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After summarizing the dire economic and social conditions among the 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza (70 per cent of whom are registered as refugees from other parts of Israeli territory) after years of blockade and damage from military attacks, Amnesty focuses on the destructive Israeli military reaction to the Great March.
See also: Wispelwey, Bram and Yasser Abu Jamel. 'The Great March of Return: Lessons from Gaza on Mass Resistance and Mental Health', HHR: Health and Human Rights Journal, vol. 22 no. 1 (June 2020), pp. 179-86.
The article describes how the blockade and Israeli attacks have undermined mental health in the community. The authors assess the positive impact on communal mental health created initially by the March of Return resistance movement. But they argue that this has been offset by the impact of death, disability and trauma many have suffered as a result, and by the longer-term failure to achieve better conditions. The authors then examine what health workers can learn about the 'psychosocial consequences of community organizing’.
The author argues that the March was an opportunity for ordinary Palestinians in Gaza to take the political initiative and that the March organizers tried hard to maintain the momentum. The problems of organizing in a politically divided context, and lack of international support, as well as the ruthlessness of the Israeli response meant however that momentum was lost. The March also raised many questions about how nonviolent methods could work when faced with serious military force.
Analysis of a selection of predominantly nonviolent struggles from Russia 1905 to Serbia 2000, arguing against ‘the mythology of violence’. Some of the case studies are standard in books on civil resistance, others – for example the 1990 movement in Mongolia – less familiar. Each chapter has a useful bibliography. The book arose out of a 1999 US documentary television series ‘A Force More Powerful’, now available on DVD, and therefore includes, in the more recent cases, information from interviews.
Explores both attempts at legal reform and those reforms achieved in Islamic countries (Palestine, Yemen, Iran and Egypt) and problems of implementing reform, for example the domestic violence law in Ghana.
Analysing Palestinian print media in 1987 reveals a convergence in calls for action.
Collection of news reports, web-logs and diaries of International Solidarity Movement activists engaged in nonviolent resistance to Israeli military action in the occupied territories, including contributions relating to Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, who were both killed.
Explores how internet links Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, creates a Palestine in cyberspace, and has an impact on manifestations of resistance, for example through street candle vigils and ‘lighting a candle’ on the internet.
This article describes the initiative a young Palestinian-American took to confront patriarchy and sexism in the West Bank and the lack of protection for women, despite legal reforms formally taking place in its territories. Yasmeen Mjalli is the inventor of T-shirts, hoodies and jackets with the slogan ‘I Am Not Your Habibti (darling)’, an expression typically used for catcalling women and young girls. Sexual harassment is a taboo subject in Palestine, which is still dominated by a culture of victim blaming, like many other parts of the Arab World. It is moreover not considered a priority amongst Palestinians in comparison to the fight against Israeli occupation. The article also briefly cites minor reforms that occurred in Egypt, the Gulf Arab Region and Saudi Arabia.
Covers the growing resistance from 1967 inside the Occupied Territories.
Barghouti is the leader of Al Mubadara (the Initiative), launched in 2000 with a petititon signed by 10,000, urging civil resistance, and formally established in 2002.
Chapters on Christian Peacemaker Team, Voices in the Wilderness project in Iraq, Peace Brigades International and the International Solidarity Movement. Descriptions by participants of work done by these groups, who runs them and what is involved in joining them.
MA dissertation by grandson of leader of village’s resistance to incorporation into Israel.
Published in conjunction with a BBC TV series. Chapters 27 and 28 (pp. 187-199) cover the first Intifada, the impact on Israel and the initiatives taken by the PLO.
Carpenter draws on participant observation and extensive interviews to examine protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and also the Great March of Return in Gaza, in 2017-18, and to gauge wider Palestinian views of the strategy. He also considers the discourse of 'rights and global justice' which underpins Jewish Israeli and international support for Palestinian resistance. Carpenter argues for unarmed struggle as an alternative to the apparent failure of both armed struggle and negotiations.
