Nightline: 'Intifada' Revisited

ByABC News
December 5, 2000, 2:57 PM

Dec. 28 -- A decade after traveling to Israel to cover the first intifada (uprising), ABCNEWS State Department correspondent Martha Raddatz returned to the area to see how attitudes have changed about peace and coexistence. The following stories highlight the evolution several individuals have undergone over the last decade:

Twelve years ago few imagined it would ever get this bad. The Palestinians threw mostly stones in 1988, facing tear gas, rubber bullets and sometimes live ammunition to protest Israeli occupation. By the end of the five-year uprising more than 1,000 Palestinian lives were lost and more than 100 Israelis.

But this time, the violence is so much worse. The Palestinians use not only rocks, but also guns. The Israelis use not just guns, but tanks and helicopter gunships. In a period of just two months, more than 250 Palestinians and close to two dozen Israelis have been killed.

A WeddingIn 1988, during a brief pause in the fighting there was a wedding in the West Bank village of Beit Sahour, which residents saw as a key to Palestinian survival.

Rana Izhaq, a guest at Munear and Eva Meslehs wedding, explained, People have to go on marrying and bringing children, because this is the only way we Arabs, Palestinians, will stay in this country.

And today, 12 years later, Nadine, Samer and Dina Mesleh have brought joy and hope to their parents and community. But looking back on scenes from that wedding, Izhaq said the memories are both good and bad. The pride and the excitement, the power and the energy that Palestinians had at that time, they felt they could make changes. And today she remarked. Its very sad to see the loss, but when you see the faces on TV of children, of young people just throwing themselves in the battle, you understand that their dreams have not been met and what they have hoped for hasnt been achieved. And it is the only way they know how to do it.

On the day of the Meslehs 1988 wedding, the villagers staged a street demonstration chanting: With blood, with spirit, well sacrifice for you our martyrs. An hour later, things turned violent with women, young men and many children joining in just as they did across the territories during that first intifada.