Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Popular Protest in Palestine
WORK NOTES: with Andrew Rigby
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Coventry, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: Palestinian
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/researchers/dr-marwan-darweish/ * http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/dr-marwan-darweish * http://peacenews.info/node/8158/marwan-darweish-andrew-rigby-popular-protest-palestine-uncertain-future-unarmed-resistance * https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-marwan-darweish-7b113244
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Haifa University, B.A.; University of Bradford, M.A., Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Scholar, educator, writer, and editor. Lived and worked in Jerusalem; then Responding to Conflict (RTC), United Kingdom, senior peace advisor; then Coventry University, Coventry, England, principal lecturer at the Centre for Peace & Reconciliation Studies, 2009-, also the course director of the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies and director of postgraduate certificate course in conflict resolution skills.
WRITINGS
Also author of books in Arabic. Contributor to books, including Human Rights and Conflict Transformation, Dialogue Series, edited by V. Dugout and B. Schmelzlem, Berghof Conflict Research Centre, 2010; and Sustainable Agriculture in Post-Conflict Environments, edited by A. Özerdem and A. Roberts, Ashgate, 2012. Contributor to professional journals, including Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security, Journal of Palestine Studies, and Race and Class.
SIDELIGHTS
A Palestinian from Umm El Fahem within the 1948 borders, Marwan Darweish is an expert in conflict transformation and peace building, with a particular focus on the Middle East. Recent research also includes a focus on nonviolent resistance. His extensive experience throughout the Middle East region features a special interest in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, which includes working for more than thirty years to promote social and political change for both Palestine and Israel. He also helped lead a research project on the nonviolent movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the role of the Israeli and international peace and solidarity movement. The overall aim of his research is to develop practices and knowledge to enhance peaceful resistance and inform policy makers. Based on his experience in training in conflict transformation and peace building, Darweish also serves as a consultant for international and local organizations in the Middle East and Africa.
A contributor to periodicals and books, Darweish is also a book author and editor. He is coauthor with Andrew Rigby of Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance, which examines unarmed civil, popular resistance within the Palestinian national movement. Focusing on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), the book provides insight into a dimension of the Palestinian struggle that, according to Darweish and Rigby, is underexamined. Writing for Peace News, Michael Randle remarked: “This analysis of Palestinian popular—civil—resistance to the creation and expansion of Israel and its nearly 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory, is essential reading for anyone wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of civil resistance in an occupied country, and the factors making for its success or failure.”
The book is based on the author’s extensive experience following the trajectory of unarmed Palestinian resistance, historical documents, and oral histories. They trace the historical roots of unarmed resistance and go on to examine why activists in the region have become less optimistic about how successful unarmed civil resistance can be, especially compared to views concerning unarmed resistance in the 1980s . In the process, they clarify why unarmed resistance by Palestinians never became a popular mass movement opposing the military occupation by Israel. “The conviction that popular resistance can bring about an end to the occupation has long turned into a feeling of disappointment and frustration among Palestinians, and specifically the activist community,” wrote +972 Web site contributor Thimna Bunte.
Darweish and Rigby note that unarmed Palestinian resistance has largely been localized in small pockets. To clarify why the unarmed resistance movement is so small, the authors examine Palestinian unarmed resistance over different phases of history, beginning in the late nineteenth century. They examine the conditions that have been necessary to sustain an unarmed movement, noting that these conditions include an environment of solidarity and unity with collaborative leadership and a strong network of community-based organizations. Although these conditions largely existed during the First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that began in 1987, the conditions eventually began to erode.
Darweish and Rigby also make comparisons between the Palestinian resistance and the antiapartheid struggles that occurred in South Africa. According to the authors, the Palestinian resistance has not fared as well, largely due to the strong support Israel receives from the United States. Another difference between Palestine and South Africa in the authors’ view is that Palestine’s nonviolent movement lacked a coherent leadership with unified goals. Mark Muhannad Ayyash, writing for the Web site of the SCTIW Review, the open journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World, did not agree with this last assessment, noting there were many differences among anti-apartheid movement leaders that only seem more coherent in retrospect.
Popular Protest in Palestine also explores the international aspects of the struggle in Palestine. In addition, Darweish and Rigby discuss how international agencies are changing their engagement tactics as part of their humanitarian efforts. Popular Protest in Palestine “provides an important and rare look into the psyche of a region that cannot seem to shed this damnable conflict,” wrote Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries contributor M.D. Crosston. SCTIW Review Web site contributor Ayyash called the book “an … impressive, rich, and insightful body of work.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 2016. M.D. Crosston, review of Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance, p. 1235.
Peace News, October-November, 2015, Michael Randle, review of Popular Protest in Palestine.
ONLINE
+972, https://972mag.com/ (March 7, 2016), Thimna Bunte, “Popular Resistance in Palestine: Decline and Hope for Change,” review of Popular Protest in Palestine.
Coventry University Web site, http://www.coventry.ac.uk/ (April 2, 2017), author faculty profile.
Dialogue Society Web site, http://www.dialoguesociety.org/ (April 2, 2017), author profile.
Middle East Eye, http://www.middleeasteye.net/ (April 2, 2017), author profile.
Palestine Book Awards Web site, https://www.palestinebookawards.com/a (April 2, 2017), author profile.
SCTIW Review, http://sctiw.org/ (September 6 , 2016), Mark Muhannad Ayyash, review of Popular Protest in Palestine.
