As turmoil spread to previously quiet areas of the Middle East like Bahrain and Libya this week, the West Bank and Gaza Strip remained placid.
Palestinians say they are as firmly opposed to Israel’s occupation as ever, but they don’t face the same restrictions on freedom of expression that their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the region and so they have no reason to explode in rebellion now. Most are satisfied with the rule of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
"The main problem of Palestinians isn’t with their own leadership but with an external force, namely the Israeli occupation," Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist and media activist, told The Media Line. Kuttab said Palestinians broke the barrier of fear with the first Intifada, or popular uprising, in 1987 and had no trouble expressing their opinions openly or rebelling against injustice, he said.
"People in Egypt and Tunisia say they have learned much from the Palestinian experience," Kuttab added.
The quiet in Palestinian areas was a stunning contrast to Bahrain where thousands on Wednesday buried two protesters killed by police, chanting "down with the regime." In Libya, violent clashes were reported in the city of Benghazi, where hundreds of demonstrators demanded the release of a human rights activist.
In spite of the calm, the PA has taken steps to ensure unrest doesn’t begin. A rally in support of the Egyptian demonstrators held in Ramallah on February 3, was aggressively disrupted by security forces, who intimidated journalists, Human Rights Watch reported. The PA did allow a smaller pro-Mubarak demonstration to go forward, however.
But protests against either the PA or the Hamas government that rules the Gaza Strip haven’t emerged.
Amjad Al-Shawwa, head of the Gaza-based Palestinian NGO Network, an umbrella group whose goal is to strengthen civil society, said Gazans suffered many of the same problems that brought their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts into the streets. Some 15,000-20,000 students graduate local universities every year but cannot find a job. An estimated 42% of Gazans are jobless, one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.
A poll conducted in December by the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem found that 39% of surveyed Palestinians believed conditions in the Gaza Strip were "bad.” An additional 22.6% said conditions were "very bad".
But Palestinians don’t blame their own leaders for the problem, but the Israeli occupation, Al-Shawwa said. To the extent he was ready to blame Palestinian politicians for the problem, it was their refusal to put aside differences and end the rupture between the Fatah-led PA and Hamas, which he said allowed the Israeli occupation to persist.
"Now, there are more and more young voices calling on the sides to end the split and unite in peaceful activities against the occupation," Al-Shawwa told The Media Line. "Bear in mind that protests do happen on a regular basis around the [Israeli] fence in Bilin and Naalin, and around the buffer zone in the Gaza Strip."
A demonstration was set to take place in Ramallah on Thursday to the rallying cry of "the people want an end to the split," a take-off on the Egyptian protesters' motto "The people want to topple the regime," Al-Shawwa added.
Another reason for Palestinian quiet is the steps the PA has taken toward democracy and good government. Even though the last elections were held in 2006 and postponed ever since, excused by the political rift between Fatah and Hamas, elections were monitored by international observers who vouched for their fairness.
"We don't have a dictator like Egypt and Tunisia did," Kuttab said. "Clearly there are certain dissatisfactions, but they don't merit a major revolution."
Hamed Al-Betawi, a Hamas lawmaker living in the West Bank city of Nablus, said that PA leaders were no less corrupt and their security apparatus no less oppressive than that of other regimes in the area, but combating Israel took priority.
"I’m confident that we’re on the verge of a new stage of liberation," Al-Betawi told The Media Line. "I predict a Palestinian, Arabic and Islamic revolution against the occupation and the PA."
Al-Betawi said Israel backed what he called the corrupt leadership of the PA, adding that it was easier to fight an external enemy than "our own coreligionists."
In addition, economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have improved. The West Bank enjoyed an estimated growth rate of some 8% in 2010, with economic activity at its highest point in 10 years. Nearly a third of the Palestinians polled by the Truman Institute said conditions in the West Bank were "good."
In Gaza, conditions are far worse, but Israel eased its blockage of the enclave last year, allowing more goods to come in, and foreign aid as well as smuggling through tunnels under the border with Egypt ensure other supplies are reasonably plentiful.
Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, said that both political elements and the general public had too much to loose by instigating unrest.
"I think Palestinians are simply paralyzed by the fluid dynamics around them," he told The Media Line. "The fear of being divided prevents them from taking any concerted purposeful action."
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