In what was probably the most naive statement pronounced by a famous humanitarian, U2’s lead singer, Bono, in a NYT article he expressed hope that the Palestinians will eventually find “their Gandhi, their King, or their Aung San Suu Kyi.” His blindness to the reality of Palestinian non-violent protest, which has been going on for years, has apparently led him to remain quiet about the plight of the Palestinian people.
In response, Phillip Weiss asked: “Why hasn’t Bono heard the names of Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, and other Palestinians who have been jailed for their resistance to modern apartheid, their efforts to stop the Wall being built on their land, their promotion of nonviolent tactics of boycott and divestment?”
Videos are from the Bi’lin Village site of the latest weekly protest, dedicated to Abdallah Abu Rahmah:
The people of Bil’in dedicated the weekly demonstration in the village to Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee, who is kept in jail despite having served his one-year sentence in full. One protester was injured.
Dozens of Israeli and international supporters joined the demonstration in Bil’in this week, which was dedicated to Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the local grassroots organizer jailed for his part n the village’s campaign. The protesters condemned his continued detention and the fact that he is still in jail despite having finished serving his sentence. People waved Palestinian flags and pictures of Abu Rahmah, and chanted slogans condemning the Occupation, settlements, the repression of the struggle and the jailing of Palestinian activists….
An hour into the demonstration, most demonstrators had already started to retreat back to the village, which apparently did not seem like reason enough for the soldiers to keep barraging the village with tear-gas, and eventually even invaded the village for a short while. An eighteen year-old was injured by a rubber-coated bullet that hit him in the hip.
Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher, who was convicted by a military court over a year ago for incitement (leading non-violent protests in Bi’lin), remains in prison in spite of completing his sentence.
So to Bono we can say, here’s your Gandhi. Now how about your appeal to have him released from prison?
Here’s a little something I wrote in the spring of 2009: One of the Best Kept Secrets in the Occupied Territories. I won’t repeat here what I wrote there. It would take a diary in its own right.
By the way, as an aside, I’m not quite convinced that Bono is naive, but am more convinced that he is deceitful. He is, after all, someone who fancies himself as a potential political player on the world stage, and is more than cozy with the neoliberal oligarchs currently in charge.
Don, your piece on nonviolence in the Palestinian territories is worthy of a rerun, because you are so correct. The intelligensia, people like Bono and Yglesia and others, who seem not to be getting it, perhaps, as you imply above, really do and fear the consequences of pretending otherwise.
Israeli hasbara is just not that good that it can convince anyone who does not wish to be convinced.
Even though the ‘terrorist’ meme Israel propaganda initiated against the Palestinians in 2001 has been quite successful, so much to the contrary has gone on since, in the way of non-violent protest. Yet, if we ever see a news cast in the US featuring scenes like those in the above videos, I will be the first to fall over. US media will have grown up and relinquished its fears of The Lobby. But that’s a pipe dream. All we have is the left wing blogosphere, or at least a part of it.
Yes! He is not naive at all.
You never see a non-violent protest in the media. If a Hamas renegade shoots a homemade Estes model rocket into the Israeli desert, we will definitely see that along with the cruel response.
I cannot imagine the frustration of the people in Gaza and the West bank. On and on with blame the victim. They have to be so hopeless.
Why do Obama and H.Clinton want to give Israel F35 fighters? Using my tax money. Why in the name of all that is good and pure would you do that? A three month stop of ILLEGAL settlements and not in Jerusalem? Its a cover to cozy up to Bibi the Clown and his minions. Very disappointed in the U.S. administration on that insane negotiation its absolute BS.
Shergald, continue to post do not get discouraged the Palestinian people have real friends here at the pond.
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
There are some here who will listen, and with whatever meager resources at our disposal will do what we can to spread the word.