network for peace
If Only the Palestinians had a Ghandi, Part One
As I travel in the West Bank and see the ravages of the Israeli occupation and the disintegration of much of Palestinian hope as well as a functional political process, a question keeps haunting me. In the US, people who know only about suicide bombers and militant resistance, who only see Hamas violence on CNN and hear Israeli anxiety about the inexplicable rage of "those people," often ask me, "Why don't the Palestinians have a Gandhi? A Martin Luther King? A Mandela? Some civilized leadership committed to nonviolence?" But on the ground, I see a totally different picture that is much more from the grassroots and deeply woven into people's consciousness.
At the Al Rowwad Children's Theater in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, the founder Abed Abusour, talks determinedly of "beautiful resistance," of fighting hopelessness and violence with children’s theater and dance, women's sewing and embroidery groups, classes in aerobics and yoga, computer labs, a study hall and library. The center sits a few blocks from the grotesque separation wall with garbage piled high, skinny cats darting in and out. One entry to the camp is framed by an enormous key with the words in Arabic and English, "NOT FOR SALE." Of the 4000 inhabitants, all descendants from the 1948 expulsion from Palestine, over half are children. There are no playgrounds or green spaces, the UNRWA school is poorly funded with often 40-50 children in a class, a lack of books and supplies, many of the men are unemployed. There are bumpy winding open streets and narrow alleyways, newer housing in pink/orange carved stone with wrought iron gates and graceful balconies, and more austere apartments desperately in need of repair with multiple families and generations living in close quarters. Bullet holes and fractured solar panels attest to earlier Israeli incursions. Al Rowwad has built an open air theater adjacent to the wall. At the base of the platform someone has spray painted a welcome sign to the Pope who recently came to see the children's performance. The Israelis insisted the actual stage be located slightly distant from the wall, as if turning one's head could possibly hide its ugliness and implications.
Abed refers to himself as "a social entrepreneur," working 7 days a week, his desk piled with reports, several computer screens, and cups of tea. When we visit, he is meeting with accountants and bankers trying to plot the upcoming annual budget at a time when funding is scarce and an Ashoka grant has just ended. His business plan feels part hope, part luck, and mostly sheer perseverance. When he speaks, his vision of beautiful resistance is passionate and solid, but the desperation in the camp, his fear of losing another generation of children, and the crisis in funding are clearly weighing on his mind.
Abed's wife, Nahil, a science teacher with an East Jerusalem ID and a second family home in East Jerusalem, is upstairs working with a group of women to create a display of the camp's exquisite traditional embroidery: bags, jackets, small zippered cases with delicate stitchery in reds and blacks, deep blues, greens and yellows, patterns reflecting the Star of Bethlehem. There is a warm camaraderie amongst the women. They are clearly proud of their work.
My daughter and I stay with the Abusours in their newly built home about 1 1/2 miles from the camp, which is overcrowded with no room for growing families. Abed refers to the cluster of families in this new neighborhood as "the extraterrestrials, no one wants us." The house was started 8 years ago and is not quite done; a full apartment on each floor, a modern kitchen with attractive cherry cabinets Nahil picked out of a US catalogue and then had built locally. There is heavy, dark upholstered Palestinian furniture and embroidered pillows. The house echoes with the sounds of five boisterous children, 1 1/2 to 9 years old, drawing, laughing, watching TV (Their favorite movie is "Shall We Dance?") fighting, jumping on beds, and taking care of each other. The bathroom has a cup with 5 little toothbrushes and animal stickers on the mirror. The 1 1/2 year old toddles around pointing and chirping, wearing her coat most of the time, which seems to be her security blanket. We are presented with a collection of drawings: butterflies, neat houses with rows of flowers and a bright yellow sun, a boat in the sea surrounded by fish. I note that the children have never actually seen much of these scenes. This is the globalization of TV imagery, the Disneyfication of the childhood imagination, but as the parent’s remark, better than the drawings a few years ago, of guns and tanks.
