Real News Network: THE RISING NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT IN PALESTINE Part 1

Run time: 28:28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJvi8b_IGAM   Posted on YouTube: July 19, 2010 By YouTube Member: TheRealNews Views on YouTube: 748   Posted on DU: July 20, 2010 By DU Member: Bullet1987 Views on DU: 417

 
A speech by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on Palestinian political dynamics and Middle East peace.

I pray,dream, and hope that this idea takes deep roots in the occupied territories.This is the only chance of real freedom for Palestine!!!! Please keep up the good fight Dr Barghouti !!!!!

One reason for the violence from Palestinian factions is simply that non-violent measures have been tried, and met with violence from Israel, and indifference from the rest of the world.

Take for instance today, the village of Bilin. It's one of those Arab towns that Israel is walling up inside the confines of its "security fence." The people of the village go down to the fence every day to protest. No stones, no rockets, no guns, just their voices and on occasion banners and cameras. The response is varied, depending on the mood of the guards at the fence; usually it's a hail of rubber-coated steel bullets, with the usual tear gas component and pepper balls. Sometimes live fire has been used. A few people - all on the protester side of the fence - have died. Have you ever heard of Bilin? Odds are most haven't. Odds are good that if they have, it comes from the Israeli narrative of a bunch of "terrorists."

In the first Intifada, there was more non-violent demonstration and activism than violent. There were strikes, walkouts, leaflets published in solidarity, marches, boycotts, all the usual non-violent methods. The people who organized these measures were treated identically to the people setting off bombs by Israeli forces. Leading a strike was apparently as "terrorist" as murdering children, and many in the west, to this day, hold that to be true - so long as the striker is a Palestinian, anyway. Correspondence by Palestinians with foreign journalists was a jailable offense during this time. Some activists such as Sari Nusseibeh, believe that the reprisal was stronger against nonviolent protest at this time because it was even scarier to the Israeli officials than the violent stuff was.

If so, it worked; non-violent protest basically went extinct after the early 90's. It had no external support, it got nothing but bullets and jail time from Israel, and with every setback, frustrations grew higher until even Palestinians were attacking the non-violent angle.

So, hopefully it can make a comeback.. .And hopefully the world will pay attention this time. But so long as the most powerful and influential nation in the world bases its policy in the region on the Book of Revelation, I'm afraid that's not terribly likely