sign in sign up
<<
Home , Abu Ghosh, Ahmed Yassin, Ali Abunimah, Beit Sahour, Budrus, Land Day

FACES OF HOPE A Campaign Supporting and Refusal in and

AFSC 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 , taking the oath level. It also involved the setting up of alternative institu- of allegiance to the , April 1936. Photo: Before tions by 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 , or exiled. But this repression did not prevent the experience including , along with the Golan Heights, the and inspiration of the General Strike and other acts of civil , and the Sinai Peninsula. Debates within Israeli disobedience from providing models for future generations society about how to control this newly conquered terri- of Palestinian activists.1 Here we can find a recurring pattern tory—which some Israelis viewed as permanent gains, part in the history of Palestinian nonviolent resistance. One gen- of a desire to control all of historic Palestine and to create eration sees its attempts to establish new forms of resistance a “Greater Israel”—led to a period of occupation in which violently suppressed, and the next generation must use the Palestinians experienced shifting forms of Israeli military and historical memory provided by these earlier struggles to begin civilian rule. More than 1,400 military orders and regulations,

1967 1968–1970 1973 1974 June (Six Day) War; Israel Israel begins to establish October (Yom Kippur/ declares PLO the occupies West Bank, Gaza Jewish settlements in newly Ramadan) War begins when sole legitimate representative Strip, Egyptian Sinai, and occupied territories. seeks to regain by of Palestinian people; Arafat Syrian Golan Heights, expands force Egyptian land that addresses Jerusalem boundaries and Israel captured in 1967; U.N. which grants PLO observer extends Israeli law over East Security Council Resolution status in 1975. Jerusalem; U.N. Security 338 calls for cease-fi re Council Resolution 242 calls and comprehensive peace for withdrawal of Israeli troops conference. from territories newly occupied. together with British Emergency Regulations left over from the displaying of the Palestinian flag, and similar acts were the Mandate Period and Ottoman Law, provided the basis for systematically repressed. the military rule over Palestinians living in the West Bank and Alternative Institutions and New Forms of Gaza. Violence and repression were a consistent part of this Resistance, 1967-1987 experience. As the legal scholar Lisa Hajjar has documented, However, Palestinians continued to find creative outlets from 1967 to 1987, the Israeli military government arrested for resistance to the violence of the occupation. A major form and detained more than half a million Palestinians in the of resistance was the development of alternative institutions Occupied Territories (at a time when the total population and leadership. Sometimes this took official forms. For ex- of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza was about ample, in the municipal elections held in 1976, Palestinians 1.5 million); over 2,000 Palestinians were deported from the overwhelmingly elected members of nationalist parties to Occupied Territories; more than 1,560 Palestinian houses positions of local leadership, although many of these figures were demolished; and all forms of educational and cultural were subsequently jailed or exiled by Israeli forces. In 1981, freedom were tightly circumscribed: schools were routinely local political bodies created a new institution, Lajnat al- closed, and more than 1,600 books were banned by the Israeli Tawjih (the Committee of Guidance), to provide national authorities in the Occupied Territories.2 leadership to the resistance to the occupation. Once again, This was also the period when an aggressive settlement Israel arrested many of the members of this group. policy was carried out by successive Israeli governments: Throughout this period, a number of different Palestin- from 1967 through 1987, 135 settlements, with a total of ian grassroots organizations also emerged to provide alterna- 175,000 settlers, were built in the West Bank, together with tive institutions and leadership. Increasingly, these alternative 12 settlements with a population of more than 2,000 settlers institutions came to supplement existing official Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. In addition to the massive military presence institutions that were struggling to provide education, health required to make these illegal settlements viable, the settlers care, and other basic needs to Palestinians living in the Occu- themselves represented a major paramilitary force in the Oc- pied Territories. The project of nonviolent resistance increas- cupied Territories. At the time when the ( ingly moved from a strategy of protests, non-cooperation, for “shaking off ”) began in December 1987, settlers possessed and steadfastness towards a strategy designed to establish 10,000 firearms of all kinds, according to Hajjar. viable, long-term alternatives to the occupation regime. The In the face of this general state of repression, simple existence of these alternative institutions goes a long way acts of daily life—working, going to school, caring for one’s towards explaining the relative success and longevity of the family—became acts of nonviolent resistance. The Arabic intifada that began in December 1987.4 word sumoud (steadfastness) began to be applied to the daily struggle to survive in the face of the occupation. Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities showed no signs of responding to non- Women ’s Committees: The women’s movement had been violent protests in a way that was any different from the active in Palestinian politics since the beginning of the twen- British response to the General Strike of 1936. Hundreds of tieth century (the first Arab Women’s Congress was held Palestinians, including municipal leaders, university profes- in Jerusalem in 1929), taking an important role in protests sors, and leaders of women’s organization and trade unions, against British rule and in the General Strike of 1936. The were deported from the Occupied Territories for engaging General Union of Palestinian Women was formed in 1965, in nonviolent activities during the period leading up to the but it was in the 1970s that popular Women’s Committees first intifada.3 Rallies, strikes, the distribution of petitions, began to take a more active role. These popular committees

1982 1977 1979 1980 1982 wins Israeli elections, Begin and Sadat sign Is- Israel’s Basic Law on Jerusa- Israeli invasion of ; becomes raeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty in lem is extended to East Jeru- PLO evacuated from Beirut to prime minister; Egyptian Washington, D.C. salem; U.N. Security Council Tunisia; massacre at Sabra President Anwar Sadat visits condemns action. and Shatilla refugee camps Jerusalem and addresses the near Beirut. Israeli ; negotiations begin between Israel and Egypt.

