EMERGING NONVIOLENT CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS

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3 EMERGING NONVIOLENT CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS IN THE EURO-MEDITERRANEAN REGION This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Chiara Moroni and Un ponte per and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. This Project is Funded by the EU 2014

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5 Index Introduction...7 The Popular Committee...10 The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee...14 The conference on the popular non-violent struggle...16 Bil in...18 Al Ma sara...23 Nabi Saleh...27 Al Mufaqarah...31 Critical aspects and suggestions...37 Acknowledgments

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7 Something must be done because if we keep silent, the occupation will occupy more. Ameer Hureini Introduction THE PROJECT This document is related to a cooperation project promoted and managed by Nova in collaboration with Un Ponte Per and the PSCC - Popular Struggle Coordination Committee. The aim is to strengthen the capacity of the Palestinian civil society to create a situation of justice in Palestine, based on the promotion and protection of human rights and on the end of the occupation and Israeli apartheid policies. PSCC has been chosen as a local partner in order to be in direct contact with the village committees that carry out popular resistance, enhancing their experience in working with human rights defenders and social mobilization. THE RESEARCH APPROACH The aim of this document is to describe the non-violent resistance of the Palestinian popular activists, which have been the most significant moments as well as the challenges faced, the outstanding issues and the next steps to do. In order to achieve the purpose in the course of time, it has been important to built a relationship of understanding and trust with some villagers, achieved especially thanks to the physical presence at the actions organized by the committees as well as spending time with the people and sharing more informal moments. Before moving inside the communities, it was indispensable to read all the material that the committees have published through their media in order to know both the historical background of each village and their narrative. The data collection was done through interviews with active members of the committees and with the villagers involved in the actions; in five months 26 interviews have been done, in addition to the moments of informal sharing. Sometimes it was possible to talk with people who have never attended or have stopped participating to the popular resistance in order to have a clear overview of the situation, also in relation to the difficulties that the committees are facing. In order to have discussions capable of telling the story of popular resistance from different perspectives, it was decided to have a variety of people interviewed, both men and women, boys and girls, adults and seniors. Often during the interviews the villagers, inspired by the questions, began reasoning aloud on the deep Palestinian dynamics, the internal difficulties and the solutions to adopt to overcome them. The great honesty and the wise foresight in thinking about some strategies are the right conditions to turn challenges into opportunities for improvement and growth. MEANWHILE IN PALESTINE The research project is based on the Palestinian reality so it could not ignore what was happening in the meantime in Palestine. Firstly, the general situation has a big influence on the resistance movement and on the respondents as well, so a meeting or interview in a specific date rather than another can cause different answers. Then, both the activists of the committees and all the communities of the villages interviewed are often targeted by the Israeli army and/or settlers, as well as by the Israeli polices. People arrested or detained, raids in the village or clashes in adjacent areas are just some of the reasons why many times the meetings have been postponed or canceled. The military occupation in Palestine and the direct repression to some activists or places in particular have a heavy impact on the lives of some of the respondents, not only with regard to their commitment to the popular resistance but also on a personal and family level. 7

