First Intifada - Outcomes

Outcomes

The intifada was neither a military nor a guerrilla conflict. The PLO - which had limited control of the situation - never expected the uprising to make any direct gains against the Israeli state, as it was a grassroots, mass movement and not their venture. However, the Intifada did produce a number of results that Palestinians considered positive:

• By engaging the Israelis directly, rather than relying on the authority or the assistance of neighboring Arab states, Palestinians were able to demonstrate their identity as a separate nation worthy of self-determination.
• It broke the image of Jerusalem as a united, Israeli city.
• The failure of the "Iron Fist" policy, Israel's deteriorating international image and Jordan cutting legal and administrative ties to the West Bank and the U.S.'s recognition of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people forced Rabin to seek an end the violence though negotiation and dialogue with the PLO.
• The Intifada resulted in international attention to the Palestinians' cause.
• The Palestinians showed for the first time that there were two sides to the Israel-Palestine issue.
• Many American media outlets openly criticized Israel in a way that they had not before.
• The success of the Intifada gave Arafat and his followers the confidence they needed to moderate their political programme: At the meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers in mid-November 1988, Arafat won a majority for the historic decision to recognise Israel's legitimacy; to accept all the relevant UN resolutions going back to 29 November 1947; and to adopt the principle of a two-state solution.
• Criticism of Israel came from the United Nations, the European Community and the United States as well as the Arab states - which during the 1980s were concentrated on the Iran–Iraq War.
• The European Community (later European Union) became an important economic contributor towards the nascent Palestinian Authority.
• The Intifada empowered Palestinians to enter negotiations which lead to the Madrid Conference and the Oslo Accords.
• The uprising can be linked to the Madrid Conference, and thereby to the return of the Palestinian Liberation Organization from their Tunisian exile.
• The Intifada exposed many problems with the IDF's conduct in the operative and tactical fields, and also the general problem of Israel's prolonged control of the West Bank and Gaza strip. These problems were noticed and widely criticized, in international forums.

However, the impact on the services sector, including the important Israeli tourist industry, was notably negative.