~2~ worked with the understanding that strengthening the role of Committees began forming in 1983, and concentrated on women in the struggle against the occupation would change working with Palestinian farmers to improve the quality of both the nature of women’s roles and of the anti-occupation their soil and produce. The absence of a Palestinian national struggle itself. Goals and activities of local Women’s Com- authority during this period, bans that prevented Palestin- mittees varied, but all stressed the need for productive work, ian farmers from exporting their produce to Israeli markets, education, and vocational training for women, as well as and the flooding of the market in the Occupied Territories involving houseworking women in wage-earning activities. with Israeli state-subsidized produce made these Agricultural Relief Committees particularly crucial institutions for the continuance of everyday life under occupation. Trade Unions and Voluntary Work Committees: The role of trade unions began to grow after the 1970s, especially in view of the hardships faced by Palestinian workers. Trade Youth and Student Movements and Prisoner Organiza- unions struggled to gain the rights to health insurance, better tions: The basis of an organized Palestinian student move- wages, improved work conditions, and the right to arbitra- ment can be traced to the 1950s, with the formation of the tion for workers in the Occupied Territories. Attempts were General Federation of Palestinian Students in and of made to extend trade union activity to Palestinians working student organizing in Gaza. By the mid-1980s, students were inside Israel, but these attempts were resisted by the main at the forefront of political organizing. Students expanded Israeli trade union, the Histadrut. Meanwhile, Voluntary the youth movement to include social and community activi- Work Committees were set up as collective movements ties, clubs, sports, and games with explicit political messages. throughout the Occupied Territories to provide Palestinian They also began to organize spontaneous protests and dem- youth with the chance to take part in community projects, onstrations against the occupation. The frequent jailing of such as cleaning streets, building schools, paving roads, and student activists, often for minor “security offenses ” during harvesting olives.5

Relief Committees: Reliance on voluntary work in order to establish alternative Pales- tinian institutions also included the profes- sional sector in the Occupied Territories. For example, health care professionals set up Medical Relief Committees, which began to operate under the mantle of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees dur- ing the late 1970s (the UPMRC continues to be active in the West Bank and Gaza). In spite of Israeli reprisals, the Medical Relief Committees were able to establish a system of health care somewhat independent of the OverOver 100100 studentsstudents andand facultyfaculty membersmembers fromfrom BirzeitBirzeit UniverseityUniverseity heldheld a makeshiftmakeshift class at the checkpoint on the - Road in 2003, after not being able Israeli authorities during the period of the to reach the university due to Israeli closure policies. Photo: Dan Richards, Friends of intifada. Meanwhile, Agricultural Relief Birzeit University

1985 1987-1993 1988 1989

Israel withdraws from most of Predominantly nonviolent Jordanian disengagement U.S. State Department Lebanon, leaving an Israeli-al- (demonstrations, strikes) from West Bank; emergence of publishes highly critical lied Lebanese force in control Palestinian intifada occurs ; Arafat condemns ter- report on Israeli human rights practices; massive interna- of the southern areas. in the West Bank, Gaza, and rorism, accepts U.N, Security East Jerusalem. Council resolutions 242 and tional peace demonstration in 338, and recognizes the State Jerusalem. of Israel.

~3~ and the Right of Return

In addition to the nonviolent struggles against Israeli pol- “Bush and Sharon are saying, ‘Those refugees have icy waged by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and no rights.’ The second [Palestinian refugees] heard it, those living inside the , the struggles by and they should have burned the camps and began walking on behalf of Palestinian refugees has been a central, if to Palestine: this is a disaster that the UN created, the sometimes unappreciated, part of the history of Palestin- U.S. created and the international community created, ian resistance to violence and occupation. According to and we are not willing to continue accepting the guilt the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the number of of Europe on our backs …. [The response] has to be registered Palestinian refugees has grown from 914,000 dramatic.”17 in 1950 to more than four million in 2002, and continues Since 1967, but increasingly since the time of the to rise due to natural population growth. (The UNRWA intifada and the , grassroots campaigns only includes those displaced in 1948 and currently liv- in support of the right of return have emanated from ing in UNRWA areas of operation and their descendents; Palestinian and Palestinian refugee communities. The the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and and Refugee Rights estimates the number of Palestinian Refugee Rights, based in in the West Bank, refugees worldwide to be closer to 7 million.) The right of publishes numerous reports and other resources and return of these refugees was officially recognized by UN has organized a number of activities, including missions General Assembly Resolution 194, adopted in December that brought Palestinian refugees to Bosnia-Herzegovina 1948 (one day after the Universal Declaration of Human to meet with recently repatriated refugees and UN offi- Rights), and subsequently affirmed in Security Council cials there in 2002 and 2003. BADIL and other organiza- Resolution 237 in 1967. tions are involved in the Campaign for the Defense of Despite these acknowledgements of the right of return in Palestinian Refugee Rights, which aims to pressure not international law, the international community has done just Israel, the U.S., and the international community, but little or nothing to apply these UN resolutions. Indeed, also the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, on behalf of there has been increasing pressure upon Palestinian ne- refugee rights. The Global Palestinian Right of Return Co- gotiators to bargain away the right of return, so that the alition was established in 2001 to enable partners in the very refusal to do so, especially in the face of pressure Middle East, Europe, and North America to organize joint from Israel and from the U.S., must be seen as a form initiatives and develop united strategies for Palestinian of Palestinian resistance in itself. In light of increasing refugee rights. In the U.S., Al-Awda, The Palestinian Right attempts to undo the refugees’ right of return, some ad- of Return Coalition, has organized chapters in a number vocates of have promoted dramatic actions; of American cities and works closely with Palestinian as Mubarak Awad suggested to an interviewer in 2003: refugee communities. demonstrations, fed the youth movement. Young Palestin- sit-down strikes, and other nonviolent means of protesting ians who formed a major part of the population of political the conditions of their imprisonment, which included the prisoners (at any one time from 1967 to 1987, Israeli prisons systematic use of torture (as documented by a 1987 report by held an average of 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners6) the Landau Commission, set up by the Israeli government also contributed to resistance movements among prisoners. to study Israeli interrogation methods). Among the major action by prisoners were hunger strikes, Palestinians Inside the Green Line, 1967-1987