8 The experience of Ein Hijleh marked a turning point in the history of the last months of the popular committees. The reoccupation of the old village on the last February has brought new enthusiasm among the committees and strengthened the relationship with the Palestinian civil society, in particular with the students of the universities that have visited the village. This action has also impacted on the Israeli occupation forces (IOF 1 ) which, from that moment, have began a campaign of pressure on the activists more involved in Ein Hijleh. The Israeli army raid almost every day and every night the villages where the most active participants in the village of the Jordan Valley lived, arresting some of them more than once. Mahmoud Zwahre, from Al-Ma sara, is one among those who are most affected and in the last month he has been detained four times. He has gone to an Israeli police station three times in less than 48 hours because he was arrested both during an action that while he was in the car with the Director of the PSCC, Munther Amira, who was arrested as well. After Ein Hijleh the village of Nabi Saleh is subject to continuous attacks by the Israeli army and police that, during the day they shoot tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets. and live ammunition against the shebab in the village, while during the night they try to make raids in the village and arrest some inhabitants. On February 27 th, the IOF fired more than 50 live ammunition, in addition to other types of weapons used, against the youth of Nabi Saleh. In addition to this violence the climate of tension that there is now in the West Bank, mainly due to the continuous arrests and killings by Israeli forces, has its impact also on the committees actions. Since the beginning of 2014, the IOF killed 25 Palestinians, almost all under 30 years old, while since the resumption of the peace talks, 56 Palestinians were killed and 897 wounded 2. Peace talks are themselves a factor that greatly affects the popular resistance movement because of the divisions that they create within the Palestinian civil society. The resumption of these was conditioned to the release by the Israeli government of 104 Palestinian prisoners in four different moments: the first group on August, 2013, the second and the third ones on December 2013 and the next group should be release on March 29 th, It is also necessary to consider the changes in the international relations concerning Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt. The Israeli attack to the Gaza Strip on December 2013 and again on March 2014 were two high-tension situations, especially the latter which was followed by a statement issued by the Israeli government who wants to reoccupy the Strip. This declaration of intent is quite serious considering the recent changes at international relations level between the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas, and the Egyptian government. 3 full Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, considered by Muslims the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina and by the Jews as the location of the First and Second Temples. Moshe Feiglin, member of the Likud party, in particular, has presented in February a bill to the Knesset to remove the Waqf, the body that administers and protects the Islamic religious goods, control of the esplanade. This law has aroused strong reactions in Jordan, the country that performs a function of protecting the Dome of the Rock and al-aqsa mosque. In the last months almost every Friday has been denied access to the mosque of Al-Aqsa Mosque to Muslims while Israeli settlers and soldiers were visiting the holy place, touching off protests by Palestinians. The worsening of the situation is due to the killing of a Palestinian-Jordanian judge, Raed Zeiter, shot dead by the Israeli troops at the Allenby border crossing on 10th March. In the days after the murder many Palestinians, now living in Jordan, protested at the Israeli embassy and both Amman and the Palestinian Authority demanded an investigation. This death as well as all the other martyrs 4 have had a big impact on the committees which many times organized actions or demonstrations dedicated to them. Anger over the death of four young Palestinian killed during an IOF incursion into the Jenin refugee camp on 22 nd March has prompted some activists to storm into the District Coordination Office (DCO the VIP checkpoint) close to Beit El settlement, blocking the checkpoint for over an hour. After the murder of Muataz Washaha, killed in a dawn raid on the village of Birzeit after Israeli forces surround and shelled his home, all the villages organized demonstrations in his memory, who used to participate to the popular resistance with the community of Nabi Saleh. The activists of the popular committees monitor carefully what is happening in other villages and Palestinian refugee camps, particularly where there are often clashes with Israeli soldiers, such as Jalazon refugee camp (in the district of Ramallah) or Aida camp (near Bethlehem), or problem with the settlers, as in Bourin village (in Nablus area). The goal is to support them, sharing in the committees media the news about the daily violence and the actions of resistance. To built a strong network between cities, villages and refugee camps means to broaden and so strengthen the popular resistance movement, making it a strong actor also in view of the probable failure of the negotiations. The relationship between Israel and Jordan began to be difficult when the more religious and nationalist right wing parties in Israel started a campaign to forcibly impose the 8

9 1 IOF is actually what Israel calls Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), created officially to defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the State of Israel but now used to implement and guarantee the occupation in Palestine. 2 NenaNews, Palestina, I numeri del processo di pace, March 20, Relations between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and the Egyptian government have worsened significantly in recent months. The month of March, in particular, has seen a growing Egyptian decisions in open opposition to the Gaza-based party. In addition to having destroyed more than 1370 Gaza smuggling tunnels, Egypt has banned Hamas in the Country. The decision has been justified by the new Egyptian president Mansour who declared that Hamas was wrong in support Brotherhood. Egypt has also stopped a group of International activists heading to Gaza at Cairo airport, preventing them to reach the Strip. The Rafah border crossing is closed since more that 40 days and, according to Hamas, the Egypt closing Gaza border is a crime against humanity because all the Palestinians are now stuck in the Strip and none can go out. 4 The Palestinians call martyrs all those who have died because of the occupation. They included those who died because shot dead during clashes or as a result of torture, beatings, etc., and those affected indirectly by the Israeli policies of occupation, such as the prisoners died in custody because Israel has denied them the necessary medical care. 9

10 Our strengths are our motives and our humanity[...]; choose to be non-violent is difficult and requires more courage. Manal Tamimi The popular committee A UNIQUE FORM OF COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZING The popular committees present themselves as a unique form of community based organizing and resistance in the tradition of the first Palestinian Intifada 5 ; these three elements distinguish the committees from other experiences of resistance - past and present and unite them with each other. Community based means being centered on the reality of the village and constantly in communication with its community. The committees developed different strategies and actions depending on which form of the Israeli occupation is present in the various locations and on how the population has decided to resist. The community, which includes all the people who live in the village or in the area, represents the subject to whom the popular committee has to always address and to account for every decision and action. The participation degree of the inhabitants in the activities becomes one of the criteria by which to measure the effectiveness and strength of the committee s work. THE NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE AS A CHOICE Regarding the modalities of fight, the committees have chosen the non-violent popular resistance which involves tools such as demonstrations, strikes, direct actions, legal and boycott campaigns. It s clear the datum point to intifadet al-hijara, the experience to which all committees refer for designing and implementing the strategies. Most of the activists had a first Intifada background, because they experienced first or breathed the atmosphere of those years. The armed resistance that has characterized the last Palestinian uprising has been abandoned by the committees mainly for a strategic choice rather than ideological. As guaranteed by the international law to the peoples living under occupation, Palestinians reserve the right to resist in every possible way; this means that they do not condemn the armed struggle but, among all the options they chose the non-violent one. The committees acknowledge that the Israeli soldiers have at their disposal a wide range of weapons and well-advanced military technology which cannot be compared with the Palestinian arsenal. The only weapon used by some shebab during the actions are the stones that they throw to the military jeeps and the soldiers, as happened during the first Intifada. The stones are one of the ways used by the younger activists to express their opposition to the occupation and manifest the will to defend their land and family. Another reason for carrying out non-violent popular resistance is because the strategy adopted during the second Intifada has not approached the international community to the Palestinian cause; on the contrary, it helped the Zionist propaganda that describes the Palestinians as terrorists. Forasmuch as the committees objective is the widest possible support, especially outside Palestine, the results achieved in the recent years of struggle show that the non-violent resistance is an effective choice. In addition to the first Intifada, other important historical examples serve as point of reference for the popular committees in formulating the various actions of resistance: the Gandhi s non-violent campaign in India, the peace movement of Martin Luther King, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and its leader Nelson Mandela, who repeatedly spoke in favor of the Palestinians. 10

