Eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed, and almost one thousand injured in last week’s clashes with Israeli soldiers across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Are we on the brink of another Intifada (Uprising), let alone the collapse of the peace process?

What started as a protest for the release of Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli jails is clearly escalating into a flammable expression of Palestinian tension, anger, and disbelief in Israel’s will to put an end to the conflict; Barak’s policies of non-compliance and postponement have finally pushed the Palestinian people to their limits.

A continuation of illegal settlement expansion, an unconditional rejection to the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, an unjustifiable delay in the implementation of interim phase redeployment, and the illegal annexation of Palestinian territories (including Jerusalem), are among the most evident contributory factors to the current tensions in Palestinian areas.

Barak’s recent decision to suspend talks in Stockholm, as an expression of protest against Palestinian unrest, is a “decoy” to his own sin of derailing the peace talks.

Defusing tensions and getting the process back on track can only be achieved with a clear and unconditional commitment by Israel to abide by the provisions of international law, implement UN Resolutions 242, 181, 338, and 194, and, unquestionably, release all Palestinian political prisoners. It is Barak’s call to make a choice between a new Intifada and a new era of peace.