New actors, New visions, New action

1
New actors, New visions, New action

• Israel, the rise of a Palestinian
• counter-state, and the 1st Intifada, 1967-1991

2
What happened in 1967 that changed the nature of
the conflict?How and why did the Arab-Israeli
conflict become a Palestinian-Israeli conflict?
3
Arab-Israeli Conflict (1940s-1960s)

• Palestinians politically divided
• West Bank Palestinians under Jordanian rule
• Jordan grants Pals Jordanian citizenship,
  annexes territory (1950)
  
• Incorporation of Pal. notables into Jordanian
  govt.
  
• Gaza Pals under Egyptian rule
• No citizenship, refugee status
• Refugees in Lebanon, elsewhere
• Arab-Israeli wars
• 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 invasion of Lebanon
• Intent secure borders, eradicate Arab military
  threat, expand boundaries, destroy PLO bases
  (after 56)
  
• Arab-Israeli peace settlements
• Camp David (Egypt) 1978/1979
• Jordan (1994)

The Suez Canal, object of British, French, and
Israeli invasion in 1956.
4
Israel state consolidation wars, peace, and
uncertainty

• Arab-Israeli wars
• 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 invasion of Lebanon
• Intent secure borders, eradicate Arab military
  threat, expand boundaries, destroy PLO bases
  (after 56)
  
• Arab-Israeli peace settlements
• Camp David (Egypt) 1978
• Jordan (1994)
• Internal Israeli disagreements over the future

Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, moments
before he was assassinated in 1981. Sadat led
Egypt against Israel in the 1974 October/Yom
Kippur War and signed a peace treaty at Camp
David with Israel in 1978.
5
Changing Hands Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

• New resistance organizations
• Fatah, 1959
• Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), 1964
• Umbrella org - factionalized
• Fatah dominant after 69
• New ethos
• Palestinians in charge (not Arab states)
• Liberation of Palestine prioritized (not Arab
  unity)
  
• Evolving plans for Palestine/Israel
• Revolutionary struggle
• attacks on infrastructure and civilians (raids
  on Israel from Jordan, Lebanon)
  
• PFLP vs Fatah
• Diplomatic (1974 UN recognition)

Fatah leader Yasir Arafat, elected chairman of
the PLO In 1969.
6
Palestinian counter-state, cont.

• New images and identities from refugees to
  resistance
  
• Spread of Palestinian resistance to to all
  classes, genders
  
• New politics- PLO as quasi-governmental org.
• Jordan, Lebanon
• Arab state sponsorship/tension

Poster announcing the annual conference of the
General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) that
took place in Algeria in 1971. The text on the
left reads Despite the scourge of violent
repression and terror, Palestinian students
advance the revolution and are the strong voice
of the Palestinian people everywhere.
Poster and information http//liberationgraphics.
com/ppp/Introduction.html
7
New boundaries Six-Day War

• Causes
• Syrian-Israeli tensions Fatah attacks shelling
  of Israel
  
• Arab propaganda war threats against Israel
• The false Soviet message
• Egypt blocks Straits of Tiran (shipping lane to
  Israel), cutting off Israels supply lines.
  

Destroyed Israeli tank and jeep on the road to
Old Jerusalem. PhotoIsraeli Press Office Photo
Archives.
8
(No Transcript)
9
Six-Day War What happened

• 5 June 1967 Israeli pre-emptive strike - Egyptian
  air force destroyed on ground.
  
• Israel seizes East Jerusalem and West Bank.
• War finished June 10 Israel takes Golan Heights
  from Syria, West Bank East Jerusalem from
  Jordan, Gaza Strip and Sinai from Egypt.
  

Moshe Dayan, Israeli Defense Minister in 1967
10
Six-Day War Results

• 1 million new Palestinians under Israeli military
  rule (No citizenship)
  
• New borders and new sense of Israeli security
• Israelis announce they wont withdraw unless they
  receive full peace agreements negotiated directly
  with Arab states
  
• Nasser resigns, brought back into office by
  popular support.
  
