UNIVERSITY OF BALAMAND
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Department of Political Science and International Affairs
PSIA 210: Research and Methodology
The Palestinian Revolution
Submitted by: Saher Ghassan Kammoun
Submitted to: Dr. Sami Ofeish
Submission Date: 24th of November, 2016
(Final Draft)
I, Saher Kammoun, certify that this paper is not plagiarized and all the references used for this
paper are clearly cited, this paper is original and no other person/s other than myself had
participated in writing this paper, and this paper was not, is not, and will not be submitted by me
or other students to other courses and professors.
Signature:
1
Introduction:
The Arab-Israeli conflict has been named by many experts on this subject as the “most
intractable conflict in our world today”1 as the violent clashes between Israel and Palestine do
not seem to be deteriorating or witnessing any sort of solution. The conflict’s roots began with
the objective that Zionists are aiming for a homeland for the Jews and have chosen Palestine as
the ideal destination to establish that state in the famous first Zionist congress that was held in
Switzerland by the Zionist Organization in 1987. The establishment of the Israeli state in 1948
only pushed matters towards more violence as the Israeli and Palestinian sides clashed
frequently. For example, casualties have reached 5,848 people only in the span of 7 years (20002007) from the Palestinian and Israeli side which were the direct or indirect result of the outcome
of the Arab/Israeli conflict.2 Oppression practiced by the Israelis in order to establish the Israeli
control over the lands has pushed an opposing force to its main purposes, which is known as the
Palestinian resistance, which actually started right after the intentions of the Zionists in 1987
were made very clear.
The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is still an unresolved issue that has and is playing a major
role in shaping contemporary politics, particularly Middle Eastern politics. This is what makes
this topic of high significance. I will try in this research paper to connect the Palestinian intifadas
into the wider circle of discussion, the Palestinian revolution. I will also try to distinguish
whether what happened and is still happening in the Arab/Israeli conflict is a revolution or not.
Another major question that can be raised here is the relationship between oppression and
1
Avner Falk, Fratricide in the Holy Land: A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, (Wisconsin: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), 8.
2
United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Israeli-Palestinian Fatalities Since 2000 – Key
Trends. August 2007. https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/CAS_Aug07.pdf, (accessed 20 November 2016).
2
revolution. I conceptualize these two terms as they will be essential variables when it comes to
analyzing if there is a Palestinian revolution or not and understanding oppression in the context
of the Arab/Israeli conflict. First, oppression is the direct or indirect use of unjust force by an
authority in order to limit, contain, and conform the behavior and actions of certain individuals
or groups of people. Oppression includes many characteristics such as violence, exploitation,
unjust treatment, and marginalization. Second, revolution is a process where there is a mass
uprising for an extended period of time seeking fundamental transformation of the society, state,
and government. Revolutions are organized and include the destruction of the existing system or
regime, various acts of violence such as terrorism, and an alternative to the current ideology.
With all that being said, is there a Palestinian revolution, where the 1987 and 2000 intifadas were
part of, or there is no revolution at all but rather what happened in the Arab/Israeli conflict and
is still happening is a series of unrelated, disparate, and unconnected events? (504 words)
Review of Literature:
What is a revolution? What are the causes for the Palestinian intifadas in 1987 and in
2000? Was oppression a major cause for the start of the intifadas? Are the intifadas parts of that
revolution? The research paper will examine the interconnectedness of the historical events of
the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1987 and 2000 intifadas as well as incidents in 2015-2016 in particular,
to show whether there is a Palestinian revolution or not. This section will discuss what other
scholars had written about the topic.
Revolutions are processes and not events. Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy describes
revolution as the social and political change that is adequate to transform the old structures of
3
society and to begin new relations of power and authority. 3 This highlights that the core of a
revolution is actually to change the status quo of a society. Pincus, which uses a neoTocquevillian perspective on revolution, mentions that revolutions are “a rapid, fundamental, and
violent domestic change in the dominant values and myths of a society led by the mass uprising
of the people”.4 However, change does not mean that it must have been done in order to call it a
revolution. It could be in the process of change or at least aiming for it. This applies to the
Palestinian context, in case it was a revolution. The change has not yet occurred; but, the
Palestinian movements and people are aiming for it.
