Non-Violent Movements in MENA

The notion of social movements has really taken off within the last century and the development of the non-violent social movement is a product of this evolutionary process. These movements can give power to marginalized groups within society, and sometimes this marginalization can actually occur towards the majority population. This was, and still is, the case with many MENA societies. Stephen Zunes writes that non-violent movements have historically developed in the region due to colonial oppression and, in more modern times, authoritarian repression. While social movements have often times occurred between the people of a nation/group/tribe and the elite government authority, they have also developed as a result of regional conflict between two states, as is the case with the intifada movement of Palestine.

The intifada movement was the result of Israeli occupation within certain Palestinian territories that Israel gained during the June War of 1967. The intifada didn't develop directly after this occupation, however, but instead was based on the workings of many different grassroot organizations that were created in the 1970's to help Palestinian communities with education, agriculture, and healthcare. This made the intifada truly based on the decisions and work of the common people. During the 1980's during the movement's peak, civil disobedience was the most used method for going about their process. In many ways this worked because people were finally seeing non-violent action coming from an area strife with conflict. However, a drawback of the intifada was that many people within the movement simply waited for the Israelis to do something so that they could immediately respond, instead of going about initiating action themselves.

Despite this, the movement was a first for this conflict and one of the first for the region as a whole in terms of using non-violent action to create political and social change. Israelis, both the people and the government/military, were surprised by the action initially, though many grew to support the notion of the movement after seeing that it was possible to not fight all the time. Many people did, however, not recognize the legitimacy of a non-violent movement and instead continued to be proponents of violent action against the opposing state. This occurred on both sides, and this attitude still heavily contributes to the conflict we see today.

Though the intifada movement didn't become successful in stopping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it did bring attention to the plight of the Palestinians that resulted from Israeli occupation. It demonstrated that violence didn't have to be the answer, even in a region where many think that violence is all that occurs. It also inspired many other movements in the future and continues to be a teaching point within the subject of non-violent social movements. The fact that we're still talking about it says something.