The Jerusalem Fund

Excerpted from Historical Dictionary of Palestine (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996), by Laila A. Nazzal and Nafez Y. Nazzal, pp. 105-106.

“The popular uprising or ‘shaking off’ in the Occupied Territories began in December 1987. During the Israeli occupation, the Palestinians experienced every conceivable violation of human rights. They had seen their land confiscated and Israeli settlements built on it; their sons and relatives killed, imprisoned, or deported; their homes demolished; and collective punishments, such as the closures of schools and curfews imposed on entire communities. The Palestinians, frustrated and unhappy under an occupation that deprived them of their rights and subjected them to continuous harassment and humiliation, took matters into their own hands and rebelled.

The intifada was directly preceded by a series of events that are said to have kindled the uprising. On Sunday, December 6, 1987, an Israeli plastics salesman, Shlomo Sakal, was stabbed to death in Gaza. On December 8, 1987, four Arabs were killed and others wounded when an Israeli ran into two vans that were taking Arab workers home to Gaza. Residents of the Jabalya Refugee Camp, where the workers resided, suspected that the killings were intentional. They demonstrated and burned tires. On December 9, 1987, there were more demonstrations, and three youths were killed by Israeli soldiers. The uprising soon spread to all the Occupied Territories. Demonstrations, strikes, a boycott of Israeli goods, and general unrest lasted from 1987 to 1993. The Israelis responded with harsher measures: travel restrictions were imposed, limitations were placed on the money that could be brought into the Occupied Territories, schools and universities were closed, there were mass arrests, and the shooting on sight of anyone who was suspect.

The intifada was directed by an underground leadership, the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising, which issued leaflets that provided information and direction to the people. Contact also was maintained with the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] in Tunis. The objectives of the intifada were to end the Israeli occupation and establish Palestinian independence. However, the toll was heavy; 40,000 Palestinians arrested; more than a thousand dead; the economy in shambles, as workers observed strike days and were confined to their homes during curfews; and unemployment which reached between 30 percent to 50 percent in the Occupied Territories. There was a decline in gross national product and in per capita income. Remittances no longer flowed in. Kuwait and the other Gulf countries no longer funneled assistance to the PLO or to the Occupied Territories, particularly after the Gulf War. Moreover, exports and subcontracting stopped. The local Palestinian leadership began to exert pressure on the PLO to engage in peace talks with Israel, to advocate a two-state solution, and to renounce terrorism.

… Altogether, the intifada reaffirmed Palestinians in the pursuit of their nationalism, and led to fundamental changes in all sectors of Palestinian society. Popular committees for economy, health, and social welfare flourished.”

[In 1988, at the height of the intifada, the PLO declared the establishment of an independent Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza and accepted a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The PLO accepted UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (the 1947 UN partition plan), as well as UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. Palestine was recognized by 104 countries in UN General Assembly Resolution 43/177. Shortly afterward, the United States began a discreet dialogue with the PLO, which it had previously declared a terrorist organization.]

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