Bil’in Nonviolent Resistance Conference: Between Rhetoric and Action
27/04/2009
Source : AIC
by Sofia Filocalossi and Ines Gramigna
From 22-24 April 2009, the village of Bil’in hosted the Fourth International Conference of Popular Nonviolent Resistance. Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international participants attended the event, a number that greatly increased in the last day of the program, which coincided with the weekly nonviolent demonstration. This year the conference was held in honor of the pacifist member of the Bil’in popular committee, Bassem Abu Rahma, who was shot dead by a tear gas canister on 17 April 2009. The intensive conference program consisted of three days of activities: political and grassroots speeches about the complexity of the Palestinian issue and its possible resolutions; workshops and field trips which gave a direct and pragmatic knowledge of different examples of nonviolent resistance; drawing up of the conference closing statement and participation in the weekly demonstration.
The event opened with the welcoming speech of the Head of Bil’in Popular Committee, Eyad Burnat, who conveyed his respect to the participants and stressed the aims of the conference such as supporting and promoting popular forms of nonviolent resistance. He directly addressed the Palestinian Authority (PA), represented at the conference by Salam Fayyad, asking it to take a firm position and concrete actions against the Zionist project which takes over Palestinian land and violates human rights on a daily basis. In the next speech, Fayyad himself engaged in taking this message to the PA, stressing his respect for the nonviolent resistance struggle of the popular committees against the occupation and underlining the importance of a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as capital of the Palestinian independent state. Nevertheless, no innovative strategy was proposed by the Prime Minister, who was more focused on emphasizing the good intentions of the PA instead of committing the government to undertake urgent concrete actions in support of nonviolent resistance movements.
The Nobel Peace Price Laureate, Maired Corrigan-Maguire, expressed deep empathy with Palestinians and encouraged them not to “give up hope and keep up the struggle.” She underlined the importance of the active participation of women in the resistance movement and apologized for the international community’s neglect of the Palestinian cause. This message was taken up by President Jimmy Carter who, in a letter to conference participants, encouraged Palestinians to use legal tools to stop the illicit measures of the Israeli government and its impunity.
Adar Gray, Israeli member of Anarchists against the Wall, called for joint work of advocacy carried on by Palestinian and Israeli activists, who engage in raising awareness about Israel’s policies in the West Bank .
Palestinian activists then took turns bringing their own initiatives for opposing land confiscation, the Judaization of Jerusalem and presented alternative forms of struggle, like artistic expression. A standing ovation denoted special appreciation by the audience for the intervention of Zico Tamela, who explained how the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions led to the isolation of the apartheid South African government and to its eventual demise.
The last debate saw politicians representing Fatah, PFLP, FDA, DFLP, the Popular Party, Palestinian Liberation Front and Mubadara parties answering disturbing questions of common people related to their negligible role in struggling against the occupier and their inability to create a shared strategy for the common goal of liberation and independence of Palestine.
Even Mustafa Barghouti, who closed the debates, underlined how the Oslo agreements separated Palestinian factions and called for a unifying political strategy able to strengthen the demands for justice and fair peace negotiations. The movement in Bil’in was cited as an example of effective popular resistance thanks to its unity, persistence and capacity to allow Israelis and internationals join its numerous activities.
A touching video of Bassem’s life and death closed the first day of the conference. Both his unjust and brutal murder and his non-violent behavior were shown to a silent audience moved to tears, which decided to keep silence for five minutes in his memory. A message of the Vice-President of the EU Parliament, Luisa Morgantini, presented Bassem as the emblematic figure embodying the conference spirit: the strength of words against the strength of violence.
What emerged from the first day was the distance separating the grassroots pragmatic and successful activities on the ground and the verbal support of the political establishment.
The second day opened with four workshops aimed to work out strategic actions: BDS perspectives; corporate responsibilities for violations of international law; spreading and supporting the popular nonviolent resistance; and building an international movement in solidarity with Palestine. The elaborated proposals were then included in the closing statement.
Field trips to the South and North West Bank, Jerusalem area and Jordan valley were organized by the Bil’in Committee in order to give participants a direct knowledge of the Palestinian reality: life under occupation, the impact of settlements, water, refugees, ethnic cleansing and local initiatives of popular resistance.
Although the short time devoted to the workshops did not allow a deep analysis of the topics, the consensual closing statement presented on the last day draws a ”unifying strategy as a basis for the work on the popular resistance movement” at Palestinian, Israeli and international levels.
The conference ended with the weekly nonviolent demonstration which was attended by hundreds of participants. Wearing t-shirts with Bassem’s image, protesters marched from the village to the Wall guarded by Israeli soldiers. Luisa Morgantini, holding a European Union flag, headed the demonstration together with Mustafa Barghouti, Head of the Palestinian initiative, Mairead Maguire and Khalidah Jarrar, a PFLP representative in the PLC. Once the demonstrators approached the closed military zone, soldiers started launching a huge number of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, injuring 25 people. Despite the danger and the stifling air, the members of the Bil’in Popular Committee managed to build a memorial to Bassem, in order to never forget his peaceful contribution to their struggle and his cruel death. Given the conference and the emotional involvement due to the painful loss of their comrade, villagers constantly tried to prevent young participants from throwing stones beyond the Wall. They bore in mind Bassem’s words: “we are a peaceful demonstration.”
