CRSV: Palestine during the First Intifada
This case note documents the occurrence of sexual violence in violent conflict. It contains explicit mentions of different forms of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Background
The First Intifada refers to a series of protests carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, mainly out of the growing collective frustration over Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Nasrallah, 2013; Said, 1989). The word “intifada” means “to shake off” (Decolonize Palestine, 2023). It took place between December 1987 and 1991. Some suggest that it ended with the signing of the Oslo Accords (Nasrallah, 2013), while some indicated that it continued until the Madrid Conference of 1991.
The First Intifada began on December 9, 1987, in the Jabalia Refugee Camp (Said, 1989; Lustick, 1993). An Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) truck collided with a civilian car, and killed four Palestinian workers, of which three were from the Jabalia Refugee Camp. While the Palestinians called the collision a deliberate response for the killing of an Israeli in Gaza just days prior, Israel denied this (Decolonize Palestine, 2023). The Palestinian response to the incident included protests, civil disobedience in the form of refusal to pay taxes and burning Israeli products, graffiti, barricading, and stone-throwing (Salem, 2008).
In response, Israel deployed 80,000 soldiers, used live rounds frequently where there were riots, and used disproportionate and even lethal force. In the first 13 months, as many as 332 Palestinians and 12 Israelis were killed. Over the entire span of 6 years, the IDF killed around 1200 Palestinians (Nasrallah, 2013).
Prevalence of Sexual Violence
Research shows that several Palestinian women were detained by the IDF, and subject to rape and sexual harassment (Kevorkian, 1993; Kuttab & Bargouti, 2002). Sexual violence was reported to have gone hand-in-hand with Israeli violence against the Palestinian population (Baroud, 2023). There were also reports of sexual harassment during house searches conducted by Israeli troops and at border checkpoints (B’tselem, 1996; B’tselem, 2003).
Precise numbers remain unclear as there has been no clear reportage on the number of incidents given both the lack of access to reporting mechanisms and stigma faced by survivors. Further, as Medien (2021) noted: "Palestine/Israel is often absent from international reports and scholarship on sexual violence in conflict, where attention is increasingly focused on non-state actors. The article argues that this absence functions to both obscure the sexual violence of Israel’s settler colonial occupation and bolster the notion of Israel as a modern liberal democracy engaging in a conflict against a population deemed terrorist. Against this narrative, the use of sexual torture against Palestinians held in Israeli prison and detention facilities is documented, as are the sexually violent structures of militarized settler colonialism and occupation more broadly."
Basis of the Use of Sexual Violence
Sexual violence, harassment, and rape were used as a means of torture when by the IDF used to target women in detention. Furthermore, the use of sexual harassment during house searches and at border checkpoints was deliberately carried out to humiliate and intimidate women, and by extension, their families. It was also used to further the colonial agenda of occupation to deliver the idea that the families had to leave (Medien, 2021).
References
Baroud, R. (2023). The untold story of the abuse of Palestinian women in Hebron. https://jordantimes.com/opinion/ramzy-baroud/untold-story-abuse-palestinian-women-hebron
B’tselem (1996) Sexual Harassment in the Name of the Law: Violence and Degradation during Searches of Palestinian Homes in Hebron. Summary: http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/199612_Sexual_Harassment_in_the_Name.asp.
B’tselem (2003) Zeita: Border Police officer forces man from ‘Attil to commit sexual act with a donkey. Testimony: http://www.btselem.org/English/Testimonies/20030626_Sex ual_harassment_of_Naziya_Damiri_in_Zeita_Witness_a.asp.
Decolonize Palestine (2023). Two Intifadas and Two States. https://decolonizepalestine.com/intro/two-intifadas-and-two-states/
Kevorkian, N. S. (1993). “Fear of Sexual Harassment: Palestinian Adolescent Girls in the Intifada,” in Ebba Augustin (ed.) Palestinian Women: Identity and Experience, Zed Books.
Kuttab, E. and Bargouti, R. (2002) The Impact of Armed Conflict on Palestinian Women, Study presented to UNIFEM/UNDP-PAPP
Lustick, I. S. (1993). Writing the Intifada Collective Action in the Occupied Territories. World Politics, 45(4), 560-594.
Medien, K. (2021). Israeli settler colonialism, “humanitarian warfare,” and sexual violence in Palestine. International feminist journal of politics, 23(5), 698-719.
Nasrallah, N. (2013), 'The First and Second Palestinian intifadas,' in David Newman, Joel Peters (eds.) Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Routledge, 2013
Said, E. (1989). Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation. South End Press.
Salem, W. (2008) 'Human Security from Below: Palestinian Citizens Protection Strategies, 1988–2005,' in Monica den Boer, Jaap de Wilde (eds.), The Viability of Human Security, Amsterdam University Press.
