Two hours after a home demolition in Isawiya village, East Jerusalem, April 19. Photo: Virginia Baron.

he power of nonviolence in the Middle East—Arab and Israeli—remains a potent tool for change although it is being put to the test by Israeli government efforts to preempt the peace process.

Nonviolence as a concept emerged in the Middle East peace community soon after the 1967 War. Bringing it to reality was a challenging task, given the increasing nationalism of Israeli Jews. Yet the spirit of nonviolence and civil disobedience (often without the use of the word “nonviolence,” which does not translate well in Hebrew or Arabic) has become an active tool of political and social change in the region. Even at the height of the intifadeh, Palestinian resistance was overwhelmingly nonviolent. Today nonviolence is known throughout Israel and Palestine, but those who have practiced it have been hard put to show its fruits. Now the diminishing prospects for the peace process are fraying lingering hopes.

Israeli and North American peace activists rebuilding the Shawamreh house in Anata for the second time, April 24. Photo: Virginia Baron.

Like the illusory U.S. “peace dividend,” there has been no peace dividend for Arabs and Israelis since the Oslo Accords. The so-called peace process that was initiated following the signing of a formal treaty between Israel and the PLO in 1993 has mostly led down blind alleys, disillusioning and embittering more than it has brought hope.

The “final status” negotiations should have concluded May 4, bringing a hopefully permanent agreement on the many issues that have continued to frustrate peace and justice: land, water, security, refugees and the status of Jerusalem. Instead, despite the initial hoopla, the final status negotiations never got off the ground. They have been dead in the water since Israel’s arch-conservative Likud government dug in its heels, contesting every potential step and even reinterpreting the previous Labor government’s faintly dovish stances.

The Wye Plantation agreements last fall were merely intended to bring the peace negotiations up to the point where they ought to have been halfway through this process: the last step prior to confronting the fundamental issues just listed. In the absence of serious dialogue on those issues, the peace process is a hollow shell, devoid of substance and of progress that might infuse Palestinians with the hope that their status is even being addressed, let alone improved. As reaction to Israel’s hard-line position increases, the government has redoubled its efforts to expand settlements and infrastructure, increase the Jewish presence in Jerusalem and, in other tangible ways, pre-empt the eventual outcome of the peace process.

A Role for the Peace Community
Like many others, Daphna Golan, a founder of Bat Shalom ("Daughter of Peace"), has been despairing. After years of trying almost everything, nothing seems to work. “I don’t know what to do, I just don’t know what to do,” she says. Even Peace Now, the largest and the most mainstream of peace groups, is turning out fewer people at fewer demonstration, although the Likud Government should be a ready target.

The Israeli peace community has always been divided and unable to coordinate. It has taken the outlandish behavior of the Netanyahu government to unite it. Earlier this year 16 Palestinian and Jewish peace groups signed a statement decrying the massive indignities being committed against Palestinians and calling for an international campaign against the occupation. (See sidebar.) Their hope is to stimulate many across the world, especially U.S. Jews, to finally say publicly what they have long privately held and to become activists for peace. The possibility exists that fears will deepen, politics will become still more brittle, and a new, more destructive intifadeh will take place, postponing peace by several years.

At the heart of nonviolent activism are groups like Bat Shalom and the Committee Against House Demolition. At other times their purposes might have been much narrower—feminism, or opposing house demolitions, say—but in the late 1990s Israelis have come to understand the inherent linkages of peace and social and economic issues.

Bat Shalom under the leadership of Gila Svirsky has worked courageously for a “Shared Jerusalem,” a Jerusalem serving as capital of both the Israeli state and a Palestinian state—a “red-button” issue for Israelis. Bat Shalom is also initiating an unprecedented study of the harassment of Palestinian and Israeli women by the military authority. Jerusalem Link, a Palestinian women’s organization, is a frequent partner of Bat Shalom.

Hearing PalestinianRealities
Zoughbi Zoughbi is Director of Wi’am, the Palestinian Center for Reconciliation and Conflict Resolution in Bethlehem, which has served as a model for several similar projects in the West Bank. Zoughbi, who has toured the United States several times and recently received a peacemaking award from Brandeis University, frequently collaborates with Edy Kaufman, the Director of the peace-oriented Truman Institute at Hebrew University. Zoughbi has been a strong advocate of “tangible” rather than intellectual kinds of affirmation from the Jewish community, and Wi’am and the institute have been cosponsors of a dialogue project bringing together Palestinians and Israelis on a monthly basis.

