Nonviolence as a strategy of struggle and method for peace-making

Zoughbi Elias Zoughbi

Bernard Shaw once said, "If you break a nation's nationality, it will think of nothing else but getting it set again. It will listen to no reformer, to no philosopher, to no preacher, until the demands of the nationalist are granted. It will attend to no business, however vital. Except the business of unification and liberation." 1
Many Palestinians have conducted anonviolent campaign against the Israeli occupation, on the personal, NGO, politi-cal party, community, and country levels. According to Gene Sharp, the director ofthe programme on nonviolent sanctions at Harvard University's Center for Interna-tional Affairs, there are three classes of methods in conducting nonviolence: l Symbolic forms of nonviolent protest l Non-co-operation, l Intervention ²
    Nonviolence drew on the first twomethods and on the third through international diplomacy, governmental as wellas citizen's diplomacy.
    There are two major aspects of nonvio-lence in the Palestinian struggle. First, there is the nonviolence of the Palestiniansin Occupied Palestine and the diaspora, and second, there is the political route andthe diplomatic channels. Nonviolence is a commonly misunderstood term. By non-violence, I do not mean passiveness, weakness, or surrender. Rather, it is an empow-erment and an ongoing struggle that requires inner strength and perseverance. An effective strategyIn my view, nonviolence is the most effective way of ending the occupation. I can summarise my bias to nonviolence inthe following points.
    First, as a Palestinian, I believe vio-lence dehumanises human beings. Therefore, through nonviolent struggle, wefind the common ground among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in theirbelief that human beings are created in the image of God. There are currently four types of violence influencing the lives of the peoples of thisland. The most talked about is insurgent violence, carried out by nationalists andothers who have opted to revolt against the occupation, siege, and oppression inflictedupon them (for more than 35 years).
    But the Israeli government and settlersare carrying out the other three forms of violence against the Palestinians. Struc-tural violence, environmental violence, and state sponsored violence are all part ofthe system being used to continue to subject the Palestinians to the de factoapartheid that is currently in place. [See Uri Davis's article on p15.] Liberate your enemySecond, through nonviolence we don't only seek the liberation of our nation, butalso seek the liberation of our enemy by alleviating Israeli fears of an inevitablePalestinian state. As the educator Paulo Freire says, "Only power that springsfrom the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both."3When we consider the dehumanising acts the Israeli government has asked itsarmy to perform, such as beating, maiming, killing, terrorising, and torturing, wemust think of the repercussions these sanctioned acts will have on the future of Israelisociety. What kind of citizens will this generation's soldiers make? And, if thispolicy continues, how many generations following them will learn to be racist andto deal with fear and anger through violence? We are like sitting ducks in a shoot-ing gallery. I can only affirm what Henri Nouwen says, "our great task is to preventour fears from boxing our fellow human beings into characterisations and to see them as people." Futility of armsThird, given Israel's nuclear arsenal, estimated at hundreds of nuclear warheads,and with a very complicated defence strategy, there is little hope of defeating Israelby war. The second Intifada shows the futility of using arms, especially when theIsraeli reaction is more brutal and in damaging fashion. But, with a Palestiniancommitment to non-violent struggle, there is no way that Israel can maintain thestatus quo and obliterate the Palestinian national identity. Israelis must eventuallyaccept the inevitability of change. Nonviolence should address these facts in order topave the way of coexistence by laying the solid foundation of a two-state solution. Nonviolence worksFourth, through the first intifada nonviolence achieved what violence has not beenable to achieve. Palestinians have gained world sympathy for their cause, recogni-tion that occupation is no longer viable, and affirmation from more than one hun-dred nation-states recognising the right of Palestinians to have their own state. Some might argue that the armed struggle of the first decade (1964-1974) of thePalestinian revolution has put the Palestinians on the world map. One cannot denythat historical background. But being on the world political map is not enough. Weneed to foster our existence on the geographical map, whether the second Intifadaechoes the gains of the first intifada is the question that poses itself persistently. Cautiously hopefulFifth, based on the experience of previous and present popular struggles, I believethat nonviolence will foster our relations with peace-loving people who can bemobilised to support the unarmed oppressed in the light of the atrocitiesand brutalities of the oppressor.
    This simply illustrates our vision of anew world order based on peace, economic growth, social justice and ecological bal"Because of the Pales-tinians' unique position, they are able to liberateIsraeli society."

Addressing Israeli society

Sixth, nonviolent strategy can help us address Israeli society by working withthose who cannot tolerate the unjust acts of their government. Hundreds of signa-tories are already on the Ometz Lesarev (Courage to Refuse) declaration. There aredifferent groups who reactivate themselves, like IDF widows, Yesh Gvul, GushShalom, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Ta'yush and others. Palestinians can raise the awareness of Israelis and break down stereotypes, butonly if Israelis themselves can change the policy of their government. Therefore, Iagree with Amos Givrtz that Israeli people are advised to be more active in pre-ventive nonviolence. In the midst of rising extremism among the Israeli rightwing, Israeli peace activists need to be more affirmative and assertive in theirstruggle to get themselves rid of being occupiers. Because of the Palestinians'unique position, they are able to liberate Israeli society from learning to dehuman-ise, abuse, and degrade itself.

World community response

Seventh, we see ourselves as members of the world community and are aware ofthe international impact of the IsraelPalestine conflict. We also realise theneed for international support. Opting for non-violence requires the support of oth-ers across the world to exert pressure to fulfil our aims. This would complementthe local strategies. We need to expose the Israeli government atrocities. Theworld community needs to act and respond more efficiently. Threatened by thoughts of peaceEighth, we should not be dragged into the swamp of violence into which Israel is try-ing to put us. Palestinians should heed the words of Napoleon: "Never do what yourenemy wants you to do, if only because he wants you to do it." Through its daily provocations Israel tries to push us to usegreater violence, precisely because the Israeli government is well equipped todeal with violence. It seems that the Israeli government is threatened more bythoughts of peace and nonviolence than by war. Their whole system is trained forwar; it is not well equipped to face peace.

Waging peace

Let us not postpone the inevitable. I strongly believe that war, violence andnegative diplomacy are combinations of arts and actions that delay the inevitable.Inevitability says that we can live together in a two-state solution. This could be amodel solution that renders justice, restores hope, alleviates fear, heals trau-ma, and increases potency for co-existence and economic growth. This inevitabilitywill not occur without radical changes from within our societies and a resound-ing wake-up call. Let me conclude by saying, we need ajump-start to move away from the deadlock of the peace process. This requiresthree dimensions of joint non-violence struggle: the Palestinians to continuetheir proactive struggle to get rid of the Israeli occupation; the Israelis to affirmand enhance their preventive struggle to rid themselves of being occupiers; thethird party and pro-justice groups to raise awareness among the constituencies, tohave leverage on the powers that be to succumb to the international will ofresolving conflicts through the channels of government, citizens diplomacy andUN resolutions. The strategy of waging peace should replace once and for all thestrategy of waging war.

Notes:
¹Bernard Shaw cited in Palestine Perspective (May/June 1988; p3).
²Gene Sharp, The Intifada and Nonviolent Struggle (Journal of Palestine Studies 73 (autumn 1989), p4).
³Gene Sharp, The Intifada and Nonviolent Struggle (Journal of Palestine Studies 73 (autumn 1989), p4).
Zoughbi Elias Zoughbi is director of the Palestinian Conflict resolution centre - Wi'am. Wi'am Centre, PO Box 1039, Bethlehem, West Bank, via Israel (+ 972 2 277 0513; fax 277 7333; email alaslah@planet.edu; http://www.planet.edu/~alaslah/ ).