[Peace-discuss] Speaker last night /Bekah Wolf's talk on non-violent action in Palestine.

[Karen Medina]

RE: Bekah Wolf's talk on non-violent action in Palestine.

For those of you who missed the talk, the non-violent actions of
Palestine Solidarity Project center around international law. The
group also starts economic self-sufficiency projects, in addition to
grassroots just showing up and asking questions.

>From the Israeli side, there are non-violent activists as well. There
are Israelis who refuse to join the military (military service is
compulsory) and some who do join refuse to perform military service in
the Occupied Territories. [ did she call these sarvanim, mishtamtim,
or the verb hishtamet? ] [ in 2007,  over 1/4 of men and 43% of women
were not enlisting. ]

Bekah also mentioned a peace group of Israelis that are on call and
will come and ask questions of the soldiers as well.

I was struck last night by the speaker's own conversion which was
really a gradual becoming more aware. This gives me hope of others'
eyes opening.

I was struck by the Jewish young women's assumption that all
Palestinians are bent on violence.

I was struck by the question of why England was so willing to hold the
bayonet while the Jewish state took control of the land. Doing a
little search this morning, this was the most satisfying answer I
could find which is little more than a better refined question:
"Britain had a strong military reason to want to ensure Palestine was
under friendly (i.e., not French or Russian) control so that the
routes to India were secure; with the purchase of the Suez Canal, this
became more pressing, and with the First World War an opportunity to
seize control presented itself. The question then simply becomes - why
the Balfour Declaration, why a Jewish state (or not-quite-state) and
not simply direct control or an Arab state?"

Altogether, a good evening.

-karen medina