Nahil maintains an incredible serenity in this organized chaos, chopping various greens, preparing traditionally spiced chicken and rice with toasted almonds and the ubiquitous olive oil, setting herbs to dry, throwing in yet another load of laundry. She sits for a moment to strategize how we could help to find catalogues to order experimental kits to start a science club at school, "bugs and things, no explosions." Earlier in the day she tried a Flamenco class led by a Japanese volunteer, but she admits she really preferred the yoga class my daughter taught later. "More relaxing, less difficult."
I am unprepared for how healthy and normal this family feels. They have an additional layer of stress beyond their refugee status. Due to Israeli family reunification laws, Abed was unable to obtain a permit to legally live with his wife and growing family in East Jerusalem for six years. His wife and children do not want to lose their precious Jerusalem IDs because it gives them access to better health care, schools, work, and extended family. Abed describes years of harrowing attempts to sneak into the city, beatings, and an occasional arrest. Now the family splits its time between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem but Abed has to travel separately through the Bethlehem Terminal while his wife can take the children through in her car with the yellow Israeli plates. At this point the children still think this is normal.
I can never fully walk in the shoes of the Palestinians who share their stories with me, but it seems obvious that Abed and Nahil, and the invisible people living in the Aida camp must make a powerful commitment to nonviolent resistance every day of their lives under incredibly challenging and harsh conditions. CNN, when will this make headlines?
Alice Rothchild is the author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Reslience, second edition to be released March, 2010, Pluto Press
Comment
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Comment by Stewart Mills on February 21, 2010 at 10:50am -
Abdallah Abu Rahmah, detention and nonviolent resistance
This letter was given by Abdallah Abu Rahmah to his lawyers. 19 February 2010
"Dear Friends and Supporters,
It has been two months now since I was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken from my home. Today news has reached Ofer Military Prison that the apartheid wall on Bil’in’s land will finally be moved and construction has begun on the new route. This will return half of the land that was stolen from our village. For those of us inOfer , imprisoned for our protest against the wall, this victory makes the suffering of being here easier to bear. After actively resisting the theft of our land by the Israeli apartheid wall and settlements every week for five years now, we long to be standing along side our brothers and sisters to mark this victory and the fifth anniversary of our struggle.
Ofer is an Israeli military base inside the occupied territories that serves as a prison and military court. The prison is a collection of tents enclosed by razor wire and an electrical fence, each unit containing four tents, 22 prisoners per tent. Now, in winter, wind and rain comes in through cracks in the tent and we don’t have sufficient blankets, clothes, and other basic necessities.
Food is a critical issue here in Ofer, there’s not enough. We survive by buying ingredients from the prison canteen that we prepare in our tent. We have one small hot plate, and this is also our only source of warmth. Those whose families can put money in an account for us to buy food, do so, but many cannot afford to. The positive aspect to this is that I have learned how to cook! Tonight I madefalafel and sweets to celebrate the news about our victory. I cannot wait to get home and cook for my wife and children!
I was arrested in my slippers, and to this day my family has been unable to get permission to supply me with a pair of shoes. I was finally given my watch after repeated requests. For me this is an essential way to keep oriented; it was unbearable not being able to see the rate at which time passes. Receiving it, I felt so overjoyed, like a child getting his first watch. I can barely imagine what it will be like to have a pair of proper shoes again.
Because of our imprisonment, the military considers our families to be a security threat. It is very hard for our wives, children and extended family to visit. My friendAdeeb Abu Rahmah , also a political prisoner from Bil’in, cannot receive visits from his wife and one of his daughters. Even his mother, a woman in her eighties who is currently in bad health, is considered a security threat! He is afraid that he will not see her before she dies.
I am a teacher and before my arrest I taught at a private school in Birzeit and also owned a chicken farm. My family had to sell the farm at a loss after I was arrested. I don’t know if I will have my position at the school when I am released.Adeeb ’s family of nine is left without their sole provider, as are many other families. Not being able to care for our loved ones who need us is the hardest part of being here.
