Chapter Seven - Intifada

CHAPTER SEVEN

Intifada

By the late 1980s, the occupation wasn’t a temporary situation. It was a daily reality.

Checkpoints. ID cards. Military raids. Curfews. Settlers protected by soldiers, while Palestinians lived under law without representation.

And then, on December 8, 1987, in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, an Israeli army vehicle crashed into a group of Palestinians, killing four.

It was likely an accident. But something snapped.

The next day, protests began. Then riots. Then full-blown rebellion.

They called it the Intifada — “the shaking off.” A grassroots, uncoordinated, uncontrollable uprising. And for the first time, the world saw it all.

The First Intifada wasn’t led by politicians or generals. It was led by teenagers, mothers, and shopkeepers. It spread from Gaza to the West Bank like fire.

Palestinians took to the streets with rocks, slingshots, and homemade Molotov cocktails. Israeli soldiers responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and often — live ammunition.

This wasn’t a conventional war. It was occupation vs. outrage. And the media made sure everyone saw it.

Images of children throwing stones at tanks became iconic. So did images of soldiers beating protestors with clubs.

Israel argued it was responding to violence. Palestinians said this was their only voice.

Both were right. And both were bleeding.

During the chaos, a new force rose in Gaza: Hamas.

Unlike the secular PLO, Hamas was Islamist, born from the Muslim Brotherhood. They rejected the two-state idea, opposed Israel’s existence entirely, and quickly built support through schools, mosques, and social services — as well as violent resistance.

Their charter called for jihad to liberate all of Palestine.

To Israel, Hamas was terrorism incarnate. To many Palestinians, Hamas was finally doing something.

The seeds of a future split were planted:

PLO: secular, diplomatic, rooted in exile

Hamas: religious, militant, born in Gaza’s streets

That split would soon tear the Palestinian movement in two.

The pressure of the Intifada — and international scrutiny — finally pushed both sides to the table.

In 1993, after secret negotiations in Norway, the world witnessed something unthinkable: Yasser Arafat (The PLO leader), Yitzhak Rabin (The Israeli Prime Minister), And Bill Clinton, arms outstretched between them.

The Oslo Accords were signed.

Israel would recognize the PLO

The PLO would recognize Israel

Palestinians would gain partial self-rule through a new body: the

Palestinian Authority (PA)

And final status (borders, refugees, Jerusalem) would be negotiated

later

There were handshakes. Hopes. Headlines. Nobel Peace Prizes.

And then… the peace began to rot.

Extremists on both sides hated Oslo.

In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist who opposed the deal.

Hamas launched suicide bombings to derail the process.

Israeli settlement construction never really stopped.

Negotiations stalled. Delays piled up. Trust evaporated.

By the end of the 1990s, the Palestinian people had partial rule over fragmented land, no state, and no real progress.

The peace process became a punchline. And the next explosion was already building.

The First Intifada had shown the world the human cost of occupation. But it hadn’t ended the occupation. It had simply replaced silence with noise.

And noise, left unresolved, becomes rage.