Why Isn't There a Palestinian Gandhi? Ask the Israeli Protester the IDF Just Shot

Roi you wrote, "Moreover, a serious Palestinian effort at civil disobedience will most
certainly experience vigorous and violent opposition among Palestinians as well. No
members of Hamas and other militant groups will allow their power to be challenged
without a fight. And as we have seen in the past, Hamas and their ilk has no
difficulty gunning down and eliminating opposition."

Did you forget that both King and Ghandi were assassinated?

I suspect that the Palestinians do practice civil disobedience, but it does not get the same media attention as the violent ones.

Just like when the media discuss Hamas, they leave out the fact that Israel had funded and helped Hamas to flourish as a rival to the secular Yasser Arafat and to perpetuate the fighting amongst the Palestinians.

See http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/01/27/end_of_the_road_map.php

Just last week I was in a West Bank town when settlers, protected by the army, came to claim an area in the village as the site of a new settlement. Members of the community met to discuss a plan of action to protect their village from a settler take-over. The group, who is constantly committed to nonviolence, decided that a protest with signs and flags would get them nowhere and possibly injured, and so they had to think of creative alternatives to the usual peaceful protest. The group decided to turn the area that the settlers had claimed into a vibrant cultural center. The group painted the walls bright colors, brought in entertainers, set up a market, and projected movies onto a white wall. The goal was to peacefully and in a non-confrontational way tell the settlers that this land was in use and that it was not theirs to take. Unfortunately even such a creative solution showed no effect. The army came and gave the members ten minutes to clear the area or risk being shot or arrested. The group had no choice but to leave, and their efforts went unreported and unnoticed. This the difficulty peaceful Palestinians face, and this is why even Gandhi would have no chance against the Israeli army.

Interesting piece. However I think that you are underestimating the power of non violence to transform its opposition, and you are underestimationg the brutality of the iraeli occupation.

This is the only truth that you need to understand in this conflict:  "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Israelis put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel".  The rest is commentary, now go and study!  

The hatred of Jews and the glorification of murder starts from the second the Fakestinians are born.  The overwheling majrity of the Arab Fakestinians support the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel.  There was a big Fakestinian celebration when eight Jewish boys were murdered in Jerusalem.  The Fakestinians only know how to party when Jewish childen are murdered.  That's what makes them happy. 

Roi another liberal, self-hating Jew who hates Israel.  What else is new?

friend it is really hard to walk on the path of nonviolence, but the result is guranteed. Violence will help you to get temporary solution but if you want the peramanant solution of the Israeli Palestine issued then Nonviolence is the only answer. Non violence is just not to sitting on a hunger strike for 10 days and after that start to eating food, or opposing the army with flag and banner and if army start to using force then ran down from the field. Nonviolence is not that simple and neither it is a easy to follow. Read Mahatma Gandhi's book on Non violence learn it, use it and then say something on it.....

"An effective stand in the form of non-violence may be taken against unfeeling human beings in the hope of gradually bringing them to their senses; but a diabolic universal steamroller cannot thus be withstood. There is a certain situation in which no “satyagraha” of the power of the truth can result from the “satyagraha” of the strength of the spirit."  

Non-violence works by exposing the guilt of the opposing side. It worked in India because the British were imperialists with no cultural ties to the land and they were clearly guilty. It worked in America because segregation was clearly immoral and unconstitutional. But, the question of guilt in the Israel-Palestine problem is not as clear and depends entirely on your perspective. Also, the Israel-Palestine conflict is largely a land-based conflict, whereas Gandhi and King dealt primarily with moral issues and lived in countries with vast stretches of open space.

So, I agree with Roi, I'm not sure that the same technique (non-violence) would work for the Palestinians. But, violence is not the answer either. The questions is, what's the third option?

You have no place in holy Palestine. There is only one peaceful solution to the conflict. Go back where you came from and return our stolen property. When you have successfully settled back in Minsk and Kiev, your ancestral homelands, I can promise there will be no violence. You can have peace or israel, but not both. Capiche?

Maayan is absolutely correct about the shameful underreporting in the US of both Israeli and Palestinian peace actions.

For one example, the people of Bil'in have been peacefully protesting the construction of the wall through their farmlands for years. While the weekly protests have themselves been peaceful, the IDF's responses have not been so.

