June 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Testing the Power of Nonviolence in Palestine

Dedrick Muhammad is an activist who lives in Harlem. Since his trip to Palestine he has focused on working for justice in the region. Previously he served as national field coordinator of the National Action Network, Rev. Al Sharpton's civil rights organization; helped coordinate a college program at the Maximum Security Prison for women in New York Bedford Hills Correctional Facility; and worked at the Multicultural Centers at Oberlin and Williams Colleges.

After hours of discussing plans, poring over a hand-drawn map of the area surrounding the Church of the Nativity, sneaking into the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and sending several reconnaissance missions to get the most up-to-date information on the Israeli army's security patrols, we were ready. Twenty citizens of Europe and the United States had come together to voice our opposition to the occupation of Palestine by Israel. We grabbed our "Peace in the Middle East" signs and marched the streets of Bethlehem toward the Church of the Nativity.

Dedrick Muhammad

The Church of the Nativity is the place historically believed to be where Jesus was born. For the last month the Church of the Nativity has been the site of a siege by the Israeli army. When the Israeli army decided to re-occupy Palestine in their war against terrorism, Palestinian "gunmen," most often Palestinian police forces, attempted to fight off the military invasion. The military might of Israel made a defensive effort by the Palestinians impossible so Palestinians in Bethlehem retreated to the one place where they believed the Israeli army dare not invade--the Church of the Nativity. For a month a mixture of clergy, lay people, and Palestinian defense forces, some of whom are accused of being terrorists, had barricaded themselves in the church with little food or water.

Our mission was to supply those in the church with food and water, and to let it be known that much of the world is against Israel holding the Church of the Nativity hostage. Walking the streets of Bethlehem was a lesson in what it means to live under an occupation and the terror it instills. Bethlehem had been put under a 24-hour curfew--this town of thousands looked abandoned. There were no vehicles on the street except for an occasional ambulance, tank, or armored personnel carrier. There was an eerie silence over the town. There was no music, no television, and no sounds of children playing. I begin to wonder are there really people in these buildings surrounding me.

As we walk the streets, signs of life emerge. At first I hear some commotion in the apartment building we are walking by. I look up and see children waving to us, putting peace signs in the air. Our group warmly responds in kind. The children start cheering the presence of the "Internationals," happy to see someone walking the streets even if they cannot. At this point men and women come to the windows to greet us.

Hundreds of families, thousands of Palestinians have been made prisoners in their own homes for weeks. For the crime of stepping out on the street or merely looking out the window a Palestinian can unquestionably be shot. Israeli soldiers when possible ignore "internationals" for it can open up a diplomatic and public relations nightmare. This allows internationals to resist the occupation in a manner Palestinians never could.

Huwaida Arraf, Palestinian American from Detroit, and Adam Shapiro, Jewish American from New York, coordinators for the International Solidarity Movement, a nonviolent direct action group organizing for peace and justice in Palestine. Huwaida and Adam were married in late May. Photo: Dedrick Muhammad

This power, this utilization of American privilege to stand up for those that have no rights anyone is bound to respect, made me realize the power of nonviolent action particularly by those who are citizens of and therefore protected by Western Europe and the United States and Canada. As an African-American it reminded me of the protective role white involvement in the Black Civil Rights movement of the South played.

I briefly imagined one thousand "internationals" walking the streets of Bethlehem, escorting families to markets, guarding stores, in effect ending the Israeli closure. Then I came back to reality and focused on the mission at hand. None of the twenty "internationals" in our International Solidarity Movement (ISM) thought we would manage anything but to confront the soldiers at the barricades surrounding the Church of the Nativity. As luck would have it ISM caught the entire Israeli Army around Manger Square sleeping. ISM marched over the unmanned barbed wire barricade and kept going. Apparently even the soldiers in the tank parked next to the church were sleeping, for our entire delegation made it to the door of the Church, delivering our food and water. We were the first people to break the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity and we did it on the Greek Orthodox Palm Sunday.

Afterwards, as we were sitting in at the front of the church with our peace signs, the Israeli army eventually made its way to us and dragged and pushed us away from the church. The soldiers placed us all out of the manger square and told us to stay seated while they brought in a military escort to take us from the area. Hawaida Arraf, the Palestinian-American who co-founded ISM, led us all to stand up and walk away from the soldiers, refusing to recognize the authority of the occupation forces. The soldiers were shocked that we would try to walk away from them and had only stationed a few soldiers to guard us. The street was too wide to prevent us from going around them; amazingly they gave up and we walked away.

This experience, along with our participation in a demonstration in Ramallah where the people marched to the compound of their President who was surrounded by the Israeli army, proved the power of nonviolent direct action in modern times and the inability of elite military forces to deal with it.

In Ramallah, when soldiers started firing live ammunition at stone throwing youth, the ISM formed a barrier between the youth and the soldiers. This stopped the Israeli army from firing their guns at the Palestinians and stopped the Palestinians from throwing rocks. This important demonstration occurred with no fatalities, I think partially due to our action.

Governments, and the US government in particular, have violent and exploitative self-interest at the base of their foreign relations. It is up to the citizens of these governments, and particularly we citizens of the most war-thirsty nation in the world, to look beyond narrow selfishness and embrace true self-interest--a world order based on peace and justice. Huwaida, the chief nonviolent warrior of the ISM, always wears a button that states "If the people lead, the leaders will follow." It is time for people world-wide to lead in the cause of peace and justice using the age-old method of nonviolent direct action and maybe our leaders will follow.

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