From repression to facilitation: The effects of Israeli policies on Palestinian mobilization in the west bank, 1967–1987

Israel, it is widely believed, instituted ‘iron‐fisted’ policies to cope with increasing Palestinian mobilization in the West Bank and Gaza after the Likud's rise to power in 1977. The article challenges this assumption and demonstrates that Israeli repression of the Palestinian national movement decreased between 1973 and 1987 even though Palestinian resistance increased. While it agrees with Beitler that some of this reduction was due to a change in the mode of Palestinian mobilization, it argues that it was also due to a fundamental change in the mode of Israeli rule. Israel after 1977, by concentrating on state expansion rather than on control of a hostile population, not only reduced suppression but actually facilitated Palestinian mobilization for part of that period. The article analyzes the contradictions stemming from policies designed to control populations and policies focusing on state expansion.