11 Reoccupation of the old Palestinian village of Ein Hijleh Photo by Haitham al Khatib THE GOAL: INVOLVING EVERYBODY IN THE RESISTANCE The purpose of all the committees is to organize direct resistance against the Israeli occupation, which is the common problem in the West Bank area in order to maintain and defend their presence in Palestine. However, there is a second aim: to build a network of activists throughout the country in order to obtain a mass participation in the actions. Considering how the Palestinian society changed since the uprising of 1987, especially after Oslo, being popular is not only a target but also a continuous challenge. The committees involve all the people who choose to resist non-violently to the Israeli occupation policies; they are open to the whole community of the village and anyone can participate in their meetings. The activists who are always involved in each committee are around a dozen people (the number varies from village to village), more often men than women, belonging to different Palestinian political parties. One of the most important features of the committees is not being affiliated with a political party and not allow external impositions on their agenda. The party affiliation is therefore not a discriminating issue within the committees which, both at local and national level, are seeking to establish a good relationship with different political representatives in order to have the support of the members of all the Palestinian parties. A notable result achieved by the committees is the recognition and the support by the Palestinian Authority of the popular nonviolent resistance as a strategy of struggle. The members of each committee have to take care of different aspects belonging to the resistance movement: the relation with the community of the village, the link with the Israeli and the International activists, the media and the communication in general, the prisoners and their families, etc. For each of these sectors there are at least two responsible people, who have to coordinate with the rest of the committee for the most important decisions. This internal division of roles is very effective, especially because the work field of each one is attributed on the basis of his/her skills and experience. The coordination between the committees is guaranteed by the personal contacts among the activists and by the PSCC Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, which acts as a common platform; to ensure that this link is continuous and the collaboration is bilateral there is minimum one representative of the PSCC inside every village. ISRAELI AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT Looking at the historical model of 1987 there is an innovation in the practice of the actual resistance: the presence of the Israeli and International activists in the actions organized by the popular committees. Their commitment and participation in the Palestinian resistance is one of the most important strategic results achieved by the committees, which chose to include the non-palestinian in order to make the popular non-violent resistance a winning approach. Firstly the committees tried to involve some Israeli groups and activists, suggested by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The ISM was founded in 2001 aiming to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance, and over time has built strong links with the world of pro-palestine activism. Their volunteers helped the committees giving them contacts of persons and associations esteemed, gradually involved in the weekly demo and then in all the actions. The involvement of the Israeli activists was not instant because according to the villagers personal experience they were known just as settlers, prison guards or soldiers. So in 11

