Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T11:25:53.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Internal Third-Party Interveners in Civil Resistance Campaigns: The Case of Israeli-Jewish Anti-Occupation Activists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2019

Leonie Fleischmann Open the ORCID record for Leonie Fleischmann [Opens in a new window]
Leonie Fleischmann*
Affiliation:
Department of International Politics, City, University of London, London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: leonie.fleischmann.2@city.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When a non-violent resistance campaign does not have leverage to challenge powerful opponents, third-party intervention has been shown to assist. While the role of external third-party interveners – foreign activists – has been documented, less attention has been given to intervention from members of the dominant population. Drawing from the literature on civil resistance and through the study of Israeli Jews who intervene in Palestinian resistance campaigns against the Israeli military occupation, I argue that intervention from members of the dominant population is strategically desirable. Through an analysis of three Palestinian campaigns, this article identifies that the physical presence of Israeli Jews was needed to ensure the Palestinians could maintain their resistance efforts and presence on the land, despite the repression they faced. Furthermore, the skills and knowledge of the Israelis were needed to help the Palestinians achieve some of their goals, at least in the short term.

Keywords

civil resistancenon-violent resistancethird-party interventionPalestineIsrael
Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 184 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2019. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu, Diab S (2018) Interview with author. 12 January, Jerusalem, Israel.Google Scholar
Abukhater, J (2011) A Palestinian East Jerusalemite's view of the Joint March. +972mag, 17 July, https://972mag.com/a-palestinian-east-jerusalemites-view-of-the-joint-march/18876/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Ackerman, P and DuVall, J (2000) A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
ACRI (2011) Informational Pamphlet for Demonstrators in the Occupied Territories: Important Information and Coping Strategies. September, www.scribd.com/document/103203199/Rights-of-Demonstrators-in-the-Occupied-Territories-Informational-Pamphlet (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
ACRI (2016) Info-Sheet: The 12 Villages of Firing Zone 918 in the South Hebron Hills. 21 February, www.acri.org.il/en/2016/02/21/firing-zone-918-infosheet/ (accessed 7 March 2018).Google Scholar
ACRI (2017) East Jerusalem: Facts and Figures 2017. 24 May, www.acri.org.il/en/2017/05/24/east-jerusalem-facts-and-figures-2017/ (accessed 7 March 2018).Google Scholar
ACRI (2019) Palestinian Residents of Jerusalem: No Entry to District Court. 3 March 2019, www.english.acri.org.il/single-post/60 (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Alsaafin, L (2012) How Obsession with ‘Nonviolence’ Harms the Palestinian Cause. Electronic Intifada, 10 July, https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-obsession-nonviolence-harms-palestinian-cause/11482 (accessed 7 March 2018).Google Scholar
Assaf, K (2018) Interview with author. 16 January, Tel Aviv, Israel.Google Scholar
Awad, S (2007) Interview. Just Vision, www.justvision.org/portrait/854/interview (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Awad, S (2018) Interview with author. 9 January, Bethlehem, Palestine.Google Scholar
B'Tselem (2012) State's Response re Firing Zone 918 Ignores the Law of Occupation. www.btselem.org/south_hebron_hills/20120827_firing_zone_918_state_response (accessed 12 March 2018).Google Scholar
B'Tselem (2013) Acting the Landlord: Israel's Policy in Area C, the West Bank. June, www.scribd.com/document/145813548/Acting-the-Landlord-Israel-s-Policy-in-Area-C-the-West-Bank (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
B'Tselem (2016) Expel and Exploit: The Israeli Practice of Taking Over Rural Palestinian Land. www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201612_expel_and_exploit (accessed 12 March 2018).Google Scholar
B'Tselem (2017a) Background on the Separation Barrier. 11 November, www.btselem.org/separation_barrier (accessed 18 June 2018).Google Scholar
B'Tselem (2017b) Administrative Detention. 11 November, www.btselem.org/administrative_detention (accessed 12 March 2018).Google Scholar
B'Tselem (2017c) Settler Violence: The Absence of Law Enforcement. 11 November, www.btselem.org/topic/settler_violence (accessed 12 March 2018).Google Scholar
Burrowes, R (2000) Cross-Border Nonviolent Intervention: A Typology. In Moser-Puangsuwan, Y and Weber, T (eds), Nonviolent Intervention across Borders: A Recurrent Vision. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp. 45–69.Google Scholar
Carter, A (2012) People Power and Political Change: Key Issues and Concepts. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chenoweth, E and Cunningham, K (2013) Understanding Nonviolent Resistance: An Introduction. Journal of Peace Research 50(3), 271–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chenoweth, E. and Stephan, MJ (2011) Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, H (2000) Civil Resistance in Kosovo. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Coy, PG (2012) Nonpartisanship Interventionism and Legality in Accompaniment: Comparative Analysis of Peace Brigades International, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and the International Solidarity Movement. International Journal of Human Rights 16, 963–981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dana, J. (2010) One Year in, the Sheikh Jarrah Movement Faces its Biggest Challenge – Zionism. Mondoweiss, 9 August, http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/one-year-in-the-sheikh-jarrah-movement-faces-it%E2%80%99s-biggest-challenge-zionism/ (accessed 18 June 2018).Google Scholar