On the other hand, concerning oppression, it has been described to be the force used
against the will of people in order to accomplish certain goals. Blackburn describes oppression as
unjustifiable use of power in order to alter the interests and conditions of people. 5 This
emphasizes that oppression is not in the interest of those oppressed as their particular wills are
dominated by other parties. Saiedi mentions that there are cultural, political, and economic
oppression. In other words, political domination, economic alienation, and social suppression are
major and different forms of oppression.6 Saiedi describes different contexts where oppression
can exist. In the case of Palestine, Israel has practiced oppression in many forms.
Many references have mentioned the causes of the Palestinian mass uprisings (intifadas)
in 1987 and 2000. Social, political, and economic oppression was applied directly and indirectly
3
Simon Blackburn, "revolution," In The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, : Oxford University Press, 2016,
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198735304.001.0001/acref-9780198735304-e-2714.
4
Steven Pincus, “Rethinking Revolutions: A Neo-Tocquevillian Perspective,” Chapter 17 in The Oxford Handbooks
of Political Science, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 398.
5
Simon Blackburn, "oppression," In The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, : Oxford University Press, 2016.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198735304.001.0001/acref-9780198735304-e-2257.
6
N. Saiedi, “From Oppression to Empowerment,” The Journal of Baha'i Studies 26 no. ½ (2016): 27-53,
www.proquest.com, (accessed 1 December, 2016), 32,33,34.
4
by the Israelis on Palestinians. Ryam, Gamso, and Alimi mention that the confiscation of lands,
oppression, and occupation of the Israelis are the main causes for providing a base for the
inception of the Palestinian intifada in 1987 and 2000.7 Not only the pre-conditions of the
Palestinians were the main reason for the uprising, but also the conditions during the intifadas
that pushed forward the uprising to take different forms which were violent at times. One
example of the extreme conditions that the Palestinians were living under was mentioned by
Hussein who emphasized on how the Palestinians were deprived from education and were
prosecuted if they went after education.8 Allen was different in her approach towards describing
the second intifada as she focused on the violent conditions that Palestinians were going through
during that period. She mentions and describes the constant bombardment by the Israelis on the
Palestinian cities, the Israeli techniques in terrorizing the Palestinians, disrupting their public life,
and destroying their private property.9 This highlights that oppression is indeed a major cause for
the start and continuation of the Palestinian intifadas. (718 words).
Historical Background:
The Arab/Israeli conflict was first initiated when Theodor Herzl claimed that Palestine
should be the homeland of the Jews in 1897 as he says: “Zionism is just another national
movement, yet it was a unique attempt to restore a people – one that many did not consider a
nation – to a land it had not lived in for almost 2,000 years”.10 At this point, the talk about
7
E. Alimi, W. Gamso, and C. Ryan, “Knowing Your Adversary: Israeli Sctructure of Political Opportunity and the
Inception of the Palestinian Intifada,” Sociological Forum 21 no. 4 (2006): 535-557, http://www.jstor.org, (accessed
1 November,2016), 538.
8
Y. Hussein, “The Stone and the Pen: Palestinian Education During the 1987 intifada,” The Radical Teacher no. 74
(2005): 17-22, http://www.jstor.org, (accessed 31 October, 2016), 17.
9
L. Allen, “Getting by the Occupation: How Violence Became Normal during the Second Palestinian Intifada,”
Cultural Anthropology 23 no. 3 (2008): 453-487, http://www.jstor.org (accessed 30 October, 2016), 453.
10
Shlomo Avineri, Herzl’s Vision: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State, (New York: Bluebridge,
2014), 259.
5
establishing an Israeli state in Palestine increased as one of the most significant dates in the
history of the Arab/Israel conflict was in 1917. In 1917, British foreign secretary, Lord Arthur
James Balfur, made one of the most famous historical declarations, known as the Balfur
Declaration, as he says: “his Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate
the achievement of this object”.11 With the intensification of immigration of Jews in order to
create a population suitable enough to establish an Israeli state, the clashes began to increase
between the two antagonistic sides. In 1948, executive head of the World Zionist Organization,
David Ben-Gurion, declares the establishment of the Jewish state, known as the State of Israel.
