As I have touched on previously, while the world’s media portrays much of Palestine as a violent struggle, the reality is that much of the Palestinian resistance to the occupation is non-violent. While I in no way want to give the impression that there is no violence from the Palestinian side, the portrayal of this is dramatically overstated in comparison to efforts for peace and the non-violent resistance to the occupation.
This is both typical of the mainstream media’s preference to show violence and conflict, and the largely western media’s bias towards giving a positive image of Israel, and a negative one of Palestinians (and Muslims).
While there is violence on occasion from the Palestinian side, the reality is that this is sporadic, while violence from the Israeli side is virtually a daily occurrence, whether from the army, police or settlers. And the violence from the Israeli forces is totally out of proportion; a comparison of almost any figures shows that injuries or deaths on the Palestinian side are at least ten times greater than on the Israeli side. Compare the civilian toll and it is more like one hundred times…
I recently posted a link to an article in the Economist (in this post) which posed very important questions for us in the international community; How long will we ignore the non-violent quest for peace?
Why won’t we accept that Palestinians are being treated ruthlessly every week while they try to maintain a peaceful approach to resisting their ongoing occupation and oppression?
And what do we expect them to do if this doesn’t work?
Why won’t we accept that Palestinians are being treated ruthlessly every week while they try to maintain a peaceful approach to resisting their ongoing occupation and oppression?
And what do we expect them to do if this doesn’t work?
One village peacefully protested the loss of their village lands (and livelihoods) forty-three times over about nine months – each time suffering beatings, arrest and tear gas) before finally some young men in the village threw stones.
Wouldn’t you feel like throwing a stone?
Here’s a couple more excellent links expanding on these thoughts.
In an article for Foreign Policy entitled ‘Palestine's Hidden History of Nonviolence’ Yousef Munayyer says:
‘You wouldn't know it from the media coverage, but peaceful protests are nothing new for Palestinians. But if they are to succeed this time, the West needs to start paying attention.’
This is supported by Joseph Dana who suggests that ‘The Arab Uprising Hasn’t Suddenly Arrived In Palestine — It’s Always Been Here’, while another Foreign Policy article picks up on Barrack Obama linking the Palestinian struggle to the US civil rights movement in the sixties in ‘When Montgomery comes to Nabi Saleh’.
The theme of all of these touches on the hypocrisy of the West who apparently want peaceful revolution against oppressive regimes, but ignore the Palestinian cause, despite their long-suffering non-violent resistance against an overtly oppressive and brutal regime. And when will enough of us withdraw support for Israel, and realise that many Palestinians are only going to be tempted towards violence if they perceive that non-violence is futile and they continue to suffer year after year.
The theme of all of these touches on the hypocrisy of the West who apparently want peaceful revolution against oppressive regimes, but ignore the Palestinian cause, despite their long-suffering non-violent resistance against an overtly oppressive and brutal regime. And when will enough of us withdraw support for Israel, and realise that many Palestinians are only going to be tempted towards violence if they perceive that non-violence is futile and they continue to suffer year after year.
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| Ramallah demonstration (photo by Goeran S.) |
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