Non-Violent Resistance

Member of Parliament (Palestinian, yes she's Hamas) Jamila Shanti writes in the Guardian about the recent shooting of women marchers in Gaza:

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed. The soldiers were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel's so-called defence force did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Later an Israeli plane shelled a bus taking children to a kindergarten. Two children were killed, along with their teacher. In the last week 30 children have died. As I go round the crowded hospital, it is deeply poignant to see the large number of small bodies with their scars and amputated limbs. We clutch our children tightly when we go to sleep, vainly hoping that we can shield them from Israel's tanks and warplanes.

I just watched the film Cry Freedom, about the life and murder of Steven Biko of South Africa. The film portrays his last days, and the white reporter (Donald Woods) who interviews him and comes to realize the truth of his words and the oppressiveness of apartheid. I am having my own series of awakenings here. I knew the Israeli occupation is terrible. I am staggered today that it can kill people this openly without the whole world just saying Stop It!

But why am I surprised? Look at Lebanon 2006. Look at the voices commenting on this blog, rabidly defending Israel's assault on Lebanon, 2006.

Does belonging to Hamas and wearing a headscarf mean you deserve to be shot in the street?

Can there be any excuse for this incredible incident? Can you really tell me that this is justice in any form? And do my Israeli brothers and sisters really believe that they can live in peace and freedom in Israel while their military behaves this way?

Ah, I see upon reading further reports - the women were acting as human shields. They were protecting Hamas fighters under siege in a mosque. So of course it is permissible to execute them in the street. Forgive me for questioning. It was all their fault. They possibly thought that if a group of unarmed women walked down the street, they might shame the soldiers into holding their fire.

Maybe the veil is such a dangerous weapon, that they provoked their own execution.

In fact, if I understand non-violent resistance correctly, these women were practicing it. They put their lives on the line, and some of them lost. Perhaps their survivors may live to say that their sacrifice was worth it. I hope so.

And then yesterday there was the murder of 19 civilians in Gaza, many of them children. An accident. A regrettable accident. Just like the many, many regrettable civilian deaths in Lebanon this past summer, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead by sad, sad happenstance since the United States invasion.

Do not keep quiet.

May we live to see a just peace in Palestine and Israel. Steven Biko died in custody in 1977, and apartheid finally fell just seventeen years later. Living those seventeen years must have seemed like an eternity at the time, but now in retrospect it seems very short. Another world is possible.

Comments

[janinsanfran]

You are right -- we must find a way to break the silence.

Have you ever read this account of non-violent resistance to Israel in Lebanon?
http://www.ecapc.org/articles/AbuSabM_PeacefullyLiberated.asp

[Leila]

Jan, look at the author. My mother wrote it... I have linked to it before. Thank you for posting it. It's lovely.

For awhile I was walking around saying "Remember Arnoun!"

But those were idyllic days compared to the times we live in now.

[alom]

Don't beieve to this bullshit,
Unarmed resistance...ye right...those poor woman smuggled the hamas terrorists in the ambulances...but of course, you beleive to anything that against israel..only today the U.N published the report that israel didn't use in Uranium like the british newspaper said, no one say nothing on this in yours blogs..but when the paper published, you all screamed on war crimes and stuff, exactly like in jenin and a lot more events.

[Maloof]

As long as the world stands by and allows this to happen, there will be many more "regretable accidents". It's easy for Israel to label their violent acts as accidents because the international community never holds them accountable. I'm sure this incident will be "investigated". Yeah, right.

[alom]

this incident was been investigated two days ago...the army said that technical problem in the radar of the gun caused this tragedy.
from now, shooting with guns like this will be confirmed only by a general of the I.D.F.
this is the conclusion.

more than that, I can say to you Maloof that in 1982 when sabra and shatila massacre happend, the I.D.F was the only authority who investigated this massacre..your arabs freinds prefered to blame israel and closed the deal.
if you say that the I.D.F are not objective, I say you that you know on the intervention of Arieal Sharon only because I.D.F,
and after this "unobjective" investigated Ariel Sharon was been fired from the govemant.
the I.D.F is very objective in its investigation, you can see those investigation in the internet and derive conclusions.

[Saya Anak Malaysia]

Israel is a just a red herring. Does genocide in Darfur have anything to do with Israel? Did the bombings in Mumbai have anything to do with Israel? Do rebels in Sri Lanka have anything to do with Israel? Does civil war in Somalia have anything to do with Israel? Do terrorist attacks in the Phillipines have anything to do with Israel? Did the attempted coup in Trinidad have anything to do with Israel? Do attacks in Nigeria have anything to do with Israel?