Many Palestinian Protestors Already Use Nonviolent Tactics [View All]

[Larkspur]

Many Palestinian Protestors Already Use Nonviolent Tactics

Israel is escalating its quiet campaign to round up and detain nonviolent Palestinian protesters, from leaders to children, in nighttime raids. And although these protesters remain committed to nonviolence, the world continues to believe the Palestinian struggle is mainly based on violence.

Israeli authorities have been detaining nonviolent protesters for years under the media’s radar, so it’s not commonly known that nonviolent actions happen every day or that Palestinian nonviolent resistance has a long history dating back to the early 1900s.

Recent remarks made by Bono, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, and President Barack Obama, stating they hoped Palestinians would find their Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi, highlights the presumption that the Palestinian struggle is mainly violent.

This presumption is inaccurate and the dismissal of the people who have sacrificed time, money, and even their lives to fight injustice with nonviolence is callous.

SNIP

To find the Palestinian Gandhi or MLK, the first step is to look in Israeli detention centers. The next step is to let them out. A sustainable peace is only possible when it is based on respect for each other’s humanity. Nonviolent protesters recognize this fact and may be the catalyst to a long term solution.

Can J Street can connect with these Palestinian Gandhis and MLKs and highlight them to our media? I don't expect AIPAC to do it, but J Street was formed to oppose AIPAC's obsessive bias towards Israel.