Recently, the Israeli Supreme Court found for the Palestinians and ordered the wall's path to be moved. Well done. However, the army has not only failed to enforce this ruling, it has gone so far as to protect the settlers who have begun building on the land in question since the Court's ruling.

So, the people of Bil'in invested years in peaceful protest. They won a legal victory. And the result? Same as it ever was.

What would you do? 

Ismail, can you please comment on the anonymous post above yours? Do you agree with it? Is it your post?

I address the topic on my blog for Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel  in The Pattern of Ethnic Ashkenazi Genocidalism: The Jewish Century by Yuri Slezkine. 

Baldwell-

Why do you ask about my opinion of another comment while failing to address the substance of my own? 

For the record, the post you refer to is not mine. For one thing, I would not have misspelled "capisce", nor do I consider Plaestine "holy". For another, I have no wish to see Jews depart from Palestine. As I've mentioned many times before, I would like to see a secular state in historic Palestine, with the full civil, religious and political rights of all its citizens constitutionally guaranteed. I do not endorse Zionism, no more a solution to anti-Semitism than Garveyism was to racial prejudice, and an utter catastrophe for the Palestinians.

None of this will make you happy, of course, but there you are. Now, how about addressing the matter I raised in my original comment?   

I think both the power and the aims of non-violence are being misunderstood here. First, the usual argument that non-violence only works against "civilized" colonialists is simply not true - both apartheid and Soviet Communism were overthrown by largely non-violent means(although niether the ANC nor the anti-Soviet oppostion were ideological pacificsts). The  South African security forces and the Soviet police were second to none in terms of brutality, and they were overthrown non-violently.

     Second, there is a spiritual side to non-violence which was stressed by Gandhi but is being ignored here. Satyagraha means 'soul-power"(actually "holding on to truth") and entails, in Gandhi's formulation, outlining an obtainable goal(in this case a Palestinian state on the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem), never dehumanizing your enemy, and using non-violent means to attain it - and not giving up even if it means giving up your life.  Thus, even if the Palestinian leaders of a non-violent campaign were immediately shot, deported, or jailed, this would not spell "defeat".

Yes, this sound utopian, martyr-like and weird - but it has a greater potential for turning around public opinion in both Israel and America than the "realistic" sounding option of armed combat does.  

It is not the place of the occupiers/aggressors to tell the oppressed how to resist.  The Israelis should proscribe how to behave to their own kind not to those they are making miserable.  

The psychos who believe that Palestinians actually exist need to go to a mental hospital.  The Arab terrorist Fakestinians have no place in the Jewish homeland.  Go back to Arabia where you belong. 

No gives a shit what the Arab terrorist Ismail has to say.  Israel is the Jewish homeland and it will stay that way no matter what you and the other Fakestinians say.  Keep wasting your time fantasizing about something that will never happen.  Why don't you get a life and stop obsessing about the Jews?  What a loser!

Israel is the homeland of the Jews.  You can't argue with the truth no matter how hard you try.  Israel is here to stay and the Arab occupiers will never succeed in destroying it! 

- "The only reason we pay attention to this video is because it captures an Israeli solider shooting a fellow Israeli."

 That's perfectly right Roi. Palestinian and international peaceful protestors are being shoot and killed with a cold blood, and you heardly hear the world reacting to it! I'm not going to talk about Rachel Corrie and many others. I'll talk for myself because I was shoot with a rubber bullet three years ago and from no more than 10 meters distance while peacefully protesting on a checkpoint that devivded Nablus into two parts and made it very hard for me to get to school. The incidence wasn't recorded or even mentioned in a newspaper or anything. Why? simply because it's taken forgranted that I, as a Palestinian, have to suffer this pain and this torture.

 I was and will always be a peaceful protestor and peacemaker, but very often I think in the privacy of my throughts and wonder where things are going, because even my right to be a peaceful protestor have been vehemently violated!

Thank you Roi for being such a brave soul to write these words!

This Palestinian Life is a film about the Palestinian nonviolent struggle in the face of Israel’s occupation and annexation of their land. Israel maintains control over a majority of Palestinian land. Surrounding the valleys of many Palestinian villages lie Israeli communities, called settlements, a majority of which according to international law are illegally built on Palestinian village land. The Israeli army protects Jewish settlers as they violently attack school children, prevent Palestinian shepherds from tending to their flocks of sheep, or raze ancient trees. This system threatens the very way of life of Israel’s Palestinian neighbors. 

