The Arab Spring (Arabic: الثورات العربية‎ al-Thuraat al-ʻArabiyy); literally the Arabic Rebellions or the Arab Revolutions) is arevolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010. To date, rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia,[1] Egypt[2] Libya,[3] and Yemen;[4] civil uprisings have erupted in Bahrain[5] andSyria;[6] major protests have broken out in Algeria,[7] Iraq,[8] Jordan,[9] Kuwait,[10] Morocco,[11] and Oman;[12] and minor protests have occurred in Lebanon,[13] Mauritania, Saudi Arabia,[14] Sudan,[15] and Western Sahara.[16] Clashes at the borders of Israel in May 2011,[17] as well as protests by Arab minority in Iranian Khuzestan,[18] have also been inspired by the regional Arab Spring.

The protests have shared techniques of civil resistance in sustained campaigns involving strikes, demonstrations, marches, and rallies, as well as the use of social media to organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and Internet censorship.[19]
Many demonstrations have met violent responses from authorities,[20][21][22] as well as from pro-government militias and counter-demonstrators.[23][24][25] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world has been Ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām ("the people want to bring down the regime").[26]

The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa has become known as the "Arab Spring",[27][28][29] and sometimes as the "Arab Spring and Winter",[30] "Arab Awakening"[31][32][33] or "Arab Uprisings"[34][35] even though not all the participants in the protests are Arab. It was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 following Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment.[36][37] With the success of the protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest sparked by the Tunisian "Burning Man" struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, andYemen,[38] then spread to other countries. The largest, most organised demonstrations have often occurred on a "day of rage", usually Friday after noon prayers.[39][40][41] The protests have also triggered similar unrest outside the region.

During this period of regional unrest, several leaders announced their intentions to step down at the end of their current terms.Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced that he would not seek re-election in 2015,[42] as did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose term ends in 2014,[43] although there have been increasingly violent demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation.[44] Protests in Jordan have also caused the sacking of two successive governments[45][46] by King Abdullah.[47]

The geopolitical implications of the protests have drawn global attention,[48] including the suggestion that some protesters may be nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.[49] Tawakel Karman from Yemen was one of the three laureates of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize as a prominent leader in the Arab Spring. In December 2011, Time magazine named "The Protester" its "Person of the Year".[50] Another award was noted when the Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda, won the 2011 World Press Photo award for his image of a Yemeni woman holding an injured family member, taken during the civil uprising in Yemen on 15 October 2011.[51]

Recent history
The current wave of protests is not an entirely new phenomenon, resulting in part from the activities of dissident activists as well as members of a variety of social and union organizations that have been active for years in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and other countries in the area, as well as in the territory of Western Sahara.[144]

unisia experienced a series of conflicts over the past three years, the most notable occurring in the mining area of Gafsa in 2008, where protests continued for many months. These protests included rallies, sit-ins, and strikes, during which there were two fatalities, an unspecified number of wounded, and dozens of arrests.[144][145] The Egyptian labor movement had been strong for years, with more than 3,000 labor actions since 2004.[146] One important demonstration was an attempted workers' strike on 6 April 2008 at the state-run textile factories of al-Mahalla al-Kubra, just outside Cairo. The idea for this type of demonstration spread throughout the country, promoted by computer-literate working class youths and their supporters among middle-class college students.[146] A Facebook page, set up to promote the strike, attracted tens of thousands of followers. The government mobilized to break the strike through infiltration and riot police, and while the regime was somewhat successful in forestalling a strike, dissidents formed the "6 April Committee" of youths and labor activists, which became one of the major forces calling for the anti-Mubarak demonstration on 25 January in Tahrir Square.[146]

In Algeria, discontent had been building for years over a number of issues. In February 2008, United States Ambassador Robert Ford wrote in a leaked diplomatic cable that Algeria is 'unhappy' with long-standing political alienation; that social discontent persisted throughout the country, with food strikes occurring almost every week; that there were demonstrations every day somewhere in the country; and that the Algerian government was corrupt and fragile.[147] Some have claimed that during 2010 there were as many as '9,700 riots and unrests' throughout the country.[148] Many protests focused on issues such as education and health care, while others cited rampant corruption.[149]

In Western Sahara, the Gdeim Izik protest camp was erected 12 km south-east of El Aaiún by a group of young Sahrawis on 9 October 2010. Their intention was to demonstrate against labor discrimination, unemployment, looting of resources, and human rights abuses.[150] The camp contained between 12,000 and 20,000 inhabitants, but on 8 November 2010 it was destroyed and its inhabitants evicted by Moroccan security forces. The security forces faced strong opposition from some young Sahrawi civilians, and rioting soon spread to El Aaiún and other towns within the territory, resulting in an unknown number of injuries and deaths. Violence against Sahrawis in the aftermath of the protests was cited as a reason for renewed protests months later, after the start of the Arab Spring.[151]

The catalyst for the current escalation of protests was the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi. Unable to find work and selling fruit at a roadside stand, on the 17 December, a municipal inspector confiscated his wares. An hour later he doused himself with gasoline and set himself afire. His death on 4 January[152] brought together various groups dissatisfied with the existing system, including many unemployed, political and human rights activists, labor, trade unionists, students, professors, lawyers, and others to begin the Tunisian Revolution.[144]

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