Last year, the Arabic word intifada was incorporated into the English language. The word intifada, which means "uprising," has come to symbolize the Palestinian people's revulsion with and resistance to 22 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Although the nature and timing of the intifada, which erupted on December 9, 1987, took both Palestinians and Israelis by surprise, it was bound to happen. Since 1948, which marked the creation of the state of Israel on almost two-thirds of the land of Palestine, Palestinians have been reduced to a stateless nation. Half of them reside as refugees in neighboring Arab countries and the other half still lives in Palestine but under Israeli control. Over the years, Palestinians tried different approaches to regain all or part of Palestine. All have failed and none has provided as much hope as the intifada.
In 1948, Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries failed to stop the Zionists from establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. Having just emerged from colonialism themselves, most independent Arab countries at the time were militarily weak and unskilled in the art of diplomacy. Despite the Arabs' defeat, the Palestinians, who strongly believed in Arab nationalism, adopted a strategy that relied heavily on the Arab world's participation and assistance in helping to liberate Palestine. Palestinians and other Arabs wanted nothing less than the entire land of Palestine and the elimination of the state of Israel, which they viewed as a foreign entity in the midst of the Arab world.
For the next 20 years, the Arab world talked about liberating Palestine and annihilating the Jewish state. But Arab leaders failed to back up their threats with a corresponding military buildup. Moreover, the Arab countries underestimated the strength, discipline, and skills of the Israeli army. Less than a week after the June 1967 war broke out, the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were summarily defeated by the Israeli army. As a result, Israel occupied the remaining parts of Palestine--the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It also seized the Sinai from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.
The Palestinians were shocked and dismayed but, more importantly, they were awakened. Many felt that it was a mistake to have relied so much on other Arabs. They strongly believed that from that time on, the initiative in liberating any part of Palestine should be Palestinian, albeit unavoidably with Arab assistance.
Prior to 1967, the Palestinians had conducted limited armed raids against Israel, beginning in the early 1950s. In 1957, the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fatah), headed by Yasser Arafat, started to organize and prepare for the fight against Israel. As the idea of armed struggle by Palestinians gained popularity, the League of Arab States, during its first summit meeting in 1964, decided to establish the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a traditional army.
The Palestine Liberation Army, which was made up primarily of infantry units, fought and was defeated in the 1967 war. Like other defeated Arab armies, it lost its credibility. A major turning point in Palestinian history occurred on March 21, 1968, when Palestinian guerrillas fighting alongside the Jordanian army were able to halt and force the Israeli army to withdraw during an attack on
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