Unified National Leadership of the Uprising

The Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU; Arabic: القيادة الوطنية الموحدة, romanized: al-Qiyada al-Muwhhada) is a coalition of the local Palestinian leadership. During the First Intifada it played an important role in mobilizing grassroots support for the uprising. In 1987, the Intifada caught the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) by surprise, the leadership abroad could only indirectly influence the events.[1] A new local leadership emerged, the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU), comprising many leading Palestinian factions. The disturbances, initially spontaneous, soon came under local leadership from groups and organizations loyal to the PLO that operated within the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and the Palestine Communist Party.[2] The UNLU was the focus of the social cohesion that sustained the persistent disturbances.[3] After King Hussein of Jordan proclaimed the administrative and legal separation of the West Bank from Jordan in 1988,[4] the UNLU organised to fill the political vacuum.[5]

  1. ^ Yasser Arafat obituary Archived 2017-01-11 at the Wayback Machine, socialistworld.net (Committee for a Worker's International).
  2. ^ Zachary Lockman, Joel Beinin (1989) Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-363-2 and 9780896083639 p 39
  3. ^ Joel Beinin, Joe Stork, Middle East Report (1997) Political Islam: essays from Middle East Report I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1-86064-098-2 p 194
  4. ^ King Hussein, Address to the Nation, Amman, Jordan, July 31, 1988. The Royal Hashemit Court's tribute to King Hussein
  5. ^ Suha Sabbagh (1998) Palestinian women of Gaza and the West Bank Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-33377-6 p 48