Resilient resistance is a by-product of occupation and oppression

For the entire 66 years of its occupation of Palestine, Israel has burned and demolished countless mosques, churches, libraries, schools and homes. Throughout, there has been a constant targeting of the civilian Palestinian population and infrastructure: children, women and the elderly have suffered displacement, disfigurement and death at the hands of the Israeli military and officials. Not a single Israeli government has ever been held to account.

In Israel’s most recent offensive on Gaza, almost 80 per cent of the casualties were civilians; dozens of mosques, schools and other civilian infrastructure were targeted and destroyed, as were 10,000 homes. Not satisfied with destruction on such a scale, Israel refuses to allow the Palestinians in Gaza to heal, by preventing access to any form of construction materials to rebuild their lives. This is a unique situation in modern history.

In the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, illegal settlements have witnessed a 123 per cent increase in construction in the past year alone. Settler violence has also been increasing constantly, beginning with the burning of Palestinian olive trees and property, to senseless provocation at sensitive religious sites such as Al-Aqsa Mosque. Recently, we’ve witnessed an increase in direct and brutal attacks on Palestinians: 5 year-old Iman Shawkat was rammed by a car and killed; 16 year-old Mohammad Abu Khedeir was burned alive; and 32 year-old bus driver Yousef Al-Ramouni was assaulted and hanged in the very bus he drove (although this, said the Israelis, was “suicide”). Palestinians, no matter where they live, are punished collectively, while as a community, settlers are emboldened and rewarded for their violence.

The situation has been escalating steadily since the political prisoners’ hunger strike in April. It doesn’t matter whether the current escalation is government-provoked or a natural unfolding of events, the result is an endless cycle of action and retaliation.

Popular resistance takes a new shape

In the first and second intifadas, Palestinians protested in the streets, exercising their democratic right and their moral duty to resist oppression and occupation, rights guaranteed by international law. Back then, the people had the support of the leaders, and the gap between the leadership and people was much narrower than it is now. The Palestinian Authority was more successful in those days at reflecting the will and desires of the people. This was revealed in the words of Yasser Arafat as he was surrounded by Israeli tanks and troops in Ramallah: “They [the Israelis] wish for me to become a prisoner, fugitive or be assassinated… I tell them: a martyr!” The implication was that dying while fighting and resisting occupation is the only option Israel left the late president with.

Since Oslo, the occupation has grown stronger, and more restrictions have been imposed on the occupied territories, in both Gaza and the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip there’s an illegal and inhumane siege, while in the West Bank there are almost 700 checkpoints and other obstacles, not including the apartheid wall, of which 85 per cent is built on Palestinian land; there are ever more settlements and almost no geographical continuity between Palestinian towns, cities or neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and its hinterland. It’s arguable which is worse: being held captive in an open-air prison or being told you are free but not allowed to move, speak or act.

On the political level, there has been a remarkable yet unsurprising stagnation in the political process on the one hand, and on the other, a successful suppression of any popular resistance in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Guerrilla organisations no longer exist in their traditional form or structure. Most leaders of these groups have either been assassinated or imprisoned, thus creating a situation in the West Bank where the people want to resist, but there are no organisations to shape their resistance. Contrast this with Gaza where the organised resistance groups have matured and now produce their own weapons and cooperate with each other when attacked.

While Israel has managed to destroy all organised resistance in the West Bank (with, it must be said, the cooperation of the PA security services), it has failed to suppress the popular will to resist. Israel has pushed the Palestinians into a corner by stripping them of their right to peaceful protests, their right to assemble and organise, and their right to self-determination. With hands tied behind their backs, Palestinians have resorted to a new kind of resistance, one which is both instinctive and primitive.

In the absence of a political body that represents the people’s will effectively; with no organisations providing protection; and no possibility for appeal or protest against illegal Israeli practices, the Palestinians have resorted to self-defence measures and resistance with whatever is available, from stones and kitchen knives, to axes and cars.

These forms of resistance are not calculated or planned. They are usually conducted by individuals and based on instinctive reactions of rage and frustration, with little or no planning or preparation. The men and women who carry out these acts of retaliation answer to no organisation and have no clear game-plan: the target is usually random and undefined; there is no evaluation of the impact and no exit strategy. They almost always end up being killed in the process.

Survival is an instinct shared by all human beings. No matter how hard Israel oppresses, restricts or punishes Palestinians (or any other group of people), they will always develop new techniques and methods to resist and defend their existence. Resistance will keep evolving and changing until people finally achieve their freedom. Throughout history, resistance has always been a by-product of oppression, colonisation and occupation; they go hand in hand.

What can be done?

In order to provide a sustainable and long-term solution, we must deal directly with the root cause, rather than just trying to make the symptoms disappear. That cause is Zionism, a colonial ideology that has been operating an illegal and inhumane occupation in Palestine for almost seven decades. In the process, Zionists have violated countless international laws and rules of war, exhibiting an utter disregard for the values which the international community sought to uphold and protect through their creation; values we disregard when we refuse to impose those same laws.

The international community must play a bigger and more effective role in making sure that such atrocities cease to occur now and prevent the occurrence of similar events in the future. It must act as it did in the past, when the Apartheid regime in South Africa was brought to an end, for example. Oppression is oppression, regardless of who does it. Acting differently now only gives justification to and empowers the oppressors.

Achieving the same success in Palestine isn’t going to happen through a recognition of the current “State of Palestine”, which will only perpetuate the illegal and unjust status quo. Success will be achieved by placing pressure on Israel to change its policies and practices. Israel and its decision makers must be held responsible and accountable for the frequent violations of international laws, using the legal processes available to the international community.

Occupation is an abnormal situation; normalising relations with abnormality only makes it stronger and further empowers it, which makes every normalising party complicit and indirectly responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community must cease treating Israel as a normal state, and make it hard for it to continue committing such atrocities by boycotting, divesting and imposing sanctions, as was done successfully in the case of South Africa.

Until then, we should expect the situation to escalate further. The number of illegal settlements will keep increasing; there will be more creative forms of collective punishment and targeting of civilians, with a greater use of illegal and inhumane weapons; there will be more imprisonment and torture of children; more racist Israeli laws and practices; more abuse from the police and military; and, consequently, more acts of retaliation from the Palestinians. The cycle must be broken, and it is against the oppressor that the world must turn in order to take the vital steps noted above.

Noura Mansour is a Palestinian activist and educator from Acre, 1948 Palestine (Israel), who is currently based in South Korea. She studied Political Science and Education and received a masters in International Relations from Haifa University. She has been involved in development and community work with local NGOs in the West Bank and in 1948 Palestine and worked with international NGOs; she is also politically active locally and internationally. Noura is also a debate trainer who has trained and taught debate in many international forums.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.