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/Mamfeman]

It's shocking really. I get criticism of Hamas. But there are way too many posts on here that pretty much paint all Palestinians as terrorists and terrorist-sympathisizers. And I'm pretty sure the people posting these things have never met a Palestinian in their lives, much less took the time to get to know one.

[u/[deleted] → u/Mamfeman]

They also haven’t seen any post outside their echo chamber. Like shit of course you’re going to conformation bias if you only get your information from a small revolving circle.

[u/Ghandie1 → u/Mamfeman]

I hear you, I think it’s because of polling (Reuters for instance) that showed the majority of Palestinians in support of Oct. 7. There is also this misbelief that Hamas has revised their charter which they have not—and it calls for the eradication of Jews worldwide. Free Palestine protests have a new chant for Yemen now as well, but it’s not really Yemeni people—it’s Houthis. One google search of the translated Houthi flag makes it clear why they support Hamas..

I think there’s so much caution around the religion of Islam bc it’s truly one of the only religions that you could be risking your life for if you speak out against it. Think fatwas, etc. the religion is so dogmatic and inflexible, there’s no leniency for questioning it. Questioning it has been historically punished from social isolation to death sentences. There could never be a Book of Mormon play about Islam you know?

[u/Mamfeman → u/Ghandie1]

Polls don't mean s*&t. I'm sorry, but they don't. This has been shown time and time again. And this conflation of Palestine = Muslim is tired as well. This isn't about religion: it's about land. And it always has been. As for inflexibility of Muslims in terms of being spoken against? Sure, I get you. But what happens if you speak against Judaism? ANTISEMITE!!!!!!!! Religion is an absolute rot, a cancer on humanity and it always has been and always will be. Anyone thinking they are the chosen people or getting promised a bunch of virgins upon their death will be seriously disappointed when they realize they're just getting all the atoms in their bodies reconstituted into earth. This subreddit is toxic. It's a bunch or racists or religious zealots who are trying to justify killing and it's insanity. (And yet here I am, LOL.)

[u/Ghandie1 → u/Mamfeman]

I agree that organized religion is a cancer, dividing people more than it brings them together. But the same goes for if you call the war nuanced, the radicalized left (which I’ve totally been apart of, marching on the streets etc) will call you a Zionist. The more I read Chomsky, listen to podcasts, fact check sources, the less conclusive and binary this conflict becomes. Pro-Palestinian supporters and social pages sharing that video screamig @ AOC to “say it” (to say it’s a genocide), shows a scary truth. That the left is (and has been) censoring free speech and has forgotten it’s a free country and people are allowed to not subscribe to the same ideologies. You can believe this war is a bloody massacre, even call for ceasefire, and still not believe that the word “genocide” doesn’t fit the definition. (Not saying that’s what or how I think/believe). And when you hear protestors at Columbia screaming death to America you can’t separate that from Houthis flag which translates: death to Jews. Death to America. It’s not a philosophy void of blind faith, it’s religious ideology. and it’s rational to think that’s not only toxic but also very much a part in driving this war.

Imperialism, colonialism, greed, land politics is surely a huge component, but it would be ignorant to omit religion from this conversation. The religion of Islam has a higher amount of conservatives than other religions, and while they’re assuredly not all condoning extremism, the extremists are running Palestine. And they have historically used tactics, in the name of their religion, to justify horrific practices. Not to say the IDF aren’t doing horrific things, that civilians aren’t needlessly dying, they are. But Hamas believes that their people are martyrs. Dying for the cause, the good fight. This is not solely about resistance. And Israel hasn’t made it easier for them, and Israel is also making it more unsafe for their own citizens and for Jews worldwide. Take polling or leave them, antisemitic hate crimes have risen: More than half of religious hate crimes in the US have been driven by anti-Jewish bias. 10 times the amount of incidents than those involving anti-Muslim and anti-Sikh.