Lack of freedom of movement for Palestinians has stifled economic and social development and brought back a sense of despair that the slim hopes offered by the Oslo process can no longer contain. These grim realities have destroyed any hope in the future and rendered the prospect of a tiny Palestinian statelet, perhaps under permanent Israeli domination, deeply unattractive for most Palestinians. Experienced observers of the Middle East predict that Palestinian protests will not die down soon. The number of Palestinian dead in just the past three weeks exceeds those from the first five months of the Intifada. It would be a shame if the lesson that Yitzhak Rabin learned and the courage he showed were so quickly forgotten.
Violence is the awful symptom, but occupation is the disease that still needs to be cured.
Ali Abunimah is vice president of the Arab-American Action Network and is Palestinian.