Volume [8]
No. [2]
December 2011
|
|
||
|
Volume [8]
|
No. [2]
|
December 2011
|
The Global March To Jerusalem
|
|
| The dream of every nonviolent
resister is to see a vast ocean of unarmed volunteers exercising their
rights in defiance of authorities trying to stop them. However inspiring it may be to watch the villages of Bil’in, Budrus, Beit Ammar, Ni’lin, Jayyous, Biddu and others defy Israeli forces week after week to defend against the confiscation of their land, everyone imagines what it would be like if all of Palestine and beyond were to do this in a single united effort. Now, with the models of Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab uprisings to inspire oppressed peoples around the globe – including Americans in the Occupy movement – Palestinians and their allies appear to be making their move. On May 13, 2011, two million Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square and chanted, “We are going to Jerusalem.” That was their intention, but Cairo is not walking distance to Palestine, and the Egyptian government shut down all transportation. Nevertheless, on May 15, thousands of Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese congregated on the Lebanese-Palestinian and Syrian-Golan borders and peacefully tried to overcome the obstacles and enter. On May 13, 2011, two million Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square and chanted, “We are going to Jerusalem.” At Majdal Shams in Syria, hundreds succeeded in breaching the border, and were united with their brothers and sisters on the other side, in some cases after decades of separation. One young man, Hassan Hijazi, 28, actually reached the city of Jaffa, where his family had been expelled 63 years earlier. He gave an interview to Israeli television before he was captured and deported, but he fulfilled the lifelong dream of millions of Palestinians, if only for an instant. Others paid the price, as Israeli forces gunned down scores of unarmed protesters, 22 of whom lost their lives. Only nine days earlier, I had been in Amman, Jordan, where two dozen organizations had decided to mount a similar effort on an even larger scale, and to include volunteers from around the world. Shaikh Raed Salah, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Movement in Israel, had already pledged that he would mobilize 100,000 volunteers from within Israel. This group is immeasurably important, because as Israeli citizens, Israel permits them to enter Jerusalem without restriction. Their presence would constitute a major success for the project.  The leadership of the Islamic Movement in Jordan and thirteen other organizations, with an even larger population of expatriate Palestinians, pledged 200,000 volunteers. After another meeting in July, the Palestinian Return March Committee in Lebanon, consisting of more than fifty organizations that had participated in the attempted crossing on March 15, pledged 50-100 thousand volunteers, as well. The movement is called the Global March to Jerusalem, and as of late October it includes roughly fifty Palestinian organizations: 15 from inside Palestine, 14 from Jordan, 20 from Lebanon and a handful of others from other countries. In addition, a roughly equal number of solidarity organizations from other parts of the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, Africa and North America have joined the movement. These numbers are expected to grow rapidly, and the goal is to have delegations from at least 100 countries. This is an exponential growth for the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement. While this movement is very familiar to Western solidarity groups, it has until now represented a relatively small proportion of Palestinians, especially in the expatriate community. Among the rest, it has often been ignored or mocked. No longer. Nonviolent resistance has demonstrated its strength and now has sterling credentials to its credit. It is, as they say, “going viral.” The movement has no illusions about the difficulties, and its participants are not suicidal. The plan is to challenge every part of every border – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank – to march peacefully to Jerusalem. We will have hundreds of separate, imaginative plans for hundreds of separate groups, to overcome the obstacles at as many points of entry as possible, often creating our own entry points. We will also have multiple contingency plans in case we are thwarted in some areas, as will inevitably be the case. In many cases, the march may devolve into “Occupy” encampments and demonstrations. Whatever happens, we will learn from it and make improvements the following year, for what we intend will be an annual event. |
 The motives and views are likely to be as diverse as the participants. This is a very broad tent. For some, religious devotion will be paramount, for others, justice and human rights. For many Palestinians, it is simply reunification with their land, from which they have been separated for so long. However, all agree on the principles and practice of nonviolence, anti-racism, respect for all people and good will. The participants are organizing along regional associations, including the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. We are hoping that associations for North/Central Asia, South America and other regions will also form.  The North American GMJ association (GMJ-NA) has elected to be an autonomous group, without voting rights in the international bodies (or vice versa). This is because citizens of the U.S. and Canada could potentially face legal difficulties if they participate in organizations that include international participants that are subject to legal reprisals in North America. The risk is small, but a precaution worth taking. Currently, the GMJ-NA has fifteen member U.S. groups and an unknown number in Canada. In addition, it has endorsements from civil rights leader Dr. Clayborne Carson, retired U.S. ambassador Edward Peck, author and lecturer Dr. Ghada Karmi, lecturer Dr. Hatem Bazian, Professor of International Law Emeritus Dr. Richard Falk, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, and historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, intellectual and commentator Dr. Tariq Ali, among others. If you or your group would like to endorse and/or participate, please go to www.gmj-na.org or write to organize@gmj-na.org, or call 510-224-3518. We welcome you help and participation in movement that is fulfilling the prediction of abolitionist Rev. Theodore Parker, quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Dr. Paul Larudee is a co-founder of ISM-Northern California, the Free Gaza Movement and the Free Palestine Movement. |