See also: Rigby, Andrew, 'Reflections on Researching Palestinian Resistance', Journal of Resistance Studies, vol. 5 no. 2, pp.222-28.
Rigby reviews three books on Palestine, including Carpenter's, and raises critical questions about Carpenter's stress on ongoing popular Palestinian resistance, at a time when often Israeli citizens and international sympathizers were more prominent in demonstrations in the West Bank, and the willingness to take part among many Palestinians had waned.
On a key focus of protest against the ‘Apartheid Wall’.
Combines statistical analysis with case studies of unarmed resistance to argue that since 1900 nonviolent resistance campaigns have been strategically more effective than violent campaigns. Also analyses factors that promote success or failure of nonviolent campaigns. An earlier version of their overall argument was published as Chenoweth, Erica ; Stephan, Maria J., Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict International Security, 2008, pp. 7-44 , including useful case studies of East Timor, the Philippines and Burma 1988-1990.
Focuses on action-research project Women Building Bridges in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Bosnia Hercegovina, and comments on role of transnational women’s networks, including Women in Black.
This article discusses the work of Youth Against Settlements, which opposes Israeli settlements in this Palestinian city in the West Bank, and describes the range of nonviolent tactics used by them, such as documenting human rights abuses, legal action and direct action. D'Aprile also meets with other civil society organizations, which are involved in community work, including the Christian Peacemaker Team organizer who supports Palestinian-led grass roots resistance to the occupation.
See also Dajani, Souad R., Resistance in the occupied territories In Zunes; Kurtz; Asher, Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Oxford, Blackwell, 1999, pp. 52-74 .
Two experts on Palestine examine the history of Palestinian political resistance to the creation of the state of Israel from the late 19th century to 1939, and provide a balnced assessment of the phases of primarily unarmed popular resistance to Isreali domination. They cover the First Intifada and (after the mainly armed resistance of the Second Intifada) the growth of nonviolent forms of protest since the building of the Separation Wall in 2005.
The article examines the factors promoting significant international solidarity with specific campaigns against injustice. It does so through a study of the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign launched by Palestinian civil society bodies in 2005. The article compares the BDS movement with the international campaign against apartheid in South Africa (an inspiration for BDS) and discusses why BDS has been less effective.
Two experts on Palestine discuss what factors can increase the impact of international solidarity in aiding resistance struggles. They focus on the Palestinian-inspired Boycott Divestment and Sanctions and compare it with the earlier global anti-apartheid movement, analysing key factors that gave the latter significant leverage. They conclude by stressing the need for a dynamic relationship between internal resistance and external solidarity.
In this series of interviews conducted by Frank Barat - activist for human rights and Palestinian rights -, Angela Davis reflects on the importance of Black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles. She discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles and makes connection between the Black Freedom Movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement, as well as between the events in Ferguson and Palestine. The core message of the book is the emphasis on the importance of establishing transnational networks of solidarity and activism.
Angela Y. Davis is a political activist (who supported the Black Panthers in the late 1960s and became widely known in 1971 when arrested on false charges), scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on Black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine.
The article begins by describing the Sumud Freedom Camp in May 2019, where over 300 Palestinians, Israelis and international activists set up camp in the destroyed village of Sarura, with the aim of rebuilding it. Despite raids b y the Israeli Defence Forces the rebuilding had some success. The author as the title indicates queries the nature of power relations between the volunteers. Her main example of unequal power relations (seen as form of structural violence) is, however, based on her analysis of a nonviolent protest at the Erez checkpoint into Gaza held in January 2008, promoted as a joint Palestinian-Israeli protest, but in fact only involving Israeli Arab and Jewish citizens (plus a few international participants), and planned and controlled by veteran Jewish Hebrew speaking activists.
