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Published on Alternet(http://www.alternet.org)
Home> Why Americans Are Mostly Ignorant of the Nonviolent Palestinian
Resistance Movement
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Why Americans Are Mostly Ignorant of the Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance
Movement
ByZaid Jilani[1]/ AlterNet[2]
October 16, 2015
A wave of violence has hit Israel and the Palestinian territories, and there
are rumors that it is the spark of a third intifada, an uprising against the
occupation. Many are questioning[3]why young Palestinians are choosing to
use such violent tactics as knife attacks against Israelis. Some wonder why
Palestinians have not followed a path of nonviolent resistance in the spirit
of Gandhi and King instead.
In fact, for many years, there has been a nonviolent Palestinian movement. A
film about it, Five Broken Cameras, was nominated for an Oscar two years
ago. The film documents protests in the West Bank city of Bil'in, which has
been the site of major settlement grabs by the Israelis.
Watch it below:
For years, settlers have moved into the surrounding territories and grabbed
Palestinian land to build apartments. The Israeli military protects the
settlers and has helped construct a wall to carve out lands for them to
colonize. The Palestinians in Bil'in have chosen not to respond with rockets
or rifles; instead they model their resistance on Gandhian nonviolence.
As Five Broken Camerasdocuments, the Israeli military response to the
protests has been violent, with tear gas and rubber bullets and sometimes
live ammunition. During the course of the film, Palestinians are injured and
even killed by the Israeli military, while Israeli settlers burn their olive
trees and harass their town. Many Palestinian families have their homes
raided in the middle of the night, so that the military can arrest
individuals it identifies as leading the demonstrations.
Despite all of this, Bil'lin continues to be one of the centers of
Palestinian nonviolent resistance. Several times a month, I get emails from
activists there documenting weekly protests. On September 25, shortly before
the wave of violence broke out, activists in Bil'in were struck with rubber
bullets, sound grenades and tear gas. Here are some photos of their action
and the resulting injuries:
The nonviolent movement in Bil'in, as well as the violent military
crackdowns, rarely make international news. The Oscar nomination for Five
Broken Cameraswas a rare moment when the Palestinian nonviolent movement
received any recognition. From 2002 to 2005, the Palestinian nonviolent
movement that was going on alongside the violent resistance of the Second
Intifada received only three feature news articles[4] in the New York Times.
Mubarak Awad, one of the pioneers of the Palestinian nonviolent movement
during the First Intifada, was arrested and deported[5]despite the fact he
never committed an act of violence. Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, which has disavowed violence against
Israel, is met with massive settlement construction[6]and deprivations of
Palestinians in the West Bank. Even when American citizens[7] are shot and
killed during demonstrations, the State Department does not respond harshly
to the Israeli state.
Although Palestinians are injured, killed or displaced by the Israeli state
and/or the settlement movement frequently, the issue only really reaches
Western media when there are violent uprisings that injure or kill Israelis.
Google Trends data of news headlines shows that the three significant spikes
of Western news coverage of the Palestinians was during the past three
Israel-Gaza wars.
The message the West sends by ignoring the Palestinian nonviolent movement
is that if Palestinians want attention paid to their plight, they have to
commit violent acts.
American politicians condemning[8]Palestinians for violent uprisings could
help to prevent the violence if they started paying attention to, and
legitimizing, the nonviolent movement, including the boycott movement[9]. As
President Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make
violent revolution inevitable."
Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet staff writer. Follow @zaidjilani[10]on Twitter.
.
Share on FacebookShare
Share on TwitterTweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'.[11]
[12]
.
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Source
URL:http://www.alternet.org/world/why-americans-are-mostly-ignorant-nonviole
nt-palestinian-resistance-movement
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/zaid-jilani-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.680636
[4]
https://electronicintifada.net/content/invisibility-palestinian-nonviolent-r
esistance-new-york-times/5775
[5] http://www.newsweek.com/where-palestinian-gandhi-263653
[6]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/world/middleeast/as-homes-in-west-bank-set
tlement-are-demolished-netanyahu-approves-more.html?_r=0
[7] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.622615
[8]
http://www.aipac.org/news-hub?id=%7B9C317D44-1626-41D3-9D78-1DC9C9B20EC8%7D
[9] http://www.bdsmovement.net/
[10] https://twitter.com/zaidjilani
[11] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Why Americans Are
Mostly Ignorant of the Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance Movement
[12] http://www.alternet.org/
[13] http://www.alteAlternet
Published on Alternet(http://www.alternet.org)
Home> Why Americans Are Mostly Ignorant of the Nonviolent Palestinian
Resistance Movement
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Why Americans Are Mostly Ignorant of the Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance
Movement
ByZaid Jilani[1]/ AlterNet[2]
October 16, 2015
A wave of violence has hit Israel and the Palestinian territories, and there
are rumors that it is the spark of a third intifada, an uprising against the
occupation. Many are questioning[3]why young Palestinians are choosing to
use such violent tactics as knife attacks against Israelis. Some wonder why
Palestinians have not followed a path of nonviolent resistance in the spirit
of Gandhi and King instead.