1990 1991 1992 1993

Israeli coalition government International Arab-Israeli Ongoing bilateral and mul- Israel drastically restricts tilateral peace talks; Labor collapses over proposed peace conference in Madrid Palestinian movement between Party wins Israeli elections, negotiations with Palestinians; includes Palestinians in joint Occupied influx of Jews from former becomes prime (except East Jerusalem) and Jordanian-Palestinian delega- minister. Soviet Union to Israel begins; tion. Israel; Israel and the PLO sign Yitzhak Shamir forms a nar- Declaration of Principles (the row, right-wing government “Oslo Accords”) on interim self- headed by Likud. government arrangements.

~4~ From 1948 until 1966 Palestinians living in Israel, al- nominally registered as Israeli citizens in 1952). Organizations though referred to as “citizens,” lived under a military admin- such as the Association of Forty work for the recognition of 7 istration that severely limited their civil and human rights. these Palestinian villages. After 1967, Palestinians living inside the Green Line joined The First Intifada, (1987-1993) and supported the efforts against the occupation carried on The intifada that began in December 1987 consisted in the West Bank and Gaza. This was combined with their overwhelmingly of civilian acts of civil disobedience that were preexisting struggle for equal rights and justice within Israeli nonviolent. While actions such as tax strikes, home schooling society. Palestinians pursued various means, including those of children, and boycotts of Israeli cigarettes and soft drinks few openings provided by electoral politics: for example, were perhaps not as eagerly captured by TV cameras as con- the Palestinian poet and political leader Tawfiq Zayyad was frontations with Israeli soldiers, they represented the greater elected mayor of in December 1975. part of the resistance to Israeli occupation during this period. Meanwhile, the Israeli government continued to pursue Refusal to pay taxes, shortened workdays by shopkeepers in a policy of expropriating land owned by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, self- Israel. Palestinian resistance to these policies culminated in sustaining projects such as household economies and “victory a major protest on March 30, 1976. Thousands of Palestin- gardens,” economic boycotts, attempts to keep schools and ian Israelis took part in a nonviolent demonstration against universities open and functioning, work stoppages, slow- an Israeli government plan to expropriate 60,000 dunams downs, and strikes— all these nonviolent tactics were the of Palestinian-owned land in the (a predominately underpinnings of the attempt to shake off the institutions Palestinian area in northern Israel). Although the protest and repression of the Israeli occupation.8 was planned as an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, it was The popular and mass committees that had been formed met by violence by the Israeli police. Six Palestinians were in the preceding years, together with new committees that killed and 96 others were injured. This inaugurated a major formed at the time of the intifada, became vital institutions movement within Israel by Palestinians, and the events of during these years. Specialized committees spread throughout that day, which has come to be known as “Land Day,” con- villages, cities, and refugee camps in the Occupied Territories. tinue to be commemorated each year with protests against Youth groups organized neighborhood watches (particularly state and state-sanctioned discrimination against Palestinians around refugee camps and isolated villages). Welfare and living in Israel. relief services were organized for the families of those who Another important struggle of Palestinians inside the were out of work or who had been killed, imprisoned, or Green Line has been for the official recognition of so-called deported. Specialized committees were organized, often by “Arab Unrecognized Villages.” Because these villages are not women and children, to replace locks on shops that had officially recognized by the state of Israel, they are denied been broken by Israeli troops. Members of the Medical Re- basic services such as running water, electricity, adequate edu- lief Committees violated curfews to enter camps and other cational and health services, and access roads. Approximately areas where Palestinian residents were in desperate need of 100,000 Palestinians live in these unrecognized villages. Many medical care. Local committees provided education during of them fall under the Israeli legal category of “Present Ab- the many months when Palestinians schools and universi- sentees ” (a category assigned to Palestinians whose property ties were systematically closed down by Israeli authorities. was confiscated under the Absentee Property Law of 1950 Meanwhile, organizations such as the Palestinian Center but who were found to be present within the borders of the for the Study of Non-Violence documented the systematic state of Israel in the subsequent population census and thus attempts to develop nonviolent forms of resistance to the

1994 1995 1996 1997

Massacre of Palestinians pray- Oslo II Accords establish three First Palestinian elections Protocol divides West ing in Hebron mosque by Is- types of control in the West for president and parliament Bank city of Hebron into Israeli raeli settler; Cairo Agreement Bank (Area A: direct Palestin- result in Arafat victory; Pal- and Palestinian areas; Israel on implementation of the Oslo ian control, Area B: Palestin- estinian suicide bombings in begins building Accords; Arafat establishes ian civilian control and Israeli Jerusalem and ; between East Jeru- Palestinian Authority head- security control, : Israeli “Grapes of Wrath” operation salem and Bethlehem. quarters in Gaza; Israel and control); Rabin assassinated against Lebanon; Binyamin sign peace treaty. in Tel Aviv by a Jewish Israeli. Netanyahu elected Israeli prime minister.

