The word most commonly refers to the Palestinian intifada. The first exploded in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza in December 1987 and stretched to 1993. The second erupted in December 2000, shortly after talks between Israel and the PLO, mediated by U.S. President Bill Clinton at Camp David, collapsed.
Several other intifadas have shaken the Middle East, however--among them the 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq after the end of the first Gulf War in 1991 (Hussein crushed the uprising); and the Lebanese intifada, more often referred to as the Cedar Revolution, triggered in February 2005 by the assassination of Sunni Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by Syrian operatives. The Cedar Revolution led to Syria's forced exit from Lebanon after a 29-year military occupation.