Budrus

Yesterday, I attended an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that showcased the documentary “Budrus.”

Budrus is a small, relatively unknown Palestinian village located near Ramallah with a population of about 1,500.  The documentary tells the story of the community’s struggle with the state of Israel in 2003 against plans to build part of the separation barrier through the village.  The proposed plan would have surrounded the village and confiscated 40% of the land.

The documentary follows a local leader, Ayed Morrar, who united the community to try and block the plans through nonviolent means.  He brought together an unlikely group, comprising of members of Hamas and Fatah as well as Palestinians, Israelis, men, and women.

Perhaps most crucial was the role of women.  Morrar was unable to mobilize the community until his 15-year-old daughter Iltezam brought women to the movement.  The women would stand in front of bulldozers or lie in front of olive trees, and IDF soldiers did not know  how to deal with them.  The documentary actually shows some soldiers beating women.  As a result, a woman IDF soldier was called in to handle them.

Israelis played a crucial role in the nonviolent movement as well.  Iltezam states how she did not think she would ever have an Israeli friend before; she never knew any, only IDF soldiers.  Morrar, who was at the event yesterday, commented on how through this event, he was able to see the good side of Israelis. He was able to see and meet Israeli that want peace and who want to raise their children in peace based on justice, not peace based on what Morrar calls the relationship between the slave and master.  Israelis are very important in the nonviolent movement, as they give credence to the Palestinian struggle by questioning the actions of their own state.

Also unlikely was the cooperation of Fatah and Hamas members.  Morrar recounted how politics were temporarily put aside, as both parties, even if they differed ideologically, desired the same results.  Politics is indeed an important issue in the struggle for nonviolent protest.  The pockets of resistance in villages such as Budrus do not have any national leadership yet, and the role of the PA in the nonviolent movement is still questionable.

Though the movie documents the struggle of just one village, its message offers hope for what is possible: eventual freedom.  The producers of the film, Just Vision, are trying to spread this message.  Just Vision is currently on a six month promotion tour through the U.S.  For Screenings of “Budrus” in your area, click here.

Spoiler Alert:

In the end, the villagers of Budrus, after 10 months of nonviolent protest, forced the IDF to move the separation barrier out of the village.  They saved 95% of the land, and the barrier was built almost entirely on the Green Line.  Some parts even went into the No Man’s Land area.  However Israel will not acknowledge the efforts of the Budrus villagers.  The official response from the government is that the barrier was not moved because of the villagers’ efforts, but for other reasons.

Nonviolence: a feasible strategy?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.” But can nonviolence be the answer to the contentious issue of occupation in the West Bank?

Over the past few months, a grassroots boycott of settlement-produced goods has gripped Palestinians in the West Bank.  The boycott has recently become more organized, with volunteers (mostly students) campaigning door-to-door, distributing brochures, and burning settlement-products.  So far, the boycott of over one thousand products has resulted in the destruction of $5 million worth of settlement products.  It is estimated that $200 million worth of settlement goods are sold in the West Bank each year, which is a small portion of to Israel’s $200 billion GDP.  Although the economic effects of the boycott have been relatively minimal, it is the social and political effects that are crucial.

Gazans collect aid for Haiti’s distressed

The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported on Monday that despite the dire conditions in the Gaza Strip, the besieged people of Gaza have risen to the occasion to collect aid to support those so sorely affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti.  Gazans were reported to have been gathering financial as well as material support to be sent to the distressed of Haiti.

Some of those making donations were reportedly relatives of those held in Israeli prisons: They were making an effort to aid people half a world away even though their capacity to support a family has been severely impeded by the incarceration of a loved one.

Multiple sources from Ma’an to Haaretz, on the other side of the completely shut-off Israeli border, quoted the head of the Committee to Break the Siege, Jamal al-Khudari, as saying,

people may be astonished at our ability to collect donations from our people [in Gaza]; we tell them that this is a humanitarian campaign and our people love life and peace…

We are here today supporting the victims of Haiti … we feel for them the most because we were exposed to our own earthquake during Israel’s war on Gaza.

All this has taken place despite the continued containment and humiliation of the people of Gaza, choked off from the rest of the international community by its considerably richer and more powerful neighbor.  The contradictory nature of this situation was highlighted by Haaretz’s Akiva Eldar is an opinion piece he penned recently, pointing out Israel’s eager response to aid the people of Haiti but apparent inability to even acknowledge the plight of the innocents in Gaza.

There is no news yet on whether the Israeli blockade will affect the ability of those Gazans wishing to send aid abroad.  But  it will be interesting to see how this works out.  This story has already started getting noticed by different media around the world. Since it was first published by Ma’an it was picked up (as noted above) by Haaretz in Israel– and also by the Euronews channel (based in Lyon, France), and the Los Angeles Times… Next up, the New York Times?

CNI board member Weir replies to Bono

In an op-ed in the NYT January 3, the ageing Irish rocker– and now also, it seems, NYT ‘contributing columnist’– Bono wrote of his hope that,

people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hullo! Has Bono actually been following any developments in the occupied Palestinian territories over recent weeks, months, or years?

Luckily, our CNI board member Alison Weir has been doing so. .. And she recently published this thoroughly researched response to Bono.

In it, Weir notes,

Your hope has already been fulfilled in the Palestinian territories.

Unfortunately, these Palestinian Gandhis and Kings are being killed and imprisoned.

On the day that your op-ed appeared hoping for such leaders, three were languishing in Israeli prisons. No one knows how long they will be held, nor under what conditions; torture is common in Israeli prisons.

At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in the last six years alone during nonviolent demonstrations against Israel’s apartheid wall that is confiscating Palestinian cropland and imprisoning Palestinian people. Many others have been killed in other parts of the Palestinian territories while taking part in nonviolent activities. Hundreds more have been detained and imprisoned…