Protests against war between Israel and Gaza spread in American universities… What does ‘Intifada’ mean?

A large number of people were arrested during protests against the war in Gaza at several prominent universities in the United States.

However, the word ‘Intifada’, which means ‘uprising’ in Arabic, often appears in social media posts related to these protests. This word often refers to a period of fierce resistance by Palestinians against Israel.

Numerous posts are currently asking whether this war in Gaza will lead to a new intifada. Some call for an ‘intellectual intifada’, while others call for ‘globalization of the intifada’.

College students in the United States are refusing to participate in classes and even setting up tents outdoors to protest Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Currently, hundreds of people have been arrested while protesting on college campuses across the United States.

Protests took place at Columbia University, New York University, the University of California (Berkeley), and the University of Michigan, as well as Emerson College and Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

First of all, many students were suspended at Columbia University, and there are growing calls to cancel these disciplinary measures.

Meanwhile, some Jewish students expressed concern that the campus atmosphere was threatening.

However, student protesters point out that direct harassment of Jewish students is rare and that their voices are overly exaggerated.

Civil rights activists are also urging the university to “get away from genocide” and stop accepting large donations from companies and other industries that support weapons manufacturing and Israel’s war in Gaza.

‘Intifada’ is an Arabic term meaning ‘uprising’, and refers to a period of intense Palestinian resistance against Israel.

The First Intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the Second Intifada lasted from 2000 to 2005.

And since October 7 last year, when the war in Gaza began, the term ‘globalization of the intifada’ has also appeared on social media. The idea is to ask people around the world to join the uprising against Israel.

In addition, terms such as ‘Electronic Intifada’ and ‘Intellectual Intifada’ and slogans calling for ‘boycott, investment refusal, and trade sanctions’ against Israel also appeared.

So what did the early intifada in Palestine look like?

The first Palestinian intifada was triggered on December 8, 1987, when a truck transporting Israeli tanks collided with a vehicle carrying Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip.

As a result, four Palestinian residents lost their lives.

The dissatisfaction of Palestinian residents under Israeli occupation had been growing for the past 20 years.

At that time, illegal Israeli settlements were spreading in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinian residents were economically poor. In addition, clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinian residents were frequent.

As a result of this incident, an uprising broke out in the ‘Jabaliya Refugee Camp’ in the Gaza Strip, and quickly spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian youth confronted Israeli soldiers with stones and gasoline bombs. The Israeli military fired live ammunition at the time, drawing criticism from international organizations such as the UN.

Although there were differences in intensity by period, the violent confrontation between the two sides continued until 1993.

At the time, this uprising surprised many people, including Israel and Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was in exile in Tunisia at the time.

One of the main results of the First Intifada was that it focused world attention on the hardships suffered by Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, and especially on the harshness with which the Israeli military responded to suppress the uprising.

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s remark to “break the bones” of the protesters also became famous.

Minister Rabin was concerned that firing live ammunition at Palestinians who do not have guns could arouse sympathy from the international community and damage Israel’s international image.

As the Intifada progressed, Palestinian weapons evolved from stones to Molotov cocktails, rifles, grenades, and explosives.

Official sources and experts believe that the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians during the First Intifada was about 100, while the Israeli military killed at least 1,000 Palestinians.

The First Intifada ended on September 13, 1993, when both Israel and the PLO signed the ‘Oslo Accords’, which established the framework for peace negotiations.

Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of Palestine, and the PLO announced that it would cease armed struggle.

The Second Intifada is also called ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’.

The ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque (Islamic House of Worship)’ located in Jerusalem is the third holiest place for Muslims.

Palestinian leaders called it ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’ after the mosque, emphasizing that it was an uprising led by the people, contrary to Israel’s claims that it was an act of violence organized by the Palestinian Authority.

In 2000, this temple became the trigger for violence that would continue for the next five years.

On September 28, 2000, then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who would later become Prime Minister, visited Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy security by Israeli soldiers and police.

However, protests broke out and seven people died and over 100 were injured on the first day alone.

The protest, which began with hundreds of Palestinian protesters throwing shoes and stones at Sharon’s bodyguards, soon spread throughout Palestine.

And the scene in which Mohammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old boy living in Palestine, was hiding by hanging on his father’s arm in the Gaza Strip and was eventually shot dead, has long been talked about as an image representing the Second Intifada.

However, Israel says its investigation found that the French TV station’s report that Israeli troops shot Mohammed dead was unfounded.

The biggest difference between the intifadas of the 1980s and 2000s is the confrontation and scale of violence.

The Second Intifada unfolded much more violently than the previous Intifada.

According to the United Nations, more than 5,800 people were killed between September 2000, when the Second Intifada began, and the end of 2007, almost two years after it ended.

Although it is difficult to determine exactly how many people died during the intifada, most experts believe that the number of Palestinian deaths was much higher than that of Israelis.

At the time, Palestinians fired rockets and carried out suicide bombings on buildings and buses.

At this time, there was international criticism of Israel’s response, but Israel insisted that it was only responding to an organized armed attack.