To what the Israeli government labeled as “subversion,” Yitzhak Rabin as Minister of Defense, then as Prime Minister of the coalition government -Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon of the Likud Party and Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres of the Labour Party - applied a policy called “force, power and blows” or the policy of “broken bones .” A state of siege was declared, giving the occupying powers a free hand to apply military law with force in the West Bank and Gaza. Curfews were increased; tens of thousands of Palestinians were beaten, imprisoned and tortured, including children; the houses of militants were demolished under guise of reprisal. Some 1,400 Palestinian civilians were killed, and tens of thousands injured, many handicapped for life.

The repression touched all areas of life: the closure of schools and universities, clinics and hospitals. In 1990-91, most Palestinians condemned the collusion of Kuwait and America in the war against Iraq, and viewed this international intervention as applying a double standard: even when at the same time Israeli repression in the territories occupied after ’67 was redoubled. One of the longest curfews since the beginning of the Intifada was imposed on Palestinian cities, camps and villages. When many Iraqi Scud missiles hit the Tel-Aviv region, Palestinians reacted enthusiastically; despite their repeated pleas for Arab or international intervention, those pleas had gone unheard.