"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest" - Elie Wiesel

The streets in Nablus sat silent from 7:00am to 7:00pm today in protest  of the rising fuel prices.

Our normally chaotic street sat largely silent today. The silence, the lack of horns honking and tires screeching, echoed in the city this morning as strikes began in not just Nablus, but across the West Bank in response to rising fuel costs.

The increase in fuel costs is putting pressure on a country where one in every two people already live in poverty, many of whom have lived in refugee camps for upwards of 70 years, and where unemployment is as high as 80% in some regions, and 57% in the country at large. Fuel prices are increasing the cost of food, hot water, and cost of living in general. For people to whom the cost of fuel directly impacts their work, like bus and taxi drivers, margins of profit are slimming rapidly.

Protests have started outside of Ramallah, the administrative capital, and Tulkarem, where roads have been blocked, and in some areas tires have been burned to block off streets. The protests have been met by little in the way of concessions on the part of President Mahmoud Abbas, who says that little can be done to lower the fuel prices, which are caused by the increasing debt of the Palestinian Authority's administration due largely to a lack of follow-through in aid on the part of the United States and surrounding Arab nations. The protests will continue to be allowed "as long as they remain peaceful and do not harm public interest."

In Nablus though, the quiet on the streets is the only indication of the protests in the rest of the country. And even that drew to a close a few minutes ago, as the strikes came to an end for the day and drivers took to the streets again, honking and screeching their tires as they veer through the city.