~5~ occupation, providing new theories regarding nonviolence in their ID cards and obtain new ones—conditional upon the as a strategy of resistance. payment of taxes. Without these cards, workers could not go to their jobs in Israel. It was clear that the desire was to Tax Revolts: The Example of Beit Sahour break attempts at Palestinian self-sufficiency and to impose One of the major nonviolent tactics of the first intifada an even greater dependency upon the institutions of the was the refusal to pay taxes to the military occupation au- Occupation. “If the aim of the uprising was to shake off this thorities. This was a particularly important strategy, since tax dependence,” Army Chief of Staff Dan Shomron declared, revenues collected from the Occupied Territories helped sup- “our aim is to increase it.”9 port the military and other expenditures needed to maintain In highlighting the central role of Palestinian nonviolent the Israeli occupation. In effect, the tax system was a way to resistance during the first intifada, it is important to empha- force Palestinians to pay for their own occupation. By July size the overall violence with which Israeli forces met this 1988, tax collections in the Occupied Territories were down nonviolent resistance during this period. According to the by more than 50 percent. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, from the beginning continued to be an important tactic during of the intifada in 1987 until the signing of the Oslo Accords this entire period. One particularly well-known instance is in September 1993, Israeli military forces and settlers killed the tax revolt of Beit Sahour, a West Bank village of about more than 1,160 Palestinian civilians.10 12,000 people located near Bethlehem. For six weeks during September and October 1989, Beit Sahour residents launched The Oslo Era a total tax revolt against the Israeli occupation regime, under As the many forms of resistance to the occupation the slogan “No Taxation without Representation.” Israeli continued, it became clear that in spite of a massive military reprisals were swift and harsh. The village was placed under response, Israel would have great difficulty in achieving a total siege, food and medical supplies were stopped, telephone single, decisive military victory over the organized civilian lines were cut, and prolonged curfews were imposed. “Tax resistance. Meanwhile, there were a number of different raids ” by army and tax officials, which had been used sys- Palestinian and Israeli groups that searched for ways to open tematically against other instances of tax refusal, resulted in formal and informal dialogues with each other, despite of- the residents being stripped of over $1.5 million worth of ficial Israeli attempts to stifle such dialogues. On the informal goods. Many residents were beaten and arrested during these level, there had been, since the 1980s, a number of groups that raids. By the end of October, media exposure and interna- facilitated meetings between Israeli and Palestinian activists, tional outcry finally forced the Israeli authorities to lift the academics, and students; women’s groups were often at the siege on Beit Sahour. forefront of these efforts. But this was not the case with other forms of reprisal On the governmental level, the Madrid talks of 1991- against nonviolent tax revolts elsewhere in the Occupied 1993 marked the first time that an official Israeli delegation Territories. Sweeping repressive measures taken by the Israeli sat down with a Palestinian negotiating team, albeit as part authorities included a system whereby permits to travel, oper- of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. A different set of ate cars and businesses, and receive identity cards hinged upon secret negotiations led to the Palestinian-Israeli Accord of proof of payment of taxes. In other instances, Palestinians September 1993, known as the Oslo Accords. While there were forbidden admission into government hospitals or the are multiple and contradictory interpretations of the steps permission to register the births of their children without that led to the Oslo Accords and of its pros and cons, there is first receiving tax clearances. In Gaza, “Operation ID ” was general agreement that it was the grassroots popular actions instituted in July 1988, whereby residents were forced to hand of the intifada that helped to convince the Israeli government

1998 1999 2000 2001

Wye River Memorandum; PLO Ehud Barak elected Israeli Clinton-led Camp II Taba negotiations fail; renounces anti-Israel clauses prime minister; Sharm al summit and negotiations end Palestinian hard-liners contin- in PLO charter. Sheik memorandum. in failure; new Palestinian ue suicide bombings against uprising (al-Aqsa intifada) Israeli military and civilians; begins, sparked by Israeli forces increase “target- Sharon’s visit to el-Haram ed killings” (assassinations) of el-Sharif/Temple Mount. Palestinians and armed incur- sions into Palestinian-con- trolled areas; Sharon elected Israeli prime minister.

