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By DAOUD KUTTAB
Monday,
September 30, 2002 � Page A15, Globe and Mail
The time was almost midnight, on Sept. 20, when a number of
satellite television stations interrupted their regular
programming to announce that Israeli soldiers had warned
Palestinians living near Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah
that the building would be blown up in 15 minutes if those inside
it didn't come out.
Within those tense minutes, the streets of Ramallah filled with
ordinary Palestinians. Marchers, often led by women, increased in
number as people trapped in their homes for days on end decided to
shake off the injustice that had befallen them. Many demonstrated
more in defence of their national honour than in support of Mr.
Arafat.
The popular uprising that began in the Ramallah neighbourhood
of Umm al Sharit quickly spread to Nablus, Tulkarem, Gaza and
Bethlehem. The next day, women and men came out with pots and pans
and beat on their household utensils as a sign of anger and
protest. The following day, a candlelight vigil was held as a way
to break what people considered a repressive curfew.
In 1987, Palestinians introduced the term intifada into
the international lexicon, when thousands of youths armed with
nothing more than stones rose up against Israeli guns and tanks.
In the fall of 2000, when rioting broke out following the visit of
Ariel Sharon to the area around the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem,
many called those protests the al Aqsa, or second, intifada. Now,
with what happened the evening of Sept. 20 in Ramallah, I believe
we are witnessing the birth of the third intifada.
Since that night, schools in many West Bank cities have
remained open, defiant of Israeli curfews. Some areas are
organizing popular schools. Some of the more affluent schools are
sending homework to their students via e-mail. Curfew days have
become high traffic days on the Internet as most people are doing
their office or school work from their homes. A major culture is
being written up, recorded, photographed and spread on cyberspace
about life under curfew.
What happened late that Friday night was not without warning. A
week earlier, the representatives of the Palestinian people did
something unprecedented in Arab politics: They forced a government
appointed by Mr. Arafat to resign rather than be shamed by a
confidence vote. At about the same time, a public opinion survey,
commissioned by the Search for Common Ground, found that a
majority of Palestinians supported the idea of non-violent
resistance. Hence the peaceful protests that started 10 days
ago.
In the two previous intifadas, those who favoured more violent
confrontation soon came to dominate the protests. Such acts are
not only contrary to the spirit of non-violence, they also
endanger those involved, quickly limiting the possibility that
large numbers of ordinary Palestinians might participate.
For a long time, many international critics of the Palestinians
have been asking why we don't use non-violent methods to effect
change. They argue that if Palestinians do that, a major change
will take place in Israeli and international public opinion that
will eventually be translated in political terms. Many of us have
doubts about that, seeing that the Sharon government is only
interested in a Palestinian population that raises the white flag
of surrender.
When Palestinians in Ramallah carried out their plans to hold a
candlelight vigil on Wednesday night, the Israeli army, which had
said it would lift Thursday's curfew, reversed its position and
reimposed the curfew. Some people obeyed the renewed order; most
didn't. Schools in particular have decided that they will no
longer call off their teaching duties according to Israeli army
dictates.
What is worrisome, however, is that the Israeli and
international press have ignored or belittled the non-violent
nature of what happened in Palestine last week. It seems that the
long-awaited change in Israeli and U.S. public opinion will not
happen soon, as both peoples continue to be bombarded by news that
fulfills the aspirations of those wishing to end the conflict in a
violent way.
Daoud Kuttab is director of the Institute of Modern Media at
Al-Quds University in Ramallah.
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