A year of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians just escalated. Is this an uprising?
- Israel launched its most intense military operation in West Bank in years on Monday, leaving at least eight Palestinians dead
- The crackdown was reminiscent of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s
Air strikes targeting Palestinian militants in a crowded residential area. Armoured bulldozers ploughing through narrow streets, crushing cars and piling up debris. Protesters burning tires. A mounting death toll.
But the current fighting is also different from those intense years of violence. It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants.
It’s also a symptom of a conflict with no foreseeable end. The Palestinian leadership is weakened, and the Israeli government has been accelerating the expansion of settlements that have eroded any chance of Palestinian statehood.
What is an intifada?
The word that means “shaking off” in Arabic was coined to describe an uprising against Israel’s military occupation that erupted in 1987. It ended in 1993 with an agreement of mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.