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Intifada

انتفاضة

Intifada — from an Arabic root meaning 'to shake off' — denotes a popular uprising, and is used above all for the two Palestinian mass uprisings against Israeli occupation: the First Intifada (1987–1993) and the Second Intifada (2000–2005).

The First Intifada erupted on 9 December 1987 in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, after an Israeli military vehicle collided with a civilian car and killed four Palestinian workers, and spread rapidly across the occupied territories. It was a largely grassroots mobilization — strikes, shop closures, tax and consumer boycotts, demonstrations, and stone-throwing — coordinated by clandestine local committees. Over its course, Israeli forces killed more than a thousand Palestinians. The uprising placed the Palestinian question back at the center of international attention and formed part of the background to the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords of 1993.

The Second Intifada broke out at the end of September 2000, after Ariel Sharon’s visit to the compound revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and by Jews as the Temple Mount, and the lethal Israeli response to the protests that followed. It was far more militarized than the first: Palestinian armed attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians were met with large-scale Israeli military operations re-entering Palestinian cities, and thousands of Palestinians and around a thousand Israelis were killed before the uprising subsided around 2005.

The word intifada predates its Palestinian usage — it described unrest in Iraq as early as 1952 — but through the two Palestinian uprisings it entered global vocabulary as shorthand for mass popular revolt.

Sources

Cited works

1
  1. britannica.com — intifada(opens in a new tab)https://www.britannica.com/topic/intifada

Connected in the archive

23 connected records

23 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.

names this record — 18 records

One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.

  • A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two PeoplesLibrary

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: First published in 2004 and updated in a second edition that covers the collapse of the Oslo process and the second intifada, the book has become a standard university text — one of the most widely taught one-volume histories of the conflict.

  • Abu Ali Mustafaأبو علي مصطفىFiguresSecretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine · 1938–2001

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: He returned to Palestine on 30 September 1999 after thirty-two years in exile, saying on arrival: "We have returned, not in order to make deals, but to resist." Elected secretary-general of the PFLP in 2000, he was killed on 27 August 2001 when Israeli helicopters fired missiles into his office in al-Bireh, one of the first assassinations of a faction leader in the Second Intifada.

  • Administrative DetentionGlossary

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Israel has held thousands of Palestinians this way over the years, some for years on end and some under 18; the figure crossed 1,000 several times during the Second Intifada, and human rights organizations say it is also used against non-violent political activity and as a shortcut when evidence is insufficient for trial.

  • ar-RamالرامPlacesJerusalem Governorate, West Bank

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: ARIJ's field survey with the local council found that approximately 20,000 people had left ar-Ram since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 — more than the town's entire recorded population in the 2007 census.

  • Ban on Family UnificationGlossary

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 31 July 2003, at the height of the Second Intifada, the Knesset enacted the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) – 2003.

  • Dheisheh Campمخيّم الدهيشةPlacesBethlehem, West Bank

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: During the first intifada a six-metre barbed-wire fence was raised around it and thirteen of its fourteen entrances were barricaded, leaving a single controlled way in and out.

  • and 12 more

named in this record — 5 records

One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.

  • Oslo AccordsGlossary

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The uprising placed the Palestinian question back at the center of international attention and formed part of the background to the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords of 1993.

  • The First IntifadaTimeline

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The First Intifada erupted on 9 December 1987 in Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, after an Israeli military vehicle collided with a civilian car and killed four Palestinian workers, and spread rapidly across the occupied territories.

  • The Madrid Peace ConferenceTimeline

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The uprising placed the Palestinian question back at the center of international attention and formed part of the background to the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords of 1993.

  • The Oslo AccordsTimeline

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The uprising placed the Palestinian question back at the center of international attention and formed part of the background to the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords of 1993.

  • The Second IntifadaTimeline

    Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The Second Intifada broke out at the end of September 2000, after Ariel Sharon's visit to the compound revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and by Jews as the Temple Mount, and the lethal Israeli response to the protests that followed.

Cite this page

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Chicago
“Intifada.” Glossary, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/glossary/intifada.
MLA
“Intifada.” Glossary, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/glossary/intifada. Accessed 22 August 2026.
BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-intifada, title = {Intifada}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/glossary/intifada}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }