Communiques were central to the coordination of the mass popular uprising that challenged Israeli rule over Palestinians from 1987 until the early 1990s. These short political texts were called manasheer or bayanat al-Intifada, in Arabic. The Teaching Tool, Manasheer of the First Palestinian Intifada, profiles one such bayan, the first of the serialized bayanat distributed by the Unified Leadership of the Intifada (UNLI) on 8 January 1988. Authored by the local, underground, and anonymous leadership and illicitly distributed by radio or in print and laid on doorsteps and bus stops, or strewn in grocery aisles and plastered to walls, the bayanat became a central feature of life during the Intifada. The bayanat enabled the collective organizing of the popular anticolonial revolt by communicating with the public while the UNLI cadres distributing the bayanat evaded Israeli surveillance and arrest. … read more