- "It’s good that the people of Egypt expresses its determination to achieve what was accomplished by the Tunisian people," said a student, Mohammad Taha, installed in a cafe in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank.
- "What is happening now in Arab countries is natural, the Arab peoples are rising after decades of oppression and repression by dictatorial governments," said Mohammad Mourrar, 20, a student at Bir Zeit University, for whom the Algerian government is next on the list.
- Most students of Bir Zeit deem the awakening of the Arab people occurs much later.
- "The Arab leaders do not simply cling to their seats, but they try to transmit more power to their children, which is the strongest evidence of the deprivation of the right of peoples to decide their fate", said Shadi Sadr, a communications student.
- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is reportedly preparing his son Gamal to succeed him, the image of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad succeeded by his son Bashar in 2000.
- The uprisings in the Arab world" are the best proof that people are not stupid and it is not logical that the presidents of some states remain in power for more than 20 or 30 years without any change and getting 99, 99% of the votes," noted one student, Nuwar Nazzal.
- "Is it conceivable that the masses of demonstrators in the streets today represent only 0.01% who did not vote for them?" She adds.
- Jokes are flourishing in the Palestinian population teetering on the Arab regimes.
- One of them, as a game, proposes to nominate the Arab leader the most worthy of winning a one way ticket to Saudi Arabia where the deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali sought refuge.
- Another introduced Mr. Ben Ali calling a music show on the radio to dedicate to Mubarak a tube called "I’ll wait for you."
- But the Palestinian Authority, closely linked to the Egyptian regime, both for negotiations with Israel and efforts of reconciliation with Hamas, did not hear it that way.
- President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday called the Egyptian head of state to express his solidarity with Egypt and his commitment to its security and stability," said a statement from Abbas’ office.
- Sunday, Palestinian police dispersed a rally of several dozen people outside the Egyptian embassy in Ramallah.
- Human Rights Watch denounced the intervention in a statement, adding that "security forces of the Palestinian Authority had repeatedly called one of the organizers and ordered him to remove information about the event he had created on Facebook".
- Although they consider their situation as radically different from that of other Arabs because of the Israeli occupation, Palestinian youths also discuss the role played by the websites to mobilize the population.
- "What has the most favored the outbreak of the revolution in Egypt and Tunisia, are Facebook and Twitter," said Iba Ftiha, "these social networks have enabled young people to organize themselves far from the eyes of authorities."
- But for Ammoun al-Sheikh, another student, "it is only the instrument and not the engine of the revolution, otherwise the youth would not have continued to protest after they were restrained" by the authorities.
- Ennaharonline/ M. O.
