If you didn't think there was any good news today, maybe you missed this story today in the Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor reports that the success of villagers in Bilin, in the West Bank, in resisting the "separation barrier" through nonviolent protests, legal challenges, and appeals to Israeli and international solidarity is inspiring Palestinians in other villages to emulate their efforts.
Earlier this month, the village of Bilin, which has held weekly protests since 2004, garnered widespread attention and praise in the Palestinian press when the Israeli Supreme Court ordered a part of the military's separation barrier near Bilin to be dismantled. Increasingly, other Palestinian villages are following Bilin's lead, though it remains to be seen whether this kernel of nonviolence will grow into a full-fledged movement.
"Before Bilin, people never had faith it would achieve anything, neither nonviolence, nor the legal system," says Mohammed Dajani, a political science professor at Al Quds University. "Maybe this will be a response to the skeptics, that, 'Look, it works.'"
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Even though the Bilin ruling was not the first time the court ordered a portion of the barrier moved, it has resonated widely among Palestinians. "It has become obvious that popular civil resistance has become the best way for national resistance from the occupation," wrote Waleed Salem in an Al Quds newspaper op-ed.
Those who have followed Palestinian affairs will know that this is not the first time Palestinians have used nonviolent struggle to resist the occupation. Sadly, in Palestine, as elsewhere, reports of violence often overshadow peaceful, solidaristic, democratic resistance.
But now that "we are the media," as the IndyMedia folks say, we can all do something about it. At the very least, we can echo these efforts, and call them to the attention of others. The more people are aware of these efforts, the more effective they will be. The more effective they are, the more people will turn to them. In this way we can all contribute, in a way well within our power, to peace and justice in the Middle East, and elsewhere.
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