By Dr. Sari Hanafi, Professor of socology, the American University of Beirut.
– What is new now is the intifada does not concern areas of occupation but also inside Israel. The Palestinians there are protesting for religious freedom (access to Al-Aqsa mosque) but also their sweeping Israeli discrimination against them and their localities. Sociologically the tension is there for many years. Inter-communal violence have also been reported within Israel, with Arab Israelis clashing with Jewish Israelis across the country. Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, condemned the riots in Lod, describing them as a pogrom. The consequences are so important that this time will not be like the other times. Palestinians in these three areas are unified for one cause. Of the Palestinians in the diaspora join them. Here many demonstrations occurred yesterday in different camps in Lebanon.
– Demonstrations all over the Arab world in solidarity of the Palestinians in spite of COVID19 and if this not in the political space but on social networks. The most remarkable one is in Morocco, Yemen and Tunisia.
– The Arab Gulf nations are equally uncomfortable because the escalation of violence has put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back on the regional agenda.
– This shows how the different Accords in 2020 between AEU, Sudan and Morocco will embarrass their leaders. These accords sought to bypass the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and with the ambition, and to some extent the naivety, of achieving political rapprochement with Israel without taking into consideration the Palestinian question.