~6~ that a military solution was not viable and that negotiations Palestine and Palestinians were necessary. Although local committees and grassroots organizations For decades, Palestinian nonviolent resistance has had to might not have played the same kinds of roles during this face the particular violence of an occupation whose goal period that they did during the first intifada, they continued has been to call into question the very right of Palestinians to function in various forms. Medical and agricultural relief to exist. Souad R. Dajani, a Palestinian theorist of nonvio- committees, women’s committees, trade unions, and youth lent resistance, has pointed out that throughout the period groups continued to work on individual local issues. As the of Jewish settlement in Palestine, “Zionist legitimacy has necessarily precluded a Palestinian legitimacy.” At differ- Oslo era continued and the temporary accords failed to de- ent times, this has involved the myth of the founding of liver the permanent changes that were needed, the work of Israel on “a land without a people for a people without a these committees, joined in many cases by non-governmental land”; Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s statement that organizations, became more and more crucial. “There are no Palestinians”; and the attempts to solve The and Its Aftermath the “demographic threat” posed by Palestinians through illegal population transfers and settlements carried out by By 2000, the Palestinian Authority had limited authority the Israeli government since the occupation of the West (although not military authority) over approximately 42 per- Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967. As Dajani notes, unlike other cent of the West Bank. However, freedom of movement for struggles against occupation, the struggle of Palestinians most Palestinians had been severely curtailed, not expanded, “is not simply a struggle against foreign domination of their since the days of the first intifada. Israel had stepped up its lands, but against a dominant ideology that claims those practice of installing roadblocks and checkpoints manned by lands exclusively and by right for Jews and sees no place Israeli troops around all Palestinian areas, so that while they for Palestinians in the definition of its ‘nation.’”18 could move freely within their towns and villages, Palestin- As a result, one of the struggles that Palestinians have ians now faced previously unknown forms of searches and had to carry on since the nakbah (catastrophe) of 1948 violent harassment on a daily basis. Israel also stepped up the has been the struggle to continue to exist as Palestinians, practice of building settlements in the Occupied Palestin- whether this struggle for existence is carried out inside ian Territories. Construction, which had remained steady the Green Line (the unofficial borders of the state of Israel throughout the period of the intifada, increased noticeably established in 1948); or in the Occupied Territories of the in the early 1990s, during which time the settler population West Bank and Gaza; or in refugee camps; or as part of the rose by 10 percent annually. From the time the Oslo peace throughout the world. This struggle process began until the beginning of the second intifada, for existence can be found in the works of countless Pal- the settler population nearly doubled. The construction estinian poets, visual artists, filmmakers, novelists, and of settlers-only roads to connect these settlements to cities memoirists. It can also be found in the everyday struggles inside the Green Line—roads that cannot be used or even for survival, and for a life with dignity and justice, carried crossed by Palestinians—increased the isolation of Palestin- on by Palestinians for many decades. ians within their disconnected islands of limited autonomy in the occupied West Bank. 11 the third holiest site in Islam, in September 2000, accompanied It was within this context that , the long- by 1,000 Israeli police and soldiers. Sharon’s visit triggered time proponent of an Israeli military takeover of the West huge protests by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and Bank and a leader of the conservative Likud party, made a inside the Green Line. Israeli troops met these demonstra- provocative visit to the el-Haram el-Sharif/Temple Mount, tions with violence. In one instance, Israeli forces used regular

2002 2003 2004 2005

Palestinian suicide bombings Palestinian suicide bombings Hamas founder and spiritual is elected and Israeli “targeted killings” and Israeli “targeted killings” leader Ahmed Yassin President of the Palestinian continue; Israel forcefully continue; Israel completes killed by Israel as part of “target- Authority; Israel increases set- reoccupies nearly all Palestin- first stage of the “Separation ed killing” campaign in response tlement activity in and around ian areas evacuated as part Wall.” to attacks against Israelis within Jerusalem; Israel unilaterally of Oslo process; Israel begins Israel and the OPT; the Interna- evacuates all Israeli settle- construction of “security tional Court of Justice finds the ments in Gaza and four Israeli fence” (The Wall) within the Separation Wall “contrary to settlements in the northern West Bank, confiscating ad- international law”; West bank. ditional Palestinian lands. dies in Paris and is buried in Ramallah. This timeline is adapted from one that appears in When the Rain Returns. ~7~ ammunitions and snipers the Palestinian Center against a peaceful protest for Rapprochement Be- by Palestinian Israeli citi- tween People called for zens in the town of Umm a week of nonviolent al-Fahm, resulting in the direct actions, includ- deaths of thirteen Palestin- ing marches to Israeli ian Israeli protestors. military bases. There Sharon’s visit and the were massive protests killing of unarmed Pales- against the closing by Is- tinian protestors ignited raeli forces of the Orient a situation that had long House, the PLO’s unoffi- been simmering. The pe- cial headquarters in East riod that has come to be Jerusalem,Jerusalem, iinn AAugustugust called the second intifada 2001. Palestinians en- began in September 2000. gaged in numerous other A groupgroup ooff sschoolchool ggirlsirls pprotestrotest inin frontfront ofof thethe SeparationSeparation WallWall inin AbuAbu DisDis. 12 As with the first inti- acts of civil disobedience Photo: PENGON/Anti- Wall Campaign fada, the reaction to Israeli during the first years of occupation occasioned local and spontaneous acts of resis- the second intifada. Although Palestinian demonstrations tance. Unlike the first, however, Palestinian demonstrations have been generally met by violence by Israeli forces, even and protests were aimed not only at the Israeli occupation reports issued by the Israeli army acknowledge that these but also at the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo process demonstrations themselves have been overwhelmingly of a as a whole. Equally significant was the unprecedented vio- nonviolent nature. lence with which the second intifada was met, from its very During this period, the sorts of local committees and or- inception, by Israeli forces. According to B’Tselem, between ganizations and alternative institutions that had thrived dur- September 28, 2000 and year’s end, 325 Palestinians were ing the first intifada continued to function, albeit under very killed and 10,600 were injured (during the same period, 36 different circumstances. Organizations such as the Union Israelis were killed and 362 injured). By the end of September of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and the Union of 2004, the fourth anniversary of the second intifada, 3,342 Palestinian Women’s Committees worked on both the local Palestinians had been killed.13 and national level. Organizations specifically dedicated to pro- During the second intifada, violent tactics used by a small tecting Palestinian educational institutions, such as the Right minority of Palestinian groups, including suicide bombing to Education Campaign at Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, attacks against Israeli troops and settlers in the Occupied found ways to offer alternative forms of education during Territories and against Israeli civilians inside the Green Line, periods of curfew and closure. The Alternative Information have been more prevalent than during the first intifada. Many Center and other joint Palestinian-Israeli projects tried to Palestinian supporters of nonviolent resistance have pointed present different views of the conflict to the international to the overwhelming violence with which Israeli forces re- community. The Palestinian Environmental NGO Network sponded to nonviolent actions during the first intifada, and brought together a coalition of over 20 NGOs alongside lo- during the early months of the second intifada, as a partial cal committees to deal with environmental issues, especially explanation of this “militarization” of the second intifada, those related to the effects of environmental degradation even as they continued to espouse nonviolent strategies.14 connected to the Israeli occupation. Suicide bombings have received nearly all of the media’s The international aspect of Palestinian nonviolent re- attention,but most Palestinian resistance to occupation dur- sistance movements during the second intifada should also ing the second intifada has been overwhelmingly through be noted. There had always been an attempt to reach out to nonviolent actions and tactics. the international community for support for the struggle Soon after the beginning of the second intifada, Israel against occupation, but often this had happened at the more refused to allow international monitors to report on the official level, through the United Nations and other inter- situation in the Occupied Territories. This decision was met national organizations. During the past decade, many more by mass nonviolent protests led by Palestinian groups, with grassroots efforts that have brought together Palestinians the participation of international activists. In mid-April 2001, with international activists got underway. This built on the

