The Intifada (Uprising) era has proven to be a re-emerging pattern in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Palestinian people's quest for justice, freedom, and independence is seemingly a continuous and self-momentous process that would only end with a just and comprehensive settlement, a settlement whereby the peace process is compatible with the peace imperative (Israel’s implementation of UN Resolutions 242, 194, and 338).

Saturday, December 9th, 2000, marks the 13th anniversary of the first Palestinian Intifada, which came to a halt with the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, thus, with a new promise of a just and comprehensive peace.

Yet, what was to be a transitional (interim) period after Oslo (whereby Israel would re-deploy its military forces from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), turned into a painful process of Israeli procrastination and non-compliance with legally binding agreements.

7 years of Israeli settlement expansion, home demolition, land confiscation, human rights violations, and a rejection to the legal and political rights of the Palestinians has provoked the Palestinian people into dismay and mounting disbelief in the peace process; the fruits of peace have not appeared.

Israeli policies in the post-Oslo period have paved the way for the outbreak of a new Intifada (on September 28th, 2000), Intifadat Al-Istiqlal; The Uprising for Independence.

Ignited by the incursion of Likud leader, Ariel Sharon, into Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Holy Sanctuary) in Jerusalem, and fueled by the cruelty of Israeli militarism, this uprising may be a dichotomizing factor between peace and war; Israel will either finally realize the inevitability and legitimacy of a sovereign Palestinian state on pre-1967 boundaries (including east Jerusalem), or continue its willful neglect of Palestinian rights, thus dooming the region into further conflict and suffering.