RAMALLAH, West Bank – Three weeks into Israel's bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip, West Bank Palestinians and Israeli Arabs are beginning to display the kind of fury and cohesion that Israel hasn't seen since the so-called second intifada, or uprising — a five-year-long grind of violence, notorious for suicide bombings and brutal crackdowns.
In the West Bank, the Ramallah municipality has papered billboards with signs that read, "We are all Gaza." A large screen hanging on a building downtown shows a montage of children suffering in the enclave.
Last week, 10,000 Palestinians marched on an Israeli checkpoint at Qalandiya in the West Bank, hurling firebombs and burning tires.
Arab citizens of Israel have staged demonstrations in Nazareth, Haifa, Umm el-Fahem and Sakhnin. They've declared a general strike.
In Jerusalem, groups of Arab demonstrators have clashed repeatedly with police in the Old City and in east Jerusalem neighborhoods, leading to hundreds of arrests.
At the beginning of the Israel-Gaza escalation, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas tried to tamp down tensions. After three Israeli teenagers disappeared in the West Bank in mid-June, Abbas offered full cooperation to the Israeli security forces who made sweeping arrests in the West Bank.
Once the teens' bodies were discovered outside Hebron and Hamas then began firing rockets into Israel, Abbas urged a diplomatic solution to the crisis and asked Hamas, "What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?"
But last week, with the death toll in Gaza mounting daily, Abbas swung to Hamas' position. "No one in the world will live in safety and stability while the children of Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Palestinian children everywhere do not live in safety and stability," he said.
Two days later, at least 10,000 Palestinians took to the streets in Ramallah. One of the organizers, Mohamad Rabah, said he was inspired to see so many countrymen marching alongside him. At age 28, he's never been to Gaza or Jerusalem. "I was proud that all the people got united," said Rabah, who works with young people in Ramallah. "I felt we are connected with Gaza again."