LC control no.: no2012139390
Personal name heading:
Darweish, Marwan
Found in: Peacebuilding and reconciliation, 2012: t.p. (Marwan
Darweish)
Centre for Peace & Reconciliation Studies, Coventry
University web site, Oct. 24, 2012: staff (Dr Marwan
Darweish; Ph. D. & M.A., peace studies, Department of
Peace Studies, University of Bradford; B.A., social
work, Haifa University)
================================================================================
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Dr Marwan Darweish
Articles
The day of the land #PalestineState
Dr Marwan Darweish
Dr Marwan Darweish's picture
Dr Marwan Darweish
Bio
Dr. Marwan Darweish is a Principal Lecturer at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, His research focuses on peace processes, conflict transformation and nonviolence and he has extensive experience across the Middle East region with special interest in Palestine and Israel. He is a Palestinian from Umm El Fahem within the 1948 borders.
Dr. Marwan Darweish
Principal lecturer in Peace Studies, MA Course Director and tutor at the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies
My Research Vision
I am deeply concerned about the growing violent response to social, political and economic injustices in the world and the lack of constructive peaceful interventions. I believe that active nonviolence civil resistance and conflict transformation is the key to transform structural and direct violent conflict and address social injustice and change the imbalance of power relation between the conflicting parties. My research aims to develop practices and knowledge to enhance successful peaceful resistance in partnership with local and international movements and to inform policy makers.
Biography
Dr. Marwan Darweish is a Principal Lecturer who joined the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University in 2009. He is the Course Director of the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of Post Graduate Certificate Course in Conflict Resolution Skills.
His current research focuses on peace processes, conflict transformation and nonviolence resistance. Dr. Darweish carries extensive experience across the Middle East region and has a special interest in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He worked for over 30 years for social political change in Palestine and Israel. He recently led a team of researchers to implement a research project on the nonviolent movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the role of Israeli and international peace and solidarity movement, funded by the EU. He has considerable international experience in leading training courses in conflict transformation and peacebuilding, and in undertaking consultancies for several international and local organisations in the Middle East and Africa. His is the co-author of (2015) Popular Protest in Palestine: The History and Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance, London, Pluto Press.
Prior to his current position, Dr Darweish worked as Senior Peace and Advisor, with Responding To Conflict (RTC), an international organisation based in the UK, previously he lived and worked in Jerusalem.
Selected Outputs
Books:
Darweish, M., and Rigby, A. (2015) Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance. London: Pluto Press.
Darweish, M., and Rank, R. (eds.) (2012) Peacebuilding and Reconciliation, Contemporary Challenges and Themes. London: Pluto Press.
Darweish. M. (ed.) (2011) Handbook on Nonviolence. London: War Resistance International. (Arabic)
Darweish. M, and Rigby, A. (1995) The Palestinians in Israel: Nationalism versus citizenship. London: Redwood.
Journal Articles:
Darweish, M. (2014) ‘The Palestinian Israeli Conflict in the shadow of the Arab Revolutions’. Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security 3 (2), 154-172.
Darweish, M., and Rank, C. (eds.) (2011) 'Peacebuilding and Reconciliation' [special issue] Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security 1, (2).
Darweish, M. (2006) 'The Impact of the Palestinian National Authority on the Arabs in Israel'. Journal of Palestine Studies 2 (28). (Arabic language version)
Darweish, M. (1989) ‘The Intifada: Social Change’. Race and Class 31 (2), 47-61.
Chapter in books:
Darweish, M. (2012) ‘Olive Trees: Livelihoods and Resistance’. in Sustainable Agriculture in Post-Conflict Environments. Ed. by Özerdem, A., and Roberts, A. London: Ashgate.
Darweish, M. (2010) ‘Human Rights and the Imbalance of Power: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict’. in Human Rights and Conflict Transformation, Dialogue Series. Ed. by Dudouet, V., and Schmelzlem, B. Germany: Berghof Conflict Research Centre.
Selected Projects
Nonviolence movement in Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt) and the role of international and Israeli solidarity groups. The project provided knowledge and analysis of the nonviolent popular resistance movement in the oPt and its applicability to the EU Partnership for Peace programme which support Palestinian and Israeli NGOs. The research examined the role and significance of unarmed civil resistance in Palestine and addressed the role of Israeli and international solidarity such as the BDS campaign. It continued to examine the everyday or hidden resistance of the Palestinians in Israel under military rule during the period of 1948-66. As a result of the consultancy a book was published about Popular Protest in Palestine (Darweish and Rigby). We continued to work as consultants with the Palestinian Popular Struggle Coordination Committees and NOVACT (Spain) to enhance local and international cooperation, coordination and joint struggle to empower Palestinian Popular protest.
MA in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at Arab American University Jenin (AAUJ) Palestine.This is Partnership with the AAUJ and CU were established in 2012 to develop and implement an MA in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies, the first in Middle East. The first cohort started in 2013/14 with 17 students. Academics from both institutions designed, developed and implemented the programme. This year the first cohort will be graduated and the programme will be expanded to Ramallah Campus and 30 new students will enrol.
Access To Land. Facilitated workshop with Palestinians and Israeli NGOs on theory of change and access to land.
Conflict Transformation. Two weeks training course on Conflict transformation and peacebuilding for youth leaders from the West Bank, Palestine. The training included a follow up and mentoring to intervene in their local community and address wider political and social issues.
Country Conflict Analysis; Palestine and Israel. The aim was to conduct a strategic planning and conflict analysis with the AFSC staff and meet with AFSC partners and potential partners and recommend new areas of work.
Conflict resolution and management in South Sudan. The purpose of the Military Integration Assistance Programme (MIAP) is to build confidence and manage conflict effectively within the Joint Integrated Force (JIF) Chain of Command and across the Joint Integrated Units (JIU) through training on media, good governance, mentoring, facilitation and Conflict Transformation training in support of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Country conflict Analysis and evaluation of development programme. Analysis and evaluation of Peace and Conflict Potential in Yemen. Yemeni and German governments agreed to carry out a study on ‘Conflict Prevention through Development Co-operation’ in two of the remote and least developed governorates. The study analysed the conflicts between the tribes, tribes and government, political and regional conflicts. The consultancy included a Portfolio analysis of the German Development Cooperation and its impact on conflict. The study included strategic and sectorial recommendations, role of civil society and good governance.
