Israeli commentators Yaron Friedman of Ynet News and Haviv Rettig Gur of the Times of Israel are clueless about the driving force behind the Palestinian mobilisation and collective struggle. In two recent articles, and with unmistakable conceit, they attempted to highlight what they perceive as the failure of the current Palestinian uprising, or “intifada”. Gur argues that “the terrorism” of the Palestinians is not a surge of opposition to Israel but a “howl against the pervasive sense that resistance has failed.” He reduces the Intifada to the mere act of alleged stabbing of Israelis, and points to the painful truth that Palestinian Authority (PA) “elites” are paying lip service to the “martyrs” while “simultaneously acting with determination on the ground to disrupt and stop attacks.” In his long-winded article, “Losing Palestine”, Gur essentially claims that the current struggle against the occupation stems mostly from Internet fervour and is more a declaration of defeat than a strategy for victory, and that no Palestinian leader dares to be the first to accept this. Friedman describes the “knife Intifada” as a “fire without coal” and writes that the “insane actions of the stabbers” is designed to ignite religious fervour, ultimately aimed at blaming the Jews. Those who launched the Intifada “have no real internal or external support (financial or with weapons) and it broke out at a time when the nightmare of all the Arab world's leaders is the social protests turning into anarchy,” he wrote. There is little sense in arguing against the unsympathetic approach Zionist commentators use to describe Palestinians, or their insistence on seeing Palestinian collective action, violent or otherwise, as an act of “terror”; on their refusal to see any context behind Palestinian anger or the way they inject a religious narrative at every turn and lob “anti-Semitic” accusations unfairly, whenever they see fit. But what is particularly interesting about the Israeli take on the Palestinian Intifada, as presented by Friedman, Gur and others in the media, including from within the Israeli political establishment, is the attempt to display an exaggerated sense of confidence — that, unlike other uprisings, this one is a farce. In fact, the Israelis are certain that the uprising is likely to deflate once the limited tools at its disposal are contained. This supposition has led Israel's deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, to meet with representatives of YouTube and Google “to discuss ways to cooperate in what she calls the fight against ‘inciting violence and terrorism'”, reported MEMO, citing the Israeli daily Maariv. This hasty self-assurance among Israeli state officials and media is predicated on several suppositions. First, while the PA has not yet moved to take part in crushing the Intifada, it has done its utmost to thwart the people's effort to mobilise Palestinians beyond the limited confines of the ruling Fatah faction and its worthless promises of peace and statehood. The PA knows well that if the Intifada escalates beyond its current scale, it could undermine — if not entirely challenge — the PA itself, which has served for many years as a line of defence for the Israeli occupation. Thanks to “security coordination” between the Israeli army and the PA, Palestinian resistance in the West Bank has, until recently, been largely contained. Second, Hamas, although it has openly called for an escalation of protests against Israel, is swamped by its own problems. The siege on Gaza, tightened further with the closure of the Rafah Crossing, and the desperate need to rebuild what successive Israeli wars have destroyed makes it difficult for Hamas to take part in any effort that could open up another war front with Israel. One must recall that the Israeli war on Gaza in the summer of 2014 was, itself, an Israeli attempt to redraw the battle lines. At that time, momentum for an Intifada was taking shape in the West Bank following an increase in Israeli army and settler violence against Palestinians. The war on Gaza managed to change the narrative of that budding conflict into an Israeli war aimed at defending its own borders, as Israeli hasbara (state propaganda) dictated. Israel is now relying on the assumption that Hamas would avoid, at least for now, a repeat of that scenario which cost Palestinians more than 2,200 lives and thousands of wounded and maimed, let alone the massive destruction of the already impoverished Strip. Third, Arabs are consumed with their own regional fights, whether for political or sectarian domination. Almost every Arab country is somehow, either fully or partially, involved or affected by the various wars and conflicts under way in Syria, Libya, Egypt's Sinai, Iraq and Yemen. The supposedly successful Tunisian model is suffering its own fallout, too, from militant violence, whether homegrown or spilling over from violent borders. Previous Intifadas succeeded, or so goes the Israeli logic, because of Arab backing. But the most that Arabs have done is to pay lip service and nothing more. In fact, if the PA itself is keen on spoiling popular Palestinian initiatives, little can be expected of the Arabs, who are busy fighting one another. However, the Israeli argument is, as has always been the case, narrow-minded in its view of history, or it conveniently applies history to fit whatever political argument Israeli officials or mouthpieces deem handy. Just a few weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu absolved the Nazis of the idea behind the Holocaust and pinned blame on the Palestinian Mufti instead. Previous Intifadas, but more importantly the 1987 “Intifada of Stones”, were not constructed as a strategy for liberation, but were a spontaneous reaction to a series of Israeli provocations and the failure of the Palestinian leadership, all within the larger context of the ongoing Israeli occupation. Palestinians do not revolt when “the time is right” for them to do so, but whenever the collective suffering has culminated to the point that they cannot be silenced anymore. Those, whether Israeli or even Palestinian intellectuals, who opine about the need for the Intifada to do this or do that, change directions or tactics, stop altogether or move forward, are simply unable to understand that the momentum of a collective struggle cannot be dictated from above. This is not to argue that a grassroots, genuine Palestinian leadership that operates outside the confines of fatalism and defeat, as demonstrated by the PA, is not a necessary step needed to galvanise popular efforts. But that is a decision to be taken by the youth themselves, and its timing and nature should be determined based on their own reckoning. The Israelis are counting on their shoot-to-kill policy. The Palestinian leadership is waiting for the anger to fizzle out before resuming its endless quest for a frivolous peace process and financial handouts. The Intifada itself, however, operates on the basis of an entirely different arithmetic: a collective spirit that neither can be intimidated by violence nor procured by funds. In fact, this is precisely why the Intifada started in the first place. As long as the factors that led to its inception remain in place the Intifada is likely to continue and escalate, not for the sake of liberating Palestine through some magic formula, but for the urgent need to regain the national initiative, redefine priorities and create a new sense of collective, as Palestinian first and foremost. The writer is founder of PalestineChronicle.com.
