Nonviolence was not born yesterday

The Arab Spring has been hailed by most Western media as a remarkable nonviolent uprising, engaging entire communities, young and old, women and men, Muslims and Christians, into an unarmed struggle for democracy. The case of Libya, and now Syria, where the State’s response to nonviolent protests is to kill thousands of people, is strongly condemned by the international community. In the midst of all that, who has heard of Palestinian nonviolent resistance? When was the last time their actions were highlighted? Some, like Yousef Munayyer, speak of a “hidden history.”

And yet, the Palestinian nonviolent movement has a very long history: it started in the early 1900s and has been an ongoing element of Palestinian resistance. In April, I heard Dr Mazin Qumsiyeh at the University of Utah talked about his latest book, Popular Resistance in Palestine, a retrospective of the history of nonviolent resistance in Palestine. Today, I am in Bethlehem, attending a workshop on nonviolence at the Wi’am Center. And all the participants (mostly American college students by the way) are reminded that nonviolent resistance in Palestine was not born yesterday; on the contrary, it is a legacy, a tradition! The Wi’am Center and other voices in Palestine are there to remind us of that forgotten history: can you hear them?

Not everyone can come to Palestine to listen to first-hand stories of its people and the “…the New York Times and the US media more generally almost never report on what 99.5% of Palestinians have done every day of their lives for the last 38 years, nonviolently resist Israeli occupation.”
(http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/nonviolent.html/)

So for a change, let’s use the internet! Here is a very small sample of documents and information one can find if s/he Googles “Palestinian nonviolent history:”

http://pulsemedia.org/2010/03/10/active-non-violence-in-palestine-and-israel/

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/middle-east/palestinian-nonviolent-resistance-has-strong-roots/

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article49/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/21/palestinian-nonviolence-israeli-repression/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/05/israel_and_palestine_0/

http://www.holylandtrust.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=462&Itemid=307/

http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/29324/pid/2254/