Palestyńskie przedwiośnie

Abstract

Between August 2012 and March 2013 cities of the West Bank witnessed demonstrations that seemed to be a prelude to “Palestinian Spring”. Triggered by an economic crisis the demonstrations have quickly developed into a protest calling for a drastic political change including a withdrawal from Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and disbandment of Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The protest however turned out to be a fiasco. Not only demonstrators failed to make a desired difference but also have given Israel an opportunity to reassure its upper-hand and strengthen its superiority. The purpose of this paper is to present the most important socio-political and legal determinants that defused Palestinian protest and secured Israeli conditioned equilibrium of Israeli – Palestinian relationships as well as to rethink the issue with a relation to renewed negotiations. The first part of the study tackles the dynamics of the protest, its context and the reaction of the parties. The study deals with the factors that contained an escalation of turmoil, identifies tools of suppression used by Israel and, by putting an emphasis on economical dependence of Palestinians, analyzes conditions of political status quo preservation. Having considered the above dynamics the paper argues that both, the very survival of Palestinian National Authority and a continuity of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation depend on Israeli ability to single-handed maintenance of this balance, more precisely, ability to impose arbitrary decisions. The paper considers above condition to be the main obstacle to rank-and-file non-governmental struggle for the Palestinian independence. The second part of the study relates previously identified phenomena to a formula and a matter of the renewed negotiations as well as the unilateral policy of PNA. In conclusion, the paper also gives a notion for possible future developments.