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Letter from Barry Gan (bgan@sbu.edu)

    Over the years I have watched as nonviolent resistance to various policies has often taken the form of civil disobedience as obstruction or civil disobedience for its own sake (or as a symbol of one's depth of commitment to a cause).  Neither of these sorts of civil disobedience are the most effective forms.

     Ideally, nonviolent action should create cognitive dissonance in that part of the population that sits on the fence and, if one is lucky, in that part of the population that is on the other side of the fence.  Civil disobedience creates cognitive dissonance best when it offers those who are not part of the grievance group a choice (offering a choice is what makes the disobedience civil).  What is the sort of choice that should be offered

     "Support what I seek (no war, civil rights, justice, end to oppression, etc.) OR violate some of your own deeply held convictions."  The creativity of nonviolence resistance comes most into play in designing this kind of choice.  Thus Gandhi was able to say, "Allow us to make salt (a requirement for life) or arrest us."  King was able to say, "Let us vote, or arrest us."  The choices were clear:  People were forced to choose between either supporting the grievance group or denying them either their right to live or their right to vote.

     But blocking an entrance to a defense plant and getting arrested for doing so, or violating parade permits and getting arrested for doing so doesn't provide the public with a clear sense that they are making a choice.  The choice may be apparent to those of us who are already "converted," but it is not apparent and does not make apparent what the choice is.  Effective civil disobedience, even effective nonviolent protest, requires that people be offered a choice.  In general the choice is:  "Support us or cause us to suffer in ways that disturb your consciences."

     Here is a simple illustration.  Last week a number of us wanted to distribute leaflets opposing war in Iraq to people as they entered a basketball game.  We suspected that the college would not smile upon our politicizing an event that is a major sporting event for people in the area.  We thought that perhaps they might even intervene to stop us.  But we happen to be a Catholic College, and so we distributed to the attendees the Pope's pronouncements on the impending war.  We knew that attendees and the college would be forced to choose:  stop the leafletters or censor the Pope.

     Even the smallest of nonviolent actions are more constructive if they offer this kind of choice.

Barry L. Gan, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director, Center for Nonviolence,   St. Bonaventure University,
Box 107, St. Bonaventure, NY 14778 (716)375-2275,  Fax:  (716)375-7665

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Letter from Rene Wadlow

Dear Colleagues,

     As we move past the equinox with the slow growth of light toward the longest day of the year, I would like to ask your cooperation through articles and book reviews with a newly reincarnated website journal: www.transnational-perspectives.org.

     The on-line journal is a reincarnation of Transnational Perspectives which was established as an independent journal in 1977 basically to make policy suggestions for difficult international negotiations, especially those carried out at the United Nations in Geneva: arms control and disarmament, “North-South” development, human rights, conflict resolution, especially the Iran-Iraq, Soviet-Afghanistan, Cambodia and former Yugoslavia conflicts which were largely negotiated in Geneva. Our aim was to stress the deeper, transnational trends in the hope that common interests might be more easily found.

     Transnational Perspectives functioned well for 13 years with a good number of its articles being republished in other journals and a press run of 5000. However, subscriptions did not cover the total cost of publishing the journal. As I have little skill as a “fund raiser,” the journal came to an end, and I put my energies into being an NGO representative at the United Nations, Geneva.

    Now, www.transnational-perspectives.org will have book reviews in four of its sections: “Books” will have the bulk of the reviews; “The Alchemy of Conflict Transformation” will deal with books on the methodology of conflict resolution; “The century of the Common Man” will have reviews of development and social issues; and the “voice of Aquarius” will have reviews on New Age and spiritual topics. There is also a section  “Agbajigbeto at the United Nations” with only articles, related to the U.N. system.

Thank you for your interest and cooperation. Best wishes for the coming seasons.

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Letter from Gush Shalom,  Tel Aviv, April 3, 2003:

--West Bank: After mass arrests in Tulkarem more than 1000 men released but forbidden to go home;
--Gaza Strip: Israeli tanks and bulldozers invade Rafah;
 
     An Israeli Army Colonel has taken public responsibility for the large-scale harassment of civilian population at Tulkarm Refugee Camp, in violation of International Law and of the Fourth Geneva Convention to which Israel is a signatory.  The officer - identified on the Kol Yisrael radio only by his first name, David, and by his function as commander of the Ephraim Brigade - is at the head of the Israeli forces which today staged a massive invasion of the Tulkarm  Refugee Camp, an invasion which "Colonel David" declared to be "a good and successful action, with satisfactory results".

