Palestinian reaction to events in Iran

I was recently approached by Foreign Policy magazine and asked to write an article about the reaction on the Palestinian street to the turmoil in Iran. While I initially expected to find some people who saw a link between the Iranian’s calls for freedom and the Palestinian fight for independence, the reality of this perspective was much less than one would think. I talked to many people from a broad slice of society and found some indifference, much support for Iran and Ahmadinejad because of the support of the Palestinian cause, and some intellectual analysis among the general population.

Ignoring the Green Revolution by Lubna Takruri

Ignoring the Green Revolution
With so much at stake, why don’t Palestinians care about Iran?

BY LUBNA TAKRURI | JUNE 29, 2009

Foreign Policy Magazine

Last Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where old men sat at sidewalk coffee shops with cards and hookahs, and the city’s upper crust sipped cappuccinos to trance music in upscale eateries, Palestinians spoke of the dollar’s fluctuations, Israel’s latest military activities, and even Michael Jackson’s passing. They touched on nearly everything – with one notable exception: the volcanic protests in Iran. Whereas the drama on the streets of Tehran has captivated the world, here, the news was hardly noticed. “We have bigger problems of our own,” was the collective reply from one cafe.

Palestinians are accustomed to their double curses of occupation and corruption, and they’re used to watching an unending routine of election protests elsewhere in the Middle East. This time, however, their indifference is harder to explain. Although Israelis see Iran as their greatest threat, Palestinians tend to view it as their best international protector. Power shifts in Tehran, whether through war or internal unrest, could have reverberations in Palestine. A weakened Iran, for example, might offer less support for Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, thereby tipping the balance of power in favor of its Western-backed rival faction, Fatah.

Memory of First Intifada – Hebron

I recently asked my uncle to dig up this old VHS tape from 1991 during the first Palestinian intifada. The uprising, from the late 1980s until the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, was a time of national unity against the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. Many believe it led to the beginnings of progress towards peace (which never did end up materializing, at least not on a permenant basis).

In contrast, the second intifada, or the Al Aqsa intifada, from September 2000 until about 2005, brought the beginnings of the current day inter-factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas, more Israeli checkpoints, more illegal settlements in the West Bank, and a new level of despair that the world will ever see a Palestinian state.

Here, then, is the clip from 1991. A young man is caught and beaten by Israeli soldiers in Hebron. Watch as he looks left, looks right, and……