Since the intentions of the Zionists were clear since 1897, the Palestinian resistance was
emancipated in accordance with the consequent events that were happening. Clashes between the
Jewish side and Palestinians became more frequent after the Balfour declaration as the flow of
Jewish immigrants began.
In the same date, a decision was made by Arabs to engage in the conflict as Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan began to interfere in the war and sent their armies to fight the Israeli
forces on the Palestinian lands which marked the first Arab/Israeli war in this ongoing conflict.12
The Arab/Israeli wars continued in 1956, where Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and Israel
invaded the Sinai Peninsula13, 1967, where Egypt, Syria, and Jordan lost the six-day war against
11
A. Killgore, “The Balfour Declaration’s Legacy,” American Educational Trust 10 no. 9 (1992): 11,
http://www.proquest.com, (accessed 22 November, 2005), 11.
12
Smith Charles, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents, (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013), 198.
13
BBC, 1956: Egypt Seizes Suez Canal. 26 July 1956.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26/newsid_2701000/2701603.stm, (accessed 22 November
2016).
6
Israel14, and 1973, when Syria and Egypt attacked Israel15. The final Arab/Israeli violent clash
was the 1982 occupation of Lebanon which became a regional war as many sides were involved
in it including Palestinian and Syrian forces. Palestinians have taken it upon themselves to fight
Israel and lost hope in the Arab states to accomplish the Palestinian cause after all the lost wars
that have occurred. Palestinian resistance began with many different operations targeting foreign
Israeli embassies, personnel, and allies without excluding the domestic violent clashes between
Israelis and Palestinians. These clashes are still ongoing today (2016) as the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict has not been resolved yet. (526 words)
First (1936), Second (1987), Third (2000) Intifada and Current Events (2015-2016):
After the Balfour Declaration in 1917, the flow of Jewish immigrants to Palestine began.
In 1936-1939, the first Palestinian intifada occurred as a rejection to the flow of Jewish
immigrants that were being transferred to Palestine and the British mandate that was
administering this flow in order to create a population for the establishment of the Israeli state.
The uprising was held in two phases in which the first included the revolt of the elitist group,
HAC (Higher Arab Committee), through strikes and political protests that didn’t last long and
the second which was mainly a peasant led revolt that was violent. 16 Violence in this intifada
indicates a major attribute that revolutions include, which is the use of violence to achieve
specific aims. Also the concept that it was a mass uprising shows that the Palestinian revolution
was in process. Since it was part of the process, it is not an isolated and unrelated event to the
entire context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
14
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-2001, (New York: Vintage Books,
2001), 316-318.
15
Encarta Encyclopedia, s.v. “Arab-Israel war of 1973.”
16
J. Norris, “Repression and Rebellion: Britain's Response to the Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936–39,” The Journal
of Imperial and Commonwealth History 36 no.(2008): 25-45, www.tandfonline.com, (accessed 5 December, 2016),
33.
7
In 1987, in the Jabalia refugee camp, an uprising began after an Israeli Defense Forces’
(IDF) truck collided with a car killing four Palestinians which later led to a full uprising of
Palestinians against the Israelis. This began the intifada in 1987, known as the stone and pen
intifada. The casualties in this intifada were more than one thousand dead on the Palestinian side
and around 150 dead from the Israeli side17. This suggests that violence was a feature in this
mass uprising which actually applies to the theory of revolution that suggests that violence is a
familiar characteristic of a revolution. Another feature of revolution is the idea that revolution is
a mass uprising aiming at changing the status quo. This is also relevant to the concept of
revolution as the massing uprising of Palestinians was aiming to fight Israel, the authority and
ruler at that time. In the 1987 intifada, the causes for such an uprising have deeper roots than just
the crash incident. The conditions of the Palestinians under that context were terrible. The
Palestinians after the 1967 war were experiencing different forms of oppression and repression
from various initiatives.18 Terrible conditions were accumulating which pushed further the
frustration among the Palestinians which then was released in the first intifada. These terrible
conditions included organized land occupation, intensive and random increase of Jewish
settlements throughout the occupied Palestinian lands, limitations on all kinds of freedom, as
well as direct physical oppression such as the destruction of houses, infrastructures, expulsions,
and imprisonment to any act of rebellion to the Israeli existence.19 Palestinians were also
deprived of basic human rights such as education during the intifada. Education became illegal
as the Israeli military forced to close schools and educational centers and arrested students who
17
Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), Casualty Comparison, (Tustin: IMEU, 2012), 1.
