Way to Palestinian statehood after the Arab Spring
- Cynthia Wang
- Jun 2, 2014
- 3 min read
Pope Francis’ call for peace and support towards the “State of Palestine” in May 2014 has furthered Palestinians dreams of funding their own country, taking them one step closer.
Since the Jasmine Revolution exploded in Tunisia at the end of 2010, it has motivated the Middle East world’s awareness for reformation, and has therefore inspired the Arab spring.
It’s effect had soon swept through Africa to almost every Arab country. Meanwhile, Palestinians have taken the opportunity during this Arabic reformation and become a UNESCO Section on October 31, 2011.
Moreover, on November 29, 2012, the General Assembly raised another vote to upgrade Palestine as a non-member observer state. Although the United States and Israel expressed their strong opposition, the overwhelming number of advocates from 138 UN members still paved Palestine’s way in their pursuit for independence.
The Arab Spring has worsened Israel’s condition in the Middle East since 2010. Some of the pro-Israel Arab governments have been overthrown, and Israel cannot do anything about it.
Syria has always been anti-Israel. Bashar al-Assad delivered a speech on March 30, 2011 to Israel, and claimed that Israel was the reason for continuous turmoil in Syria.
In contrast, Egypt has been holding a comparatively friendly attitude towards Israel, and in addition, was the only country in the Arab world in which had diplomatic relations with Israel before the Arab spring.
Nevertheless, Mubarak’s regime was overthrown, which was undoubtedly a big shock for Israel. In addition, the end of the Mubarak era brought economic impact for Israel since Egypt had been selling natural gas to Israel at low prices, and Egypt decided to cancel this offer and claimed that Israel should recover the trade deficit, asking for compensation from Israel.
After the turmoil in the Arab world, the United States was eager to implement a new Middle East policy to cope with the situation.
Another reason to restrict Palestinian statehood is their economic condition. So far, the Palestinian still relies highly on the aid from international communities.
According to a Taiwanese blogger, as well as a Middle East researcher Tsung-Sheng Lin, when he walked on the streets in Palestine, he found that apart from touristic and agricultural industries, Palestine has a lack of large-scale manufacturing, and it is difficult to absorb a more productive labour force.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2012 showed that the average annual income of Palestinians was around $ 1,700. The unemployment rate in the West Bank was higher than 20%. Gaza, even worse, had over 30% of unemployed inhabitants.
In addition to external factors, the political disintegration also made Palestinian statehood difficult. Over the past 26 years, the emergence of many Palestinian political parties, including Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas, and al-Qassam Brigades, are not only relatively independent, but each has a relatively autonomous political and armed forces, which made the situation more complicated.
"The time has come to put an end to this situation, which has become increasingly unacceptable," said Pope Francis, reported by the BBC in May 2014. It clearly demonstrated the Pope’s call for Palestinian statehood and the peace progress between Israel and Palestine. However, to overcome the challenges from the internal and external factors still depends upon the cooperation between all Palestinian people and their Government in the future.
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