Guardian:Palestinians Great Contribution Is The Intifada (But They Weren't The First)

CiF Watch notes the latest homage to the Palestinian Arabs to come out of The Guardian:

In another glaring example of the Guardian’s capacity to romanticize and glorify the use of violence to achieve political ends, while simultaneously showing a callous – indeed malicious – disregard for the real world consequences of such acts, today’s editorial (Middle East: Obama weaves an uncertain path, May 20) on President Obama’s speech on the Middle East included this chilling passage:

The leaders of Fatah and Hamas were obliged to reconcile by the forces stirring the Palestinian street. The negotiators of Fatah had stopped negotiating, and the fighters of Hamas had stopped fighting. Both had to respond to a simple idea: if one million Egyptians can fill Tahrir Square demanding Palestinian rights, why can’t Palestinians, who taught the Arab world how to mount insurrections, and mounted two intifadas of their own.

Read the whole thing.

But what exactly does the Guardian think is the Palestinians contribution--the word intifada?

After all, the Palestinian Arabs are certainly not the first ones in the Arab world to come up with the idea of an uprising.


Wikipedia lists 2 intifadas that precede the Palestinian ones:

March Intifada:

The March Intifada (Arabic: انتفاضة مارس‎) was an uprising that broke out in Bahrain in March 1965. The uprising was led by the Leftist groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain[citation needed] and the National Liberation Front - Bahrain, calling for the end of the British presence in Bahrain. The spark of the uprising was the laying off of hundreds of Bahraini workers at the Bahrain Petroleum Company on March 5, 1965. Several people died in the sometimes violent clashes between protesters and police.

Zemla Intifada:

The Zemla Intifada (or The Zemla Uprising) is the name used by the Algerian-backed Polisario movement to refer to disturbances of June 17, 1970, which culminated in a massacre by Spanish forces in the Zemla district of El-Aaiun, Western Sahara (then Spanish Sahara)

As a side note, the Palestinians did not originate the idea of suicide bombers either:

In the late 17th century, Qing official Yu Yonghe recorded that injured Dutch soldiers fighting against Koxinga's forces for control of Taiwan in 1661 would use gunpowder to blow up both themselves and their opponents rather than be taken prisoner.

The Arab world doesn't need the Palestinians in order to know about insurrections--they used the idea 40 years ago.

So what have the Palestinians contributed?

Technorati Tag: Intifada and Nakba and Arab Spring.