E. Alimi, W. Gamso, and C. Ryan, “Knowing Your Adversary: Israeli Sctructure of Political Opportunity and the
Inception of the Palestinian Intifada,” Sociological Forum 21 no. 4 (2006): 535-557, http://www.jstor.org, (accessed
1 November,2016), 538.
19
Ibid, 539.
18
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participated in any form of learning, went to underground classes, and for carrying books. 20 All
of these conditions suggest that Israel was practicing oppression over the Palestinians which
became a necessary ingredient for the continuation of the Palestinian resistance against Israel,
and to the process of the Palestinian revolution in general. Most importantly, this highlights the
fact that the 1987 intifada is a prolongation of the 1936 intifada which suggests that it is part of
the long process. The continuation of this process emphasizes the point that there is a Palestinian
revolution since revolution, in theory, is a process and not a separate and random event.
These same conditions remained present in changing and relative intensity even after the
Oslo Accords reaching the year 2000, the start of the second intifada. This intifada, known as AlAqsa Intifada, was a continuation of the first intifada in the sense that it was incepted from the
same conditions that have started the uprising in 1987.21 The second intifada started as result of
the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located which was
very provocative for the Palestinian side which triggered the uprising.22 The second intifada was
way more violent than the first intifada as it highlighted the tensions between the Israelis and
Palestinians. The casualties from 2000 till 2005 were 4878 Palestinians dead and around 1063
Israelis dead in which both included mainly civilian casualties.23 Violence became a normal act
under which the Palestinians lived. Violence, the conditions under which the Palestinians were
living under, and most importantly, oppression, just as the first and second intifada, is a
continuation of the process of the revolution as it includes all the major aspects of a revolution.
A long term exposure to violence created a sense of familiarity among the Palestinians. So many
20
Y. Hussein, “The Stone and the Pen: Palestinian Education During the 1987 intifada,” The Radical Teacher no. 74
(2005): 17-22, http://www.jstor.org, (accessed 31 October, 2016), 17.
21
E. Alimi, W. Gamso, and C. Ryan, “Knowing Your Adversary: Israeli Sctructure of Political Opportunity and the
Inception of the Palestinian Intifada,” Sociological Forum 21 no. 4 (2006): 535-557, http://www.jstor.org, (accessed
1 November,2016), 554.
22
Encyclopedia of the Middle East, s.v “Second Intifada”.
23
Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), Casualty Comparison, (Tustin: IMEU, 2012), 1.
9
brutal events, discrete memories, and so many recounting of death and trouble can emerge easily
in the everyday life, “blending into and out of the background of the prosaic.24
Even with the changing of the Palestinian authorities, resistance, and the surrounding
political scenery, the conditions of the Palestinians remain the same today. The same oppression,
occupation, and brutal acts against Palestinians are still present. The latest limitation on the
freedom of Palestinians includes the banning of call prayers in Mosques due to noise pollution as
Israeli ministers claimed.25 This is also an indicator of oppression that the Israelis have used
historically and continue to use. Therefore a potential uprising is on its way as many of the
oppressive acts that Israel has done in the past are still being done in 2016. The series of knife
attacks on Israelis by Palestinians has already caused over 11 Israelis and 58 Palestinians dead.26
With all that being said, it is clear that the absence of any peace resolution or agreement has kept
the conditions of Palestinians the same and the violent clashes between both sides remains the
norm. Oppression of the Israelis, the violent clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians, and
the continuous Palestinian uprisings are all signs that indicate that the Palestinian revolution is
still ongoing as the long process is still going on. (1215 words)
Palestinian Revolution:
Oppression by the Israelis on the Palestinians has been clear and obvious as violence,
mistreatment, and exploitation of the Palestinians are present. The Israeli occupation is a vivid
example of the marginalization of the Palestinians on their lands. With all those features, it is
24
L. Allen, “Getting by the Occupation: How Violence Became Normal during the Second Palestinian Intifada,”
Cultural Anthropology 23 no. 3 (2008): 453-487, http://www.jstor.org (accessed 30 October, 2016), 469.
