I have argued in an article in early October about a coming third intifada as something to be expected at any moment, to be a sort of game changer. The variable to unleash this could be any particular dramatic incident. The fact remains that the Palestinian people in the occupied territories are living under increasing frustration accompanied by lowered or almost nonexistent expectations for ending the status quo of humiliation — both in their daily human conditions and in their collective national aspiration.

What would also encourage such an intifada to occur — or to use a term that became popular in the last two years in the Arab world, a Palestinian spring to occur — is the demonstration effect of other intifadas in the Arab world that started in Tunisia. In the Palestinian case, the structural violence perpetuated by the occupation increases the chances of such intifada taking place.

What adds to the difficulty to maintain daily life is the rapid deterioration of the economic and social situations and the proliferation of misery in the occupied territories. A situation that feeds all forms of radicalism. Needless to say, Gaza is still considered an occupied territory according to international law. It is a sort of open-air prison.

The difficulties that the Palestinian population is facing are also the result of both direct and indirect policies of economic strangulation under different pretexts. The question is: how would Western powers, mainly the US, react to such an intifada — to people wanting to stand up for their dignity, wanting to say “Get Out” (dégage) as the Tunisians have said or “enough” (kiffaya), the slogan used in the Egyptian uprising? As things started to move, how could certain powers continue to maintain their declared and proud support for change in independent Arab states, yet remain insensitive, pervasive or silent when the same thing happened in occupied states such as Palestine. In any case, this land can no longer be considered occupied territory, since the UN has granted Palestine the status of a nonmember state. This status confers on the Palestinian state the privilege to practice many prerogatives of statehood.