This essay explores why nonviolent movements in Palestine have failed in the past and how they may succeed in the future. The main arguments are that: There is a fear among Palestinian nonviolent actors of violent Israeli persecution (assassination); There is a lack of belief in the power of nonviolence; That this lack of belief is itself a product of actual, failed nonviolent movements; That those movements failed, in addition to the reasons above, due to the lack of a sympathetic, empowered international or Israeli audience; That the state of Palestine as it is is itself a sort of opponent of the nonviolent movements; That fair protrayal of events by the media and by both small-time and big-time reporters must be the first step in facilitating successful nonviolence in Palestine.
Editor's Note: This essay, originally published in June under the Palestine/Israel news section, has now been relocated to this section as a result of the merging of the Palestine/Israel and Middle East/North Africa news sections.
Author's Updates, 27 August: Since the original publication of this essay in June 2011, Netanyahu's government has made social and political dissent illegal. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians have the legal right to protest the abuses of the Israeli regime. After this law was passed, the Israeli government announced the seizure of another 200 apartment buildings in East Jerusalem and subsequently arrested and prosecuted the dissenters. In these past few days (Aug 24-27) more than 30 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli government. The international media largely covered these events as if they were a reaction to Palestinian aggression, whereas in reality an Israeli airstrike was what breached the most recent peace accords and, far from being violent, unarmed Palestinian practitioners of civil disobedience are now being arrested en masse alongside their Israeli compatriots. During the march to the border, in which 500,000 unarmed Palestinans came to show their support for a Palestinian state, troops fired on the lines of civilians and killed at least 12 Palestinian protesters. In the midst of the Arab spring uprisings, events in Palestine still go largely unreported for fear of reprisal from American government, media, business, and lobbyist authorities. In other nations around the world, countries reaffirm their support for an independent Palestine and cry out for international coverage of human rights abuses at the hands of Netanyahu's Israel, but American media giants still ignore what happens in the Levant, and the struggle described in the essay below continues.
Editor's Note: This essay, originally published in June under the Palestine/Israel news section, has now been relocated to this section as a result of the merging of the Palestine/Israel and Middle East/North Africa news sections.
Author's Updates, 27 August: Since the original publication of this essay in June 2011, Netanyahu's government has made social and political dissent illegal. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians have the legal right to protest the abuses of the Israeli regime. After this law was passed, the Israeli government announced the seizure of another 200 apartment buildings in East Jerusalem and subsequently arrested and prosecuted the dissenters. In these past few days (Aug 24-27) more than 30 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli government. The international media largely covered these events as if they were a reaction to Palestinian aggression, whereas in reality an Israeli airstrike was what breached the most recent peace accords and, far from being violent, unarmed Palestinian practitioners of civil disobedience are now being arrested en masse alongside their Israeli compatriots. During the march to the border, in which 500,000 unarmed Palestinans came to show their support for a Palestinian state, troops fired on the lines of civilians and killed at least 12 Palestinian protesters. In the midst of the Arab spring uprisings, events in Palestine still go largely unreported for fear of reprisal from American government, media, business, and lobbyist authorities. In other nations around the world, countries reaffirm their support for an independent Palestine and cry out for international coverage of human rights abuses at the hands of Netanyahu's Israel, but American media giants still ignore what happens in the Levant, and the struggle described in the essay below continues.
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