Beyond the Media’s Radar: Introducing the Intifada Non-Media-Based Dataset

This article presents the Intifada Non-Media-Based Dataset (INMBD). Drawing primarily on the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) daily field reports, the INMBD contains day-level observations of wide-ranging types, modes and forms of contentious events involving multitudes of parties and actors in the Israeli-Palestinian cycle of contention, known as the First Intifada (1987- 1993). Each event – defined as a collective action, claim, message, or decision that pertain explicitly and directly to systems of authority that institutionally structure ethno-nationalist relations – comes with date, short description, type, location, actors involved, and whether the events result in injury, fatality, and damage to property. After making a case for a new dataset, presenting the particularities of the dataset’s sources, structure, inclusion and coding rules, and discussing its limitations, we offer a descriptive illustration of the dataset’s potential uses, specifically an elaboration of the association between state repression and insurgent violence. The richness and distinctness of information INMBD contains facilitate the identification of the multifaceted, contingent, polyadic, and context-sensitive dynamics of cycles of conflict and contention.