introduction13 The period of the Oslo Accords was critical in that it shifted the political direction and energy of the Palestinians in Israel. Demanding recognition as a homeland minority community, equal legal rights and political representation, Arab citizens redirected their organizing efforts to a non-state alternative: civil society. Through their civil society, Palestinian citizens sought to redefine the boundaries of political discourse in Israel to bring the needs and demands of their community to the forefront of the political agenda. Their challenge to the exclusionary structural and institutional terms of the Israeli regime culminated in October 2000 with the start of the second or Al-Aqsa Intifada. During this period, mass demonstrations and initiatives were organized by Arab citizens to both call for equal citizenship and to show solidarity with the mobilizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). But faced with violent suppression by the Israeli security apparatus, these and other initiatives from October 1 to October 9 resulted in the deaths of thirteen Palestinian citizens and the injury of hundreds. Over the course of the next few months, human rights organizations reported trends of arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as inhumane treatment by the Israeli security forces of Palestinian citizens in custody. Responding to these and other allegations, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak called for the establishment of a ‘committee of clarification’. Formed on November 8, 2000, the Or Commission investigated the October clashes and collected testimonies by Israeli police officers and commanders, as well as Palestinian citizens and community leaders. Throughout these accounts, witnesses repeatedly confirmed that Palestinian demonstrators were unarmed, that use of physical beatings and live ammunition by the security forces was widespread and indiscriminate, and that Israeli police provided insufficient protection for Arab citizens under attack from Jewish provocateurs and violent mobs (see Chapter Two). Despite these findings, the October 2000 protests nevertheless fuelled the increased securitization and isolation of Arabs citizens in what had become a heavily polarized Israeli society. The psychological and political effect of these events on Palestinians in Israel was a further reorientation towards civil society as an avenue for resistance. Indeed, this period allowed for a more substantial exchange on Arab civil and social presence in Israel. With civil society including maps, documents, meeting minutes and more. These documents covered the official diplomatic correspondence between the Israeli negotiators and Palestinian Authority from 1999 to 2010, and outlined the internal exchanges and workings of the Zionist-Palestinian peace process.