In December, 1987, a truck that was on the Israel-occupied Gaza strip crashed into a station wagon that was carrying Palestinian workers in the refugee district of Gaza. The crash left about 10 badly wounded and 4 dead. The Israeli government had also taxed Palestine to the bone and they have had enough. This to the Palestinians was seen as a reaction to the killing of Jews days before in Gaza and the taxation. On December 9th the Palestinians began to protest against Jews. Throwing stones and molotov cocktails at the Israel police force. In Jabalya the protesters were met with force and a young man by the age of 17 was killed and many others wounded. This angered the Palestinians even more and they moved into Israel occupied West Bank. The Palestinians were quelled by the paratroopers of Israel who came to breakup the violence and commotion that the Palestinians had created.
The Intifada or (Shaking off) formally started December 9, although there were small scale riots along the Israel occupied Gaza strip this date marked the beginning of it all. In 1987, 20 years after conquering the Gaza Strip and the West bank of Israel, this allowed armed Jews in both of these territories which permanently annexed South East Jerusalem into the West Bank. 40% of the Gaza Strip was home to a few thousand Jews where as the other 60% of the strip was home to over 650,000 Palestinians which made this territory the most densely populated area in the world. The Palestinians joined forces with the grassroots movements of the area and developed the Unified National Command of the Uprising, which was connected to the (PLO) Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat. Although the Organization was seen by the rest of the world as corrupt, Images of children throwing rocks at Jewish tanks and riots in the streets lit up the worlds television screen. The footage of the riots left the world uneasy. The Jewish troops began to use much more force and strictness in the extermination of these riots, but the Palestinians never gave up. In July of 1988 the king of Jordan Hussein to all responsibility for the West Bank and administered the Palestinians people, giving the P alestinians more opportunity and strength. In November 1988 the PLO pushed forward with their ideas of Palestinian independence. But the Intifada still raged on and at the first anniversary over 300 Palestinians were killed and over 11,000 were injured. In the last months weeks of the Intifada the PLO leader Yasser Arafat took responsibility for finding a resolution to the problems at hand wanted nothing but peace, renouncing the terrorism that took place and helping to join in a consensus with the Jewish state. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/first-intifada http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/intifada-begins-on-gaza-strip |