The dignity of Palestinians will resurrect the Arab Spring

Palestinians have reignited an urge for freedom that is irrepressible, and will spread all over.

About 10 years ago, a desperate act of protest against state violence by a single citizen, Mohamed Bouazizi, ignited in Tunisia, and then across the Middle East, an unprecedented uprising that came to be known as the Arab Spring. Bouazizi’s dignity and sacrifice not only served as a call to action to millions fed up with state oppression and abuse across the region, but also finally – albeit temporarily – turned the international community’s attention to their plight. The Arab Spring, however, did not succeed in delivering democracy, justice and equality to all peoples of the region. Indeed, as we “celebrated” its 10th anniversary earlier this year, many talks, discussions and interviews were organised to try and determine what went wrong with the 2011 democracy movement.