“Palestinians eagerness for national liberation has reached a point where they are charging at occupation soldiers with knives and screwdrivers. This is not another round of unrest. The intifada may well be underway.”

Fifteen years after the Second Intifada, after right-wing Ariel Sharon, an Israeli politician whose hands were drenched in Palestinian blood, visited Al-Aqsa Mosque, guarded by Israeli forces, the conflict is in a similar situation. Even Israeli analysts are predicting that a Third Intifada is coming.

Following the clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers over access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the status quo in Israel and Palestine is not viable. The Zionist state cannot continue to enforce its apartheid system on Palestinians without expecting a reaction. Moreover, the lack of prospects of a solution from the U.S.-backed peace process, which has proved useless after 22 years of negotiations, means Palestinians will not be given their rights; they have to take them.

On the Israeli side, the right-wing, particularly the ultra nationalists and religious extremists, have taken control of the Israeli government and even public opinion. This extremism manifests itself in the popularity of the likes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and increased violent attacks by settlers on Palestinian civilians. 

Israel’s extremism and stubbornness to continue building illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank is angering the Zionist state’s most powerful and perhaps only unquestioning ally— the United States. Israeli media reported, citing government officials, that President Obama will no longer veto condemnations of Israel at the United Nations Security Council. 

If Israel’s best friend is angry, imagine the feelings of Palestinians who have to live behind the apartheid wall between checkpoints and under the threat of violence of religious fanatics, who burned an entire family to death last August.

Given these developments, it was natural for Palestinians to re-launch their resistance— from peaceful protesting to rock throwing to armed struggle. Palestinians eagerness for national liberation has reached a point where they are charging at occupation soldiers with knives and screwdrivers. This is not another round of unrest. The intifada may well be underway.

And Palestinian resilience is already paying dividends. Netanyahu is in a difficult place, where he risks further angering the Americans by escalating in the West Bank, but ultra-right wing politicians with whom he formed a coalition are pressuring him to start an all out crackdown on Palestinians.

The prime minister opted for escalation by giving the occupation army a green light to start an arrest campaign targeting protesters. But the Israeli repression has only fueled Palestinian resistance.

The Israeli government knows that deploying its troops to the heart of Palestinian towns will turn them into targets, fuel Palestinian anger and fan the flames of the unrest. 

Thousands of pro-settlement Israelis protested against Netanyahu in front of his residence in Jerusalem, demanding increased security. And the prime minister is unable to deliver or satisfy his own political base.

The government is still using terms like “violence” and “terrorism” to describe the renewed Palestinian struggle. The truth is that Israel is facing an uprising born from the rage of the people it has oppressed for decades. It’s an intifada. 

-Nabil Haissam is The Arab American News’ correspondent in Beirut.