Describes the growing number of organizations engaged in demonstrating solidarity with the Palestinians (e.g. Women in Black), meeting with Palestinian women in the Occupied Territories, helping Palestinian women political prisoners, or proposing peace plans.
Chapters on: Western Sahara, West Papua, Palestine, South Africa (in 1980s), the Zapatistas. Egypt, Nepal and on indigenous armed struggle and nonviolent resistance in Colombia.
While Palestinian women have always faced political marginalization, developments since the Oslo Accords have caused them to endure perhaps even more formidable challenges when it comes to political participation. Al-Shabaka Palestine Policy Fellow, Yara Hawari outlines these challenges and recommends ways for Palestinian women and society to disrupt this process and revitalize the Palestinian liberation struggle through feminism.
Includes analysis of the role of the labour movement (chapter 3), of traders (chapter 2) and of women in the Intifada.
Essays by 20 Israelis – some of them ‘selective objectors’ – who question standard definitions of nationalism, national security and loyalty.
Argues that Palestinian youth were constrained by the Israeli occupation, political oppression by both Fatah and Hamas, and 'political paralysis' resulting from the divisions between these two parties. But youth activism did challenge the role of these parties.
By examining the wars in Rwanda, in the former Yugoslavia, across the Middle East and in the former Soviet Union, Kaldor discusses the elements and dynamics of structural violence that determined the nature of these wars. She argues that these wars were predominantly determined by military and criminal factors, as well as by the presence of an illegal economy and human rights’ violations. She also argues that the underlying causes of these conflicts lie in the relationship between military and civilian victims, and in the changed perception of threat by the Western powers.
Veteran Israeli leftist explores relations between moderates and militants, and gives special emphasis to rise of an autonomous women’s movement, especially Women in Black and their weekly vigils. With glossary of political parties and groups.
Includes chapter by Mohammed Abu Nimer, ‘Nonviolent Action is Israel and Palestine: A Growing Force’ (pp. 135-171) and others on the role of civil society and NGOs in both Israel and Palestine. Also profiles of a range of Israeli and Palestinian organizations.
Account widely reprinted (including in both Crow, Ralph E.; Grant, Philip ; Ibrahim, Saad E., Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East Boulder CO, Lynne Rienner, , 1990, pp. 129 , and Stephan, Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , (above) of the (Syrian) Druze resistance to incorporation into Israel after the occupation of the Golan Heights in 1967.
Argues that the First Intifada represented a mass nonviolent mobilization in which women played a significant role, and looks at the global history of nonviolent resistance to suggest that nonviolent strategies are the way to achieve a just peace. See also King, Mary Elizabeth, Palestine: Nonviolent Resistance in the Struggle for Statehood, 1920s-2012 In Bartkowski, Recovering Nonviolent History: Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Boulder CO, Lynne Rienner, 2013, pp. 161-180 .
Review article covering nine recent books, and providing overview of movement and noting the impact on the Arab world (Algeria and Jordan) and wider world.
Argues peacebuilding has to empower resilience and resistance to occupation.
Studies how the focal points of resistance by prisoners, hunger strikes, are made possible by longer term lower key strategies. These included encouraging forms of communication between prisoners, development of political education, and by less dramatic acts of ‘everyday’ noncooperation, for example with strip searches or some prison routines. The article is based on interviews with former Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank and some interviews with lawyers and NGOs supporting prisoners.
Shows Palestinians frequently resorted to nonviolent tactics, especially when these were framed as a practical strategy rather than just as a moral preference.
Also covers negotiations, the Oslo Accords and the new Palestinian Authority.
Interviews with Palestinians. See also Pearlman, Wendy , Precluding Nonviolence, Propelling Violence: The Effect of Fragmentation on Movement Protest Studies in Comparative International Development, 2012, pp. 23-46 , which argues that ‘cohesion’ – to be assessed according to the strength of leadership, organisation and a sense of collective purpose – ‘approximates a necessary condition for nonviolent protest’.