12 the early years the role of the committees has been fundamental: knowing personally the Israeli activists, they guaranteed for them and facilitated the creation of a relationship of trust. The presence of the Israelis in the demonstrations, facing the same repression of the Palestinians, has shown their commitment and seriousness, unraveling even the doubt that they could be spies. After nearly ten years of joint struggle against the occupation, in some villages such as Bil in the Israelis are not just supporters but real partners, who sit together with the Palestinians during the meetings and therefore have decision-making power. In addition to their presence during the actions, also useful for the verbal confrontations with the soldiers, the committees recognize to this activists another important task within the borders of Israel: to promote actions against the occupation and the apartheid policies in order to start an internal debate and increase the Israeli support and commitment in the popular resistance. The popular committees have created a strong relation with the Internationals, overcoming the difficulties due to the cultural gap between them. Since the second Intifada, the Palestinians are used to live and to struggle with the International activists so their presence in the villages didn t need to be introduced and with most of them there is now a friendship and not just a political collaboration. The challenge that the committees still face concerns the differences between the Arabic and Islamic culture and the Western one, especially about the male-female relationship. The Palestinian activists together with the Internationals and their associations can overcome the gap, explaining the rules of behavior most appropriate in order to avoid misunderstandings and harassments. The presence of international women in the village moves some social dynamics within the community, which need to be addressed in a long-term process. At the same time the international organizations, as actor involved in this process, have the task to better prepare their activists introducing them not only to the political situation in Palestine but to the local culture as well. In general, different roles are bestowed to the international activists by the committees: firstly, it s important their presence here because it contributed to decrease the level of violence during the demos and encourage the Palestinians to continue their struggle. Then, internationals are a valued communication channel: when they move back to their countries, the will talk about their experience, promoting the Palestinian narrative of the conflict. Last but not least, they have the task of encouraging the BDS campaign, which addresses in particular to the international community. The committees have developed a global network in order to facilitate the coordination between the popular resistance movement and the pro-palestine activists; personal relations and the media are basic to this purpose. A NATIONAL PLAN Since 2013 the popular committees are organizing nationwide actions to reiterate that Israeli occupation is not a problem just for the single private owner or for the inhabitants of some villages, but for all the Palestinian community. All the committees, together, have undertaken a series of new actions of active resistance, started with the creation of the Bab al-shams village in the area E1. Bab al- Shams, which means the door of the sun, was established on January, 11 st, 2013: nearly one hundred of Palestinian women, men and kids, together with some internationals with the role of filming and taking photos of the actions, started a new kind of resistance, totally nonviolent. The message was clear: An outpost for an outpost. It s what our people on the hilltops call an appropriate Zionist response 6 - activists declared through a press release. The Israeli media described Bab al-shams as a ma ahatz, a kind of outpost for a future settlement, but actually the Palestinian reaction is no less illegal than the scores and scores of rogue farms, tent camps, rude shacks and protosuburbs which Israeli settlers have staked across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Bab al-shams fights facts on the ground with facts on the ground and for that, according to the Israeli government, the new village has to be destroyed. Although the order of eviction and the hundreds of soldiers present in the area, the 250 Palestinian activists decided to stay there, in order to establish a permanent village. In the press release, signed by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, they declared: We, the sons and daughters of Palestine [ ] without permits from the occupation, without permission from anyone, sit here today because this is our land and it is our right to inhabit it. [ ] We will not remain silent as settlement expansion and confiscation of our land continues 7. After 3 days the Israeli forces evicted the area and arrested several activists, but meanwhile others villages had arisen in all the West Bank region. On January, 18 th, a new village called Bab al-karama ( the gate of the dignity ) was established northwest of Jerusalem. Those lands are part of Beit Iksa, a village which lost most of its agricultural land because of the annexation in 1948 to the Great Jerusalem, the Wall and the settlements which surround it almost completely. Less than one month later, on February, 2 nd, in the area of Burin, south of Nablus, the new village al-manatir was founded and, near Anin, in Jenin district, some activists pitched their tends for al-asra, which means the prisoners, with the motto We claim what is ours. This strategy was resumed on February 2014, when the popular committees reoccupied the old village of Ein Hijleh, in the Jordan Valley, in order to restore it a new life. Soon hundreds of activists from all over Palestine joined them, seeing in that experience a concrete attempt to regain possession of their land. There were not just activities such as the rebuilding of some houses or the cleaning the ground, but all the people there shared the daily life, cooking together and enjoying the night around the fire, singing and dancing. All those experiences, Ein Hijleh in particular, were a big success for the committees: there was a massive participa- 12

13 tion of Palestinians, especially students from the universities, who -some for the first time have experienced and understood the meaning of popular resistance. Doing actions in new places, the activists are able to spread their approach of struggle outside the villages now recognized as models of popular resistance and to make a national plan as answer to a common problem. This strategy is also successful from the point of view of the international law because it refers to the principle, violated by Israel, that a state cannot deport of transfer part of the civil population who lives in the occupied area. 8 Another important legal aspect is that, for the Ein Hijleh village, the committees had already had a deal with the owners of the village land in order to be able to show the authorization to the soldiers, as soon as they had stated that the presence of the Palestinians in that private property is illegal. the youth an alternative to express their feelings and be part of the popular resistance, instead of throwing stones. The personal relations between the activists, built during the national actions or the time spent together in jail during the Intifada, helps them to keep in touch and to share the news in their respective blogs and media. The network with the International activist groups is another way that help the committees not just to share the news but also to organize global campaigns and actions. Planning a nationwide program of strategies and actions means that the committees are involved in an ongoing dialogue process in order to create a strong and stable network with other villages and non-violent groups in the cities and refugee camps. Especially the meetings with the youth and the students are a significant strategy aimed at increasing their participation in the actions and to teach them how to react at the aggressions by the soldiers during the actions and their daily life. MEDIA Media is one of the most important tools that the popular committees use since the beginning. Acknowledging that international support to the occupation and apartheid policies is based on the power of the Israeli propaganda, and how hard is to get a continued coverage from the national and international media, the Palestinian activists decided to create their own media. Some persons in the villages learnt by themselves and started taking pictures and videos during the actions and, more important, taping the Israeli repression in the village when there were not international activists. To share as much as possible what it was going on in Palestine, each village developed web sites and/or blogs, in addition to many profiles in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Beyond the pictures and the videos, the committees started to write weekly reports in order to monitor the situation in the villages involved in the popular resistance. Soon this way to communicate became so important that the committees organized, in collaboration with some International organizations, trainings about how to use effectively cameras and video-cameras and, in general, how to use the social media in a safe way. Now most of the villages have their own media center, with computer and Internet connection, where the Palestinian activists can upload their material on the web. The communication, internal and with the rest of the world, is an important and necessary weapon that the committees are using successfully. Alone they are able to talk about their situation and actions in different languages and with anyone interested, promoting their own narrative in opposition to the Zionist one. Media is also very important because it represents for 5 Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) Activist with a poster of Nelson Mandela during a demonstration in Bil in Photo by Mohammed Yasin 6 B. Burston, An Israeli in awe of a Palestinian act of non-violence, Ha aretz, January 15, A. Abunimah, Defying occupier, Palestinians establish Bab al-shams village on land seized for Jewish settlement, The Electronic Intifada, January 11, This principle is enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention [Article 49], the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [Article 8(2)(b)(viii)] as well as several UN Resolutions. 13