Peacebuilding strategies in Sudan. Advanced course for trainers in conflict transformation and peacebuilding strategies in Sudan to enhance capacity of local trainers and NGO staff in Sudan who already have experience of conflict analysis tools and strategies to address conflict situations and peace-building strategies.
DR. MARWAN DARWEISH
Principal lecturer in Peace Studies, MA Course Director and tutor at the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies
MY RESEARCH VISION
I am deeply concerned about the growing violent response to social, political and economic injustices in the world and the lack of constructive peaceful interventions. I believe that active nonviolence civil resistance and conflict transformation is the key to transform structural and direct violent conflict and address social injustice and change the imbalance of power relation between the conflicting parties. My research aims to develop practices and knowledge to enhance successful peaceful resistance in partnership with local and international movements and to inform policy makers.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Marwan Darweish is a Principal Lecturer who joined the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University in 2009. He is the Course Director of the MA in Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of Post Graduate Certificate Course in Conflict Resolution Skills.
His current research focuses on peace processes, conflict transformation and nonviolence resistance. Dr. Darweish carries extensive experience across the Middle East region and has a special interest in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He worked for over 30 years for social political change in Palestine and Israel. He recently led a team of researchers to implement a research project on the nonviolent movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the role of Israeli and international peace and solidarity movement, funded by the EU. He has considerable international experience in leading training courses in conflict transformation and peacebuilding, and in undertaking consultancies for several international and local organisations in the Middle East and Africa. His is the co-author of (2015) Popular Protest in Palestine: The History and Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance, London, Pluto Press.
Prior to his current position, Dr Darweish worked as Senior Peace and Advisor, with Responding To Conflict (RTC), an international organisation based in the UK, previously he lived and worked in Jerusalem.
SELECTED OUTPUTS
Books:
Darweish, M., and Rigby, A. (2015) Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance. London: Pluto Press.
Darweish, M., and Rank, R. (eds.) (2012) Peacebuilding and Reconciliation, Contemporary Challenges and Themes. London: Pluto Press.
Darweish. M. (ed.) (2011) Handbook on Nonviolence. London: War Resistance International. (Arabic)
Darweish. M, and Rigby, A. (1995) The Palestinians in Israel: Nationalism versus citizenship. London: Redwood.
Journal Articles:
Darweish, M. (2014) ‘The Palestinian Israeli Conflict in the shadow of the Arab Revolutions’. Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security 3 (2), 154-172.
Darweish, M., and Rank, C. (eds.) (2011) 'Peacebuilding and Reconciliation' [special issue] Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security 1, (2).
Darweish, M. (2006) 'The Impact of the Palestinian National Authority on the Arabs in Israel'. Journal of Palestine Studies 2 (28). (Arabic language version)
Darweish, M. (1989) ‘The Intifada: Social Change’. Race and Class 31 (2), 47-61.
Chapter in books:
Darweish, M. (2012) ‘Olive Trees: Livelihoods and Resistance’. in Sustainable Agriculture in Post-Conflict Environments. Ed. by Özerdem, A., and Roberts, A. London: Ashgate.
Darweish, M. (2010) ‘Human Rights and the Imbalance of Power: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict’. in Human Rights and Conflict Transformation, Dialogue Series. Ed. by Dudouet, V., and Schmelzlem, B. Germany: Berghof Conflict Research Centre.
Marwan Darweish is Principal Lecturer in Peace Studies at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. He has extensive experience in conflict transformation and peacebuilding across the Middle East region and internationally. He co-edited Peacebuilding and Reconciliation: Contemporary themes and challenges (Pluto 2012).
Dr Marwan Darweish is an expert in peace processes and conflict transformation with extensive experience in Middle East region. He has wide-ranging experience as an academic, researcher and lecturer, as well as in leading/facilitating on training courses associated with conflict transformation and peace processes.
He is experienced in working with civil society partners, governmental and non governmental organizations; with community driven initiatives as well with mulit-donor funded programmes. For seven years he worked as Peace and Conflict advisor at Responding to Conflict (RTC) and took on a range of conflict consultancies including work with various African countries. He supported a new conflict management programme in Sudan (DFID funded) which aims to equip Joint Integrated Units (JIUs) Commanders with practical skills and approaches for managing conflict effectively.
Marwan Darweish is Principal Lecturer in Peace Studies at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. He has extensive experience in conflict transformation and peacebuilding across the Middle East region and internationally. He co-edited Peacebuilding and Reconciliation: Contemporary themes and challenges (Pluto 2012). Andrew Rigby is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies, Coventry University where he was the founding director of the Centre for Peace & Reconciliation Studies. He is the author of 14 books covering various aspects of nonviolent theory and practice, uncluding Justice and Reconciliation: After the Violence (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001).
