The torture of the youths sparked mainly peaceful protests at first, and calls for democratic reform. On October 23, , Tunisians streamed to the polls for their first free election, in which members of the Ennahdha movement triumph. After 10 years of fighting, which left , dead, al-Assad was able to claim significant victories.
Egyptians remember the 18 days of protests that removed the recently deceased leader from power in Protests against joblessness, corruption, inequality in Tunisia in sparked a regional explosion of popular anger. Ten years ago, a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire. His cousin reflects on that day and what followed. Published On 17 Dec The Tunisian spark On December 17, , a young Tunisian who sold vegetables from a barrow set himself afire to protest against police harassment.
His death on January 4, , unleashed a chain of events that led to national protests and uprisings first in Tunisia, then in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain. Over the past two years similar protests have erupted in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq , and Lebanon. As the pandemic hopefully begins to ebb in , we can expect new ones to break out again. In many Arab countries, these systems failed to provide sufficient public goods or equity.
Political systems privileged elites who monopolized wealth and used the instruments of the state not to promote the public good, but to repress and oppress the citizenry. The breaking of the wall of fear and the piercing of decades of stagnation by populations that suddenly realized their political power unleashed a dreamscape of possibility.
I lived through those early heady days of the Arab uprisings. I was in Beirut working alongside activist colleagues from many Arab countries. I observed then that revolution is not transition. The French Revolution itself descended into violence and resurgent authoritarianism. The revolutions through much of Europe in flashed a glimmer of democratic hope before being summarily extinguished by the powers that were. It took Europe—at least Western Europe—another century to fulfill the promise of those uprisings.
In the Arab world also, the dynamic of public empowerment and its struggle with entrenched elites and exclusionary governance systems is to be measured in decades, not years. But it is a powerful force nonetheless. In the first clearing of its throat a decade ago, it toppled four entrenched leaders and profoundly shook two others.
But the hoped-for transition from Arab uprising to Arab Spring has not yet materialized. Only in Tunisia —and one might add Sudan—has a form of democratic transition taken hold. In two countries—Egypt and Bahrain—the state apparatus, with external support, forced a counterrevolution.
In three others—Libya, Syria and Yemen—neither transition nor effective counterrevolution prevailed, and they descended into civil war and state failure and collapse. In the wake of the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—during which 17 people were killed and more than a dozen injured—students at that high school and across the United States have been galvanized into action. A number of Over time, the PLO has embraced a broader role, claiming to Zionism is a religious and political effort that brought thousands of Jews from around the world back to their ancient homeland in the Middle East and reestablished Israel as the central location for Jewish identity.
While some critics call Zionism an aggressive and Fueled by territorial, religious and political disputes between the two nations, the conflict ended in an effective stalemate and a cease-fire nearly eight years Following years of diplomatic friction and skirmishes between Israel and its neighbors, Israel Defense Forces launched preemptive air strikes that From the inauguration of Donald Trump to the first total solar eclipse to traverse the Lower 48 in nearly a century, was a year for the history books.
Here we review the biggest news in politics, culture and science this year. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. What Is the Arab Spring? Jasmine Revolution The Arab Spring began in December when Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the arbitrary seizing of his vegetable stand by police over failure to obtain a permit.
Arab Spring Aftermath While the uprising in Tunisia led to some improvements in the country from a human-rights perspective, not all of the nations that witnessed such social and political upheaval in the spring of changed for the better.
Muammar Gaddafi In Libya, meanwhile, authoritarian dictator Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown in October , during a violent civil war, and he was tortured literally dragged through the streets and executed by opposition fighters.
Bashar al Assad Similarly, the civil war in Syria that began in the aftermath of the Arab Spring lasted for several years, forcing many to leave the country to seek refuge in Turkey, Greece and throughout Western Europe. The group executed thousands of people, and many others fled the region in fear of their lives.
Recommended for you. Qaddafi Losing Ground. Syria Syria is home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world, with a rich artistic and cultural heritage. Palestine Palestine is a small region of land that has played a prominent role in the ancient and modern history of the Middle East. History of Student Protests In the wake of the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—during which 17 people were killed and more than a dozen injured—students at that high school and across the United States have been galvanized into action.
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