Introducing: The "Palestinian Gandhi Project"

There is a consistent effort to portray Palestinians as violent individuals, and this effort is tied directly to attempts to justify any Israeli action against Palestinians in the name of “security” or “defense.” In reality, Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation and colonization of their land is diverse and overwhelmingly non-violent. Just because Palestinian non-violence doesn’t get the media attention violent conflict does, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. But how would anyone outside of Palestine know? (Image right: A Palestinian woman defies Israeli declared "buffer zone" in Gaza to harvest wheat.)

Pam Bailey, an American “corporate refugee” as she calls herself, traveled to Gaza to see for herself what was happening in the region. The product of her trips became “The Palestinian Gandhi Project” which Permission to Narrate is proud to feature here. I asked Pam to explain a bit about this:

I first traveled to the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2007 on an adventurous whim. It changed my life. Three more trips to the region later, I decided to live and volunteer in the Gaza Strip, because I realized that I would always be a bit of an ignorant do-gooder if I didn’t live in my chosen region of focus – Palestine – long enough for the people to begin to forget I’m a guest. Six months isn’t long compared to a lifetime, but I felt it was enough to put “my feet firmly on the ground,” as well to teach me a bit about the diversity and nuances within the overall culture.

When I returned to DC, I spent the next three weeks on a speaking tour from one coast to the other…One of the most common comments I heard is “What the Palestinians need is a Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr.” Yet, Palestinians have many “Gandhis” among them who are resisting occupation and corrupt government every day in very creative ways. So, I joined with a friend (Keren Batiyov) to document these stories and give them an audience. When I returned to Gaza this January, I kickstarted the project with some of the interviews we will be featuring here. They do not have the notoriety of Gandhi and MLK, but all they need is a platform. They also do not have a similar mass following — in many cases, because Israel has attempted to snuff out their budding fame by arresting and imprisoning them or their family members. Others are still young, only needing encouragement and recognition to become the leaders of the future. We hope to provide them a platform to amplify their voices. In the future, our plan is to augment this “oral library” with interviews from the refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon (typically ignored completely by the media), as well as with Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel.

Check out this introductory video:

Over the next several days, we will be featuring videos from the project that allows Palestinians in Gaza who have chosen various methods of non-violent resistance to convey their stories, dreams and hopes to a global audience. The interviews are with activists, artists, bloggers, musicians, sculptors and performers who all understand their work as resistance to Israeli occupation and siege. Each video will be accompanied by a brief explanation of the setting and subject by Pam. Look for the next installment featuring Palestinian bloggers in Gaza later today!

It’s time to let Palestinians narrate their views on non-violent resistance.

You can support this project directly here.

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