Abstract
Recent research on contentious politics in the Middle East emphasizes the importance of repression and its effect on social movements, often manifested in demobilization and so-called ‘nonmovements’. This case study of West Bank Palestinian activism seeks to go beyond such outcomes. The current, youthful nonviolent Palestinian grassroots activism in the West Bank is persistent, despite repeated violent repression. Focusing on the interplay between context, practices, and networks, this article shows how an increasingly vocal and visible popular resistance movement has asserted itself despite facing double repression – from the occupying Israeli state and the Palestinian National Authority. In a highly repressive context characterized by widespread demobilization, especially among young people, the impetus for mobilization is not perceived opportunity, but rather existential threats. The analysis focuses on how long-term repression from the external occupier and the internal elite contributes to forming specific kinds of contentious practices and networks among young Palestinian grassroots activists. By deploying new and creative contentious tactics they partly succeed in challenging the Israeli occupation without risking sanctions from the internal Palestinian elite. They are also able to criticize this elite implicitly, bringing popular pressure to bear on it. However, while the strategic use of nonviolence has provided these activist environments with a degree of resilience in the face of repression, they are unable to mobilize on a wide scale as long as the Palestinian political elite does not support them.
Highlights
On 11 January 2013, a group of about 200 Palestinian activists, most of them youths in their 20s and 30s, erected tents on a piece of land between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adummim
Nonviolent resistance to occupation has a long history in Palestine (Qumsiyeh, 2010)
After this article was written, and during the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014, something quite remarkable happened in the West Bank
Summary
On 11 January 2013, a group of about 200 Palestinian activists, most of them youths in their 20s and 30s, erected tents on a piece of land between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adummim. The Palestinians had established a settlement on Israeli-occupied land It took the Israeli authorities more than two days to get the necessary court rulings to dismantle the tents and arrest the activists, and by that time, around 2,000 Palestinians had visited or tried to visit the site, and it had attracted the attention of major international news outlets, like BBC, the Guardian, and the New York Times (Sherwood, 2013). Bab al-Shams was a successful act of nonviolent contention, but it was not unique. It was just one example of creative grassroots activism in the occupied West Bank during recent years.
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