lista INPR
19 luglio 2012
My take and response to Linah Alsaafin latest article on electronic intifada...
By Ashira Ramadan
There have been hundreds of articles that criticize non violent
resistance and I always look at them with great interest in the hope
that they offer alternatives. First of all I must say as a journalist
I was surprised to see that you took the quotations from emails send
during discussions between activists and using information that you
only gained access to as an activist, it would have been great if you
told us about the article and interviewed people directly. I think
that the majority of what you wrote is inaccurate, and from the point
of view of a Palestinian activist its insulting to a lot of the people
involved in popular resistance. "The obsessive, fetish-like
concentration on a specific type of resistance has in one way or
another contributed to the delegitimization of other forms of
resistance". A “fetish like obsession” I think the only people
obsessed with these terms are people like you who constantly write
about it but in protests I don't think of the name for what I do other
than confronting the soldiers the same with so many others who go to
protests, the same with the leadership of the popular resistance who
chose to resist the Israelis in the means they have possible to them
and in the methods and strategy's they believe in. You have herd us
time and time again say that popular resistance is what is available
to us now, and if you had the guns, Lina we told you get of the arm
chair get your weapons and fight and no one will say anything about
it. I think as someone new to popular resistance you seem to have
completely ignored the history of our struggle popular resistance and
armed resistance always went hand in hand, there wouldn’t be any
Intifada without popular resistance. We were here during the second
intifada people such as Bassem Tamimi, Abdallah Abu Rahmeh, Mohammad
Al Kahtib were involved since then. You talk about Budros with
complete ignorance. I was in Biddu in 2002-2003 there was popular
resistance going hand in hand with the armed resistance everywhere in
the west bank Gaza and 48, Armed resistance was triggered by popular
resistance! Ask the Shabab about Jabal il Taweel - about city inn -
kufor 3akab! That’s what you don’t seem to understand, popular
resistance never stopped in Palestine even during armed resistance.
Both forms were killed by the PA and in the last few years ppl have
been trying to strengthen popular resistance because without it you
can never have armed or any other form of resistance! It is not an
obsession dear it is the only way to unite the Palestinians and to
bring about mass action! You went way beyond the ethics of journalism
and constructive criticism to completely twisting the reality on the
ground and to exaggerations based on Ur own opinion or maybe others.
"Nowadays, Israelis and internationals and unfortunately even some
“enlightened” Palestinians champion “nonviolent resistance” and
consider throwing a rock to be a violent act." You’ve been to these
protests you’ve seen the rocks! Don’t you understand that we all
consider the rock as part of the resistance long before you started
even coming to these protests! No one has ever in any protest denied
the youths right to throw rocks? But the people there have the right
to decide which tactic and strategy to use. When you were at protests
in Nabi Saleh how many times did you throw rocks? Why didn’t you hit
the soldiers with rocks in their faces instead of talking to them or
screaming at them when you were there? If they don’t want to throw
rocks who are you Lina Alsaafin to tell them how to protect their
homes, who am I Ashira to tell them to start dancing in protests or
singing. You are no different than the people you preach about. You
don't want the Israelis or internationals to participate and you think
that they are forcing their agendas on popular resistance. And what
about you?! The ppl in the villages are the ones who decide what
resistance they want to use. And considering that you don't live there
you are no different than the internationals in preaching to the ppl
what form of resistance they should or shouldn't use. If you would
like armed resistance in Al Bireh then start a group there and build
it no one is standing in Ur way! "Oppressed people do not and should
not have to explain their oppression to their oppressor, nor tailor
their resistance to the comfort of the oppressors and their
supporters." Then why should they tailor their resistance to what you
think is right! If you don't like the way they resist go to the
protests and change things there. You had that opportunity the people
of Nabi Saleh that you so openly criticized and insulted at times
opened their homes to you, listen to you, chanted after you. Why
didn't you change the chants why didn’t you bring weapons to the
protests why didn't you create a strategy to bring more Palestinians
there? Why didn't you tell the Israelis not to come to the protests!
Why did you invite internationals to the protests? Why didn’t you
start an initiative to collect money for bailing out those arrested
before criticizing them for getting money from Fayad, I am also
against getting money from him but when there is no alternative should
we have kept the guys in prison if their families cannot afford to pay
bail!? It would have been amazing if you wrote all these problems and
criticism and suggested solutions alternatives, Instead of going to
these people’s homes and telling them that you’ve decide what they are
doing is useless and they are wasting their time and you will not join
popular resistance protests any more, considering that you have only
done that for less than a year! They are and everyone in popular
resistance is looking for more Palestinians to join and you know that
I was celebrating your activism and I was so proud of you every time
you chanted and was more than ready to take advice from you. Nariman
and Manal Tamimi opened their hearts before their homes for you and
would have sat for hours and hours thinking with you about ways to
develop the popular resistance movement and changing it and strengthen
it. But sadly you didn’t come to them or to the people active in
popular resistance and suggested a change …you stopped going to
protests… you started criticizing popular resistance to everyone
around you, you had the audacity to sit in front of me and tell me
that there is no dignity in popular resistance and u actually sang for
me! …you went to international activists telling them how important
their role is while telling them how useless popular resistance is …I
am sorry if I sound harsh but in all honesty you could have done
things in such a different way, you could have been a driving force
for change, I am only writing you because I did care for you opinion
and I did care that a young women like would be a great source of
energy and strength in the movement. Change does not come from trying
to destroy things, it comes by taking initiative, being better than
those who you criticize, by sticking to what is right even if its hard
and doing it, and changing it, and bringing hope to people at a time
when there is no hope. The main problem in popular resistance is not
the internationals and the Israelis as easy as it might be to blame
them for everything. The problem is in our lack of faith, inaction,
our weakness, our fear and our inability to work within our community
to create change! It’s easy to blame everyone ells but sometimes you
need to look within to find the problem and the cure.
I wish you the best of luck in finding your way to what you believe
will lead to a liberated Palestine at the end of the day that is what
we all want and work for even if our methods are different our goal
are the same.