Pearlman provides a summary of the background of civil resistance in overall Palestinian resistance since 1917, and a detailed analysis of why there was no third intifada in 2011. She also examines the protests that did take place. The chapter is extensively referenced.
Charts the evolution of the movement from spontaneous protests to highly organized resistance.
Detailed account of campaign against the EDO Corporation in Brighton that started in 2004 and included numerous acts of symbolic protest and direct action such as lock-ons and roof occupations, and resulted in a dramatic trial in March 2010 after protesters broke into the factory and destroyed equipment to 'decommission' the plant (which they believed supplied equipment to the Israeli Air Force) during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2009. The court allowed eyewitness evidence of the scale of destruction in Gaza in support of the defendants' case that they were lawfully trying to prevent a war crime, and the jury acquitted them. The campaign was also boosted earlier by the banning of an activist film, which many people then wanted to see, publicity about police infiltration of the activists, and the launching of a judicial review in the High Court by an 86 year old protester of his inclusion on the 'National domestic extremist' database.
This is an acadmeic contribution to memory studies, but shows how preserving knowledge and stories of past movements affects present politics, and how nonviolent activists can learn from past campaigns. Examples examined include the suffragettes, Greenham Common, Polish Solidarity, US struggles against racism and Australian aboriginal campaigns. The authors also illustrate how one movement can influence others and stress the need to make archival and other sources (films, music, etc.) available.
Focuses particularly on women crossing Israeli-imposed borders to maintain their sense of autonomy and freedom, and argues that although these actions are ‘framed’ as resistance to occupation they also covertly challenge patriarchal controls..
Account of the ‘unarmed resistance’ of the First Intifada and also an analysis in the context of theories of nonviolent action. Addresses the issue of leverage when the regime has no direct dependence on a population but would rather expel them. See also: Rigby, Andrew , The Legacy of the Past: The Problem of Collaborators and the Palestinian Case Jerusalem, PASSIA – Palestine Academy for Study of International Affairs, , 1997, pp. 94 , which considers the issue of ‘collaboration’ in more detail.
Also available (with discussion of issues raised) as ‘Nonviolent intervention’ in Randle, Challenge to Nonviolence (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 51-74 (online at http://civilresistance.info).
On more recent interventions in Palestine (excluding International solid-arity) see also Ann Wright, ‘The Work of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)’ and Angie Zelter ‘International Women’s Peace Service in Palestine’ in Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 135-42.
Explores how Intifada strengthened Palestinian women’s movement and stimulated an Israeli women’s peace movement and led to joint movement.
See in same journal: Sharp, Gene ; Safieh, Afif , Gene Sharp: Nonviolent struggle Journal of Palestine Studies, 1987, pp. 37-55 .
Describes in some detail the first symbolic demonstration by 150 people on 29 March and the preparations for the major protests on March 30 and examines how the Great March and the Israeli reaction evolved.
See also: Darweish and Rigby, Popular Protest in Palestine (E.V.A.3.)
Argues the need for nonviolent resisters to re-evaluate strategies and tactics in the light of the opponents’ reactions; and (more exceptionally) to redefine their interests and goals.
Palestinian women’s bodies constitute a central site of the struggle between the Zionist state and Palestinian ‘citizens’ in Israel. At the intersection of critical feminist and settler colonial studies scholarship and drawing on empirical data collected in 2013–2014, this paper argues that Israel’s continuous drive to control Palestinian women’s bodies plays a pivotal role in the completion of the Zionist project.
A Guide to Civil Resistance
Volume One
Volume Two
The online version of Vol. 1 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). ICNC is an independent, non-profit educational foundation that develops and encourages the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies aimed at establishing and defending human rights, democratic self-rule and justice worldwide.
For more information about ICNC, please see their website.
The online version of Vol. 2 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of The Network for Social Change. The Network for Social Change is a group of individuals providing funding for progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.
For more information about The Network for Social Change, please visit their website.
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