Intifada: Civil Uprising
Intifada is an Arabic term meaning civil uprising or resistance movement, often used in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the Palestinian context, Intifada represents efforts to challenge Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupation, apartheid, and injustice. The First Intifada being characterized as nonviolent opposition. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has seen two significant Intifadas,due to injustice, humiliation, and human right abuses by Israeli. "Globalize the Intifada" is a call to promote global activism in support of Palestinians, advocating for peaceful actions like boycotts, sanctions, and political lobbying against occupation and injustice.
FACTSHEET
By Abbi
Intifada is NOT a civil disobedience like linking Palestinians with outlaws and criminality. It is a CIVIL legitimate uprising and revolt against occupation and apartheid.Since the revolt of the thirties, the Palestinian starts a series of grass-roots revolts organized by civilians in order to seek justice and revive the feeling of sense of identity, nationalism, and self-worth.
First Intifada:
. Intifada, an Arabic term that means uprising, or resistance movement. One may employ it to describe a civil uprising against injustice.
. The term intifada made its debut in contemporary times around 1952, as Iraqi groups peacefully demonstrated against their monarchy, dubbed the Iraqi Intifada. Subsequent examples include the Zemla Intifada in Western Sahara, followed by the First and Second Sahrawi Intifadas agaist Spanish occupation. . . In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it involves the Palestinian people rising up against Israeli occupation or Israel through a combination of violent and nonviolent means of resistance, which include the First Intifada (1987–1993) and the Second Intifada (2000–2005).
. In English vocabulary, the term mainly denotes the Palestinian resistance to Israeli control. In Arabic terminology, a wide range of revolts can be labeled as an intifada, encompassing events such as the 1916 Easter Rising, the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the 1949 Jeju uprising.
. Intifada, in its essence, is an Arabic term that directly translates to a tremor, shivering, or shuddering. It originates from an Arabic word “nafada”, which translates to "to shake", "shake off", "get rid of", like shaking off the occupation, or shake off oppression, or humiliation.
. In the Palestinian setting, the term signifies efforts to challenge the Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the First and Second Intifadas. Originally, it represented a form of "assertive nonviolent opposition", a concept embraced by Palestinian students during the 1980s as a less confrontational alternative to the more aggressive rhetoric of the past. . . . The First Intifada involved protests, general strikes, economic boycotts, and riots, which often included the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli army and its infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza.
. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the term Intifada is used to describe significant Palestinian uprisings against Israeli authority. The First Intifada took place from 1987 to 1993, followed by the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005. These periods saw multiple attacks on civilians mainly children throwing stones.
. The expression "Globalize the Intifada" serves as a rallying cry to encourage global activism in support of addressing the injustices faced by Palestinians. The Global Intifada has the potential to manifest in various peaceful ways such as boycotts, diversions, sanctions, political lobbying, and activism against occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
Second Intifada:
. The Second Intifada, also recognized as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a significant uprising conducted by Palestinians against Israel and its occupation. The phase of increased violence against the Palestinian territories and Israel persisted until the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of 2005, which ultimately brought an end to hostilities.
. The underlying causes of the unrest are believed to revolve around the outcome of the 2000 Camp David Summit, where the anticipated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was not achieved in July 2000. Uprising incidents began to increase in September 2000 following a visit by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount. While the visit was initially peaceful, it led to protests and riots as expected, which the Israeli police suppressed using rubber bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas. In the initial days of the uprising, the IDF discharged a total of one million rounds of ammunition.
. In the initial weeks of the uprising, the proportion of Palestinians to Israelis who lost their lives was approximately 20 to 1. Israeli security forces were involved in gunfights, targeted killings, tank attacks, and airstrikes, while Palestinians engaged in gunfights, stone-throwing, and rocket attacks. The total number of casualties, most civilians, indicates that the violence caused the deaths of 3,000 Palestinians.
. The Second Intifada came to a close following the 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh Summit, where Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon reached an agreement to take decisive actions towards reducing tensions. They also reiterated their dedication to the "roadmap for peace" laid out by the Quartet on the Middle East back in 2003. . . . . . . Furthermore, Sharon agreed to release 900 Palestinian prisoners and also announced that Israeli troops would withdraw from the West Bank areas they had retaken while engaging with Palestinian militants during the uprising.
Great March of Return:
. The 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, commonly referred to as the Great March of Return, involved weekly demonstrations near the Gaza-Israel border from 30 March 2018 to 27 December 2019. During this period, 223 Palestinians lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces. . . . . The protestors' central demand was the right for Palestinian refugees to return to the lands from which they were displaced in present-day Israel. They expressed their opposition to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip by land, air, and sea, as well as the United States' decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
. The initial protests were coordinated by activists operating independently. The activists behind the Great March of Return initially envisioned it as a limited event, starting on 30 March 2018 (Land Day) and concluding on 15 May (Nakba Day). However, the demonstrations extended far beyond their planned duration, lasting nearly 18 months until Hamas eventually decided to postpone them on 27 December 2019, citing concerns for civilian safety. On 30 March, the inaugural demonstration saw a turnout of thirty thousand Palestinians. Bigger demonstrations occurred every Friday, each drawing a minimum of 10,000 participants, with lesser numbers attending events throughout the week. The majority of the demonstrators peacefully protested at a distance from the border fence.
. Israel's deployment of lethal force was criticized on June 13, 2018, in a resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly. Criticism was also voiced by various human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and Amnesty International, along with officials from the United Nations.
. In late February 2019, an independent commission of the United Nations Human Rights Council determined that out of the 489 cases of Palestinian deaths or injuries examined, only two could potentially be considered justified as responses to threats by Israeli security forces. The commission found the remaining cases to be illegal. It ended with a recommendation urging Israel to investigate whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had occurred and, if confirmed, to prosecute those accountable.
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