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May 22, 2013
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 Palestinians Turn to Gandhi, Dr. KingPosted on Apr 28, 2010
While armed militias get all the attention, some Palestinian organizers are embracing nonviolent strategies like peaceful marches and boycotts as a more effective avenue to peace. As one organizer quoted by The Christian Science Monitor put it: “It’s not a war between two armies. By using non-violence, we take away the security excuse from the Israelis.”
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By Robert, April 29, 2010 at 6:48 pm Link to this comment
From an Israeli correspondent
Dear Dr Finkelstein
04.26.2010
“Dear Dr Finkelstein,
Living here I am constantly reminded of three Orwell quotes:
“People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts on the ground can be ignored when they are unwelcome.”
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.”
I am a strong supporter of your work, but the overall message of your books goes against many favored truths here. It is like telling a child Santa Claus doesn’t exists and mommy and daddy ate all the reindeer and melted Frosty in the microwave. For Israelis, it is changing the music from Rachmaninoff to fingernails on a chalkboard. Most are not ready to hear any of the information. The work of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch is meaningless in the eyes of many Israelis. It might as well be coming from The National Inquirer. It is for this reason, I feel myself forced into the corner of using only Israeli sources and writers to support my strong “Just Social Order” stance. Fortunately, there are enough good Israeli sources out there (Akiva Eldar Lords of the Land – highly recommended- and Gidoen Levy Haaretz among them.) Sometimes I find the irony to be so thick I nearly choke on it. On the one hand using UN 181 as the birth certificate and on the other disregarding everything the UN says. One of my favorite documents to reference is the Israeli Declaration of Independence because it is prominently displayed in nearly every building in Israel. It states that Israel “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex…….and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” It is difficult for Israelis to ignore because it is everywhere, but they somehow manage to do so.
My wife and I moved to Israel over one year ago. We came here looking for a positive place to raise a family and now we find ourselves awestruck and saddened by the disaster before our eyes. I expected to find a situation much better than my trip here more than ten years prior. Until about 9 months ago, I had never even heard of Norman Finkelstein. It was only after I moved to Israel that I began to take interest in your writings. I feel very foolish in hindsight for not listening earlier. But I must say, I would have never believed any of what you have written. All my life I have believed Israel was a country worthy of support at all costs. I believed they wanted a just peace and were doing everything in order to achieve that end. Unfortunately, there is too much evidence to support the contrary. It is sad to witness the voices of reason drowned out by the voices of religious zealots calling claim to a land that clearly is not theirs. It is impossible to unlearn what I have now learned. My life would be much easier here if I was able to go back to my blissful ignorance.”
======
Click on link for the rest:
Report thishttp://www.normanfinkelstein.com/from-an-israeli-correspondent/
By rjg1971, April 29, 2010 at 4:50 pm Link to this comment
Americans have no business telling Palestinians to
Report thisuse non-violent resistance to a military occupation
we are supplying with arms and funding. Until
Americans can muster the political will to stop
sending military weaponry to Israel, we are the last
people on Earth who should be telling Palestinians to
give up their right to violently resist the military
occupation of their land.
By Robert, April 29, 2010 at 2:04 pm Link to this comment
Becoming Gods
Ethnically Cleansing Palestinians
By Chris Hedges.
April 08, 2010
“The author spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in Israel’s murderous destruction and genocide of the innocent men, women and children of GAZA and the West Bank.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Click on link to watch 2 short videos of Chris Hedges speech…he “Dares to speak Out”:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25167.htm
Report thisBy wall, April 29, 2010 at 2:27 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
How embarrassing for Western conscience to notice Palestinian tragedy unfolding without uttering a word.People like Khatib,refusing to cave in to Israeli barbaric oppression,will set the example for new generations who will try to succeed with or without the Ghandian way.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, April 28, 2010 at 11:00 pm Link to this comment
Tom Clancy, in his book from 1991, The Sum of All Fears, proposed this very solution: Palestinians to use non-violent resistance.
If there is ANY tactic by Palestinians that the right wing extremists now running Israel should fear, it is this.
Report thisBy gerard, April 28, 2010 at 7:15 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
“Officials who are supposed to be protecting your rights” are frequently hired to protect other people’s rights. Those other people are people who are afraid of protesters in general. Afraid of what?
Report thisAfraid of violence—euphemistically called “social unrest”, anger, destruction etc.
The main point of non-violence is to take elements of fear out of the protest situation by being non-threatening, by avoiding threat.
When someone is threatening you, it is extremely difficult not to threaten back. Fight or flight is the automatic—but extremely limited—response. Fight stimulates more fight. Flight invites chase.
The alternative (which has to be a carefully understood and trained-in response) is refusal to respond to violence with violence, but instead to keep cool, don’t resist, don’t threaten, don’t shout, cooperate if possible, and if not, go limp if attacked.
Officials want you to resist. That gives them the excuse to use violence. It is much harder for officials to strike someone who is not resisting, who remains as calm as possible, non-threatening.
This behavior is counter-intuitive and therefore has to be intellectually and spiritually understood. It offers no promise, but an invitation to the possibility of peaceful compromise and more creative solutions.
The strength of non-violence is in its quality of psychological jiu-jitsu—a way of defusing counter-violence, of making violence counter-productive, a way of opening doors to alternatives involving moral rather than physical force.
It needs to be thoroughly understood and requires practice and commitment every bit as determined as force—probably more.
By Next, April 28, 2010 at 5:49 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
This isn’t the first time this has been tried. Activists have been trying to do this for years.
From that experience, the next headline will read ....
“Israeli troops fire on peaceful protesters with machine guns and tanks.”
Usually the Palestinians who try this end up dead.
Report thisBy Sad truth, April 28, 2010 at 4:41 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
What this doesn’t tell you is that Mohammed Khatib has been tortured and
Report thisarrested numerous times, often with the help of the local PALESTINIAN
government. Fat lot of good nonviolent resistance does when you don’t even get
the help of the officials who are supposed to be protecting your rights.