ABSTRACT
In the Gaza Strip Islamic movements, especially the Muslim Brothers and the Islamic Jihad, were the prime catalysts of the uprising. By the time of the uprising, Israeli control in the Territories had extended more than 20 years, and during most if not all of this period Israel had implemented a policy of “creeping annexation.” According to a Palestinian lecturer at an-Najah University in Nablus, personal humiliation endured by the populace was the chief catalyst of the uprising. By early December, just before the start of the uprising, certain roads were virtually off-limits for Civil Administration personnel and even for the IDF. A series of Israeli mistakes at the outset of the uprising, in part structural and in part situational, contributed to the success of the intifada. The local population viewed the military’s abrupt shifts and vacillations of policy in the early stages of the uprising as proof of the authorities’ confusion.
