A POPULAR MOVEMENT
IN PALESTINE: THE CASE FOR EDUCATION
Toine van
Teeffelen
In the background of the siege of Arafat’s compound we could hear these weeks about some remarkable initiatives in Palestine reminding of the popular movements of some decades ago against dictatorships in Eastern Europe or South-America. Reports spoke of the deafening noise of pots and pans in Ramallah, silent and impressive mass prayers by peasants in a field near Nablous, parents and teachers in various cities who collectively broke curfews to guide their kids to school. Some months ago plans of breaking curfews were already circulating and debated in the area but it now seems that Palestinians have reached a point that they act and join emerging forms of popular resistance. The reasons for this change in attitude can be possibly traced to two clusters of factors: the changing nature of the occupation and changes in the general political environment.
The three-decade long occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has never been benevolent nor accepted by the Palestinian population but in various periods there have been different degrees of restrictions on daily life. Over long stretches of time, the occupation was a sophisticated controling institution that tapped from a variety of resources to enforce the population’s compliance. Not force alone was activated; it rather worked alongside a myriad of dependencies including Palestinian labour in Israel, a complicated permit system, friendly relations with local mukhtars and other proxies, the extension of ‘favours’ (which one’s neighbours did not receive), and an elaborate network of probably tens of thousands of collaborators.
Right now, the occupation has by and large fallen back on pure, visible, and arbitrary force against the population as a whole. Most clearly in reaction to the suicide bombings, the Israeli army has stepped up degrees of control over daily life that have become unbearable. At checkpoints and other Israeli-Palestinian contact points, Palestinian civilians are continuously humiliated in classical colonial style. After two long years the vast majority of the population have been irreversibly damaged in their personal and family interests; in their possessions and lands, their own or their children’s education, and their work.
However, the more plain force is exerted, the sooner the limits of an army’s deterrent and adaptive capacities are reached. In the last couple of weeks the fear threshold among Palestinians has significantly been lowered. My personal impression is that the curfews are nowadays felt to be without real ending and that they have become so completely arbitrary and dehumanizing (civilians treated like mice in a cruel experiment) that they are not anymore accepted as facts.
The political environment is changing too. Threats against the civil population are palpably present. On the ground, the ‘normal’ process of land confiscation and settlement building is continuing unabatedly. But in addition, the scenario of ‘transfer’ has been so intensely debated – including ‘variants’, such as internal vs. external transfer – that it has somehow become part of legitimate public discourse in Israel and conservative circles in the US. A will to change the political map of the Middle East in the wake of a war on Iraq may lead to an acceptance of changing the demographic ‘map’ as well. Many people in Palestine regard ethnic cleansing during or after a war on Iraq a real possibility.
In the face of such threats, Palestinians do not feel that their leaders are having the power to move things into a different direction. While the Palestinian Authority and Arafat are recognized as the Palestinian representatives, they find themselves cornered in the international political arena and under political scrutiny at home. There is no clear viable political road towards an agreement. Under the circumstances, many Palestinians feel that there is an urgent need to become themselves political actor again. Creating a popular movement could make a difference, locally and internationally. Commemorating two years of Intifadah, the Palestinian press is now full of articles about the need to go back to the popular roots of the Intifadah.
A popular non-violent movement would need coordination and strategy. At this moment, such strategy is largely absent. The popular actions are locally and often spontaneously organized, with widespread media attention only in exceptional cases.
One possibility for such a strategy is chosing a broad societal field for a sustained concerted action that targets the international public. Such field could be medical, economical, educational or otherwise.The advantage of choosing a societal field for a public campaign is that such a field provides a very human illustration of the effects of occupation. For a broad international public that message would have more impact than general political statements. Let’s take as an example the field of education. (I am myself working in it, and so am familiar with its potential).
For next week Wednesday (2/10), authorities, religious leaders and NGOs have announced a demonstration in front of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in which children, parents and teachers will demand the right of education. Apart from inter-religious prayers and speeches, a banner with the text “Let Our Children Have Freedom” will be attached to helium-filled balloons and lifted into the air. Solidarity with education in other curfewed Palestinian towns will be proclaimed. While people in the Bethlehem area are ‘privileged’ to be able to go out of their houses – unlike in other cities – students and teachers here too face problems in reaching schools, for instance when they have to cross checkpoints or settler roads.
In Ramallah, Nablus and other cities, people lately took the initiative to organize forms of “underground education.”. People challenged the curfew and offered their space, time and expertise to create alternative educational options at homes in case schools were out of bounds. It is not only the urgent need for education that guides them but also knowledge of history. Teachers tell that their school communities are sure of one thing: students should not once again loose years of education as happened during the first Intifadah where underground education got publicity but was not done systematically. That lapse had a great impact upon the youth who afterwards were severely handicapped in their education. In my own environment in Bethlehem, I see schools pressured by parents to make emergency curfew plans detailing how teachers and parents should call each other so that children are able to continue their studies as much as possible at home.
Palestinians have always been proud about the levels of education attained against all odds. Visitors have been impressed by the persistence and improvising capacity young and older students (and teachers and administrators) display simply in order to realize the right to education. So many children and teachers come exhausted at schools after being forced to take journeys through the hills or after long waiting times at checkpoints. A sustained popular and public movement in education in which activities are coordinated across the cities and regions (for instance, similar activities conducted simultaneously, such as the making of noise or the holding of vigils) would have real potential. People are presently motivated. It is imaginable to have local or regional committees with teachers, parents and representatives of the Ministry of Education. When face-to-face coordination is impossible, email has to do the job. Such committees could organize, document and write about local public actions. After all, education is a field in which everyone has a direct or indirect stake, and in which massive participation is not impossible.
While it seldom happens that Palestinian youth – who are in fact the large majority of Palestinian society - are public spokespersons, a prolonged action in support of the right to education could give the floor to young Palestinians who are versed in different languages. They could be involved in writing and public speaking. Creative forms of raising one’s voice could become part of extracurricular programs which could also encouragie knowledge and discussion of the history of popular protest in Palestine. Students could make the texts of their placards and banners as they are presently asked to do for the Bethlehem action. An international committee of well-known personalities might support the campaign. In this way, a broad movement with very concrete and human demands could expose the brutality of the occupation, move the international civil society and – hopefully - play some role in helping to prevent that Palestinian civilians become expendable pawns in a new Middle Eastern war.
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Toine van Teeffelen (Bethlehem) is working in various extracurricular projects in Palestinian education, and involved in United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch monitoring initiative. He is also a board member of the Arab Educational Institute (Bethlehem, affiliated to Pax Christi and Euro-Arab Dialogue from Below) and PYALARA (Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation, Al-Ram).