeli goods.
The Intifada also cost a 50% reduction in the number of visitors to Israel.
All of these factors damaged the economy severely. Although Palestinian groups had, in theory,
agreed to refrain from violence, this didn't prevent widespread rock throwing
and the use of Molotov cocktails, or petrol bombs, against Israeli soldiers and civilians alike.
Palestinians had no army so they had to use unconventional weapons,
but they were weapons. Israelis remember it as a time
when it seemed you couldn't drive on the road without being struck by rocks.
Scenes of chaos like these created a sense of panic in Israeli society.
Very soon, discipline among the protestors was breaking down and the old guard, the PLO, co-opted the movement.
After this point, the Intifada could no longer be called non-violent.
One of the PLO's main roles was instructing people about what level of violence should be used,
when it should be escalated, and against whom.
Guns, grenades, explosives. Some 700 attacks in all
were perpetrated against Israeli targets during the first four years of the Intifada.
So, how did the Israeli government respond to all of this? What tactics could a country like Israel use
to combat these threats? What would a victory even look like
under these circumstances? These were some of the dilemmas faced by Israeli soldiers
during the First Intifada. See, the Israelis were just as surprised by the uprising
as the PLO was. This was a situation the IDF had no training for
and they were conflicted over how to respond. They were used to fighting other soldiers,
not civilians in densely populated areas throwing rocks and petrol bombs.
But Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin ordered the IDF to act forcefully
in putting down the riots. Palestinians and those sympathetic to their cause
dubbed Rabin as the bone breaker. To try to quiet the riots,
soldiers fired tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, and sometimes even live ammunition
when threatened with violence. But without success.
There were also beatings, mass arrests, and curfews imposed.
And the decision to shut down schools and universities did not have the intended effect of slowing the protests.
It just led young people to protest even more. The media coverage proved highly damaging
to Israeli public appeal. TV screens across the globe were filled with images
of young protestors facing off with heavily armed Israeli police.
The demonstrators knew to alert journalists and photographers
to scenes of protests. To many, it seemed as if the tiny Jewish nation
had become a giant oppressor of the Palestinian people, who were just no match for the IDF.
But the Intifada came at a great cost to the Palestinians as well.
By the end of the Intifada, some 1,100 Palestinians would be killed
in clashes with the Israeli forces working to stop the uprising.
Remarkably, almost as many Palestinians would be killed at the hands of other Palestinians
accused of collaborating with Israel. In fact, thousands of Palestinians
had been working with Israeli authorities, giving valuable information on terror activities.
But, when threats by the PLO didn't stop their cooperation with Israel,
special death squads executed those suspected of collaborating.
Two years into the conflict, 1/3 of the 2,700 attacks carried out by Palestinians
were directed at fellow Arabs. Aside from the human toll,
the Palestinian economy and society just couldn't bear the prolonged work stoppages and boycotts.
The Intifada was losing steam. The First Intifada brought major changes
to the political landscape. Before the Intifada and in its early days,
the PLO was at a low point. They had just been expelled from Jordan in the early 70s
and had been forced to flee Lebanon in the early 80s. Worst of all,
they couldn't show that years of terrorism had produced any positive results.
But once the PLO took control over the Intifada, its image was greatly enhanced.
Now, media coverage depicted Palestinians as victims, not terrorists,
and garnered international sympathy for their cause. This, in turn, allowed Yasser Arafat
to present a more moderate-looking political program. In November 1989,
Arafat decided to go against decades of PLO policy of seeking Israel's destruction
and instead recognized Israel and adopted the principle of a two-state solution.
Israeli leadership doubted Arafat's sincerity seeing as the PLO continued to engage in violence.
Eventually, though, in May 1989, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin produced a peace initiative that, for the first time,
referred to the Palestinians as its partner in negotiations. The initiative stalled though
as Palestinian violence continued. But in September 1993,
with the signing of the Oslo Accords, the First Intifada finally came to an end,
opening the path to peace negotiations. The PLO itself committed to reject violence and terrorism,
a pledge it did not end up honoring in the coming years, particularly during the Second Intifada of 2000 to 2005.
During the Second Intifada, over a 1,000 Israelis were killed,
78% of whom were civilians. In the end, the Israeli government had no good answer
to the challenge posed by the popular uprising in the First Intifada.
But if the idea and some methods proved ineffective for stopping the violence,
the media coverage was a disaster. Israel's public image took a huge hit.
Before 1967, Israel was seen by the world
as David fighting the giant Goliath in the form of the Arab nations who raid against it.
The 1967 Six-Day War may have altered the view of Israel as an underdog,
but the tiny country still maintained its reputation of fighting fairly
to defend itself in wars it didn't choose. Both before and after its wars,
Israel had made several attempts at peace agreements, including territorial compromise.
The First Intifada, though, challenged that image. Now, the lightly armed Palestinian public
would garner sympathy from the nations of the world, despite terrorist groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
who still carried out attacks. Israel was now being viewed as an occupier
by a broader audience. Many Israelis were also disturbed
by the optics of the situation. Soldiers fighting terrorists and enemy armies
to protect the state had always been a source of pride.
But soldiers fighting teenagers, even violent ones, was a jarring and uncomfortable concept for many.
Politicians and citizens from across the political spectrum now began to debate the morality and ethics
of policing a large hostile civilian population. Today, people remember the Intifada in different ways.
For some, it was a time when the Palestinian people rallied together
to try to remove the Israeli presence from the West Bank and Gaza.
For others, it was a time when the Palestinian people,
galvanized by its leaders, engaged in violent and deadly riots,
forcing Israeli military to respond in kind and protect its citizens.
In some ways, both are true. Thanks for watching.
See you guys next week. (upbeat music)

Zum Nachlesen

Erste IntifadaTeil von: Israelisch-Palästinensischer Konflikt / Nahostkonflikt ; Teil von: Israelisch-Palästinensischer Konflikt / Nahostkonflikt · Dezember 1987 bis 1993. IntifadaAbgeleitet davon wurde Intifada ein arabischer Begriff für einen Aufstand oder eine Rebellion. Außerhalb der arabischsprachigen Welt erlangte der Begriff vor … Zweite IntifadaDie Zweite Intifada, auch bekannt als „Al-Aksa-Intifada“ bzw. „Al-Aqsa-Intifada“, war ein gewaltsamer Konflikt zwischen Palästinensern und Israelis, … Chronologie des israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikts1 Anfänge (1878–1920) · 2 Mandatszeit (1920–1948) · 3 Staatsgründung Israels (1948–1966) · 4 Kriege (1967–1986) · 5 Intifadas (1987–2005) · 6 Trennungsplan und …