|
|
A letter from the Palestinian Nonviolence Resistance
an article by Elias Deis
[slightly abridged from the original which is online at Wordpress.com]
In Palestine, we were taught how to be nice to people and how to
respect human beings. I was taught every thing is possible and that we
can make the impossible, possible. While I was a child I heard of
people talking about peace and coexistence with Israel. Many groups of
people tried to achieve it, but I am convinced that Israel is the
reason peace has not been accomplished. Israel has not acted like a
willing partner in this struggle for peace.
Holy Land Trust organizes weekly nonviolent demonstrations
against the Israeli Occupation and building of the apartheid wall over
Palestinian land and farms. Since January 2007, Holy Land Trust has
organized this event, but I can’t remember, even for one time, that
Israel used a nonviolent way to stop us! The armed soldiers, it seems,
are always ready to shoot, or use wooden sticks and tear gas.
I have participated in the nonviolence resistance since I
started working with Holy Land Trust in March of 2007. I am very happy
to see my People (the Palestinians), with the help of some
internationals and Israeli peacemakers, to join the nonviolent
resistance against the occupation. The number of the participants are
increasing, and the idea of resistance against the occupier in a
nonviolent way is becoming steadily popular among the society. But the
question still lurks: How are the Israeli soldiers supporting these
actions? What is their opinion toward the Palestinian nonviolent
resistance?
To answer this question I need to begin in 1948, when Israel
occupied Palestine. Israel used military tactics to defeat all kinds of
Palestinian action against the occupation. Since Palestine is not a
armed country and does not have equal power with Israeli, Palestinians
had very few ways to defeat the Israeli occupation and gain back their
rights and lands. Personally, I have experienced the Israeli violence
against Palestinians in the first Intifada when the Palestinians threw
stones at Israeli soldiers. Many people were killed in this period, but
now we live in a new period. In this new period Palestine is trying a
new resistance against Israel, the nonviolent resistance.
Even non-violence does not stop Israel from using violent
measures against our peaceful resistance. On Friday, January 25, 2007,
I joined the weekly demonstration in Al-Khader village, on the western
side of Bethlehem. Demonstrators called to end the Siege of Gaza and to
create one land living in Peace. The event proceeded when the Muslim
population had their Friday prayer. After, we walked towards the
Israeli segregation wall, calling, "End the Siege of Gaza" and "Free
Palestine". The Israeli soldiers prevented us to cross to the main road
to protest, so we had to start moving back to leave. As we were leaving
the tear gas started going off. one of the bombs landed right in front
of me. I couldn't breathe and I was running away while my eyes were
shut due to the tear gas. I sat on the sidewalk, eyes bloodshot, for 15
minutes trying to breathe fresh air, I felt like I was dying.
Typically, this is the method Israel uses to stop us. Our
calls for peace is something dangerous for Israel. I am going insane
because I don’t understand what we should do to end the Israeli
Palestinian Conflict. I feel defeated by them. While reflecting on the
previous methods of resistance by Palestinians, I conclude; throwing
stones did not work and suicide bombs definitely did not work. In this
new time period we must use the nonviolence method, but even that seems
aggressive to the Israeli occupiers. I feel they don’t want us to be
peaceful, but I believe that if peace is going to prevail, nonviolence
is the only way we can solve our problems.
|
|
 |
DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?
As a reader, you are invited to join in the discussion of this
article based on any of the above question(s): just click on the
question, read the previous comments and add a new reply. You may also
enter a new discussion topic on this article - see bottom of this page.
Thematic forum(s) in which this article is being discussed:
MIDEAST PEACE
LATEST READER COMMENT:
The
following commentary was first published in Newsday magazine on July 1,
2007. The original is available on the Internet at Newsday.
----------------------------------------------
Israelis, Palestinians must promote peace culture
----------------------------------------------
BY MOHAMMED ABU-NIMER
With
shame, hopelessness and helplessness, many Palestinians see their dream
for an independent state being dismantled by their own so-called
national leaders.
This evolving reality is hard to comprehend,
and it has caused the majority of Palestinians, according to a recent
survey from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey
Research, to blame both Hamas and Fatah leaders for what has happened
to them under the Israeli occupation.
Hamas claims to have
"liberated Gaza," and in response Fatah leaders declared they are
"managers" of the West Bank. As a result, there is no discussion of
two-state solution of Israel and Palestine. Instead, Hamas and Fatah
seem to support a two-mini-cantons solution in which each leadership
can continue to protect its narrow self-interest in cooperation with
its patrons (Israel, the United States, Syria, Iran).
Again, the
Palestinian leadership has failed its people. The competition between
Hamas and Fatah, with each taking control of a portion of the bread
crumbs that the Israeli government left when it pulled out of Gaza and
agreed to elections in the West Bank, entails disastrous results for
anyone interested in securing a free and democratic Middle East.
The Palestinians have been set back several decades, to the time when they were fighting over who should represent them.. . ...more.
|
|