In fact, for many years, there has been a nonviolent Palestinian movement. A
film about it, Five Broken Cameras, was nominated for an Oscar two years
ago. The film documents protests in the West Bank city of Bil'in, which has
been the site of major settlement grabs by the Israelis.
Watch it below:
For years, settlers have moved into the surrounding territories and grabbed
Palestinian land to build apartments. The Israeli military protects the
settlers and has helped construct a wall to carve out lands for them to
colonize. The Palestinians in Bil'in have chosen not to respond with rockets
or rifles; instead they model their resistance on Gandhian nonviolence.
As Five Broken Camerasdocuments, the Israeli military response to the
protests has been violent, with tear gas and rubber bullets and sometimes
live ammunition. During the course of the film, Palestinians are injured and
even killed by the Israeli military, while Israeli settlers burn their olive
trees and harass their town. Many Palestinian families have their homes
raided in the middle of the night, so that the military can arrest
individuals it identifies as leading the demonstrations.
Despite all of this, Bil'lin continues to be one of the centers of
Palestinian nonviolent resistance. Several times a month, I get emails from
activists there documenting weekly protests. On September 25, shortly before
the wave of violence broke out, activists in Bil'in were struck with rubber
bullets, sound grenades and tear gas. Here are some photos of their action
and the resulting injuries:
The nonviolent movement in Bil'in, as well as the violent military
crackdowns, rarely make international news. The Oscar nomination for Five
Broken Cameraswas a rare moment when the Palestinian nonviolent movement
received any recognition. From 2002 to 2005, the Palestinian nonviolent
movement that was going on alongside the violent resistance of the Second
Intifada received only three feature news articles[4] in the New York Times.
Mubarak Awad, one of the pioneers of the Palestinian nonviolent movement
during the First Intifada, was arrested and deported[5]despite the fact he
never committed an act of violence. Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, which has disavowed violence against
Israel, is met with massive settlement construction[6]and deprivations of
Palestinians in the West Bank. Even when American citizens[7] are shot and
killed during demonstrations, the State Department does not respond harshly
to the Israeli state.
Although Palestinians are injured, killed or displaced by the Israeli state
and/or the settlement movement frequently, the issue only really reaches
Western media when there are violent uprisings that injure or kill Israelis.
Google Trends data of news headlines shows that the three significant spikes
of Western news coverage of the Palestinians was during the past three
Israel-Gaza wars.
The message the West sends by ignoring the Palestinian nonviolent movement
is that if Palestinians want attention paid to their plight, they have to
commit violent acts.
American politicians condemning[8]Palestinians for violent uprisings could
help to prevent the violence if they started paying attention to, and
legitimizing, the nonviolent movement, including the boycott movement[9]. As
President Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make
violent revolution inevitable."
Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet staff writer. Follow @zaidjilani[10]on Twitter.
.
Share on FacebookShare
Share on TwitterTweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'.[11]
[12]
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Source
URL:http://www.alternet.org/world/why-americans-are-mostly-ignorant-nonviole
nt-palestinian-resistance-movement
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/zaid-jilani-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.680636
[4]
https://electronicintifada.net/content/invisibility-palestinian-nonviolent-r
esistance-new-york-times/5775
[5] http://www.newsweek.com/where-palestinian-gandhi-263653
[6]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/world/middleeast/as-homes-in-west-bank-set
tlement-are-demolished-netanyahu-approves-more.html?_r=0
[7] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.622615
[8]
http://www.aipac.org/news-hub?id=%7B9C317D44-1626-41D3-9D78-1DC9C9B20EC8%7D
[9] http://www.bdsmovement.net/
[10] https://twitter.com/zaidjilani
[11] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Why Americans Are
Mostly Ignorant of the Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance Movement
[12] http://www.alternet.org/
[13] http://www.alte