Some Palestinians return violence with violence. Most Palestinians don’t. Nonviolent struggle often takes the shape of demonstrations, boycotts and civil disobedience to counter illegal methods of expansion. Among Palestinians this struggle more often resembles sumoud (steadfastness) and perseverance, as they find creative and bold ways of remaining on their land and in their villages despite the opposition. 

The international media frequently covers the conflict that exists between Israel and Palestinians. Palestinian violence makes news as it fits the image of the worldview that drives much of the international media, men in masks and guns with bad intentions. The media misses the real story of the Israeli state’s suppression of Palestinian existence, these measures are faced by a Palestinian resolve to maintain their way of life rather than flee the relentless pressure of occupation. 

This film seeks to expose the rarely told story about a resistance that is nonviolent against the unjust policies of an occupying state.

http://thispalestinianlife.blogspot.com/ 

Violence comes from fear, hatred and despair.  These are the dreadful factors that drive the suicide bombers as well as the Israeli offense against the Palestinians. Fear.

I miss Anwar El Sadat, King Hussein, Rabin.  They overcame the fear.  Sadat took the plane and landed in the land of his most dreadful enemy to make peace.  We need him here, now.  We need Gandhi here, now. We need such leaders here.  It was their unique courage and leaderships that made the change. 

I’m skeptical whether non-violent resistance would be successful here without a real Gandhi to lead it or without a real Sadat. The people, in both sides, which I’m sure the vast majority of them want a true peace, need a real leader to make it happen.  Where are these leaders?  What shall we do until they shine through?

you are totally wrong. Look up the Amritsar Massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre   and other similar cases. I am afraid that you are letting your preconceptions and the cute analogy of an egg in boiling water overrule facts.

 There is no palestinian Gandhi because Gandhi was unique. Mubarak Awad, with all due respect, is not Gandhi. The protest led by Gandhi took its power from the huge masses, and frankly, I don't think that the majority of paletinians would subscribe to non-violent protest.

 P.S. Does the fact that your article has attracted so many extreme responses mean anything?

I vote for non violence from both sides. I beleive in respect to the other, in putting oneself in the other's position, in listenning and underestanding and in giving.

When I see that video of the soldier shutting ,or the pic on this article of the jewish women and kid agressing the palestinian women I  feel dissapointed of human beings.      How can you do the same mistake of putting everybody on the same category?     How can you repeat to others what your people suffered  before or even today around the world?

the people that  beleive that "their" G. would accept blood, suffer, hunger, racism, hate, murdered to the other, the stranger, the brother, has put their moral standars and beleives in the wrong place.

According to Smadar Haran, her last memories of Danny and Einat, that day, were when they were being led away at gun point by Kuntar. She could hear from her closet space Danny telling Einat, "Don't be scared, my baby, it will be alright" and Einat replied to him in her little voice, "Dad, where is Mommy? I want Mommy." Smadar's last memory of her 2-year-old daughter, Yael, was when her little daughter was taken to the apartment hiding space. Right before Yael had her mouth covered by her mother, she asked her mother "Where is my little pacifier." There was no time to search for the pacifier. Minutes later Smadar covered Yael's mouth to keep her from revealing the hiding space. Smadar soon felt her daughter's tiny tongue licks and lip sucking on the palm of her hand. She didn't know what to make of it at first but hours later was told by doctors and paramedics that the reason Yael was licking her palm while she covered her mouth was because she was gasping for air.

According to a 1979 Israeli Maariv (Hebrew: מַעֲרִיב‎) Newpaper which described details of this attack: After drowning Danny in the sea in front of little Einat (all this taking place as Ahmed Al-Brass, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, and Abdel Majeed Asslan stood and served as look outs and backup cover for Kuntar), Kuntar, then turned his attention towards the frightened little 4-year old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the little toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. As little Einat was knocked to the ground, she was screaming and crying hysterically "mommy daddy help me," while thrashing her little legs around in the sand. But unfortunately Einat was alone, and no one was there to save her. Kuntar then dragged the little toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find, this was while she was begging him not to hurt her. Kuntar, then laid her head down on a rock, with the intention of crushing it with the butt of his rifle. Einat, instinctively covered her head with her little arms, Kuntar struggled with the little toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way so that he could aim for her head. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar proceeded on beating her on the head over and over with the butt of his rifle, and repeatedly stomping on her little body as hard as he could as well, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth, and her little cries faded away as she was knocked into unconsciousness. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued on beating her over the head, as hard as he could, several more times until her skull was crushed and she was dead.

