First Intifada Essay

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The Arabs and Israelis have been in conflict for over one hundred years. This has affected both the people inside and outside the boundaries of Palestine and Israel. The First Intifada in 1988 saw direct civilian and military combat between Palestine and Israel. The Intifada gained strength by being on the front pages of almost all international media outlets. Solutions to the Intifada confounded world leaders as Arabs, Israelis, Americans and other nations all had opinions and solutions regarding the outcome of the conflict. In the end, neither side in the First Intifada came out victorious. Both sides continued to go through periods of great change. The violence in the First Intifada brought about social suffering, economic instability, military restructuring, and a fractured political landscape.
The intifada did not only affect people with a certain age or gender, all members of the Palestinian and Israeli communities were affected by the destructive nature of the First Intifada. As the violence increased, the closure of schools and universities followed. Education effectively became illegal and teachers and students had to resort to “underground” classes . This affected Palestinians in a negative way because adults who lost this time in school had to delay entering the work force because they had not fulfilled their education. Only after the Intifada had been resolved did school proceed . Workers in Palestine held strikes against their companies in Israel, which led to a dip in the Israeli economy . However, Israel imported immigrants to fill the voids that were left by the previously fired Palestinians leading to a spike in unemployment for Palestinians . Palestinians responded to the violence, unemployment, and loss of wa...

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...inian territories into different sections. By doing this, Israel was able to politically support the two-state solution, but in fact the result was that it prevented Palestinian unification by reducing their strength.
Though the First Intifada brought much death, destruction and economic loss to both Palestine and to Israel, it also brought worldwide attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The First Intifada provided not only the Palestinians a voice and ultimately a platform to stand up for their Nationalism; it also provided Israel a stage to show its strength. The Oslo Peace Accords, through interim in nature, would set a precedent that Palestine should be recognized as its own Nation-State. Nevertheless, following the First Intifada, the dialogue between Israel and Palestine continued to be strained, and in fact would further deepen the Israeli-Arab discord.

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