During the Arab Spring revolutions, and in the years leading up to them, graffiti was commonly used as a form of popular protest. Street art was an effective way to spread the message of political rebellion, since it is in public view. Furthermore, since authoritarian Arab leaders had poured significant resources into public beautification projects in order to demonstrate their absolute ownership of the public space, street art was a way for the people to reclaim that public space. During the Arab Spring, street art became a prominent form of protest in many Arab countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria. An earlier example of this reclamation of public space is graffiti painted during the Palestinian intifada during the late 1980s. While Israeli state censorship prevented the production of a lot of Palestinian protest art, Palestinians were able to paint graffiti in order to spread their message without being stopped by the state. Also, the anonymity of the art form made it a stand-in for the collective spirit of Palestinians.