• General expectation that Israel will return the
  territories
  
• 1981 Israel annexes Jerusalem and most of Golan
  Heights (most of orig. inhabitants fled)
  

11
67 War Other effects

• New opportunities for Fatah leadership
• Quieted Pan-Arabism
• Reunited many Palestinians under common Israeli
  occupation
  

Palestinians skirt a burned-out truck in
Jerusalem. Photo unattributed.
12
Israeli policies towards the territories General

• Physical but not social integration
• Suppression of Palestinian nationalism
• Citizenship NOT extended to Palestinians in
  Occupied Territories
  
• Attempts to control as much land as possible
• economic integration of West Bank and Gaza with
  Israel proper

13
Israeli Policies Towards Palestinians Two Main
Phases

• Carrot and Stick Phase (1967-1977)
• Military rule of the territories
• Late 1960s and early 70s, relatively liberal
• Expansion of universities, permission to engage
  in limited political activities
  
• large degree of self government to
  municipalities
  
• Open bridge policy between Jordan and West Bank
  (initially)
  
• harsh repression for any demonstration of
  resistance
  
• Deportations, especially of leaders of
  Palestinian nationalism
  
• Economic integration with Israel

A memorial at Bir Zeit University in the West
Bank, which expanded in the 1970s and became a
center of Palestinian nationalism.
Photo Randa Shaath
14
Iron Fist Phase (1977 onward)

• administrative detention
• Pals could be held for 6 months without trial
  (62 such cases in 1980-85 131 in last five
  months of 1985) torture
  
• dismissal of Palestinian mayors interrogation,
  deportation
  
• freezing of Palestinian building permits, new
  limitations on freedom of expression, editors
  arrested, etc
  
• Settlements, government land seizures, Israeli
  military control
  
• most intense period of settlement 77-85 119
  new Israeli settlements
  
• By 1985 Israeli authorities have control over 52
  of the West Banks land and at least 40 of the
  Gaza Strip.
  

15
First Palestinian Intifada (uprising)

• Why did it occur in 1987 (and not before?)
• Who participated, how, and what effects did it
  have?

16
1st Intifada, 1987-1991 Who What

• Leadership
• Unified National Leadership
• PLO, Hamas (after 1988)
• Primary Goals
• Israeli withdrawal from the territories
• Creation of Palestinian state
• Who was involved?
• Grassroots, ordinary people, working and middle
  classes, women and men, children, youths, adults
  

Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian activist and a local
leader of the 1st intifada
17
1st Intifada how

• Strategies
• Humanize Palestinian suffering
• Reduce Palestinian dependence on Israel
• Make territories ungovernable
• Tactics
• Violent
• Rock throwing, knifings, attacks on busses,
  collaborators
  
• Nonviolent
• Severing economic ties with Israel, civil
  disobedience, boycotts strikes, building
  solidarity

18
Israeli responses in the Territories

• Intifada as terrorism
• Collective punishment, curfews
• Raids on homes and gardens
• Closure of schools universities
• Deportations-
• 69 Intifada leaders exiled, 1987-1991
• December 1992 415 deportations
• Arrests
• By 12/1989, 35,000-40,000 Palestinians arrested
  75,000 arrested by 12/1990

Source BTSELEM, Kimmerling Migdal (2003)
19
Responses Casualties

• 1987-1989 626 Pals 43 Israelis killed.
• 37,439 Pals wounded
• Total casualties in the Occupied Territories and
  Israel from December 9, 1987 to September 30,
  2000
  
• Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces -
  1,407
  
• Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli civilians
  - 140
  
• Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian civilians
  - 270
  
• Members of the Israeli forces killed by
  Palestinian civilians - 135
  
• 33 Pal. deaths below the age of 18 (usually
  14-18)
  
• Hundreds of Palestinians killed by other
  Palestinians as collaborators
  
• Assassinations of PLO officials associated with
  the Intifada
  
• 1988 Abu Jihad, news editor and high-level PLO
  official
  

Hamas members show a journalist a hatchet they
claim they used to attack Palestinian informants.
Photo by Judah Passow available at http//www.m
snbc.com/modules/intifada/launch.asp?bhi
Source BTSELEM
20
Why did the first Intifada end? (circa 1991)

• Exhaustion suppression
• Palestinian economic problems
• PLO centralization Israeli eradication of
  leadership
  
• 1990-91 Gulf War
• 1991 Madrid conference/negotiations

21
1st Intifada Effects

• Challenged Israeli belief in sustainability of
  occupation.
  
• New recognition of Palestinians in Israel and
  idea that partition was necessary.
  
• New more pragmatic Palestinian goals
• Local leadership pushed PLO towards a two-state
  solution and acceptance of Israel.
  
• New Palestinian self-image, and self-sufficiency
• Helped bring new rounds of negotiations

22
What factors undermined the efficacy of the first
Intifada?

• Difficult to sustain
• Israeli use of increased repression and
  encirclement of refugee camps.
  
• Isolation of communities
• Palestinian economic problems 30-40
  unemployment.
  
• Families lost as much as three-quarters of their
  income
  
• Loss of Palestinian leadership
• Use of violence
• Palestinian internal divisions
• Palestinian lack of leverage
• Palestinian lack of influential external allies