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As many Palestinians around the globe, I have spent the last few weeks following the uprisings in the Arab world on TV, overwhelmed with hope, enthusiasm, belief…and frustration. I grew up with the deep belief that our struggle for freedom was not only about territory. We were fighting to ensure a number of fundamental human values will prevail. We were fighting for justice, genuine democracy, dignity. In our quest, we aimed at freeing Palestine from the occupation but also allow it to rebuild the ties with its essence: pluralism, humanity, tolerance. We were fighting against zionism as an ideology that leads to exclusiveness, and exclusion, that spreads negation and destruction, discriminations and apartheid. And we thought that by fighting for pluralism in Palestine, and by accepting pluralism within the national movement, we were spreading the seeds of democracy in all of our region. We were democrats without a State, and we had a message to deliver. But years going by, and our house, the PLO, being neglected and weakened by divisions and competition, our pluralism was no longer a strength, as we were unable to dialogue respectfully and to speak with one voice. We doubted each others’ intentions and agendas, we criticized each others’ martyrs, and heroes. We forgot our common flag and fought each for our own colour. And from democracy we went to internal division. After the Nakba and the Naksa and Palestinian resurrection. After years of struggle, after Jordan, Lebanon, and two Intifadas. After imposing the Palestinian cause around the globe. After having lost so many of our historical leaders and so many of our resistants. We betrayed ourselves. We stopped believing. We lost faith in our own capacity to create miracles.

As I am watching these revolutions so close to us, and yet so far from us, I can not but ask myself, how come we became bystanders of a history we were at the forefront of. The Palestinian people fought for so long and made such sacrifices that it is normal to have fatigue or despair. It happened in the past and we always overcame. We disappeared from geography and we were on the verge of being erased from history. And defying all odds, we built a national movement that has changed all the past equations. But this time is different. People still fight every day for their dignity, their hopes and dreams, they continue demonstrating against the wall; in Jerusalem their fight for their homes is a fight for the Palestinian presence, and Palestinians remain in Palestine despite the siege in Gaza, and settlement activity and settlers’ harassment in the West Bank. And Palestinians in Israel continue fighting discriminations. And refugees continue to nourish their Palestinian identity even when the political bodies seem to have forgotten them. But where is our collective hope?

« Are you Gazan or West Banker, Jerusalemite or Israeli Palestinian, are you a refugee or not, are you…? » I am a Palestinian from Jaffa, my parents were Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a country they left following the Israeli invasion in 1982. After 1948, some of my family went to Gaza, others to West Bank, other in exile. I was born in exile and grew up in Ramallah and studied in Jerusalem. I have been living for the last years in Europe. This is a typical Palestinian story. It shows that our identity is linked to a cause not to geography.

I am a Palestinian. Simple words that need to be embodied. We still have it in us. The hope, the willingness to fight once again despite decades of sacrifices, the capacity to overcome our divisions and to reshape our unity. But for all of this to be possible, we need to do what others have done in Tunisia and Egypt and elsewhere around the globe. Confront our fears, choose our fights, and empower the people. We need to do it now, as the wheels of history are turning and instead of being on the vehicle, we are under it!

There are ideas, and experiences and examples all over the globe of Palestinian resistance. There is so much to learn from other peoples who have risen up to defend their rights. Political leaders should stop thinking that populations can not understand, or are by definition unreasonable. A population that is invested in decision-making understands compromises, and efficiency, and result-oriented approach. A population that is not invested in decision-making turns to ideologies, and simplifications. Look how reasonable where the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Despite past and future difficulties, and uncertain transition periods, the peoples of these countries continue doing their utmost to preserve the fragile balance of a revolution that seeks hope and not chaos. And while making the impossible possible, they were ready to achieve compromises on the instruments, not on the goals.

The major question now is how to change the balance of power on the ground, how to better confront this occupation and the injustice imposed on us 6 decades ago? The first element of any equation is to restore our unity, not based on void speeches or slogans, but on a deep understanding of our common belonging, respect for Palestinian pluralism, upholding human rights, and working towards genuine democracy where power can not be seized or hijacked and all political bodies remain accountable to the people on a regular basis. Palestinians want to be fully involved in the decision-making process. As they offer huge sacrifices in their quest for freedom, they can not tolerate for this freedom to be diminished by people that are supposed to represent them and their struggle. Unity is too serious a matter to be left for political parties to discuss it behind closed doors, and with undeclared agendas, or focus on power sharing. Only peoples can be entrusted with unity and democracy, they should pursue and shield them, as they are essential conditions for the success of any struggle for justice, and any debate on these questions, and all decisions, should be made with the full involvement of the people.

In Palestine and abroad, it is time for the people to take action and nobody should stop it. A power that fears its own people does not deserve to last and this is something that all political entities and all states should understand. We are ready once again to rise against the Israeli occupation, under its different forms: siege, settlements, exile, checkpoints, house demolitions, discriminations. We are ready to fight once more to protect our cause, to be faithful to the past, and to pave the way for another future. We are ready…and we await a signal to go beyond a fragmented destiny, land and resistance, and to launch a common fight for freedom! But looking closer, I think I saw a signal.

I look at my TV and I see crowds of people in the streets chanting and demonstrating peacefully. They have little slogans, many jokes and an unbreakable will. They carry one flag and one cause despite their differences. They defied their fear and overcame their divisions to ensure freedom will prevail. In a few weeks they have done what nobody else was able to do in decades. They did not wait for reforms, or political parties, trade unions or NGOs to set their game straight. The people went to the streets and knew everybody would have to follow.

I have nothing more to say…and there is so much left for us to do!