It is the support that I receive from my family and friends that helps me go on. I am grateful to the Palestinian leaders who have contacted my family, the diplomats from the European Union and to the Israeli activists who have expressed their support by attending my hearings. The relationship we have built together with the activists has gone beyond the definition of colleague or friend, we are brothers and sisters in this struggle. You are an unrelenting source of inspiration and solidarity. You have stood with us during demonstrations and court hearings, and during our happiest and most painful occasions. Being in prison has shown me how many true friends I have, I am so grateful to all of you.
From the confines of my imprisonment it becomes so clear that our struggle is far bigger than justice for only Bil’in or even Palestine. We are engaged in an international fight against oppression. I know this to be true when I remember all of you from around the world who have joined the movement to stop the wall and settlements. Ordinary people enraged by the occupation have made our struggle their own, and joined us in solidarity. We will surely join together to struggle for justice in other places when Palestine is finally free.
Missing the five-year anniversary of our struggle in Bil’in will be like missing the birthday of one of my children. Lately I think a lot about my friendBassem whose life was taken during a nonviolent demonstration last year and how much I miss him. Despite the pain of this loss, and the yearning I feel to be with my family and friends at home, I think that if this is the price we must pay for our freedom, then it is worth it, and we would be willing to pay much more.
Yours,
Abdallah Abu Rahmah
From the Ofer Military Detention Camp"
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Comment by Yahya Merchant on February 20, 2010 at 5:43am - The Palestinians could read the story of Badshah Khan, the non-violent soldier of Islam who exploded three myths: that non-violence can be followed only by those who are gentle, that it cannot work against ruthless repression, and that it has no place in Islam. Abdul Ghaffar Khan raised history's first non-violent "army" of 100,000 men from the most violent people in the world, the Pathans of the Khyber pass and won against the British Empire by civil disobedience alone. If Muslims only knew the stories of their own role models, there would be a real chance of peace!
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Comment by harry deloria handenero on February 17, 2010 at 1:37am - readers have a nice day to you all ,,for my own knowledge regarding the leadership or need a persons whom they can lead a better place or community,,if only the leaders whom they chosen were so responsible and their is no anything bad, denying or they hide something else that no good for the community they suppossed to be lead,,i think their communities or places will be a good community if only their leaders are not lying or they dont hissitate any bad activities that covered to their communties i think the community in that place were good also,,even in schools like that if their teachers are no good and they teach their pupils in no good way of course their students will no good also,,even all in different aspects of groups or something ..if their leaders were bad or they live in not good or lying then the communities too are no good because their leaders are no good like that..like in my place here whom i'm staying some of them hiding and lying thats why some people here are no good for me,in my own way i will not trust this kind of people even thought they were educated,famous like that donot trust this kind of people because their way of living are no good they lied and hide just to cover their committed errors or mistake ,thats why their is no place or community that grow peaceful because of this kind of characters or attitudes of a persons i'm not saying all places or communties but they should first think and look their self before they became a leader,,and sometimes this is one cuase of war.....this is only my own opinion,and i think we should start first in a small community or group before we go to big positon that we are going to became a leader like in a family like that donot marriage if you are not ready like that to have a family so that you will not be one of a problem of the community...think and think first before you say and look to a persons whom your eyes and your mouth were sinners .for my own....observations to the human being.
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Comment by Stewart Mills on February 14, 2010 at 2:04am
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Thanks Alice for sharing this.
To add to this perspective:
Huwaida Arraf speaks of the Palestinian Ghandhi's jailed or killed, 25 April 2009, Seattle Times
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/the-great-huwaida-arraf-speaks/
Yes Palestinian Gandhis exist...in graves and prisons, 10 Januray 2010, Counterpunch (cited in ISM)
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10498
http://www.mepeace.org/profiles/blogs/heroes-for-peace-in-palestine
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Comment by Ohad Bracha on February 12, 2010 at 8:46pm -
I did not read your blog (still have bad taste from the last one ) but I will tell you that
Be the gahndi of the palestinians .
I will also tell you that americans knows everything today ( I know America very well) , stop with that "the occupation is a big secret " and the media is one sided. its a jock.
the occupation must end it will end very soon even the right wing in Israel says that today . now what ?
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