14 The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) was formed in April 2009 as a result of the decision taken by the assembly of the fourth Bil in International Conference on Non Violent Resistance. The committee was established in order to meet the demand of coordination and sharing of experiences and knowledge typical of both the popular committees and the groups of International activists. As a tool to support the popular resistance, in the PSCC there are activists from different committees, in order to create a network inside Palestine which is able to help materially the villages, giving them legal support and providing the logistic. A NATIONAL NETWORK The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee represents a common platform to which the popular committees and non-violent activists can refer in order to get support for their actions. It consists of about a hundred people involved on different levels. Seven persons are elected to compose the administrative board, holding positions common to all organizations. In particular they focus on the research funds needed to implement the actions and cover the legal fees due to the detention and arrest of activists. This board is officially registered to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as an organization and, until two years ago, received funding from the government. The state financial support raised an internal debate: some activists considered it an attempt of control by the PA on the committees agenda and, forasmuch as the PSCC has no political identity and is not affiliated to any party, an interference from the Palestinian government was not acceptable. In addition, a lot of external criticism and rumors about this money began, especially from other political groups, so the PSCC chose to end the relationship with the PA to reassert its independence. Then there is the political board which includes around people, members both of the PSCC and of the popular committee of their village, in which they represent the link with the coordination committee. These activists are the leaders of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and have the task to coordinate the activities of the committees, identify new places where the actions can take place and decide the strategies to make the popular resistance a massive movement. For the decisions they refer also to the general assembly, composed of more than 60 people who represent all the Palestinian groups which believe and implement the non-violent resistance. Some of them don t feel themselves as part of the PSCC but only as external collaborators who participate in nationwide actions. All of them receive financial support in order to pay lawyers and fines due to the release of the detained activists and to buy the material for the actions, such as flyers, banners, flags, costumes, etc. The PSCC does not represent and does not replace the local popular committees, which retain their identity and independence; it is more like the central node of a network, a vehicle that connects different and geographically distant realities. As many respondents have declared, the popular resistance requires a leadership capable of coordinating the local committees because only united in a national strategy they can be really effective in their actions. The coordination committee is not just a point of ref- 14

15 Palestinian, Israeli and International activists during a BDS action organized by the PSCC in a Rami Levi supermarket Photo by Bilal Tamimi erence and contact between the popular committees, but also a portal for information on what happens in Palestine. In addition to the weekly press releases with the reports of the Friday demonstrations in the villages, through the Facebook page and the Twitter profile, updated in real time, the PSCC reports the news about the arrests, night raids, killings and all the violence committed by the Israeli forces. It does not inform just about the villages already well-known but there also news of the refugee camps, Bedouin villages and cities that face and resist to the Israeli occupation. The PSCC, with all the local popular committees, organizes nationwide actions in area or place considered priorities in the light of the ongoing Israeli occupation process. Now the new strategies of actions are focused on the Jordan Valley, where the experience of Ein Hijleh was held, and the E1 zone, an area of 12 square kilometres located near East Jerusalem and Ma ale Adumim settlement, from which the Israeli government intends to evacuate the Bedouin communities. To plan and implement activities such as the construction of new villages, the redevelopment of old small town or the promotion of project in area C requires a high degree of organization, coordination and trust among activists, especially because it is often necessary to maintain the secrecy of the action until the final implementation. AN INTERNATIONAL PARTNER On the international level the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee serves as a point of reference for the organization of global actions and to plan visits and periods of voluntarism with international groups in Palestine. Having a database with many contacts for each village, the PSCC can be useful in the organizational process as well as be a partner in construction projects and / or training to carried out in the villages. Now, for instance, the village of al- Ma sara is in the process of implementing a project which provides the redevelopment of a building in order to encourage the local economy. Many times the PSCC has organized, in collaboration with several international NGOs, trainings and workshops on the importance and use of media, also providing the cameras to the committees. The coordination committee is also the official Palestinian partner in several international cooperation projects and it is thanks to these European funds that the PSCC is able to support the actions of the local committees. 15