Darweish, Marwan. Popular protest in Palestine: the uncertain future of unarmed resistance
M.D. Crosston
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1235.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Darweish, Marwan. Popular protest in Palestine: the uncertain future of unarmed resistance, by Marwan Darweish and Andrew Rigby. Pluto, 2015. 211 p bibl index ISBN 9780745335100 cloth, $110.00; ISBN 9780745335094 pbk, $28.00
(cc) 53-3710
DS113
MARC
This heavily researched book is also a personal journey of two authors clearly committed to the problems of the greater Palestinian-Israeli conflict. While some readers may want to critique this approach for fear of author bias in favor of one side or the other, this is not the case with this thoughtful analysis. Indeed, if anything, the authors almost have to "create" positive opportunities moving forward within the conflict. This is because they document, through personal interviews with dozens of activists in the region, the frustrating tendency that still reigns dominant in this conflict: namely, how the Israeli political leadership remains committed to its strategy of maintaining the status quo of occupation and how the Palestinian political leadership places its narrow personal and factional interests above the national interest of fellow Palestinians writ large. Despite this problem, which the authors admittedly could not hope to find the magical key to unlocking, the book provides an important and rare look into the psyche of a region that cannot seem to shed this damnable conflict. The authors feverishly interview civil resistance activists in order to develop an account of their belief systems and provide firsthand accounts of the frontlines. Summing Up: ** Recommended. All readership levels.--M. D. Crosston, Bellevue University
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Crosston, M.D. "Darweish, Marwan. Popular protest in Palestine: the uncertain future of unarmed resistance." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1235. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661841&it=r&asid=a1520b8c0235ae3d9e94cfca303fac36. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661841
October 2015 - November 2015 | Issue 2586-2587
Marwan Darweish & Andrew Rigby, Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance
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ImageImage
Review by Michael Randle
Pluto Press, 2015, 211pp, £15
ImageThis analysis of Palestinian popular – civil – resistance to the creation and expansion of Israel and its nearly 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory, is essential reading for anyone wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of civil resistance in an occupied country, and the factors making for its success or failure.
“The First Intifada encompassed a range of nonviolent tactics with the strategic aim of regenerating the resistance, increasing the cost to Israel of the continued occupation, and seeking allies both within Israel and internationally”
The account covers the efforts to prevent mass Jewish immigration with the objective of creating a Jewish state or homeland in Palestine from the 1880s when it was still part of the Ottoman empire, through the period of British military rule (1917–1920) and the British ‘mandate’ (1920–1948), and the continued Palestinian resistance following the creation of Israel.
During the Ottoman period, resistance to Jewish immigration took mainly the form of petitions and delegations to Constantinople. There were also some more coercive measures, including pressure on landowners to stop them selling land to Jewish immigrants. But the remonstrations and low-level resistance did not succeed in halting the immigration, and the Jewish population of Palestine more than tripled between 1882 and 1914, rising from 24,000 to 84,000.
The occupation of Palestine by British and allied forces in 1917 during the First World War raised Palestinian hopes that the situation would change. Hussein, the sharif of Mecca, provided forces in 1916 to fight alongside Britain and was given to understand that as a reward Britain would recognize the Arab nationalist goal of independence.
Unbeknown to Hussein, Britain and France had already agreed a secret deal – the Sykes-Picot agreement – to divide up control of the Middle East between them. Then, in 1917, Britain committed itself in the Balfour Declaration to supporting the creation of a Jewish homeland, though with the proviso that this did not impinge on the rights of other communities in the area.
A bi-national state?
The proviso underscores the ambiguity of the term ‘homeland’. Not everyone in the Zionist movement saw it as entailing the creation of a separate Jewish state. Thus, the eminent Jewish philosopher and humanist, Martin Buber, and the group he was associated with, Brit Shalom (Covenant of Peace), called for a bi-national state with all citizens enjoying equal rights.
Jewish immigration increased during both the British military administration and the mandate, reaching a peak of 60,000 in 1935, and sparking serious unrest and clashes between the two communities, with killings and the destruction of property on both sides.
The unrest culminated in the major Palestinian revolt of 1936–1939. Initially that was mainly unarmed, and employed the gamut of nonviolent tactics, including a general strike. A commission of enquiry into the strike, headed by Lord Peel, proposed the partition of the territory between Jews and Arabs, which eventually formed the basis of the post-Second World War partition and the creation of the state of Israel, endorsed by the UN.
The establishment of the state of Israel, in May 1948, was accompanied by the forcible expulsion or flight of the majority of the Palestinian population, who became refugees in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighbouring Arab countries. It occasioned also the first Arab-Israel war, when Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian forces invaded in an attempt to prevent the new state from coming into existence.
The truce in January 1949 which halted the war left a substantial number of Palestinians on the Israeli side of the armistice line – the ‘Green Line’ – who were subject to severe restrictions under Israeli military rule between 1948 and 1966, including being required to have a permit to leave their town or village. They nevertheless improvised forms of low-key unarmed resistance calculated to challenge various restrictions without unleashing an Israeli crackdown. Gradually the scope of the resistance broadened, particularly following the end of military rule in 1966, when the Arab population became Israeli citizens, albeit still circumscribed by many restrictions. This chapter is particularly interesting in that it shows how such low-key semi-resistance in a situation of severe repression can open the way to public protest, defiance and political mobilisation.
The First Intifada
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, placed its faith in ‘armed struggle’, but popular unarmed resistance re-emerged in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) with the First Intifada – literally shaking off – from December 1987 to October 1991. It began with riots in the Gaza Strip but developed into a sustained campaign of mainly unarmed resistance coordinated not by the PLO, which had moved its headquarters to Tunis, but by a newly-formed Unified National Command based in the OPT, on which the various political tendencies were represented and which was sustained by a network of popular committees.
The intifada encompassed a range of nonviolent tactics with the strategic aim of regenerating the resistance, increasing the cost to Israel of the continued occupation, and seeking allies both within Israel and internationally. The high point came over Christmas and the New Year, 1990–1991 when thousands of peace activists from around the world joined Palestinians and Israelis in demonstrations in Jerusalem under the banner ‘Time for Peace’.
The start of the Oslo Peace Process in 1993 brought a brief period of hope. But the absence of substantial progress towards a two-state solution led to Palestinian disillusion, internal divisions and the strengthening of the Islamic group Hamas.
