The 2018–2024 Arab protests, also referred to as the Second Arab Spring, were a series of anti-government protests which began in several Arab world countries in 2018.
In Iraq, the deadliest incident of civil unrest since the fall of Saddam Hussein resulted in its prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi being replaced.
Sustained civil disobedience in Sudan resulted in the overthrow of president Omar al-Bashir in a military coup d'état, the Khartoum massacre, and the transfer of power from a military junta to the Transitional Sovereignty Council but led to a civil war in 2023.
In Algeria, a series of mass protests resulted in the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the postponement of the scheduled presidential election. Other protests also took place in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia, along with economic protests in the Gaza Strip.
Context and background
Tesbih Habbal and Muzna Hasnawi, Syrian editors writing in The Nation in October 2019, argued that the sustained street protests in the Arab world since 2018 constituted a second wave of the process that started with the 2010–2011 Arab Spring. Syrian protestors in October 2019 held signs stating, "Syria—Egypt—Iraq: You've revived the spirit of the Arab people, from the [Atlantic] Ocean to the [Persian] Gulf!" Habbal and Hansawi described the process as having "profoundly changed the political consciousness of the region", overcoming fear of political activity and "setting a crucial precedent for challenging the persistence of authoritarianism". Habbal and Hansawi argued that the October 2019 protests in Syria "[proved] that even ruthless repression and tyranny cannot deter the resistance."
Habbal and Hansawi argued that the new wave of protests frequently included usage of the early Arab Spring slogan "Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam" (The people want the fall of the regime). The protests were often described as being inherently "anti-systemic" covering the entirety of the political establishment rather than opposition to a single policy; fueling this is large scale unemployment (specifically youth unemployment), as well as frustration towards many government policies, reliance on international aid for basic necessities, corruption and reliance of hydrocarbons (fossil fuels), which all led to discontent towards the often cronyistic system widely in use in Middle Eastern countries.
Names
The alternative names "second Arab Spring", "new Arab Spring" and "Arab Summer" refer to a similarity with the preceding Arab Spring wave of pro-democracy protests which took place in the early 2010s. However, in this wave of protests "the similarities and differences suggest more an upgrading than a replay of the Arab Spring." The wider call for democracy and human rights was replaced by more day-to-day demands, on issues including excessive costs of living and high unemployment rates.
Timeline by country
Morocco
The 2017–2018 Moroccan protests began in Jerada in eastern Morocco following the deaths of two miners, with protesters decrying poor standards of living. While the country was mainly spared from the violence seen in other Arab countries, it still occasionally saw socioeconomic and anti-corruption demonstrations. Methods of protesting included mostly young ultras chanting political slogans at Moroccan soccer club stadiums.
Socioeconomic conditions continued to deteriorate as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, protests in Fnideq against the closure of the borders with Ceuta and Melilla were suppressed by police, with authorities claiming that the protests violated the state of health emergency imposed in response to the pandemic. In July 2021, local authorities in Sidi Bennour confiscated a food cart belonging to a 25-year-old man, Yassine Lekhmidi, as he wasn't wearing a face mask. He paid a fine, but the police did not return his cart. As a result, Lekhmidi self-immolated in an act of protest and died of his injuries on 6 August. His death led to demonstrations in Sidi Bennour which garnered nationwide attention, but otherwise failed to make any significant changes in the political landscape.
Jordan
The 2018 Jordanian protests started as a general strike organized by more than 30 trade unions on 31 May 2018 after the government of Hani Mulki submitted a new tax law to Parliament. The bill followed IMF-backed austerity measures adopted by Mulki's government since 2016 that aimed to tackle Jordan's growing public debt. Although Jordan had been relatively unscathed from the violence that swept the region following the 2011 Arab Spring, its economy had taken a hit from the surrounding turmoil and from an influx of a large number of Syrian refugees into the country. Jordan also hosts a large contingent of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, further straining its finances. The UNHCR places Jordan as the world's second largest host of refugees per capita.
The day following the strike on the 31st of May, the government raised fuel and electricity prices responding to an increase in international oil prices. This led to crowds of protesters pouring onto the 4th circle in Amman, near the Prime Ministry's offices that night. Other Jordanians also gathered across the country in protest of the measure in unprecedented large numbers. On the 1st of June King Abdullah intervened and ordered the freeze of the price hikes; the government acquiesced but said the decision would cost the treasury $20 million. The protests continued for four days until Mulki submitted his resignation to the King on the 4th of June, and Omar Razzaz, his Education Minister, became prime minister. Protests only ceased after Razzaz announced his intention of withdrawing the new tax bill.
The protests have not been led by traditional opposition groups like the Muslim Brotherhood or leftists but by diverse crowds from the middle and poor classes. Although some protesters set aflame tires and blocked roads multiple nights, protests were largely peaceful and few casualties were reported. They were staged after daylight hours as it was during the month of Ramadan.