At the meeting last December, it became clear that tension was building between the two groups. There were fewer Palestinians, and they seemed more reluctant to talk. Several Israelis wondered why the Palestinians couldn’t work more actively with those in the Jewish community who shared their goals. The vastly different distribution of power was discussed, and out of that discussion came a call from the Palestinians for teams of Israelis who would be “on call” to come and observe the day-to-day problems Palestinins contend with.

The Committee Against House Demolitions is another example of “tangible” support. Coordinated by the irrepressible Jeff Halper, the committee has made an alliance with the Palestinian Committee to Protect the Land. When Palestinians need support, the committee organizes Israelis to come and help. Typically, buses from Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv ferry in people as diverse as members of Israeli peace groups like Peace Now and Amos Gvirtz, the dean of Israeli nonviolent activists. They meet their Palestinian colleagues, who by now are old friends, and, speaking in Hebrew or halting Arabic, plant hundreds of olive trees or rebuild a house. Working much like the Quaker projects in the ’50s and the ’60s, these collaborations build friendship and trust.

Home Demolition as Metaphor
Out of this joint effort the Palestinian community has become more intrigued with nonviolence. Salim Shawamreh is one Palestinian whose house has been destroyed by the Israeli military. The reason is unclear; the files are “lost,” making a legal challenge exceedingly difficult. The purported reason the house is “illegal” is that the deed lacks two signatures; the Israeli authorities will not divulge whose.

One evening last December Salim invited his Israeli friends, those who had helped to rebuild his house, to come to a dinner to celebrate iftar, the meal that concludes each day of Ramadan. After dessert, the meal was transformed into a discussion of possible nonviolent responses to the apparent stonewalling of the Israeli military. Palestinian activists suggested, “If two undesignated signatures are missing from the registration, why not show up at the military office with the entire village—all of the possible signatories?” The Israelis present agreed to support the idea. These are the fruits of building trust—and hope.

Looking out from the Shawamrehs’ home, one gets a sense of the realities that try the hope of Palestinians like Salim. Miles distant to the east is the large Israeli town of Ma’ale Adumim. Jerusalem lies to the west. Toward the center and across the valley there is an odd, angled mark on the side of the hill: the beginning of a road that will directly connect the town with Jerusalem, permitting Jewish settlers to travel to work without passing through Arab territory. Are these the requirements of “security"?

U.S. and International Efforts
The Christian Peacemakers’ Team in Hebron has maintained an exciting presence for several years working out of an apartment just off the soukh, the market in downtown Hebron. They bear witness, publicize, offer suggestions, question authority and intervene when they feel their presence can avert the escalation of violence. Last January, as tension mounted during a demonstration, Israeli soldiers prepared to shoot towards the Palestinian demonstrators. The CPT team walked in front of the soldiers.

The soldiers stood down. It happened quickly; those in the area were astounded. Palestinians cried at first and then cheered and the CPT, already a important presence, became nonviolent heroes.

In keeping with the spirit of the CPT and the Middle East Witness that the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz organized several years ago, the Middle East Children’s Alliance in Berkeley is organizing a Volunteers for Peace in Palestine effort, bringing people from the United States to live with Palestinians “to learn more about the situation and contribute to bringing the two peoples together."

Finally, although conscientious objector status has been unrecognized in Israel (see story, p. 14), informal arrangements have been made so some draftees might serve brief prison sentences or accept non-combatant assignments within the military. But recently the number of objectors has burgeoned, with sources including The New York Times reporting that as many as 40 percent of eligible Israeli men are refusing service. And mothers of young men are organizing, saying that they will actively discourage or even prevent their sons from going into military service.

Much of the agenda of the peace community has come to pass: recognition of the Palestinian consciousness, dialogue and negotiations with the PLO, return of land to the Palestinians, talk of a Palestinian state. Clearly there have been transformations that we would have never thought possible a generation ago. Is there the power of endurance and patience to continue? Support for the Palestinian-Israeli peace camp is essential if we are to avert the return of wide-spread violence.

Alan Solomonow served on the WRL Board for many years and as Director of the New York Workshop in Nonviolence. He has worked on Middle East issues since 1970 and now directs the Middle East Peace Program of the AFSC office in San Francisco. Late last fall he traveled around Palestine, Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.