The U.S. and Palestinian Non-Violence

By Yousef 
 Earlier this year, I wrote a piece about the importance of supporting non-violent, Palestinian protests in the Occupied Territories. The main argument is simple: if the U.S. wants Palestinians to abandon violence, it cannot sit silent as non-violent activists are brutally repressed. Here is an excerpt:

When an Iranian protester, Neda, was shot and killed last year, the world knew her name – so did President Obama. But most would be hard-pressed to name one of the many non-violent protestors in Palestine who have been arrested, beaten, shot or even bulldozed to death.


The international community has an obligation to Palestinian nonviolent activists. Leaders cannot simply call on Palestinians to abandon violence in the face of Israeli occupation and remain silent when the non-violent activists are politically repressed. This only reinforces the ideas that the use of force reigns supreme, and that Palestinians have no choice but to accept hardships at the hands of their Israeli lords.


Sadly, the same leaders who call on Palestinians to abandon violence have been silent in the face of Israeli repression. By condemning violent Palestinian resistance while remaining silent in the face of Israeli crackdowns and political arrests, they are simply endorsing violence against civilians by one side instead of the other.

Earlier this week, a Palestinian non-violent activist was finally released from an Israeli prison. He was arrested in 2009 under charges that he was present in a "closed military zone" (in Occupied Palestinian Territory), and he received a 12-month sentence for his involvement in organizing non-violent protests. His sentence was later extended an additional 6-months, and to assure that the father of 9 children would give up activism, they released him under the condition that he wouldn't engage in activism for 4 years or face the consequences, including a 6000 NIS fine. (To put that figure in perspective, it's likely much higher than the village's per capita GDP.) A picture from his emotional reunion with his family appears to the right.


Others, like Abdallah Abu Rahmah, remain in Israeli jails. Abu Rahmah collected the empty casings of tear gas canisters to expose the tactics the Israelis were using against non-violent demonstrators. For this, the Israelis charged him with possession of weapons, a ludicrous charge that was ultimately dropped. But the Israelis found other ways to keep him in prison.


So what is the U.S. saying about this clear case of political repression on the part of the Israelis?


Matthew Lee, a reporter for the Associated Press, put the question to State Department spokespeople. Watch this video below, which includes a compilation of dodges and squirms as Lee persists day after day.

What do Liu Xiaobo, Ang Sun Suu Kyi, and Neda Agha Soltan all have in common?


A) All chose non-violent activism
B) All protested regimes the U.S. doesn't like
C) All are not Palestinian
D) All of the above.


If you said D) All of the above, you are correct.


So what messages are the U.S. sending to Palestinian non-violent activists? You have to listen closely to really figure it out if you are here in Washington. But in the field, where tear gas canisters are fired by Israelis at the heads of activists, the message from the U.S. is clear. As this image from Joseph Dana shows, it's as plain as day, right here on the face of this tear gas canister.





Who says we don't make anything in this country any more?




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