16 The conference on the popular non-violent struggle HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CONFERENCES The first Conference for the Joint Non-Violent Struggle against the Wall was held in February, 20 th - 21 st, 2006 in Bil in to mark the first year of peaceful fight in the village. The aim was to promote the joint non violent struggle by creating a network of activists who support the popular resistance. In the two days meeting debates and workshops were organized to discuss the meaning of settlements and the Wall, non violence and direct actions, and different examples of struggle in the world. The 400 participants were also involved in film screening about the first year of resistance in Bil in, planting olive trees, and, on annexed land near the Wall, a soccer game and, in the last day, a demonstration took place. The next year, from April 18 th to Friday 20 th, Bil in held the second Annual International Conference. Among the nearly 500 participants attending the three days conference, there were as guest speakers Ilan Pappé, Israeli author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Luisa Morgantini, Italian EU Parliament Member and Peace Activist, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Irish Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Stéphane Hessel, former French Ambassador, Amira Hass, author and journalist for Ha aretz, Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and Uri Avnery, Israeli journalist and Knesset member. While in the first two years the conference had took place only in Bil in, since 2008 the committees have organized a day visit to other towns and villages in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. The third Conference on Non Violent Resistance, held from June 4 th to 6 th 2008, agreed upon some points on the Palestinian, Israeli and international level. Main elements are: the essentiality of the Palestinian national unity to establish a Palestinian state and of the support to the grassroots non violent resistance from all official Palestinian bodies; strength relations with Israeli peace movements and International solidarity activists; the reject of any form of normalization; the promotion of the Palestinian narrative to counter Israeli propaganda and the BDS campaign. The participants at the fourth Bil in International Conference on Non Violent Resistance, held from April 22 nd to 24 th 2009 and dedicated to Bassem Abu Rahmah, have decided to adopt some strategies as a basis for the work of the popular resistance movement. Firstly they chose to hold the Global BDS Day of Action on March 30 of each year; to promote legal accountability for war crimes; to strengthen communication, advocacy and lobbying capacities; to empower other international initiatives in opposition to the arms trade with Israel; to promote twinning projects with Palestinian towns/universities/refugee camps, etc...; and to share experiences and learn from other popular movements around the world. The conference highlighted also the difference between the popular movement s role and the Palestinian Authority political parties and factions one, and how they can complement each other. One of the most important decisions made in 2009 was to create a coordination committee including representatives of the popular committees, which later became the PSCC Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, in order to facilitate the implementation of the conclusions of the Bil in International Conference on Non-Violent Resistance and to support the popular resistance. Non Violence, Creativity, International Joint Struggle Khalas! We are winning! was the slogan of the fifth Bil in International Conference on the Popular Struggle (April 21-23, 2010), dedicated to all Palestinian prisoners. At that moment many activists and leaders of the popular committees were imprisoned for struggling non-violently, such as Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Ibrahim A amrah, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, 16

