User Submitted Blog Post: On the edge of The Gaza Intifada?

Dateline: Florentin, March 6, 9:00 a.m.
The occupied territories are teetering on the verge of a new uprising (Intifada, as it is referred to), as a result of increases in internal repression within the PA, and Israel's ongoing military activities in Gaza. But, sitting in my Tel Aviv bureau-cum-hip café in the city's Florentin neighborhood, it feels like I'm a lot closer to Montreal than nearby Tulkarem, or my present home in Ramallah.
I arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after Qalandia's checkpoint was closed off and on for two days, courtesy of Palestinian youth confronting the Israeli army with stones. The West Bank has been in a frenzy of activity since Israel's massive assault on Gaza that left more than 120 Palestinians dead. The outrage the assault produced injected Ramallah's atmosphere of exhausted frustration with a kinetic street energy.
While Ramallah and the rest of the West Bank saw two general strike days - where almost all shops closed, numerous street protests and checkpoint confrontations, Tel Aviv has mostly stayed in its Western political and cultural bubble. It's true that there have been a few protests and several arrests at the Ministry of Defense, and anti-siege critical mass bikes rides, however Israel's Gaza campaign has gone largely unnoticed in a city that's used to turning off the news when it get hot.
Although Tel Aviv is much closer to Gaza than Ramallah, Ramallah's connection to the Strip has brought it to the edge of a third Intifada. In Tel Aviv however, apart from some shameless street art in the hip neighborhood of Florentin that ties personal liberation to occupation resistance, opposition has yet to leave a deeply felt mark.
Walking in a large Ramallah demonstration on Monday that denounced a settler's killing of a Palestinian student at a checkpoint, I was surrounded by flags from almost all the political factions, including Hamas and Fatah. At the back of the march, the once nervous group of PA security had joined the protest, chanting in unison with their guns in the air. A friend in the crowd who's lived through two Intifadas and has a healthy dose of cynicism turned to me saying "we've got all the beginnings of an Intifada going on, but it seems people are just waiting for someone to call it."
It's the "someone to call it" where the gulf begins. While the PA pulled from negotiations on Saturday, agreeing to go back with no demands met on Wednesday, Abbas's pre-state regime suppresses the energy and anger. It's true that Monday's demonstration hit a new level of national unity, being the first West Bank protest I've been at where PA cops haven't attacked people with Hamas flags, yet that more speaks the PA's scrambling to keep control.
Last Sunday, Ramallah saw three demonstrations in response to the fighting in Gaza, all receiving different responses from the PA. The first demo was officially unaligned and saw hundreds of furious people pour into the city center unobstructed by police. Two hours later, a woman's demonstration of Hamas supporters tried to stage a march to Al-Manara -the city's central square, but before getting there they were confronted by hundreds of riot police and PA Special Forces, pepper sprayed and attacked.
The police targeted journalists, barring filming and photos. After being forcibly cut off from the march by a police line waving Kalashnikovs, a good friend and colleague, Arthur Neslen, was attacked and beaten to the ground by 4 cops kicking him and trying to grab his camera.
This time however, the public outcry was too much. By the time Sunday evening's demonstration, organized jointly by Palestinians and Ramallah internationals, marched through streets banging pots and pans, the PA had changed tract - focusing on co-optation. The march doubled in size as it went through the Amari refugee camp and there was feeling of people's willingness to completely break loose. Nonetheless, as the march peaked approaching the Presidential compound, the guards opened the gates and invited the protestors in on condition that they remained quiet.
These paternalistic PA attempts at reconciliation with a Palestinian public are common when the Authority feels threatened, but even this may be too little to late. Abbas is now scrambling to get back to the negotiating table at all costs, forgoing the most basic demands of an Israeli ceasefire. Al Jazeera and Vanity Fair's breaking story of a failed conspiracy plot between parts of the PA - especially head of Fatah security Mohammed Dahlan - to overthrow Hamas just after they won the 2006 elections has only added to the feelings of defiance on the street.
Israel's bloody attack on Gaza has seemingly resurrected a popular feeling and energy of the necessity to resist across the West Bank and the word Intifada is a buzz across Ramallah. The question is; when the uprising happens, will it target the PA as well as Israel, and who will call it?