A Second Intifada in 2000 took a mainly violent form, including suicide bombings and indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel. This provoked, or at least provided the rationale for, the devastating Israeli bombing and shelling of Gaza in a succession of military operations, and the building of the Separation Wall.
This last development has led to a resurgence of popular resistance, which, together with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign initiated by Palestinian civil society groups in 2005, provides some grounds for hope. So, although the authors are pessimistic about the prospects of a breakthrough in the short to medium term, they suggest in the final chapter that it is perhaps time ‘to abandon narrow conceptions of rationality/realism and engage in some optimism of the imagination.’
They are particularly encouraged by the determination and resilience of a younger generation of Palestinians, as exemplified by the Gaza Youth Breakout group who were inspired by the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt in 2011, and, at least in the case of one of its founder members, by the example of Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Their manifesto reads in part:
Fuck Hamas, Fuck Fatah, Fuck UN, Fuck UNWRA, Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! …
We will start by destroying the occupation that surrounds ourselves, we will break free from this mental incarceration and regain our dignity and self respect. We will carry our heads high even though we will face resistance. We will work day and night to change these miserable conditions we are living under. We will build dreams where we meet walls.
Michael Randle is, with April Carter and Howard Clark, co-editor of A Guide to Civil Resistance: A Bibliography of People Power and Nonviolent Protest, (Merlin, 2014)
Published March 7, 2016
Popular resistance in Palestine: Decline and hope for change
A decade ago popular protests against the separation wall, settlements, and occupation were the great promise of the Palestinian struggle. Now a new book takes a look at why these demonstrations were never actually able to bring out the Palestinian masses to the streets, and what activists can learn for the future.
By Thimna Bunte
Palestinian children march during the weekly demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh, West Bank, January 25, 2013. (Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Palestinian children march during the weekly demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh, West Bank, January 25, 2013. (Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
In what may be the most insightful, comprehensive, and sensitive academic study of today’s Palestinian popular resistance, Marwan Darweish and Andrew Rigby’s new book, Popular Protest in Palestine – The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance, provides an excellent analysis of Palestinian unarmed resistance to the Israeli occupation, and the reasons why it has not developed into a popular, mass movement. Woven into their overview is an analysis of Palestinian unarmed resistance in a different role — one that opens the possibility of identifying new and more effective strategies, and thereby a potential for hope.
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By Activestills | February 19, 2016
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'As long as we choose violence Israel will always defeat us'
By Waleed Shahid | October 31, 2015
The decline of Palestinian unarmed resistance
“’We came alive in the First Intifada. Then we died in the second. Maybe now we are being reborn.’” Such was the spirit of hope among large segments of the Palestinian population in the wake of popular unarmed resistance to the separation wall and the settlements following the Second Intifada. Examining this movement in the decade leading up to 2014, Darweish and Rigby reveal the obvious: despite some success stories, unarmed resistance by Palestinians failed to develop into a popular mass movement of civil resistance to Israel’s military occupation. Rather, unarmed resistance in Palestine seems to be “localised pockets of resistance […] in response to immediate threats to the well-being and way of life of local people.” The conviction that popular resistance can bring about an end to the occupation has long turned into a feeling of disappointment and frustration among Palestinians, and specifically the activist community.
In the authors’ interviews with more than 100 Palestinian and Israeli activists and politicians, it becomes apparent that the Palestinian activists are fully aware of the fundamental weaknesses of the civil resistance movement. They point to the political fracture between parties and within movements; the absence of a coherent strategy; the lack of coordination between competing networks of activists, as well as the lack of trust in leadership at any level. In order to understand why these weaknesses exist, Darweish and Rigby analyze different phases of Palestinian unarmed resistance from the late 19th century with an understanding of the necessary conditions for a sustainable unarmed resistance movement.
Palestinian youth run as Israeli army shoots tear gas during a protest against the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank village of Nilin, April 25, 2014.
Palestinian youth run as Israeli army shoots tear gas during a protest against the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank village of Nilin, April 25, 2014.
Some of those conditions — including instance a strong sense of solidarity and unity, well-organized networks of community-based organizations, and a unified leadership — were present during the First Intifada. However, “these conditions were undermined and eroded over the two decades of the Oslo Peace Process such that there was no longer the necessary socio-political base for a mass movement of popular resistance.”
Thus, Darweish and Rigby identify three major challenges for Palestinian unarmed resistance today. First, geographical fractures introduced by the Oslo Accords, economic impoverishment, the NGOization of community-based organizations, and the public’s disillusionment with the Palestinian Authority and a divided political leadership eroded any significant sense of solidarity amongst Palestinians.
Second, rather than having a unified body leading the struggle, like in the First Intifada, today there are rival coordinating bodies that compete over actions, media presence, and funding.
Demonstrators walk inside a cloud of tear gas shot by the Israeli army during the weekly protest against the wall and the occupation in the West Bank village of Bil'in, December 21, 2012. (photo by: Guest photographer Hamde Abu Rahma/ Activestills.org)
Demonstrators walk inside a cloud of tear gas shot by the Israeli army during the weekly protest against the wall and the occupation in the West Bank village of Bil’in, December 21, 2012. (photo: Guest photographer Hamde Abu Rahma/ Activestills.org)
Third, there is no effective popular resistance strategy shared by the movement, displaying a positive vision and the approaches on how to reach it. Part of this challenge, as the authors point out, is that the once important strategic goal of exerting direct leverage over the Israeli population is scarcely possible anymore.
