Seeking popular participation: nostalgia for the first Intifada in the West Bank

Abstract

This article analyzes Palestinian nostalgia in the West Bank for the first intifada and anxiety over the lack of mass participation in anti-colonial resistance following the Oslo Accords. I attribute three reinforcing components to explain the lack of popular resistance: shifts in the mechanisms of colonial control, structural sociocultural changes, and discursive representations of popular resistance. Understanding the changes in the post-Oslo period in the West Bank can help us to reflect on why the experiences of the first intifada have not effectively informed political resistance practices.