1st Edition

Israeli Politics and the First Palestinian Intifada Political Opportunities, Framing Processes and Contentious Politics

By Eitan Alimi Copyright 2007
    248 Pages
    by Routledge

    248 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    As the Palestinian/Israeli conflict continues to be of major importance in the Middle East, this book employs a new agency approach to understanding the conflict, examining the unprecedented challenge mounted by Palestinian insurgents to Israeli military rule in the West Bank and Gaza between 1987 and 1992. In particular the book discusses how the Palestinians learned about their occupier and how knowledge of Israeli political divisions were used, as well as exploring the various ways in which oppression led to shared grievances and discontent, and the development of organizations to maintain the Intifada.

    It has received an award by the Israeli Political Science Association for the best book on Israeli politics in English.

    Foreword William A. Gamson  Introduction  1. - Framing Process and Political Process  2. The Why Question of the Intifada - The Willingness to Act Collectively  3. The How Question of the Intifada - The Readiness to Act Collectively  4. The When Question of the Intifada - The Opportunity to Act Collectively  5. Tactics of Contention to Expand Political Opportunity  6. Conclusions, the 2000 Intifada and the Future of the Conflict

    Biography

    Eitan Y. Alimi teaches on contentious politics, social movements and terrorism at the Political Science Department, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his Ph.D. from the Sociology Department at Boston College in 2004. He has researched and published articles on national insurgencies, the role of cognition in contentious politics, and the role of the news media during peace-building in Terrorism and Political Violence, Mobilization, Conflict and Communication, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

     

    'The book is not a history of the Intifada but a useful tool for understanding its origins and development. There is also a good postscriptwhich applies the model to the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, taking into account the entirely different environment at the time.' - Robert Spain, Political Studies Review

    'Aside from these two deficiencies, Israeli Politics and the First Palestinian Intifada is an insightful and important book. Alimi skillfully deploys social movement theory to explain an event of considerable historical significance and he does so without reifying the boundaries between the Palestinian and Israeli societies.' - Mobilization

    'I recommend reading this book. it is well written and employs underutilized focus on social movements. It also sets today's events in an anlytical context.' -  Camelia Suleiman, International Journal of Middle East Studies. 42 (2010)