Email this page

News from the Region

Nonviolence Conferences Focus on Ending Israeli Occupation

A Palestinian nonviolence conference took place in Ramallah, April 14-16 to develop strategies in a campaign to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Nearly 100 Palestinians from throughout the West Bank attended the gathering. A parallel one-day conference was held in Gaza with 110 people in attendance.

Now, much progress has been made and many see nonviolence as an active tool to resist and end the occupation.

- Husam Jubran
Holy Land Trust

Holy Land Trust and Panorama, two Palestinian organizations, took the lead in organizing the conferences in partnership with Quaker Service- Jerusalem (American Friends Service Committee). The conferences culminated two years of planning, training and activity around the issue of nonviolent resistance to the occupation. Participants focused their discussions on active nonviolent civil resistance strategies. According to conference organizers, this emphasis was crucial in building more support for nonviolence work within local communities.

“A year ago nonviolence was seen as submissive, as a way for Israel and the West to pacify the Palestinian people,” said Husam Jubran, of Holy Land Trust. “Now, much progress has been made and many see nonviolence as an active tool to resist and end the occupation,” he said.

Conference attendees focused their attention on several papers that defined active nonviolence in comparison to the armed struggle and looked at ways in which nongovernmental organizations and government entities might adopt nonviolent techniques in future struggles.

Conference attendees came up with 10 action plans, one for each region, and formed committees to work on implementation of the strategies after the conference. One of the strategies is a boycott of Israeli products manufactured in settlements in favor of Palestinian alternatives. Groups are seeking to achieve tangible goals in the short term as a basis for working toward more long-term efforts to counter the occupation.

On Friday evening’s program, representatives from several international nongovernmental organizations, including six international peace teams working in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, brought their greetings and support to the conference and talked about the nonviolence support work of their organizations.

In previous stages of the nonviolence organizing project, community meetings and trainings about nonviolence were sponsored by Holy Land Trust, Panorama and Quaker Service- Jerusalem in 10 cities in the West Bank and 3 cities in Gaza. Active nonviolent opposition to the Separation Wall is underway in numerous Palestinian villages, and there is resurgence of interest in nonviolence on Palestinian campuses as well.

Quaker Service- Jerusalem plans to continue building cooperative relationships among Palestinian nonviolence organizations; focusing on in-depth nonviolence and community organizing trainings for resisting the construction of the Wall, and other facets of the occupation such as land confiscation, military invasions and home demolitions.

^ Top of page