17 Hassan Moussa, etc. In the three days, the participants were inspired by the screening of Budrus, the film about the successful nonviolent struggle that moved the Wall of Budrus land. In the final statement of the meeting some actions have been chosen as the most prominent to be developed after the conference: to support the Russell Tribunal for Palestine; to promote legal actions against corporations profiting from the occupation; to encourage the exchange of experiences, contacts, information and research about the BDS campaign, online forum, promotion of trainings and joining the Israeli Apartheid Week; to establish and support the International Network for the Palestinian Popular Nonviolent Resistance; to realize one global day in support of the Popular Struggle (the first was foreseen on the 10 th June 2010); and to promote the International support to the struggle, with a regular small monthly donation on behalf of individuals or organizations. From April 20 th to 23 rd 2011 hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists joined the sixth Bil in International Conference for Popular Resistance, dedicated to killed activists Rachel Corrie, Vittorio Arrigoni, Bassem and Jawaher Abu Rahmah, and Juliano Mer-Khamis. On the strength of the growing consensus around the necessity and effectiveness of the non-violent popular struggle as a way to resist to Israel s occupation and apartheid policies, the conference demanded to all Palestinian political parties and civil society organizations to unify behind the popular movement, including the endorsement of boycotts, divestments and sanctions. The conference agreed upon some strategies in order to strength international support to Palestinian popular nonviolent resistance: endorsing CPSGAZA, a Civil Peace Service for the Palestinian waters monitoring human rights, supporting the Italian Water Caravan in the West Bank (which took place on September 2011), sustaining the Palestine Kairos Document, endorsing the Freedom Flotilla Movement and the BDS campaign. The seventh Bil in International Conference for Popular Resistance was held in April 10 th - 13 rd The purpose was to discuss the Palestinian popular struggle, vision, tactics, strategies and international support. For the first time the conference took place in several venues: the first and the last day in Bil in, then Hebron and Silwan, near Jerusalem. On the second day of the conference, during a tour of the Old City of Hebron, Israeli Border Police officers attacked a group of Palestinian and international activists, some of whom were injured and 14 arrested. In 2013 the 8 th Bil in International Conference for Popular Resistance occurred in Autumn, from October 2 nd to 4 th, and discussions, actions in different villages and, as usual, a demonstration in the last day, according to the slogan Towards the mobilization of popular resistance: adopting a unified strategy. The three days meeting was in honour of the international struggler Stéphan Hessel (who died on February 26 th, 2013) and ended with seventeen key recommendations formulated with a participatory process and adopted by the assembly. Among these, the conferees agreed to form a preparatory committee to start dialogue for the formation of a joint body that is asked to at least coordinate to unify all the popular bodies and committees to support an effective struggle plan; to build and activate a legal body to protect the popular resistance activists at the local, regional and international levels; to adopt the principle of financial transparency in the popular resistance committees; and to create a joint database to facilitate communication between the popular committees and international solidarity movements. There was also consensus to change the name of the conference from Bil in International Conference for Popular Resistance to Palestine Ninth International Popular Resistance Conference. The participants made also some political proposals: they asked to the Palestinian political leadership to stop the negotiations, to ask for the release of all freedom, justice and humanity prisoners and to complete the steps and preparation to join the rest of the international organizations, especially the International Criminal Court. THE SUPPORT ON NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL Over the years the participation of Palestinian political factions and government officials in the conference has increased, proof of the growing interest by the side of the political bodies to this kind of resistance, organized by the popular committees. The Bil in International Conference for Popular Resistance is therefore not only an important meeting between Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, but also an opportunity for the popular committees and the Palestinian civil society to deal with their political leadership. In many closing statements of the conference there were recommendations addressed to the political level, indeed. The expanding reference geographical environment is another key point to emphasize: from the single experience of Bil in, the focus shifted to other realities in the West Bank and Jerusalem area, up to the decision of the conferees of 2013 to change the name of the event to make it inclusive of all Palestine. The increase in the number of villages involved in the popular resistance has made the conference an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences in the light of different backgrounds and forms in which the Israeli occupation is manifested in the villages. At the international level, it s important to note that several members from the international community, for example the American, the Spanish, the Italian, the German, the British, the Canadian, the French, and the European External Action Service representatives, have attended the conference in the years. Politicians such as Federico Mayor Zaragoza the former UNESCO Director in 2006, Luisa Morgantini and Jimmy Carter, together with prestigious figures in the field on peace building and Human Rights like Desmond Tutu, have also joined the event in the past and gave their full support to the grassroots resistance. Their involvement shows how the nonviolent popular resistance of the committees is globally recognized not only in activism world. 17

18 Bil in PROFILE OF THE VILLAGE Bil in is based in the governorate of Ramallah e Al-Bireh, 12,6 km ovest of Ramallah and 4 km far from the Green Line. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reports a population of 1701 but, according to Basel Mansour, major of Bil in, nowadays there are around people. As stated by the Oslo II Interim Agreement, Bil in village is divided into politically classified areas B and C : the majority of the population lives in area B, which includes dunums (nearly 51,4% of the total area) whereas the rest of the village, about dunums of farmlands and open spaces, is under Israeli administrative and military control. In addition to the current area, there is also the land now isolated beyond the Wall, confiscated during the years for the construction and expansion of the settlements. IMPACT OF THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION Thousands of dunums of land have been confiscated from Bil in by the Israeli government for different purposes, including the building of Israeli settlements and the construction of the Wall. In 1991 on the western side of the village began the illegal erection of the settlement Kiryat Sefer, called Modi in Illit by the Israeli government, and because of this around 891 dunums have been stolen from the land of Bil in. Unlike the other settlements built in the early 90s thanks to the collaboration between the Israeli government, the Zionist organizations and the movement of the extreme settlers, Kiryat Sefer was established by some private entrepreneurs after Oslo s agreements. It represents an example of the new style of colonial settlement, led by private capital and supported by the state. Kiryat Sefer is a section of the settlements block of Modi in Illit, identified as an essential part of Israel by the government. In 2008 it gained the status of city, although an inquiry done in the same year showed that the entire Brachfel patrimony (including Kiryat Sefer) lacked of construction permits. Thousands of housing units built illegally have been condoned only several years after, thanks to the retrospective change of the building plan approved by the local council. The building of Mitatyahu Mezrah (Mitatyahu Est) in 2001 resulted in a further subtraction of land from the village of Bil in and Deir Qaddis, for a total of dunums, as decided in the Israeli Military Order n 16/01/T of May, 2 nd, The presence of the settlements near the village has a huge impact on the life of Bil in people and on their properties. Many times the settlers, helped by the soldiers, attacked the Palestinian farmers in order to prevent them to access their land, fenced off with barbed wire and planted with trees. Two of the total 700 kilometers of the Wall pass the land of Bil in, causing the confiscation of dunums, around the 49% of the village area (4.000 dunums). After the legal action carried out by the committee and the sentence of the International Court of Justice of July, 9th, 2004, the path has been modified: according to the latest revised route of the Wall plan published on the Israeli Ministry of Defense s website on April, 30 th, 2007, the Wall confiscates dunums, 9% of land less than the previous route. RESISTANCE The non-violent resistance in Bil in was the instinctive response of the population to the construction order of the Wall on the village land, issued at the end of All the 18