While their analysis of previous and current dynamics and challenges is discouraging, Darweish and Rigby see ground for hope in the increasing third-party solidarity by external actors. Thus, they suggest an understanding of Palestinian unarmed resistance as part of a chain of influence, in which third parties exercise leverage over the Israeli public and decision-makers.
The boomerang pattern
The idea is simple: currently Palestinian unarmed resistance cannot effectively reach Israeli society or decision-makers who could end the occupation. However, it can influence external solidarity actors who then reach out to their own societies, governments, NGOs and the international community. Those, in turn, have the power to influence the Israeli public and decision-makers.
Palestinians from the village of Qadum carry the body of Said Jasir, who died after inhaling tear gas shot by Israeli soldiers. (Activestills)
Palestinians from the village of Qadum carry the body of Said Jasir, who died after inhaling tear gas shot by Israeli soldiers. (Activestills)
Ideally, this would unleash what Darweish and Rigby call a “boomerang pattern.” Because neither the Israel government nor society is responsive to Palestinian unarmed resistance in the desired way, the activists “’throw a boomerang’ out to external actors and networks naming and shaming their oppressors, in the hope that the boomerang will return and hit their target with international pressure, particularly from international allies of the targeted regime.” The authors correctly state that such chains of influence already exist, most significantly with the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), which was established 2005. However, in order for the boomerang effect to work successfully, hopes should not only be put in outside actors. Palestinian unarmed resistance, international solidarity, financial institutions and governments all need to do their part in making the occupation too costly for Israel. Interestingly, in their conclusion, the authors only give recommendations for the Palestinian part of the chain.
Darweish and Rigby hesitate to assert that a boomerang pattern is likely to succeed. Nevertheless, with this understanding they offer something beyond a convincing strategic outlook — they offer a valuable contribution in countering the frustration within popular resistance. The significance of suggesting the understanding of Palestinian unarmed resistance as one part of a chain of influence is that it moves away from the perception of failure to end the occupation towards an understanding of popular resistance in the role of an already emerging boomerang thrower. If Palestinian unarmed resistance decided to understand itself more in this role, it could build up more effectively on its already existing expertise as activists and advocates. This can be a valuable impulse for Palestinian activists in their own strategizing process and role definition – and it can be grounds for hope.
Incomplete pieces: Analysis of Israeli and int’l movements
Palestinian protesters hide during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Bil'in. (photo: Haitham Khatib)
Palestinian protesters hide during clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Bil’in. (photo: Haitham Khatib)
In a book focusing on popular struggle in Palestine, it is understandable that Darweish and Rigby focus their analysis on Palestinian resistance. It is a pity, however, that they do not use the valuable information they gathered on Israeli activism, international humanitarian aid agencies, and international solidarity in the same fruitful and inspiring way as they do for Palestinian resistance. For example, the authors’ analysis framework looks at the conditions for sustainable unarmed resistance movements for the Palestinian movement alone, but not for their analyses of Israeli and international solidarity movements or humanitarian aid agencies.
An analysis of the reasons why Israeli or international activists so far have failed to build up a sustainable movement that brings about an end of occupation could have been valuable for Israeli and international activists’ strategizing. In addition, the authors give an insightful overview of the dynamics within Israeli movements, their modes of engagement, and the challenges they face, as well as the contributions and shortcomings of humanitarian aid agencies. Furthermore, the authors could have moved beyond a general description of actors and forms of engagement and provided more substantial suggestions for Israeli and international solidarity activists, and aid agencies on how to define and more effectively see through their role in a boomerang pattern.
Still, Darweish and Rigby succeeded in publishing the best available analysis of today’s Palestinian popular resistance movement against the wall and the settlements. They offer meaningful impulses for discussion for the Palestinian movement and their strategizing processes as well as potential for hope. In all, Popular Protest in Palestine is a highly recommended read for Palestinian, Israeli, and international solidarity activists. It now remains to be seen if and how they pick up on these insights and use them to move from a perception of failure toward a different strategic understanding of their role in ending the Israeli occupation – toward hope for change.
Popular Protest in Palestine – The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance was published in 2015 on Pluto Press. Find it here.
Thimna Bunte has been involved in various nonviolent initiatives in the occupied territories since 2011. She is active with KURVE Wustrow — Center for Training and Networking Nonviolent Action. This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
ISSN:
2374
-
9288
September
6
, 201
6
Marwan Darweish and Andrew Rigby,
Popular Protest in Palestine: The
History and
Uncertain
Future of Unarmed Resistance
,
Pluto Press, 2015
,
226 pp., $28.00 US (pbk),
ISBN
9780745335094
.
Popular Protest in Palestine
presents a rich body of fieldwork that Marwan Darweish and
Andrew Rigby collected between 2011 and 2013. The book
,
however,
is not restricted to the
contemporary era
—
since the 198
0s, both authors have followed the trajectory of unarmed
Palestinian resistance and the role it has played
toward
ending the Israeli occupation. In
addition, they make use of historical documents, Darweish’s lived experience of
displacement, and oral histo
ries to examine the historical roots and continuities of
Palestinian resistance across a large span of space and time. In my view, the book constitutes
a significant contribution to a burgeoning field of study, which attempts to understand the
diverse aspe
cts and incredibly wide range of longstanding Palestinian forms of popular
unarmed
resistance.
I believe that there remains prevalent in both academia and in public discourse in North
America, a false
belief
that if Palestinians would resort to unarmed str
uggle, then the
American populace would support the Palestinian struggle towards self
-
determination. To
this baseless notion, this book offers a resounding rebuke. Palestinians have been engaging
in unarmed resistance for over 100 years, most of which goes
unnoticed and unmarked in
American and Canadian discourses. The authors’ comprehensive study of the subject is
therefore much needed and is of interest to anyone who wants to understand the struggle of
the Palestinians in particular and the complexities o
f civil resistance in general.
