A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

Arabic for “shaking off,” the First Intifada was a sudden and massive outburst of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule in the occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. It broke out in December 1987 when an Israeli truck accidentally killed four Palestinian workers near a refugee camp. Practically overnight, adults started boycotting the Israeli economy, young boys were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, and then crowds would form to hobble Israeli attempts at arresting Palestinians. The uprising had an enormous effect on the politics of the region, shifting the locus of resistance from the Palestine Liberation Organization (see above), which by 1987 had been exiled to Tunis, to grassroots organizations within the occupied territories. It encouraged Arab governments, especially Jordan, to give up their territorial claims on Palestine and compel Israel to negotiate directly with Palestinians to achieve peace. The First Intifada helped lay the groundwork for the 1993 Oslo Accords, the most significant development in the peace process, but by 2000, a lack of progress fueled the outbreak of a second, much bloodier Intifada.

UNRWA is the United Nations agency exclusively dedicated to serving the needs of Palestinian refugees. It was established by the General Assembly in 1949, shortly after the outbreak of the first Arab-Israeli War and the consequent flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into territories that at the time were controlled by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Initially focused on avoiding starvation or other humanitarian catastrophes, it has since broadened its mission to include the provision of healthcare, education, and many other public services. When Israel took over the West Bank, Gaza, and other occupied territories in 1967, it allowed UNRWA to continue its operations, although there is frequent tension between the organization and the Israeli government. Following the attacks of October 7, 2023, Israel identified several UNRWA employees as having been part of the assault and has called on the international community to suspend funding, as the United States did.

During the Second Intifada, Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were able to infiltrate Israeli cities and carry out suicide bombings with frightening consistency. In response, the Israeli government began building a network of barriers, especially around the occupied territory of the West Bank, to protect Israeli cities (especially Jerusalem) and Jewish settlements from attack. At first, Israel claimed that the walls were a temporary measure designed entirely to protect against imminent threats, but the resulting security apparatus has had a transformative impact on life in the West Bank, severely limiting the freedom of its inhabitants. To critics of Israel, the wall is the most physical manifestation of the occupied territories turning into an “apartheid state” where the safety and rights of one people are purchased at the expense of another.