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- Reporter Ghada Nassef
- Correspondent, BBC World Service
-
5 hours ago
A large number of people were arrested during protests against the war in Gaza at several prominent universities in the United States.
However, the word ‘Intifada’, which means ‘rebellion’ in Arabic, often appears in social media posts related to these protests. This word often refers to a period of fierce resistance by Palestinians against Israel.
A number of posts are currently asking if this war in Gaza will lead to a new intifada. Some call for an ‘intellectual intifada’, while others call for the ‘globalisation of the intifada’.
College students in the United States are refusing to participate in classes and even setting up tents outdoors to protest Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Right now, hundreds of people have been arrested while protesting on college campuses across the United States.
Photo caption: A protester’s tent set up on the lawn of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
There were protests at Columbia University, New York University, the University of California (Berkeley), and the University of Michigan, as well as Emerson College and Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). .
First of all, many students were suspended at Columbia University, and there are growing calls to cancel these disciplinary measures.
Meanwhile, some Jewish students expressed concern that the atmosphere on campus was threatening.
However, student protesters note that direct harassment of Jewish students is rare and that their voices are greatly exaggerated.
Civil rights activists are also urging the university to “get away from genocide” and stop accepting large donations from companies and other industries that support arms manufacturing and Israel’s war in Gaza.
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Image caption University of Michigan college students protest by setting up outdoor tents in protest against Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.
What is ‘Intifada’?
‘Intifada’ is an Arabic term meaning ‘rebellion’, and refers to a period of intense Palestinian resistance against Israel.
The First Intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the Second Intifada lasted from 2000 to 2005.
And since October 7 last year, when the war in Gaza started, the term ‘globalization of the intifada’ has also appeared on social media. The idea is to ask people all over the world to join the rebellion against Israel.
In addition, terms such as ‘Electronic Intifada’ and ‘Intellectual Intifada’ and slogans calling for ‘boycott, refusal of investment, and trade sanctions’ appeared against Israel.
So what did the early intifada look like in Palestine?
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Photo caption: An activist holds a banner with the phrase ‘Intifada until victory’ in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
First Intifada: December 1987 – September 1993
The first Palestinian intifada was triggered on December 8, 1987, when a truck carrying Israeli tanks collided with a vehicle carrying Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip.
As a result, four Palestinian residents lost their lives.
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Photo caption: Palestinian fighters with their faces covered patrol a village in the West Bank, June 1989.
The discontent of Palestinian residents under Israeli occupation had been growing for the past 20 years.
At that time, illegal Israeli settlements were spreading in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinian residents were economically poor. In addition, there were frequent clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian residents.
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Photo caption: On December 21, 1987, declared ‘Peace Day’, Palestinian protesters in Israeli-occupied territory throw stones at Israeli riot police in the Hizma area in support of Palestine.
As a result of this incident, an uprising broke out in the ‘Jabaliya Refugee Camp’ in the Gaza Strip, which quickly spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian youth confronted Israeli soldiers with stones and gasoline bombs. The Israeli army fired live ammunition at the time, drawing criticism from international organizations such as the United Nations.
Although there were differences in intensity by period, the violent conflict between the two sides continued until 1993.
At the time, this uprising surprised many people, including Israel and Israel’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat, who was in exile in Tunisia at the time.
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Photo caption: Israeli riot police fire tear gas at Palestinian protesters on the streets of Jerusalem after Jumu’ah prayers (prayer observed by Muslims every Friday) on January 22, 1988.
One of the main results of the First Intifada was that it focused global attention on the hardships suffered by Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, and especially on the harshness with which the Israeli army responded to stop the uprising.
Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s comment on “breaking the bones” of the protesters also became famous.
Minister Rabin was concerned that firing live bullets at Palestinians who do not have guns could gain the sympathy of the international community and damage Israel’s international image.
As the Intifada progressed, Palestinian weapons evolved from stones to Molotov cocktails, rifles, grenades and explosives.
Official sources and experts believe that the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians during the First Intifada was around 100, while the Israeli army killed at least 1,000 Palestinians.
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Photo caption US President Bill Clinton applauds while PLO leader Yasser Arafat (right) shakes hands with then Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (left) at the signing of the Oslo Accords.
The First Intifada ended on September 13, 1993, when Israel and the PLO signed the ‘Oslo Accords’, which established the framework for peace talks.
Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of Palestine, and the PLO announced that it would cease armed struggle.
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Photo caption: During an anti-Israel protest held in Ain al-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Sidon, a port city in southern Lebanon, in October 2000, a Palestinian militant threw TNT explosives at the back of a colleague as a sign of preparation on for a suicide bombing They perform a performance of tying boxes with the words ‘.
Second Intifada: September 2000 – February 2005
The Second Intifada is also known as the ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’.
The ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque (Islamic House of Worship)’ in Jerusalem is the third holiest place for Muslims.
Palestinian leaders called it the ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’ after the mosque, emphasizing that it was an uprising led by the people, contrary to Israel’s claims that it was an act of violence organized by the Palestinian Authority.
In 2000, this temple became the trigger for violence that would continue for the next five years.
On September 28, 2000, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who would later become Prime Minister, visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy security by Israeli soldiers and police.
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Photo caption: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon leaves the Al-Aqsa Mosque escorted by his bodyguards, September 2000.
However, protests broke out and seven people died and over 100 were injured on the first day alone.
The protest, which began with hundreds of Palestinian protesters throwing shoes and stones at Sharon’s bodyguards, soon spread throughout Palestine.
And the scene where Mohammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Palestine, hid by hanging on his father’s arm in the Gaza Strip and ended up being shot dead, has been discussed for a while as an image representing the Second. Intifada.
However, Israel says its investigation has found the French TV station’s report that Israeli soldiers shot Mohammed dead to be unfounded.
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Photo caption: A scene from France 2 TV coverage of the conflict between Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000. Jamal al-Dura and his son Mohammed are seen hiding in a corner during the fighting between Israel and Palestine. Mohammed, who was 12 years old at the time, was shot dead shortly after the scene was seized.
The biggest difference between the intifadas of the 1980s and the 2000s is the conflict and scale of violence.
The Second Intifada developed much more violently than the previous Intifada.
According to the United Nations, more than 5,800 people were killed between September 2000, when the Second Intifada began, and the end of 2007, almost two years after it ended.
Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of people who died during the intifada, most experts believe that the number of Palestinian deaths is much higher than the Israelis.
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Photo caption: An Israeli bus blown up in a suicide bombing in Palestine in June 2003 awaits decommissioning.
At the time, Palestinians fired rockets and suicide bombings at buildings and buses.
At this time, there was international criticism of Israel’s response, but Israel insisted that it was only a response to an organized armed attack.
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