From: Morgan Guyton (mguyton@floc.com)
Date: Sat Apr 13 2002 - 14:14:11 EDT
First, I apologize if it is presumptuous of me to engage in political
theorizing on the listserv. This is in response to the discussion which has
taken place about the division in the anti-war movement and the absurd cycle
of violence in Israel and Palestine. I am emotionally torn to pieces by both
and wanted to speak to both.
The anti-war movement has traditionally been divided between positions of
pacifism and anti-interventionism. Pacifism says violence is wrong, period,
and to omit condemnation of all violence as a fundamental principle in your
activism leaves you without moral currency. Anti-interventionism says as US
citizens we can only condemn the US imperialism we can influence directly
through our democratic process and that oppressed people have just as much a
right to take up arms to kick out oppressors as the US did to kick out the
British in 1776. I'm not saying that A20 is "pacifist" and ANSWER is
"anti-interventionist," but the disputes have seemed to articulate themselves
along this division.
"Fundamentalist" anti-interventionism and "fundamentalist" pacifism both are
grave mistakes. When anti-interventionists oversimplify their analyses for
PR sake and insinuate that Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and every suicide
bomber in Palestine (each very *different* morally complex characters) cannot
be criticized *because* they "oppose US imperialism," that is WRONG. When
pacifists in positions of privilege are not proactive in demanding the human
rights of an oppressed, desperate people because certain individuals among
them resort to violence and when pacifists do not recognize which government
they can and should influence through their protests, that is WRONG.
(Neither of these are direct criticisms of either ANSWER or A20.)
I propose that we give ourselves the following challenges as we speak out
against the present war:
1) to openly concede the nuances of this tragedy and find "sound-bytes and
slogans" that are assertive without being dishonest
2) to seriously examine our privilege before we criticize the actions of
oppressed people who don't have the same privilege or withhold support from
them because of their actions
3) to articulate demands based completely upon our ostensible influence as US
citizens, addressing what our supposedly democratic government is doing and
what it should be doing
Were I a civilian in either Israel or Palestine watching tanks or suicide
bombers take out my friends and family, I would be a racist right now. Those
over there who haven't been made categorically racist against the other side
are more morally courageous than I have ever had to be in my lifetime.
I have found two heroes in the midst of all this. The first is Palestinian
journalist Edward Said who wrote an amazing essay on this tragedy called
"Survival, Hope, and Forebearance: The Future of Palestine." He writes:
"Coexistence is our answer to Israeli exclusivism and belligerence. This is
not conceding: it is creating solidarity, and therefore isolating the
exclusivists, the racists, the fundamentalists." If you want a copy, I can
send it to you.
The second is Gosh Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, which has sent human
shields into the refugee camps and holds protests daily in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem demanding that Israel act unilaterally to withdraw from the
occupied territories, allow right of return for Palestinian refugees, and
give Palestine east Jerusalem regardless of how many suicide bombers blow
themselves up. Gosh Shalom's website is www.gosh-shalom.org. They have a
solidarity organization in the US. You can inquire at info@gush-shalom.org.
As anti-war activists, we should be in solidarity with both terrorized
Israelis and Palestinians and opposed to bad US policies which we can
influence. As a movement, we should take our cues from people like Edward
Said and the members of Gosh Shalom and use whatever power we have to make
sure that their truth gets heard by as many people as possible.
Solidarity,
Morgan
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