ABSTRACT
The Palestinian uprising that broke out on December 9, 1987, constitutes a new, revolutionary phase in the Palestinian struggle against Israel. The first phase, in the early and mid-1960s, marked the rise of the Palestinian guerrilla movements, led by the al-Fatah guerrilla group and based outside of historical Palestine. In the second phase—the intifada—the focus of the movement has moved to the Palestinian heartland, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The chapter examines the reasons for the emergence of the new phase, namely, the nature of the shift from one pattern of the Palestinian revolution to another and the interrelation between the two phases. The Palestinian identity existed, but the power of the prevailing pan-Arab, Communist, Marxist-Leninist, and pan-Islamic ideologies tended to obscure the Palestinian component of political identity. Some West Bank personalities—mostly from wealthy, well-known families—who were considered as the Palestinian intelligentsia made their own bid for the leadership of the uprising.
