Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance to Occupation Since 1967
FACES OF HOPE A Campaign Supporting Nonviolent Resistance and Refusal in Israel and Palestine AFSC Middle East Resource series Middle East Task Force | Fall 2005 Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance to Occupation Since 1967 alestinian nonviolent resistance to policies of occupa- tion and injustice dates back to the Ottoman (1600s- P1917) and British Mandate (1917-1948) periods. While the story of armed Palestinian resistance is known, the equally important history of nonviolent resistance is largely untold. Perhaps the best-known example of nonviolent resistance during the mandate period, when the British exercised colo- nial control over historic Palestine, is the General Strike of 1936. Called to protest against British colonial policies and the exclusion of local peoples from the governing process, the strike lasted six months, making it the longest general strike in modern history. Maintaining the strike for so many months required great cooperation and planning at the local Residents of Abu Ghosh, a village west of Jerusalem, taking the oath level. It also involved the setting up of alternative institu- of allegiance to the Arab Higher Committee, April 1936. Photo: Before tions by Palestinians to provide for economic and municipal Their Diaspora, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1984. Available at http://www. passia.org/. needs. The strike, and the actions surrounding it, ultimately encountered the dilemma that has subsequently been faced again and to invent new strategies of resistance. by many Palestinian nonviolent resistance movements: it was brutally suppressed by the British authorities, and many of The 1967 War the leaders of the strike were ultimately killed, imprisoned, During the 1967 War, Israel occupied the West Bank, or exiled.
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