Building on their long established personal and professional relationships and contacts,
Darweish and Rigby conducted over a hundred interviews with Palestinian, Israeli
,
and
international activists across Palestine and Israe
l. Their main goal in the book is to gain a
better understanding of why it is that activists today, as compared to the 1980s and early
1990s,
are
no longer optimis
tic
about
the effectiveness of unarmed civil resistance. The
authors draw from the growing
literature on civil resistance and nonviolent action to explain
the reasons behind this trajectory of losing hope.
Darweish and Rigby work with a range of concepts and analytical insights from this
literature. I will forgo their discussion on the condition
s that are necessary for the emergence
and sustenance of collective popular resistance and the conditions necessary for that
resistance to take a non
-
violent form (8
-
10). More interesting and critical, I think, are the
four underlying assumptions of their
work and the different types of non
-
violent action they
outline. Succinctly put, the four assumptions claim that oppressive and repressive regimes
SCTIW Review
Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World
2
cannot exercise their power without a certain amount of obedience from large segments of
the population; civi
l resistance can hence gain leverage over the superior power of such
regimes by turning these segments against the regime; the most effective strategy is to locate
and expand cleavages between/within the different groups that make up the regime, creating
i
nternal conflicts
and
thus raising the costs of maintaining its oppressive order; furthermore,
civil resistance can create a “chain of nonviolence” where intermediaries and groups outside
the regime can exert pressure on it, forcing the regime to change or
causing its collapse (6
-
7).
The key point here is that civil resistance works because it can exert either direct or indirect
pressure (or both) on a regime without resorting to physical force, sin
c
e such
confrontations
always favor the regime.
This brings
up
a
second set of concepts, which concern the authors’ employment of five
types of nonviolent action, each serving a specific strategic purpose. Generally speaking,
“Symbolic” and “Polemical” actions challenge the occupier’s symbolic universe, while
“Off
ensive
,
” “Defensive
,
” and “Constructive” actions target the occupier’s violent structures
and orders (7
-
8). In tracing popular Palestinian resistance from the period of Ottoman rule
in the late 1880s to the present, the authors illustrate how this resistan
ce has run the gamut
of all these types of nonviolent actions. A few examples can provide an idea of what each
type of action entails
.
Symbolic and polemical resistance often involves boycott actions and the utilization of
various media outlets. These acti
ons date back to the early parts of the
twentieth
century.
For example, in response to the 1917 Balfour declaration, various items appeared in the
Palestinian press urging the population to resist the establishment of a Jewish state on the
land of Palestin
e, and in 1920, a conference was held in Haifa to reject and oppose the
Balfour Declaration
[
polemical resistance
]
. When Balfour visited Jerusalem in 1925, “he was
met by black flags and a complete boycott of the occasion by the Palestinians”
[
symbolic
res
istance
]
(16). Jumping forward to Palestinian resistance against the Separation Wall in
contemporary times, we find activists in Bil’in who campaign through various new media
outlets to create awareness and develop local and international alliances in thei
r struggle
against land confiscation
[
polemical resistance
]
(89). The boycott campaigns against Israeli
products have also been a staple of Palestinian resistance, and they have occurred in small
-
scale campaigns
[
symbolic violence
]
long before they became
centralized, developed
,
and
advanced through the now internationally known Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
Movement
(
BDS
)
(83
-
84).
The most common examples of offensive resistance involve activities such as strikes and
demonstrations. The Revolt of 1936
-
39
is the most famous example in Palestinian history
(21
-
26), but other cases abound, most evident in the mass strikes of the
F
irst Intifada (61)
and the large scale, media savvy, demonstrations of the
S
econd Intifada (76
-
79). Defensive
resistance seeks to pr
eserve the ability of the occupied people to survive, a recent example of
which involves “the practice of activists [often internationals or Israeli activists]
accompanying Palestinians as they go about their daily lives so that
...
they can deter assaults
by
settlers and the Israeli occupation forces” (84)
.
Constructive resistance creates alternative institutions that embody the free and
unoccupied world the resistance is striving to create. One of the more outstanding examples
of constructive resistance is fo
und in the village of Battir, which
h
as been threatened with
complete destruction since the 1940s but still survives today. In 1949, as a result of the
Israel
-
Jordan bilateral armistice agreement, Battir fell within the “no
-
man’s
-
land” strip, and
was there
fore subject to evacuation and destruction. Under the leadership of Hasan Mustafa,
a prominent leader in the village, the villagers lobbied the Jordanians and convinced them
3
that their village ought to be moved inside the Jordanian line. But until the Jord
anians could
secure this in an agreement, the villagers had to fend off Israeli attempts to destroy the
village. Most of Battir’s inhabitants, at the outbreak of the 1948 War, had fled to a
neighboring village in fear of an Israeli attack. Mustafa knew ful
ly well that if the Israeli
government had decreed Battir an empty village, it would destroy it. So in addressing this
danger, “Mustafa organised young men to go and light lamps in the village houses at night,
put out washing lines, make as much noise as p
ossible, and generally
...
give the impression
that the village was fully inhabited” (30). These simple acts of resistance held off Israel long
enough for the agreement to be reached and
Battir was spared destruction.
The challenges of isolation and separation, however, began to take their toll on the
village, and so under Mustafa’s leadership, they responded by lobbying the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) to help them build roads and create
various community programs to improve irrigation, education and vocational training (31).