~8~ groundbreaking collaborative work done by groups such as are being, and will be, affected by the Wall. the Resource Center for Nonviolence, working with Pal- In addition to the coordinated work of the Campaign, estinian groups, in the 1980s. The best known effort is the many local examples of nonviolent resistance to the building International Solidarity Movement, formed in August 2001 of the Wall have also begun to emerge. In communities such as an organization that would allow internationals to witness as Biddu and Budrus, located near the Green Line and thus and report on the effects of the occupation, and to take part particularly threatened by the Wall, Palestinians have engaged in nonviolent direct actions in the Occupied Territories. in sit-ins and protests, and have literally put their bodies in International efforts in support of Palestinian groups work- front of the bulldozers and other heavy machinery used to ing to end the occupation have also come from the boycott, build the Wall. Although these communities have consis- sanctions, and divestment movements in many countries tently used only nonviolent tactics, in many cases openly throughout the world. These efforts have often taken direct declaring that they will not use force in their protests, they inspiration from the international movement against South have been met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and sometimes African apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s. live ammunition by Israeli forces. Resisting the Wall Conclusion In June 2002, construction of a “separation wall” that the The Israeli government has used overwhelming military Israeli government claimed was intended to be built along the force in an attempt to crush both violent and nonviolent green line began near in the northern West Bank. The forms of Palestinian resistance. Despite these attempts, non- Wall had first been approved by Ehud Barak’s Labour gov- violent resistance and alternative institutions have endured ernment in 2000, and under the current Likud government and been reborn in different forms. Today, those who con- of Ariel Sharon, building has gone forward at a breakneck tinue to espouse a strategy of nonviolence, even in the face pace. If it follows the planned route, the Wall’s total length of escalating violence, see it as a strategy to involve all sectors will be 730 kilometers (approximately 450 miles). Its path of Palestinian society in the resistance to the occupation. As will isolate 47% of the West Bank, and it will create a series Palestinian media analyst Ali Abunimah has written, “What of isolated Palestinian enclaves connected only by a system of is needed is a strong, popular campaign of resistance, based tunnels controlled by the Israeli military. In many places the on non-violence and civil disobedience, involving the entire Wall already separates Palestinians farmers from their lands, population. Such a strategy would be unable to eliminate all isolates Palestinian villages from important natural resources violence, but it would offer an alternative to the hopeless, and water sources, and facilitates the expansion of existing and a powerful moral challenge to the occupier. It may also Israeli settlements and the building of new settlements in the help transform the passive global support for the Palestinian 16 West Bank.15 cause into concrete actions.” From its inception, the building of the Wall has been In the face of the continuing occupation, and most met by organized and widespread nonviolent resistance by recently, the construction of the Wall, the very fact that Palestinians, who see it as a threat to their very survival. On Palestinians continue with their daily lives is perhaps the an organizational level, much of the resistance has been led by most notable act of nonviolent resistance. Although this the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, steadfastness can provide a kind of hope for the present and which began as an initiative of the Palestinian Environmen- the future, Palestinians should not have to engage in this tal NGO Network in October 2002. In many ways, the struggle for survival alone. The support of the international Campaign resembles the grassroots institutions that formed community, and of individuals and communities throughout during the first intifada: it consists of a network of 54 popular the world, is more crucial today than ever. committees in communities throughout the West Bank that

