The PLO was vocal about the utilization of armed struggle as the only means to liberate the nation and regain the territories "forcibly occupied" by Israel. .
Despite its status as the pseudo-official representative of the Palestinian cause, the realities of political maneuvers left the PLO quite unable to pursue its original hard-line goals. The organization's dedication to the reclamation of pre-1948 territories eventually gave way for a solution that would be acceptable to both the Palestinian and Israeli camps. The chains of international diplomacy had forced the PLO to be more of a negotiator than a resistance movement, eventually diminishing the credibility of the organization in the eyes of its Palestinian supporters. It is for this reason that other Palestinian groups emerged and sought to replace the PLO as the voice and leader of the Palestinian nation.
One such organization was Harakat al-Maqawama al-Islamiyya, or literally the Islamic Resistance Movement. More popularly known as Hamas, the organization is rooted in Islam (As its name suggests) and is more religious in nature, compared to the secular PLO. Whereas the PLO was already entrenched in the system because of its status, the religious groups in the nation slowly branched out and began pursuing their own paths of resurrecting Palestine without. The group emerged in1987, inextricably tied to the intifadah - the revolt of the disenfranchised and radical had begun. .
The word "intifadah" is Arabic for "spasm" - a term that belies the significance of and resulting violence that made the revolt a crucial event in Israeli-Arab relations (Pelletiere, 1994, p.8). The term was coined by the PLO in an attempt to downplay the significance of the 1987 riots. It was also an attempt to quell the rise of any organization that could rival the PLO as the Palestinian leader. However, no linguistic attempt of the PLO or the military efforts of the Israeli government could stop the outburst of emotions that led to the intifadah.