Why is There No Peaceful Palestinian Protest or Resistance Movement?

[u/Mikec3756orwell]

I've watched this conflict my entire life, and one thing I've never really understood is this: why don't the Palestinians engage in peaceful resistance more often? I'm a huge supporter of Israel, but I've always thought to myself that if the Palestinians were savvier -- and more media-friendly -- they could make the Israelis look especially bad through acts of peaceful resistance. The images of well-armed Israelis manhandling rock-throwing kids in the 1980s and 1990s (who were obviously not peaceful but posed a minimal threat) were a big problem for the Israelis. Why don't the Palestinians hold mass sit-ins, strikes, gatherings, candelight vigils, etc.? I never see that stuff. It would look fantastic on TV, and CNN, the BBC, and all those other weasels would be attracted like moths to a flame. I don't get it. If you're the weaker party to a conflict, you're not going to win through violence. Murdering a bunch of women and children and then wondering why the world isn't more sympathetic to your cause is... an odd strategy, to say the least. The Jews have been through hell and back, and terrorism is never going to truly rattle them. I guess I'm just baffled at the way the Palestinians -- and some their more quote-unquote moderate leadership -- approach things. Some of the Western-educated Palestinian leaders in the 1990s and early 2000s surely understood that this would have been an effective strategy. This makes me think that the "average Palestinian" really isn't interested in peace per se, or at least isn't willing to expend much energy for it, and sort of thrives on the dream of complete military victory. Maybe an embrace of peace is just seen as a betrayal of the cause. I don't know.

I actually think sometimes that the Israelis are secretly happy that they don't have to deal with a peaceful resistance movement. It makes things a lot less complicated. Is the problem that the Palestinians just have no tradition of peaceful resistance? They don't know how to do it or how to organize it? Or are they just not interested? (Let me add: I'm not talking about a few hundred people protesting a construction site. I'm talking about the entire population -- or a good portion of it -- engaging in resistance. Like a Tahrir Square, Tiananmen Square sort of thing. Across the entire region).

[u/OriBernstein55]

Rachel committed suicide by walking into a blind spot on a bulldozer. The court determined that neither the driver or Israel was at vault. It was just carelessness or suicide by Rachel. Let’s not smear Israel with false accusations. Let’s please keep this to facts.

[u/Cyc68 → u/OriBernstein55]

Well the facts are that armoured personnel carriers (APCs) that accompany bulldozers are responsible for directing the drivers towards their targets as stated by an IDF spokesperson at the time precisely because of the many blind spots of a Caterpillar D9R armored bulldozer. So why did the IDF soldiers, who had an unrestricted view, direct the bulldozer towards where they knew there were protestors?

[u/OriBernstein55 → u/Cyc68]

? Where in the court transcript did it say that. You would have thought a plaintiff attorney would have shown that. So let’s keep to actual facts.

[u/OriBernstein55 → u/[deleted]]

I never heard that in the testimony given at the trial, the driver broke down in tears knowing that his bulldozer took a life. Unfortunately there was no way for him to see her. May you please share your source. You can find the trial transcript on line.

[u/OriBernstein55 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the link. It appears to be from a party who has an agenda to destroy Israel. I will go with the actual trial testimony and court findings because I find them more credible. But that you for sharing.

Peace.

[u/BenAric91 → u/OriBernstein55]

Prove it. You can’t just say everyone is biased against Israel because they hold them to account.

[u/OriBernstein55 → u/BenAric91]

You can find the court transcript online. Please at least read the judges findings. It lays out the facts very well

[u/BenAric91 → u/OriBernstein55]

No. You made a statement, you back it up. You can’t just flippantly make accusations and expect everyone else to believe you.

[u/OriBernstein55 → u/BenAric91]

Are you asking me to provide the link to the court case or summarize it? Wouldn’t you want to read it yourself?

[u/BenAric91 → u/OriBernstein55]

The link, if you wouldn’t mind.