~9~ FOOTNOTES 9 Quoted in Gabriel, “The Economic Side of the Intifadah.” 1 For more background on the General Strike, and its con- tinuing influence on Palestinian society, see Ted Sweden- 10 This is compared to 160 Israeli civilians and military per- burg, Memories of Revolt: The 1936-1939 Rebellion and sonnel in the same time period. See B’tselem’s report on the Palestinian National Past (Fayettesville: University of fatalities and injuries during the first intifada at http:// Arkansas Press, 2003). www.btselem.org/english/statistics/First_Intifada_Ta- bles.asp. 2 “Israel’s Military Regime,” Middle East Report (January- February 1988). Hajjar draws on statistics gathered by the 11 For more specific information on this historical moment, legal organization Al-Haq, together with figures from the see Ilan Pappe, A History of Modern Palestine (New DataBase Project on Palestinian Human Rights, conduct- York: Cambridge University Press, 2004) and Charles ed by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004). For an extraordinary 3 Dajani, Eyes Without Country; see also , personal account of the West Bank during the period just et al, The West Bank Handbook: A Political Lexicon before the second intifada, see Mourid Barghouti, I Saw (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986). Ramallah (New York: Anchor Books, 2003). 4 Much of the specific information on these alternative insti- 12 For more information, in addition to the historical ac- tutions is drawn from Dajani’s historical account in Eyes counts provided by Pappe and Smith, see Rema Ham- Without Country. Mubarak Awad, and the Palestine mami and Salim Tamari, “Anatomy of Another Rebel- Center for the Study of Nonviolence, have also docu- lion,” Middle East Report (Winter 2000); Roane Carey, mented many of these efforts; see, for example, Awad, ed., The New Intifada (New York: Verso, 2001); Wendy “Non-Violent Resistance: A Strategy for the Occupied Pearlman, ed., Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life Territories,” Journal of Palestine Studies 13 (Summer from the Second Intifada (New York: Nation Books, 1984). For more information, see Naseer H. Aruri, “Re- 2003); and When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and sistance and Repression: Political Prisoners in Israeli Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel. Philadelphia, PA: Occupied Territories,” Journal of Palestine Studies 7 American Friends Service Committee, 2004. (Summer 1978); Judith Gabriel, “The Economic Side of the Intifadah,” Journal of Palestine Studies 18 (Autumn 13 See http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Casualties. 1988); , Drinking the Sea at Gaza (New York: asp. Owl Books, 2000); When the Rain Returns: Toward Jus- 14 See “Activist Mubarak Awad on Resisting the Occupa- tice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel. Philadel- tion,” Palestine News Network (25 April 2004), available phia, PA: American Friends Service Committee, 2004. at http://www.palestinenet.org/english/archive2004/ 5 See Abdul Jawad Saleh, Israel’s Policy of De-Institution- apr/week4/250404/mubarak25apr.htm, and Ali Abun- alization (London: Jerusalem Center for Development imah, “On Violence and the Intifada,” The Electronic Studies, 1987). Intifada (22 January 2003), available at http://electronic Intifada.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/1098. 6 See Hajjar, “Israel’s Military Regime.” 15 These statistics come from the Grassroots Palestinian Anti- 7 The case of one such unrecognized village, Ayn Hawd Apartheid Wall Campaign, the group that has been the al-Jadida, has been documented in Rachel Leah Jones’s most active in documenting the Wall: for more informa- film 500 Dunam on the Moon. For more information on tion and background on the organization, see www.stop- Ayn Hawd al-Jadida and other unrecognized villages, see thewall.org . It also draws on figures from the UN Office the website of the Association of Forty—For the Recogni- for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. tion of the Arab Unrecognized Villages of Israel. See also Susan Slyomovics, The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew 16 See Ali Abunimah, “On Violence and the Intifada,” Narrate the Palestinian Village (Philadelphia: University (22 January 2003). Available at: of Pennsylvania Press, 1998). http://electronic Intifada.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view. cgi/7/1098. 8 For more information, in addition to the sources cited above, see the essays collected in Zachary Lockman 17 See “Activist Mubarak Awad on Resisting the Occupa- and Joel Benin, eds., Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising tion,” Palestine News Network (25 April 2004). Available Against Israeli Occupation (Boston, MA: South End at:http://www.palestinenet.org/english/archive2004/ Press, 1989); Penny Johnson, “Palestinian Universities apr/ week4/250404/mubarak25apr.htm. Under Occupation, 15 August-15 November,” Journal of 18 See Souad R. Dajani, Eyes Without Country (Philadelphia, Palestine Studies 18 (Winter 1989); and Jonathan Kuttab, PA: Temple UP, 1995); see also , Palestin- “The Children’s Revolt,” Journal of Palestine Studies 17 ian Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, (Summer 1988). 1998).

