The Impact of the Arab Spring on Palestine

By Yaser Alashqar

As outlined in this commentary, my research has been concerned with the continuing impact of the Arab Spring uprisings on the question of Palestine. Erupting in December 2010 in Tunisia, the movements of popular protests swept through other key states in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region and included Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and Libya in 2011. The collective protests focused on challenging similar grievances such as authoritarianism, political mismanagement, oppressive security regimes, the lack of economic opportunities and freedom. Although previous scholarly work has demonstrated that the Palestinian experience of the Intifada (popular uprising) and the Palestinian cause held an important place in the consciousness of Arab Spring protesters, the sudden wave of protests across the Arab world has posed a difficult challenge to the centrality of the Palestinian question in Middle Eastern affairs. Arab states and peoples became extremely preoccupied with their domestic challenges and emerging conflicts. Thus, Palestine has started to lose its exclusive place in the Arab collective memory as ‘the cause of the Middle East’. Exploiting the changing regional dynamics and priorities post the Arab Spring, Israel also launched a brutal military assault on Gaza in July and August of 2014. The bombardment campaign lasted for 51 days and it has marked a critical juncture in the political history of Gaza and its evolving trauma.

Assembled parts of weapons and shells used by the Israeli military during the attacks on Gaza in July and August of 2014 are displayed on a public square in Gaza. The word, Palestine, is presented on the top in an artistic Arabic writing style. Photo by: Yaser Alashqar. September 2019

Considering the moment of the Arab Spring and the aftermath, this commentary presents some research observations on the broader relationship between the Arab Spring and Palestine, and the subsequent impact on the Palestinian issue. The following observations include part of my ongoing research on the evolving impact of the Arab Spring on the question of Palestine.

Firstly, in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and similar to the massive protest movements in the region, the attention of many Palestinians in the occupied territories turned to their internal political order and affairs. While there was a strong consensus among the Palestinians that Israel’s occupation and colonial project in Palestine must come to an end and their right to self-determination must be respected, they also recognized the deepening divisions between the two major Palestinian movements, Fatah and Hamas, as a key obstacle to a successful national struggle. Polarization and factional conflicts are not only related to politics in the Palestinian case, and they have historically extended to the key areas of governance, formal and informal institutions and civil society. In March 2011, youth groups and political activists in Gaza and the West Bank organized a large protest movement and demanded unity and national reconciliation among the divided Palestinian political elites. 

Similar to Arab Spring dynamics, the youth organizers used Facebook and social media sites to mobilize the masses. However, while the Arab Spring protesters were chanting “Ash-sha’abyuridisqat an-nizam” (the people want the fall of the regime) in the MENA region, the Palestinian demonstrators were chanting loudly “Ash-sha’abyuridinha’al-inqisam”(the people want the division to end). As a Palestinian political activist pointed out to me during an interview in Gaza in September 2011: “the urgent priority must be ending the political state of fragmentation [in the Palestinian territories], then we work together with a unified vision for internal and external affairs so that we can be successful in achieving our national [liberation] objectives.” This suggests that while the Palestinians in the occupied territories showed a clear interest in participating in the regional popular protests and achieving change in their domestic arena, they have also placed a strong emphasis on the formation of a unified domestic front to end Israeli military occupation and achieve national rights. As Hani Masri illustrates, despite the divisions and corruption among the Palestinian political class, the Palestinians still recognize the occupation as their main concern and Israel as “Palestine's actual ruler.”

The second research observation is that the events of the Arab Spring witnessed the collapse of old alliances and the emergence of new regional alliances. Palestinian actors played a key part in this changing dynamic in Middle East affairs. Prior to 2011, Hamas occupied a key position in the regional ‘axis of resistance’ which consisted of Hezbollah in Lebanon along with Syria, and Iran. These state and non-state actors supported resistance to Israel’s power and occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories. Hamas, however, shifted its position and supported the Arab Spring uprising against Assad’s regime in Syria. During his visit to Cairo in February 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, one of the top political leaders in Hamas, announced publically during Friday prayers at Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo: “I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform.”

This position marked the departure of Hamas from the ‘axis of resistance’, and joining the axis of the Syrian opposition. This opposition axis received strong backing from the Arab Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and the US under Barack Obama.  Hamas has cut relations with the Assad regime and moved its political offices from Damascus to Doha in Qatar, causing serious deterioration in relations between Hamas and the leading members of the resistance axis represented by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. Things took a turn for the worse in the Syrian conflict. The largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, Yarmouk, came under intense attacks and this resulted in massive destruction and the expulsion of Palestinian refugees. Moreover, recent mediation attempts between Hamas and Syria have been failing. Not only did the regional axis of resistance experience disintegration, the events of the Arab Spring in Syria have also contributed to further dispossession and displacement of Palestinian refugees after the 1948 Nakba.

The concluding research observation concerning the ongoing impact of the Arab Spring developments on the question of Palestine is related to the emergence of the recent normalization deals between Israel and key states in the MENA region, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. As I argued previously, this critical development has roots in regime stability and further militarization in the Middle East following the Arab Spring uprisings and geopolitical changes. Israel is certainly benefiting from the emerging regional order and the convergence of state interests in the Middle East. It has also received strong backing from the Trump administration and Trump’s peace plan, the “Deal of the Century”. This US plan has been designed to achieve both: an end to the Palestinian issue according to the dictations of Israel’s right-wing leaders and the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel. In other words, backed by the US, the aftermath of the Arab Spring has provided Israel with the opportunity to break the regional link with the Palestinian issue and normalize relations with Middle East powers, while ensuring the continuation of its occupation and colonial project in Palestine.
Taken together, as Palestinian academic, Ibrahim Ibrash, said to me during an interview in August 2013, the developments of the Arab Spring have presented the Palestinians and their factions with the moment to reconsider their “political fate” at the local and regional level. Like the unfinished business of the 2011 uprisings, the wider political impact of the Arab Spring era on the question of Palestine may still take time to fully materialize.

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Yaser Alashqar is adjunct Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland. His teaching and research fields include conflict resolution, mediation and Middle East politics. He has published many articles and papers on a range of key issues such as Palestinian politics and civil society, the UN and Palestinian statehood, US policy, mediation in peace processes and Middle East politics. He is also an academic member of the Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of London. For further information, please see: https://www.tcd.ie/ise/staff/y-alashqar.php

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