(Arabic for “shaking off”) The term became the universal name for the Palestinian revolt (or “disturbances”), which began spontaneously on December 9, 1987 in Gaza and quickly spread to the West Bank. The first mass uprising against Israel’s occupation, which had begun 20 years before, this intifada quickly developed a unified leadership, and involved coordinated strikes, rock-throwing and some more violent actions against Israel involving weapons. The Israeli military was unable to quell the rebellion, although they implemented a harsh “break their bones” policy under Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, involving widespread arrests, detention and beatings. By 1991, it had spawned considerable intra-Palestinian settling of personal and ideological scores, grimly dubbed the “intrafada”. The intifada officially ended when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization formally recognized each other in 1993 and co-launched the Oslo Process. The overall character of the First Intifada is disputed, with some claiming it was overwhelmingly nonviolent and organized and others focusing on the use of weapons by some Palestinians. There are scholars who consider the 1936-39 Palestinian uprising as the “real” first intifada. See King, Mary Elizabeth. A Quiet Revolution: The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance. New York: Nation Books, 2007 and Farsoun, Samih K. and Naseer H. Aruri. Palestine and the Palestinians, 2nd ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 2006; and “The Intifada.” MERIP. 12 November 2011. http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/intifada-87-pal-isr-primer....  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/first-intifada