~10~ SOURCES FOR FURTHER READING Pearlman, Wendy, ed. Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada. New York: Nation Books, Abunimah, Ali. “On Violence and the Intifada.” The Electronic 2003. Intifada (22 January 2003). Available at :http://electronic Inti- fada.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/1098. Aruri, Naseer Said, Edward. Out of Place: A Memoir. New York: Vintage H. “Resistance and Repression: Political Prisoners in Israeli Books, 2000. Occupied Territories.” Journal of Palestine Studies 7 (Summer ---. The Question of Palestine. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. 1978). Saleh, Abdul Jawad. Israel’s Policy of De-Institutionalization. Awad, Mubarak E. “Non-Violent Resistance: A Strategy for London: Jerusalem Center for Development Studies, 1987. the Occupied Territories,” Journal of Palestine Studies 13 (Summer 1984). Shammas, Anton. Arabesques: A Novel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. ---. “Activist Mubarak Awad on Resisting the Occupation.” Palestine News Network (25 April 2004). Available at: Shehadeh, Raja. Occupier’s Law. Washington, DC: Institute http://www.palestinenet.org/english/archive2004/apr/ for Palestine Studies, 1985. week4/250404/mubarak25apr.htm. Slyomovics, Susan. The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Barghouti, Mourid. I Saw Ramallah. New York: Anchor Narrate the Palestinian Village. Philadelphia: University of Books, 2003. Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Benvenisti, Meron, et al. The West Bank Handbook: A Politi- Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Fifth cal Lexicon. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986. Edition. New York: Bedford/St.Martin ’s, 2004. Carey, Roane, ed. The New Intifada. New York: Verso, 2001. Swedenburg, Ted. Memories of Revolt: The 1936-1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past. Fayettesville: Dajani, Souad R. Eyes Without Country. Philadelphia, PA: University of Arkansas Press, 2003. Temple UP, 1995. Tuqan, Fadwa. Mountainous Journeys: An Autobiography. Darwish, Mahmoud. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 1990. Poems. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. International Quaker Working party on Israel and Gabriel, Judith. “The Economic Side of the Intifadah.” Palestine. When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and Journal of Palestine Studies 18 (Autumn 1988). Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel. Philadelphia, PA: Hajjar, Lisa. “Israel’s Military Regime.” Middle East American Friends Service Committee, 2004. Report (January-February 1988). Hammami, Rema, and Salim Tamari. “Anatomy of Another WEB RESOURCES Uprising.” Middle East Report 217 (Winter 2000). Adalah:The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel: www.adalah.org/eng Hass, Amira. Drinking the Sea at Gaza. New York: Owl Books, 2000. Addameer Human Rights and Prisoner ’s Support Associa- tion: www.addameer.org Johnson, Penny. “Palestinian Universities Under Occupation 15 August-15 November,” Journal of Palestine Studies 18 Alternative Information Center: (Winter 1989). www.alternativenews.org Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian Identity. New York: The Association of Forty – For the Recognition of the Arab Columbia University Press, 1998. Unrecognized Villages in Israel: www.assoc40.org/index_main.html Kuttab, Jonathan. “The Children’s Revolt,” Journal of Palestine Studies 17 (Summer 1988). Aswat: www.aswat-palestiniangaywomen.org Lockman, Zachary and Joel Benin, eds. Intifada: The Al-Awda: The Palestinian Right to Return Coaltion: www. Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation. Boston, al-awda.org/ MA: South End Press, 1989. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Middle East Research and Information Project. Palestine, Refugee Rights: www.badil.org/ Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer [available at: Birzeit University Right to Education Campaign: http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/toc-pal right2edu.birzeit.edu/ isr-primer.html ] and Primer on the Uprising in Palestine [available at:http://www.merip.org/new_uprising_prim- Defense for Children International: er/primer_intro.html ] www.dci-pal.org/english/home.cfm Pappe, Ilan. A History of Modern Palestine. New York: Electronic Intifada: www.electronicintifada.net Cambridge University Press, 2004.

~11~ The Global Palestinian Right of Return Coalition: Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People: www.badil.org/Campaign/campaign-coalition.htm www.rapprochement.org/ Al-Haq – Palestinian Affiliate of the International Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Campaign: Commission of Jurists: www.alhaq.org/ www.stopthewall.org Holy Land Trust: www.holylandtrust.org/ Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group: www.phrmg.org/ Ittijah:The Union of Arab Community Based Organizations: ittijah.org/about/about01.html Palestine News Network: palestinenet.org/english/ Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights: Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network: www.mezan.org/site_en/index.php www.pngo.net/ Muwatin: The Palestinian Center for the Study of Democ- Palestinian Prisoners ’ Society: racy: www.muwatin.org/ www.ppsmo.org/e-website/index.htm Nonviolence International: Ta ’ayush: www.taayush.org www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees: Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and www.upmrc.org/ Community Development: Union of Palestinian Women ’s Committees: www.panoramacenter.org/index.asp www.upwc.org/E_Home.htm Palestine Center for Human Rights: www.pchrgaza.org/ Wi’am: Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center: www.planet.edu/~alaslah/

1501 Cherry Street Philadelphia, PA 19102-1403 www.afsc.org/faces of hope

Faces of Hope: A Campaign Supporting Nonviolent Resistance and Refusal in Israel and Palestine Faces of Hope: A Campaign Supporting Nonviolent Resistance and Refusal in Israel and Palestine is an AFSC campaign to support the growing movement of nonviolent resistance present in both Israel and Palestine. These courageous Israelis and Palestinians need wider support and visibility in order to strengthen their efforts AFSC principles and positions to end the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip The AFSC’s position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is based on the Quaker belief that there is that of God in and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Through each person and a commitment to nonviolent action for this educational and advocacy campaign, AFSC seeks social change. Based on these beliefs and within the to build a well informed network of people living in the framework of international law and the UN Declaration who will support the vision and efforts of of Human Rights, the AFSC strives for a lasting peace these nonviolent activists and work to end U.S. support between Israelis and Palestinians that provides justice for Israeli occupation. and security for all peoples living in the region.

union bug