19 Use of the land and the Apartheid Wall in Bil in (ARIJ 2012) villagers were involved in the initial meetings organized in order to discuss about the situation and then into the actions of resistance. At the beginning hundreds of Palestinians moved daily on their land trying to prevent the destruction of the olive trees and the building of the Wall. The Israeli soldiers violently repressed the peaceful marches, shooting tear gas and plastic-coated metal bullets into the crowd, beating and arresting the unarmed activists. At that time there were neither many International and Israeli activists nor the media so for the inhabitants of Bil in it was very difficult to face alone such a strong repression. In January 2005 the community of Bil in decided to create a popular committee against the wall and the settlements in order to organize as effectively as possible the actions and prevent a general discouragement due to the Israeli violence. One of the first decisions was to organize weekly demonstrations; the community chose to do it on Friday because it is a day off for everybody. The committee grew from 5 to around 13 people, while now a smaller group of activists are actively involved in it. They are not the only decision-makers because the committee doesn t want to create a gap between it and the villagers; for that, the meetings are open and everybody can suggest new strategies and/or actions. MEDIA Since the first the importance of the media presence, national and not, was clear to everybody in order to give prominence to their acts of resistance. A confirmation of this intuition was, the international resonance of the first action covered by the media and organized with the support of some Israeli activists and ISM volunteers. On the morning of April 28th, 2005, around 50 people chained themselves to the olives trees which were marked to be uprooted by the Israeli bulldozers. The trees were on what would have been the route of the Wall and the soldiers, in order to prepare the area for the construction works, had to vacate the activists. Trained to combat against armed people, the Israeli forces reacted as usual beating, shooting and trying to arrest all the non-violent demonstrators. The brutal and unprovoked aggression of the soldiers has been followed by a new international support for the Palestinian Gandhi, as the media started to call the people of Bil in. The use of the means of communication is one of the most powerful strategies chose by the committee: the Israeli newspapers and television stations, in particular, let the villagers to address directly the politicians, the people and the same soldiers who they face during the actions, thereby increasing the number of Israeli activists and curious interested in understanding the reality of Bil in. By the media the Palestinian fighters can get their message across to the other actors of the conflict, impacted directly on people with a nonviolent weapon. Documenting each moment of tension with the Israeli soldiers and settlers is also important because the photos and videos are valuable evidence during the trials against Palestinian activists, often falsely accused of assaulting soldiers or throwing stones. This material is very useful also during the investigations for perjury against Israeli policemen: in 19

20 Activist with a poster of Nelson Mandela during a demonstration in Bil in Photo by Mohammed Yasin one case, the soldier has been convicted because what the pictures showed did not correspond to his declaration. Although these results are not frequent, the use of media as a form of legal resistance is an important within the committee strategy. Bil'in is one of the most well-known villages thanks to its inhabitants who became channels of communication: their videos, photos, reports and profiles on social networking sites are a source of information inside and outside Palestine. The website and the different Facebook pages dedicated to the village are also important tools with which the committee spreads his message of popular struggle. The Oscar nomination for the film "5 Broken Cameras", the Emmy Award won as well as the projection at the General Assembly of the United Nations represents a result not only for the filmmaker Emad Burnat but for all the inhabitants of Bil'in. The village has also created a media-center called Friends of Freedom where, at the end of each demo, all the photographers and activists go to upload the photos and the report of the action on the net. Having its own media the committee and the whole community are able not just to share their point of view about the reality, but also to propose a form of constructive resistance. As some of the youths interviewed said, they recognize being an active part of the media-center as a concrete and long-term resistance way, as an alternative to throwing stones. CREATIVE ACTIONS Bil in is also well-known thanks to the very creative and original actions organized by the committee and that are now a model for other villages. The demonstration hold on February 12 nd, 2010, for instance had a strong effect on the international community: many people were dressed as characters from the famous movie Avatar, in order to create a connection between the fight of the Na vi for their land and the Palestinian struggle against the occupier. Another example of creative resistance is the action organized on March, 5 th, 2010, when three activists were dressed as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and M. K. Gandhi. The committee chose these eminent historical characters for their symbolic value: everybody in the world know the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the civil rights movement in the United States and the nonviolent fight in India as right movements of struggle and resistance for freedom. The demo aimed to relate in the most immediate possible way these facts with the situation in Bil in, to make it clear that they are fighting non-violently against the occupation and for the respect of human rights. A great creative action was organized in the early 2006: during a Friday demonstration the committee recreated the tank of the short story Men in the sun. In the fiction work written by Ghassan Kanafani, some Palestinian workers hidden inside a tanker truck trying to cross the desert died because they preferred to stifle rather than asking for help and risk detention. One of the leaders in Bil in after the demo declared: «in Men in the sun when the truck driver discovers the bodies of Palestinians killed in the tank screams: Why did not you knock on the sides of the truck?! Why?!. Here, we [the Palestinians] are not knocking, we re crying out!» 9. According to the popular committee a powerful and mean- 20