With this year marking 71 years since the declaration of the State of Israel and 52 years of military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the conflict today is still very much marked by violence - that of terrorism, structural state violence, along with the continuation of economic inequalities, land confiscation and day-to-day harassment. The now 12-year blockade by Israel of the Gaza Strip since Hamas came to power continues, and with it the crippling economic and health conditions its restrictions have caused. The settlement expansion in the West Bank also continues, and with violence in and from the Gaza Strip earlier this year causing multiple (Palestinian and Israeli) casualties (1), peace is still not yet in sight. While many lose hope and some resort to hate and violence, others remain calm and faithful. Here, two nonviolent peace initiatives will be discussed, as well as how individuals remain hopeful in the face of the continuation of violence and military occupation.
Liwan culture café
Located in the heart of the Old City of Nazareth, Liwan culture café stands out with its bright colours in the relatively empty old streets. Only three years old, this café vibrates with life, hospitality and an uplifting and welcoming atmosphere. Liwan serves coffee, hosts cultural events, and provides tours, talks, and local products. It aims to be a cultural meeting place and provide interaction between locals and tourists that goes beyond the shallow impression that many day tours of Nazareth for visitors provide.
So, how does such a café show/demonstrate nonviolent resistance? Liwan was founded as an independent, private initiative in June 2016 with a vision - big and small. On a local level it aims to strengthen the sense of community and connection to the Old City of Nazareth, and in the wider scope of the conflict it hopes to bring people of all backgrounds together, allow for dialogue and challenge preconceptions, as well as giving Palestinians and their culture back their voice. To learn more about how the café realises these (among other) goals, two other PIJ interns and I were lucky enough to meet one of the three owners, Sally Azzam, and interview her about the place (see the link for the full podcast below at the end of the article).
Sally is Palestinian and was born and raised in Nazareth, a city in the north of Israel. She tells us how she was also here during the Second Intifada, and as a twenty-year old experienced some of the events, including when the lives of three Palestinians were taken by the police in the year 2000. Following this, she joined demonstrations but she is now channelling her passion to fight injustice through a more peaceful of form resisting: together with her friend Sami Jabali and his partner Silke Wanner she opened Liwan three years ago, as a form of cultural resistance.
She explains how ‘when you are occupied your mind is occupied’, and that it is therefore so important to be allowed to create, to make art and express yourself, as well as having a community, in order to feel empowered. It is exactly when one loses hope, she believes, that one becomes desperate. And it could well be this desperation that makes people give up, or resort to violent resistance. With the initiative of the café she therefore hopes to make the community feel strong again and give the people a sense of belonging, especially the new generation.
Despite this, she admits to us that she too goes through phases, phases of feeling empowered and hopeful, but also times when she is fed up. This is human, she says, ‘I go up and down like everybody’. Even though she expresses that she wants to fight, she also feels tired at times as the occupation can be ‘too big on you’. She believes it is this exact acceptance of being human that is part of her success in her resistance.
‘By being here I am resisting, by preserving the culture but also resisting the occupation in the head.’ - Sally.
Tent of Nations
On a hilltop near Bethlehem in the Palestinian territories lies a small, family-owned farm that has called itself ‘Tent of Nations’ since 2000. The Nassar family has owned the land since 1916, but since it is located right in the middle of a settlement bloc, the farm’s existence has been threatened and the family has faced harassment for more than twenty years now. Over the years they have had to deal with the destruction of hundreds of their fruit and olive trees on multiple occasions (3), electricity and water supply to their property being cut off, as well as endless legal battles over land ownership. Despite living such extreme realities of the West Bank occupation every day, the family says that they refuse to be victims and refuse to hate, not seeing the use of responding with violence: ‘What can we achieve with violence except violence?’ says Daoud Nassar, owner of Tent of Nations (4). This echoes the vision of Sally from Nazareth who also believes that all that violence does is create more violence.
Instead, the goal of Tent of Nations is to build bridges, ‘between land and people, and people and people’. One of their projects is the Tree Planting Campaign, in which volunteers plant trees for both the environment and as a sign of hope that they believe in the future. Planting a tree, Daoud believes, reminds us that ‘peace should grow from the grassroots’.
The family also hosts summer camps at their farm for children from local schools together with volunteers, with activities including sports and games, theatre, music, dance, and writing - among a range of other creative projects. These activities are intended to motivate children, to allow them to discover their talents, as well as to ‘channel their pain into a constructive power’, Daoud explains. We recognise this importance of expressing yourself through the arts and channelling your emotions in the words of Sally and the aims of Liwan.
On Daher’s Vineyard, the name of the farmland of Tent of Nations, Nassar’s family exerts their active yet peaceful resistance through their summer camps and tree planting, along with a handful of other projects.
‘When we act [in this] way, we force the other to see us as human beings’ - Daoud Nassar.
The stories of Sally and Daoud radiate hope and introduced me to alternative, peaceful forms of resisting while living the consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict every day.
Endnotes
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48171804
- https://www.simsim-guesthouse.com/index.php/about-3
- https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27883685
- http://www.tentofnations.org/about/videos/
- http://www.tentofnations.org/support/