Don’t look elsewhere for the Third Intifada, because you’re it

When? How? Why? Where? People are starting to ask questions. They’re engaged. They’re interested. Citizens whose government is perhaps speaking in their name, perhaps not. They’re Tweeting, Facebooking, YouTubing. And the main question is simple: Will this latest Israeli aggression lead to a Third Intifada?

As Israel’s Operation Protective Edge carries on, many Palestinians, Israelis and global citizens alike have watched with horror as the number of casualties grows higher; heavy and highly disproportionate civilian casualties in Gaza.

Analysts have scratched their heads and have done what they do best, providing rationales for why this latest madness is taking place. We have all at this point woven through the ins and outs of why and what do they really want? Even though the match that lit this latest fire began in a different part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, with the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers and the revenge murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian, the people of Gaza have borne the brunt of Israel’s might.

Amidst the murmurs, there has been much talk and anticipation for a Third Intifada. In a world weary of violence, the hope is more for an intifada in line with the First’s civil disobedience and boycott campaigns.

However, as we watch and wait and get lost in analysis, we risk missing the fact that the Third Intifada is already underway and has been rising from day one. What we may have missed, as we stare at our computer and television screens in horror and beseech the Palestinians to rise in a peaceful revolt, are the millions of ordinary men, women and youth around the world who have already started their own intifada on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Decades of occupation later, the world has been waiting and watching for the Palestinian people to reunite under a banner of a peaceful revolution. Perhaps an outcry by the families of the four boys who died on the beach, if they are still alive; a march of thousands in the streets of Gaza, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Tel Aviv, across all the occupied territories and Israel.

Pundits have been predicting a Third Intifada after the last bomb and rocket have been launched, since adding more fuel to an already violent and oppressive situation can only find its way to an explosion. US Secretary of State John Kerry was condemned for his comments that Israel’s aggressions would only lead to a revolt: “Does Israel wants a third intifada?” he asked.

To that we say: We are the Third Intifada. This Intifada is a global one and it is two-fold: As many witnessed the Arab revolts unfold in squares and through social media, we are today witnessing the thousands of revolts taking place in capital cities around the world by the Palestinian diaspora; by Jews around the world protesting against this war in their name; by citizens of the West Bank, Israel, the UK, the US, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Colombia… the list grows longer.

The second layer of this global Intifada has been happening online, as much of our lives have unfolded in recent years. Facebook posts by those who have never before been interested in lands so far away and outside their own world are unprecedented. Technophobes have learnt how to use Twitter and #Gaza and #Israel are the new #black. More importantly, however, are the young voices from Gaza who are posting their nightmares in “140 characters or less” to the world. Young Palestinian activists, like 16-year-old Farah Baker or Mohammed Suliman who are live-tweeting the bombs to us. Courageous Palestinian women like Wejdan Abu Shammala, who in a recent Washington Post editorial spoke of the “awful decisions” she has to make to protect her children from war.

There is no Tahrir Square for them to pour into, there is no safe space. The internet is the safe space, the agora, the commons, where they can speak out. And where we can speak alongside them.

The networked society is overflowing, singling out this debauched war, and there is no ceiling in sight. Members of the global press – whether they like it or not, whether they are suffering from accusations of bias or collusion – are part of this Intifada and are in fact, on the front lines. The media today is all-powerful, despite politically-driven muzzling and censorship. The news will leak against all odds in the world we live in today.

Some may say revolts need a leader, but if we believe this then we haven’t been paying attention. This Intifada has not one, but many leaders. The multitude of people inside and outside Gaza. We are the leaders of the Third Intifada.

In spite of the horrors that Palestinians and Israelis continue to live in, this writer would like to believe that hope does indeed spring eternal. That even though as global citizens we feel that our hands are tied under the might of the powers-that-be, we do in fact have our own power and have been either unwittingly or quite consciously using that power in the form of access and distribution of the new currency: information. Spreading the word, our own form of awareness-raising and revolt on behalf of those who cannot or are unwilling.

There is hope that this intifada will be returned to its rightful owners – the Palestinian and Israeli people who want to live in peace. To those all over the world who would like to see a safe Middle East where their relatives and children can grow. But for now, those owners – first and foremost the innocent victims – are unable to rise. And so, we will take their stories, mourning and the responsibility, and we will rise in a peaceful, information-heavy, global Intifada and wait for them to take it back to the streets of Palestine and Israel when they are good and ready. But for now, look around you: You’re it.

Mayssam Zaaroura is an expert in Middle Eastern and North African affairs and former national editor and senior political journalist in the Middle East. She currently lives and works in Ottawa at an independent consulting firm promoting Good Governance and Democratic Processes in the MENA region. She is a Canadian and British citizen of Palestinian-Lebanese heritage and has lived and worked across several regions of the world.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.