25
Mckernan, Bathan. Israeli Ministers to ban use of speakers for Muslim call for prayer due to ‘noise pollution’. 14
November 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-palestine-mosque-call-to-prayerbanned-bill-passes-a7416121.html, (accessed 23 November 2016).
26
Adelman, Jonathan. Israel: A Third Intifada? 29 October 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathanadelman/israel-a-third-intifada_b_8411634.html, (accessed 23 November 2016).
10
rational to understand that Israel is an oppressive state. As I mentioned before, revolution is a
process where there is a mass uprising for an extensive time phase seeking elemental alteration
of the society, state, and government. Revolutions are organized and include the demolition of
the current system or authority, various acts of violence such as terrorism, and a substitute to the
current dogma. In a neo-Tocquevillian perspective, a revolution is a process that possesses
similar ideological components: “a self-conscious commitment to epochal chance”.27 All these
features of a revolution are actually present in the Palestinian case. First, the long process that
has been taking place started when Herzl claimed that Palestine is the homeland of the Jews. A
revolution is not only the action that is taking place, but rather a comprehensive process which
includes the reasons why those actions were taken.
The Palestinians are very aware of their stance against Israel and this is what unifies and
shows the similarity in the ideological components. All the wars that have happened, including
the Arab-Israeli wars and first, second, and third intifadas, as well as massive demonstrations
over a stretched period of time are an example of how this process is taking place. The wars,
political assassinations by both sides, and Israeli embassy bombings are most of the time terrorist
attacks which are automatically considered violent acts. In the Tocquevillian standpoint,
revolutions do include the use of violent acts to overthrow the current regime.28 In this case, the
current regime is the Israeli occupation.
The final aspect of a revolution that I have mentioned is that revolutions are organized.
The organization of the Palestinian resistance has been a little shaky as many different
27
Steven Pincus, “Rethinking Revolutions: A Neo-Tocquevillian Perspective,” Chapter 17 in The Oxford Handbooks
of Political Science, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 398.
28
Ibid, 399.
11
movements and parties have had major contradictions between each other but remained
antagonistic towards the Israelis. The most organized resistance against Israel was the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO is “a broad national front, or an umbrella organization,
comprised of numerous organizations of the resistance movement, political parties, popular
organizations, and independent personalities and figures from all sectors of life”.29 In other
words, all characteristics of a revolution are present in the Palestinian context such as violence
(different forms of resistance, bombings, political assassinations, the intifadas, and engaging in
wars along with Arab states), organization (PLO for example), destruction of the existing system
(attempt to destroy Israel), and a process (started in 1897). (475 words)
Conclusion:
We have learned that the initiation of the Arab-Israeli conflict started in 1897 and many
significant dates came after which included the date of the establishment of the Israeli state
(1948), the dates of the Arab-Israeli wars, and the dates of the Palestinian intifadas. In addition to
all that, the characteristics of a revolution, organization, violent acts, destruction of the current
system, and alternative to the current ideology, are all present in the Palestinian case. With all
that being said, it is fair to say that all those elements indicate that there is a Palestinian
revolution taking place since 1897 and that all those major events are not unconnected and
random. The impact that this has today is tremendous as the failure to understand the ArabIsraeli conflict will lead to huge gaps in understanding contemporary world and Middle Eastern
politics. The purpose of this research paper was to show whether there is a Palestinian revolution
29
N.A. Palestine Liberation Organization. N.D. http://palestineun.org/about-palestine/palestine-liberationorganization/. (accessed 23 November 2016).
12
which is a process or that all those events were unrelated and unconnected. And as an answer to
that, there is a Palestinian revolution taking place since 1897. (183 words)
13
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15