From the Intifada to the Sword of Jerusalem
Part 10 of the series “The Palestine Question” · Section Four, Chapter Three

From the Stones Intifada
to the “Sword of Jerusalem”

How did the centre of resistance move from outside to inside Palestine in 1987? Where did Hamas come from, and how did its discourse change from the charter to the political document? And what happened in the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the Gaza wars and the Jerusalem uprisings up to 2021?

For high-school & university students5 themes · 40-minute readQuiz at the end
This chapter presents events from the author’s perspective; he is a researcher close to the Islamic movement. We give the facts and figures as stated, report losses on both sides, and attribute assessments to the author. The book was published in 2021, so it does not cover later events.

Timeline (1987–2021) · tap any point

Earliest on the left.

One

The Blessed Intifada (1987–1993)

Known as the “First Intifada” and the “Intifada of the Children of the Stones,” it moved the centre of resistance from outside to inside.

The first daysTap for details

Four defining featuresFlip the cards

Two stages, two leaderships

The first stage

Mass popular confrontation: strikes, demonstrations, stones and Molotov cocktails, and boycotting the occupation’s civil administration. After about four years a second stage emerged, with armed operations growing and mass activity declining.

Two currents competing to lead

The Islamic current (Hamas) on one side; on the other, the “Unified National Leadership” formed by the PLO from Fatah, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front (first statement 8 January 1988). Different strategies, but the public responded to both.

The costDecember 1987 – December 1993, according to PLO figures

1,540Palestinians killed, including 353 children under 16
130,000wounded, with bone-breaking, live fire and internationally banned dum-dum bullets
116,000detained for varying periods, alongside house demolitions and confiscation of IDs and land

The author lists its achievements: it proved attempts to subdue the people had failed, put the cause back at the top of the international agenda, exposed the occupation to the world, brought new forces to the fore (Hamas and Islamic Jihad), and revived the PLO itself. About 900 people accused of collaborating with occupation intelligence were killed during it. It effectively ended with the Oslo Accords (September 1993) and the creation of the Authority (May 1994), while Hamas and Islamic Jihad continued their operations.

“The eye that defied the awl.”
A popular description of the intifada, as the author cites it
Two

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)

From the start it defined itself as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.”

Hamas did not come from nowhere, the author says; it continued the Brotherhood’s work in Palestine since the 1940s. Even so it did not start at the bottom of the list of factions but leapt straight to become Fatah’s main rival. The name “Hamas” itself, an acronym, was proposed by Hassan al-Qeiq in his home in Jerusalem (meeting of 10 January 1988).

What did it bring that was new?Tap each layer

From the charter to the documentDrag the slider

The comparison in brief

The 1988 charter

Drafted by Abdul Fattah Dukhan and approved by the leadership inside, but never put to a Shura council (the first met in August 1991). Its language was preachy and long-winded, and according to the author it contained a “confusion” between Jews as followers of a religion and Zionist occupiers, which was used to accuse the movement of antisemitism.

The 2017 document

Preparation began in May 2013; the Shura council approved it in late December 2016. Eleven headings in modern political and legal language, stating explicitly that Hamas does not fight Jews because they are Jews or because of their religion, but fights the Zionist project and the occupiers.

Article 20, the one everyone discussed

“There shall be no concession of any part of the land of Palestine, whatever the reasons, circumstances and pressures, and however long the occupation lasts… Nevertheless, without meaning in any way recognition of the Zionist entity or concession of any Palestinian right, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign, independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, along the lines of 4 June 1967, with the return of refugees and displaced persons to the homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.”
Hamas Political Document (2017), Article 20
The author’s reading: the text is no new concession; accepting a state on the 1967 lands in return for a truce had been proposed by Hamas leaders for over 25 years. The document says “lines,” not “borders,” meaning armistice lines rather than permanent borders. The aim was common ground with Fatah and the factions to end the division. Critics, on the other hand, see the combination as leaving the final position ambiguous.
Three

Hamas and Armed Action (1988–2000)

The movement sees armed resistance as “a permanent strategic option,” and took it up just as others turned away toward settlement.

Its actions escalated from strikes and stones to knives and firearms, then the abduction of soldiers, then car bombs and suicide (“martyrdom”) operations. The military wing was hit hard in 1988, 1989 and 1990, and the movement rebuilt it each time.

A note for readers: many of the suicide bombings took place inside cities and killed Israeli civilians, drawing wide international condemnation and prompting an international conference the great powers called “combating terrorism” (1996). Targeting civilians, by any side, remains a matter of sharp moral and legal dispute that deserves serious discussion in your group.

Islamic Jihad too

The Islamic Jihad Movement carried out attacks at Netzarim (November 1994), Beit Lid (January 1995) and Tel Aviv (March 1996), faced the same persecution, and its founder Fathi al-Shiqaqi was assassinated by the Mossad in Malta (1995). Both movements then went through “their harshest stage” after a joint campaign by the occupation and the Authority with American cooperation, which broke up most cells until 2000.

Four

The Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000–2005)

It broke out on 29 September 2000, a day after Ariel Sharon forced his way into the Al-Aqsa compound.

Sharon was escorted by 600 soldiers provided by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, with 3,000 soldiers and police on alert in Jerusalem. Five were killed and more than a hundred wounded in the first clashes. The ingredients of an explosion were ready: the Camp David talks had hit a dead end and settlements were expanding.

What did it reveal?According to the author · flip the cards

The two scales of lossChoose a side

Leaders who were killed or died

The intifada waned in 2005 after Arafat’s death and Mahmoud Abbas’s election, the focus on municipal and legislative elections, and the factions’ unilateral declaration of calm (22 January 2005). Even so, the number of prisoners rose from about 7,800 to about 9,200 that same year.

Five

Aggression and Resistance (2006–2021)

Most resistance cells in the West Bank dismantled through security coordination; resistance growing in Gaza under the Hamas government and the blockade; rockets replacing suicide operations.

Five rounds on GazaChoose a round · Israeli name / resistance name

Palestinians killed in each roundIn brackets: Israelis killed, according to Israeli sources

Summer Rains 2006400
Cast Lead / al-Furqan 2008–2009 (13)1,334
Pillar of Defense / Stones of Sijjil 2012 (6)191
Protective Edge / al-Asf al-Ma’kul 2014 (73)2,147
Guardian of the Walls / Sword of Jerusalem 2021 (13)260

Jerusalem and the street: new formsTap for details

86Great March of Return protests held by the end of 2019
364killed in Gaza since the marches began, per Al Mezan (December 2019)
19,173injured, including 4,987 children and 864 women

For group discussion

  1. In 1987 the centre of resistance moved from outside to inside. What does that change about the nature of the conflict and how the world sees it?
  2. The 2017 document corrected the confusion between Jews as a faith and Zionists as occupiers. Why is this distinction morally and politically important?
  3. What, in your view, is the difference between resisting occupation and targeting civilians? How is the legitimacy of means judged in international law and in Islamic law?
  4. The Return marches and the Jerusalem uprisings were popular and creative. What did these forms achieve compared with others?
Wrap-up

Test Yourself

12 questions on the period from 1987 to 2021.