-Roy Ibn Yahuda,

When Palestinians kill Jews they are tracked down and punished, when Jews kill Palestinians, they got off with little or no punishment.

-Roi Ben-Yehuda,

why does there need to be a Palestinian Gahndi? Isreal is always called the only democracy in the Middle East? This is why the United States and other countries give it unconditional support. So being a democracy, shouldn't its people be using their democratic freedoms to do the right thing?

Do you have any video or pictures to show the cultural act ? I find  the event you mentioned really interesting.   In this case, in today's world media could have helped, no? The few people involved in the cultural act could have become hundred that support it from further.

I guess art could not substitute a gun but people votes maybe yes 

Thought provoking piece.  I still think that a non-violent movement, as difficult as it may be, will free the Palestinians from the oppression they have suffered - at the hands of the ISraelis and their own kind.  

This is more an insult to what Gandhi and King had to go through than than it is a prescription for Israel. You ever see those videos of civil rights protesters in the 50 and 60s getting their asses kicked by the police, sprayed with firehoses, and attacked with dogs? Where do you think King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail was written? In jail, because he was arrested for a nonviolent protest. Gandhi was imprisoned for years himself, and hundreds of thousands of Indian protesters were also arrested. Hundreds of Indians were shot to death and wounded in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, not with rubber bullets, with the ones that kill you. The idea that in King and Gandhi's case their nonviolent protests were somehow met with nonviolence in response compared to Israel is a false premise to the point of absurdity.

Great article! You raise really important considerations, especially regarding Israeli identity and self-determination. It takes a ton of courage to raise these questions so publicly, but so crucial to making progress. Keep em coming!

"One is left to wonder: If Israeli protesters
have it this bad, what do their Palestinian counterpart have to deal with?"

First of all, this is not what Israeli protestors "have to deal with." Making that generalization based on an incident, or two, or even three, is inaccurate. The moron soldier that did this was clearly violating IDF policy, and the ease with which he did this speaks volumes about him as an individual. The word individual is key here; the IDF is full of individual soldiers-- some of which abide by the strictest moral code, and some of which do not. This guy, clearly, did not.

As for the Palestinians, it is simply unrelated to this incident. Not only are you labeling something a microcosm with insufficient evidence, but you are asking a question that is misleading your readers. It would be difficult for you to find evidence that IDF soldiers randomly shoot Palestinians that say "Stop the Violence", and that aren't known terrorists. When civilians are killed and injured by Israel Defense Forces, the overwhelming majority of these cases are cases in which the Israel Air Force launches an air strike; civilians are sometimes (wrongly) killed in these strikes because terrorists tend to operate in populated areas (intentionally), and it is much more difficult to be precise from the air. You make insinuations that could bring some ignorant readers to the conclusion that Palestinians standing in line at checkpoints are regularly injured for opening their mouths. That's just ridiculous.

Being mindful and critical of our State is one of the most important things that we can do for the development and the survival of both the Jewish people and the Jewish State-- but be careful not to simply sign on to the liberal cause and become mindlessly critical; that stands to help no one.

Cori C

http://cori-c.blogspot.com

coriac@gmail.com

Salam shalom Roi,

With all respect, I think you need to educate yourself about nonviolent strategy and the history of nonviolent action. Your assumptions about how nonviolence works, and where, are simply wrong. Have you ever studied the example of Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars, and the brutal violence they faced?  Khan's people had a long history of fighting invaders (and each other) with severe violence (they're in the guiness book of records for one of their massacres) and yet they decided that nonviolence was a superior fighting force. Have you ever read the writings of Gene Sharp, Michael Nagler or David Cortright? Did you know that in late 2005, there was a large conference on nonviolence held in Bethlehem?

Damon

how long is this picture of the settler kids going to be used, i've seen it a million times from the left wingers, too bad its the only one

Your point may be valid if what the Palestinans really wanted was a state. However, all their actions have shown that a state is the last thing that they want. What they want is to killJews.

One more phatetic article that blame ourselves in the violence of our nighbours.