Most recently in 2005, large tracts of land in Battir came under threat of confiscation for the
purposes of constructing the Separation Wall. Again, the community lo
bbied the Israel
Nature and Parks Authority and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) to protect those lands, leading to a ruling in 2013 by the Israeli
High Court in their favor. In 2014, UNESCO recognized Battir as a
World Heritage Site,
which will make it more difficult for Israel to annex their territory in the future (33). In
short, Battir’s story illustrates the continuity of Palestinian resistance over time and the ways
in which, under certain circumstances, it c
an be successful. Certainly, it is difficult to
pinpoint precisely these circumstances and even more difficult to replicate them on a large
scale. For Darweish and Rigby, among those complex circumstances, the outstanding
leadership of Mustafa in securing
the village’s existence stands out. And this leads me to my
main question for the authors, which revolves a
round the notion of leadership.
In evaluating the prospects of a mass movement of popular resistance, the authors place
emphasis on the necessity for
a strong, committed, moral
,
and ethical leadership. This is
certainly understandable, and is often highlighted in writing on decolonial struggles, most
famously in Fanon’s
Wretched of the Earth
1
and in Rashid Khalidi’s
Palestinian Identity
2
for the
case o
f Palestine in particular. The argument goes, that in order for the popular/mass/civil
resistance (whether armed or unarmed) to succeed, a strong leadership is necessary to direct
the people’s actions towards the high ideals of human freedom and national l
iberation.
Without such leadership the movement will recede and fade out of its own natural volition at
best, or devolve into a brutal power
-
seeking movement at worst. Darweish and Rigby do not
sway from this viewpoint and they work with
in its boundaries.
However, this is perhaps a time in the history of decolonial resistance that activists and
ordinary people no longer have faith in the very notion of “leadership” itself. This was a
common theme during the Arab Uprisings, and I would argue, it is a theme t
hat has been
present in Palestine throughout its history and is perhaps the most prevalent theme in
Palestinian grassroots resistance today. This can indeed be seen in two cases examined in
Popular Protest in Palestine
. First, the authors discuss the Gaza
Youth Break Out (GYBO)
movement as an example of how Palestinian activists, despite all hardships and failures, can
still rise up and produce a defiant discourse and stance, such as that seen in GYBO’s
powerful manifesto (173
-
1
75). But the authors do not d
eeply explore how GYBO’s
1
Frantz Fanon,
The Wretched of the Earth
, trans. Richard Philcox (New York: Grove Press, 2004).
2
Rashid Khalidi,
Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness
(New York: Columbia
University Press, 1997).
4
manifesto begins with an unequivocal rejection of all traditional leadership, and in the
process challenges the very idea that a leadership, as an organizing force, is necessary. Yes, it
is important to emphasize that GYBO’s activi
ties petered out due to the Palestinian
population’s exhaustion (175), but it is also critical to examine how their activities, in their
decentralized form, constituted an attempt to rethink politics and leadership itself. This is
even more evident in the
BDS movement.
The authors present an excellent set of similarities and differences between the anti
-
apartheid struggle in South Africa and Palestine (163
-
168). I do not necessarily disagree with
their specific points, most notably their
observation
that th
e fundamental difference between
the two contexts is the unwavering support of successive US governments for Israel.
However, the last judgment they
pronounce
on the BDS movement in Palestine is in haste:
they claim that BDS in particular and Palestinian p
opular movements in general, lack an
“organic leadership”
—
a leadership born of, by
,
and for the people “within or outside the
occupied territories with the will or capacity to coordinate any sustained movement of
popular protest comparable to that which br
ought about change in South Africa” (168)
.
The
main issue I have is that it is only in hindsight, in knowing that a movement was successful
(relatively speaking of course), that the movement then seems to have a coherence and unity
throughout its story of
resistance. Such a viewpoint, however, does not often prevail during
the processes of resistance themselves. In South Africa, there were many internal political
divisions, differences over tactics and strategies, divergences over the question of violence,
and seemingly insurmountable local and global obstacles. It is only in hindsight that we now
view those moments of absolute uncertain
ty
as having this coherent and united organic
leadership.
I am not arguing here that Palestinian resistance will succeed in
the exact same way that
South African resistance did, but my
main
point is that scholars should avoid equating the
uncertainty of Palestinian resistance today with a “lacking” of some element or another, in
this case an organic leadership. I think that on
e of the more important aspects of Palestinian
resistance today is its challenge to the very notion of leadership, which makes me hesitant to
get behind the idea that the main task ahead for Palestinians is to forge a coherent and
unified leadership that g
ives clear directives to the masses. This idea constituted the mantle
of decolonial struggles in the second half of the
twentieth
century. And many activists today
have reached the conclusion that this idea has serious limitations in that it centralizes po
wer
within a specific leadership group, which then refuses to share that power in the aftermath
of those struggles. The challenge to leadership cannot be brushed aside as naïve,
inconsequential
,
or as somehow lacking direction, but must itself be analyzed
if we are to
better understand Palestinian resistance today and its future prospects. Indeed, it seems to
me that the continuous failures of successive traditional forms of leadership have
contributed to the loss of hope that Darweish and Rigby want to exp
lain. I would be very
interested to see how the authors would address and investigate the question of leadership in
Palestinian activism today. I think this would add an important dimension to an already
impressive, rich
,
and insightful body of work that t
hey have put forth in this book.
Mark Muhannad Ayyash
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Mount Royal University
5
© 201
6
:
Mark Muhannad Ayyash
Authors retain the rights to their review articles
,
which are published by
SCTIW Review
with their
permission. Any use of these materials other than educational must provide proper citation to the
author and
SCTIW Review
.
Citation Information
Ayyash
,
Mark Muhannad
,
Review of
Popular Protest in Palestine: The
History and
Uncertain Future of
Unarmed Resistance
,
SCTIW Review
,
September 6, 2016
.
http://sctiw.org/sctiwreviewarchives/archives/
1202
.
ISSN: 2374
-
9288