"One Day Ramallah Will Rise Up"

"One Day Ramallah Will Rise Up" is the title of a current column by the provocative Ha'aretz writer, Gideon Levy.

During this same week, Uri Avnery, another Israeli provocateur, entitled his Gush Shalom column, "The Human Spring."

He sees, and clearly feels, the presence of a "hidden mechanism" pushing the world forward in this post-Arab Spring period.

I would not suggest Levy and Avnery conspired to deliver a common theme to our in-boxes during this first week of July.

But there is no doubt that Levy and Avnery have sensed the presence of a "hidden mechanism" of change in Palestine.  It is a change happening in Ramallah, Palestine's temporary capital, and in the rest of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and in Gaza.

Uri Avnery opens his "hidden mechanism" column:

"When asked what he thought about the French Revolution, Zhou Enlai, the Chinese Communist leader, famously answered: 'It's too early to say.'

"This was considered a typical piece of ancient Chinese wisdom -- until somebody pointed out that Zhou did not mean the revolution of 1789, but the events of May 1968, which happened not long before the interview in question.

"Even now it may be too early to judge that upheaval, when students tore up the cobblestones of Paris, confronted the brutal police and proclaimed a new era. It was an early forerunner of what is happening today all over the world."

It was in May of 1968 when young people demanded change they longed for, and focused primarily on freedom.

The Arab Spring, and what follows it, is our current generation's tangible response to this same demand for political freedom.

Gideon Levy's Ha'aretz column connects the 1968 revolution to this generation's Arab Spring and the major changes it is still in the process of developing:

"One day the Palestinian people will rise up against their occupiers. I hope this day comes soon.

"It's true that this scenario seems unrealistic right now. The Palestinians are still bleeding from the second intifada, which only brought disaster upon them (and the Israelis). They are divided and torn, with no real leadership and lacking a fighting spirit, and the world has tired of their distress. The Israeli occupation seems as strong and established as ever, the settlements are growing, and the military is in complete control, with all the world's governments silent and indifferent.

"On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine that this scenario will not materialize. To our south, the Egyptian people are struggling over the nature of their regime, in a way that can only inspire awe. To the north, the Syrian people are also doing this, albeit in a much crueler fashion. Could it be that only the Palestinian people will forever bow their heads, submissively and obediently, to the Israeli jackboot? Don't make the minister of history laugh."