Tunisia
The 2018 Tunisian protests were a series of protests occurring throughout Tunisia. Beginning January 2018, protests erupted in multiple towns and cities across Tunisia over issues related to the cost of living and taxes. As of 9 January, the demonstrations had claimed at least one life, and revived worries about the fragile political situation in Tunisia.
The Popular Front, an alliance of leftist opposition parties, called for continued protests against the government's "unjust" austerity measures while Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed denounced the violence and called for calm, claiming that he and his government believe 2018 "would be the last difficult year for Tunisians".
A new series of protests started on 15 January 2021, amidst the 10th anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution. Thousands rioted in cities and towns across Tunisia, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police and army in several cities and the arrests of hundreds of people.
After 7 months of discontinuous protests, on 25 July, President Kais Saied sacked the prime minister and froze the parliament which resulted in a political crisis.
Iraq
The 2018–2019 Iraqi protests over deteriorating economic conditions and state corruption started in July 2018 in Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities, mainly in the central and southern provinces. During the nationwide protests erupting in October 2019, Iraqi security forces killed over 500 people and over 27,000 have been injured, leading Iraq's president Barham Salih to call the actions of security forces "unacceptable". Some police have also been killed in the protests. The protests are the deadliest unrest in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with the death toll reaching 511 by 2 January 2020 and 669 by 13 January 2020.
Algeria
The 2019 Algerian protests, also called Revolution of Smiles or Hirak Movement, began on 16 February 2019, ten days after Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his candidacy for a fifth presidential term in a signed statement. These protests, without precedent since the Algerian Civil War, have been peaceful and led the military to insist on Bouteflika's immediate resignation, which took place on 2 April 2019. By early May, a significant number of power-brokers close to the deposed administration, including the former president's younger brother Saïd, had been arrested.
Egypt
The 2019 Egyptian protests consisted of protests by thousands of people in Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta and five other Egyptian cities starting on 20 and 21 September 2019 in which the protestors called for President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to be removed from power. Security forces responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and live bullets and, as of 6 October 2019, 3000 arrests had been made, based on data from the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Prominent arrestees included human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Massry, journalist and former leader of the Constitution Party Khaled Dawoud and two professors of political science at Cairo University, Hazem Hosny and Hassan Nafaa. The wave of arrests was the biggest in Egypt since Sisi formally became president in 2014. Human Rights Watch called for all those arrested for peacefully expressing their opinions to be released immediately. Amnesty International described the Sisi government being "shaken to its core" by 20–21 September protests and that the authorities had "launched a full-throttle clampdown to crush demonstrations and intimidate activists, journalists and others into silence".
Two thousand people, including Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) representatives, protested in Khartoum on 26 September in support of Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan, a Sudanese anti-Islamist student detained by Egyptian authorities, who gave a forced confession on MBC Masr television. The SPA stated, "the era when Sudanese citizens were humiliated inside or outside their country has gone and will never return". The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the Egyptian ambassador and Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan was freed on 2 October 2019.
On the evening of 2 October, during the lead up to the 2023 Egyptian presidential election, a Nation's Future Party rally in Mersa Matruh turned into anti-Sisi protests, with protesters burning photos of him and chanting anti-Sisi slogans.
Palestine
A series of economic protests in Gaza began in February 2019, and it was initiated with the popular calls "We want to live" and "Revolt of the hungry" by groups of civilians and activists. The group has been nicknamed the 14 March movement.
The protests aim at the overall dire conditions of living in the Gaza Strip. Half of the 2 million residents live in poverty. Civilians claimed that the nonviolent protests were not meant to threaten the current ruling power, but rather asking to improve social and economic conditions. Among their requests, one is to strengthen labour organizations to safeguard workers’ rights, ease taxes, reduce the extremely high costs of living, and establish check and balance mechanisms to contrast corruption within the private sector. The majority of the protestors were young people who cried out about the urgency of labour reforms. According to the World Bank, Gaza's economic conditions are in decline every year, with a rate of youth unemployment of 70 percent.
Over the previous decade, Gazans were already dependent on external humanitarian aid. The already difficult situation owing to internal mismanagement also worsened due to US President Donald Trump's "drastic cuts to US-funded Palestinian aid programme", the continued wars initiated by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against Israel and subsequent disproportional Israeli responses, and the lack of support from the Palestinian Authority.
The peaceful protests were brutally crushed by the ruling Hamas, which dispatched security forces to disperse people. The neutralization by Hamas saw a spillover of violence: there have been reports of armed patrols breaking into people's homes, mass arrests and beatings in Gaza City, Jabaliya refugee camp, Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah. Although there are no killings recorded, over 1000 people got threatened, beaten, and detained. Journalists, photographers and activists were forbidden to cover the manifestation. Local correspondents who were able to document parts of the protests have been assaulted by Hamas officers.