     According to an eye-witness, a Tulkarm resident - and corroborated by accounts in the Israeli and foreign press* - the Tulkarm Refugee camp was on early Wednesday morning invaded by large Israeli forces - infantry, APC's and tanks supported by helicopter gunships. The soldiers ordered all men and boys  between 15 and 55 to leave their homes and concentrate at two locations in the camp - the UNRWA Girls' School and the courtyard of the Jipon Paint Factory. There they were kept for many hours and interrogated, one by one. The army detained eleven men, which were said to be "wanted terrorists". The other men and boys were then loaded on buses and lorries which took them several kilometres outside Tulkarm, where they were told to get off and forbidden to go back to their homes for the coming three days. There, the army left them, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, making no provision of any kind for their thee days of enforced exile.

     Inhabitants of the nearby Danabe Village, as well as of the Nur Shams Refugee Camp which is so far untouched by the army raid, tried their best to help the displaced men and boys - but being in difficult economic circumstances themselves, found it difficult to take care of so many. Meanwhile, some women of the Tulkarm Refugee Camp came to bring food and basic provisions to their husbands, brothers and sons -but then found that the soldiers would not let them back into the camp, and became displaced, too.

     Gush Shalom sent tonight a letter to General Menchem Finkelstein, head of the Army's legal Department, setting out the above facts and pointing out that they constituted a violation not only of International Law but also of the  [Israeli Defence Force’s] IDF's own Military Code and of what the army claims are its policy guide-lines as regards treatment of civilian population. "Failure to point out to Colonel David - whose full name must be familiar to you - the grave legal and moral consequences of the acts to which he took responsibility would make yourself and the army's Legal Department share in that responsibility."

PS: Just as were composing this message, an emergency call came from  the opposite side of the Occupied Territories - Rafah in the Gaza Strip. A large Israeli Army force, accompanied by many tanks, has entered the town. Two houses are known to have been demolished already, and the army also blew up a mosque which had been severely damaged in a previous invasion.  We got the news from a group of internationals of the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) who are there this night, and who are preparing to act as human shields to defend other threatened homes - undeterred by the death of Rachel Corrie, who tried to do the same in the same place two weeks ago. Over the past two years, the army has been steadily destroying houses along the border with Egypt, several each week - on the basis of the ruthless doctrine that some houses are being used by arms smugglers and that since it is not known which are the ones, it would be "better" to destroy all.
___
* http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/279841.html,
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFu
ll&cid=1049249993927
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFu
ll&cid=1049249996247

Please send a protest letter (sample follows) to: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, pm_eng@pmo.gov.il,  Spokesperson of the Prime Minister, dover@pmo.gov.il,   Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, sar@mod.gov.il, Spokesperson Defense Ministry, info@mail.idf.il, Foreign Minister Siwan Shalom, sar@mofa.gov.il;  cc to:Secretary of State, Colin Powell, secretary@state.gov, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin,  premier-ministre@premier-ministre.gouv.fr, Mr. Terje   Rod Larsen unsco@palnet.com, lemore@un.org, European Union, Jerusalem, Email mailto@delwbg.cec.eu.int, UN Special Coordinator, Gaza, Email unsco@palnet.com,  SÈrgio Vieira de Mello UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ,webadmin.hchr@unog.ch, European Parliament Belgian Office, epbrussels@europarl.eu.int, International Solidarity Movement osamaqashoo@yahoo.com, Gish Shalom info@gush-shalom.org,  and/or send  a (copy by) fax to some or all of the following: sraeli Foreign Minister: +972-(0)2-5303506. General Manager Israeli Foreign Ministry: +972-(0)2-5303704, Situation Room Israeli Foreign Ministry: +972-(0)2-5303896, Head of IDF Legal Department General Menachem Finkelstein , Fax +972-(0)3-5693270 , Secretary of State Colin Powell Fax: +1-202-261-8577, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Fax +44-207-925-0918, European  Union, Jerusalem, Fax: + 972- (0)2-532 6249 , UN Special Coordinator, Gaza, Fax: +972-(0)8- 282-0966 .
 
Sample letter:

I read the news about new grave irregularities from the side of the IDF, in Tulkarem and Rafah, and I wonder whether it is a coincidence that this is happening while the Iraq War intensifies. Let me remind you that it is advisable for the Israeli authorities and their subordinates to strictly comply with international law and conventions. It could prove unwise, to say the least, for a small state as Israel is, and which needs the support of the international community, to take the superpower model as guideline for itself.

If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece of paper to: Gush Shalom, pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033, Israel or ask us for charities in your country which receive donations on behalf of Gush Shalom. Please, add your email address where to send our confirmation of receipt.  More official receipts at request only. You can contact us via E-mail at: info@gush-shalom.org, http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (Ú•¯È˙), http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English). To get forwarded reports and announcements which we receive + a selection of English-language articles, send one blank mail to: TOI_Billboard-subscribe@topica.com.

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©2002, 2003. All rights reserve. The Nonviolent Change Journal is published by the Research/Action Team on Nonviolent Large Systems Change - an interorganizational and international project of The Organization Development Institute.

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