Darweish, M and Rigby, A (2015) Popular Protest in Palestine: The Uncertain Future of Unarmed Resistance. London: Pluto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudouet, V. (2006) Transitions from Violence to Peace: Revisiting Analysis and Intervention in Conflict Transformation. Berghof Report 15. Berlin: Berghof Conflict Research.Google Scholar
Dudouet, V (2008) Nonviolent Resistance and Conflict Transformation in Power Asymmetries. In Fischer, M, Gießmann, HJ and Schmelzle, B (eds), Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Berlin: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, pp. 1–27.Google Scholar
Dudouet, V (2015) Sources, Functions and Dilemmas of External Assistance to Civil Resistance Movements. In Schock, K (ed.), Comparative Perspectives on Civil Resistance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 168–200.Google Scholar
Dudouet, V. and Clark, H. (2009) Nonviolent Civic Action in Support of Human Rights and Democracy. Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, Policy Department, May. Brussels: European Parliament.Google Scholar
Fleischmann, L (2019) The Israeli Peace Movement: Human Rights and Radical Activism since the Second Intifada. London: I.B. Tauris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galtung, J (1989) Nonviolence and Israel/Palestine. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Institute for Peace.Google Scholar
Haas, ML and Lesch, DW (eds) (2013) The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Hallward, MC (2009) Creative Responses to Separation: Israeli and Palestinian Joint Activism in Bil'in. Journal of Peace Research 46(4), 541–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallward, MC (2011) Can Nonviolence Work in the Arab-Israeli Conflict? Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict 4(1), 63–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallward, MC and Norman, J (eds) (2011) Nonviolent Resistance in the Second Intifada. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hareuveni, E (2015) Standing Idly By: IDF Soldiers’ Inaction in the Face of Offenses Perpetrated by Israelis Against Palestinians in the West Bank. Yesh Din, May, www.scribd.com/document/270065095/Standing-Idly-By#from_embed (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Hassan, BY (2011) The Sham Solidarity of Israel's Zionist Left. Electronic Intifada, 28 July, https://electronicintifada.net/content/sham-solidarity-israels-zionist-left/10213 (accessed 18 June 2018).Google Scholar
Hermann, T (2009) The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D and Lakey, G (2003) Opening Space for Democracy: Training Manual for Third-Party Nonviolent Intervention. Philadelphia: Training for Change.Google Scholar
‘IA1’ (2018) Israeli activist, interview with author. 5 January, Bil'in, Palestine.Google Scholar
Inbar, A (2010) Sheikh Jarrah: The Opening Heart of Jerusalem. Jerusalem Post, 15 July, www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Sheikh-Jarrah-the-opening-heart-of-Jerusalem (accessed 18 June 2018).Google Scholar
Indigenous Action Media (2014) Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex, an Indigenous Perspective. 4 May, www.indigenousaction.org/accomplices-not-allies-abolishing-the-ally-industrial-complex/ (accessed 25 June 2018).Google Scholar
ISM (2013) International Activists Faces Deportation after Kufr Qaddoum Demonstration. 1 March, https://palsolidarity.org/2013/03/international-activist-faces-deportation-after-kufr-qaddoum-demonstration/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
ISM (2014) Crackdown on International Human Rights Activists in Palestine: Arrests, Deportations, and Abuse. 31 January, https://palsolidarity.org/2014/01/crackdown-on-international-human-rights-activists-in-palestine-arrests-deportations-and-abuse/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Israel Social TV (2017) Between Dialogue and Joint Struggle. 12 April, https://tv.social.org.il/en/between-dialogue-and-joint-struggle?highlight=joint%20struggle (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Johansson, A and Vinthagen, S (2015) Dimensions of Everyday Resistance: The Palestinian Sumūd. Journal of Political Power 8(1), 109–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman-Lacusta, M (2010) Refusing to be Enemies. Reading: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Keck, M and Sikkink, K (1998) Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Khalifa, A (2017) Interview with author. 26 December, Jerusalem, Israel.Google Scholar
Mahony, L and Eguren, L (1997) Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights. West Harford, CT: Kumarian Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahrouse, G (2014) Conflicted Commitments: Race, Privilege, and Power in Solidarity Activism. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Mansour, B (2007) A Victory for the Joint Popular Struggle. Electronic Intifada, 19 September, https://electronicintifada.net/people/basel-mansour (accessed 7 March 2018).Google Scholar
Meyer, M (2019) White Lives Matter Most and Other ‘Little’ White Lies. Oakland, CA: PM Press.Google Scholar
Morrar, A (2006) Interview. Just Vision, www.justvision.org/portrait/797/interview (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Morrar, I (2009) Interview. Just Vision, www.justvision.org/portrait/829/interview (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Moser-Puangsuwan, Y and Weber, T (2000) Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision. Honolulu: Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, University of Hawai'i.Google Scholar
‘Muna, A’ (2016) Building Homes in a City Slated for Demolition. ICAHD, 8 November, https://icahd.org/2016/11/08/building-homes-in-a-city-slated-for-demolition/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Negra, CD (2012) I Can't Dictate Methods of Palestinian Struggle: Israeli Boycott Activist Interviewed. Electronic Intifada, 8 August, https://electronicintifada.net/content/i-cant-dictate-methods-palestinian-struggle-israeli-boycott-activist-interviewed/11561 (accessed 7 March 2018).Google Scholar
Nepstad, SE (2011) Nonviolent Resistance in the Arab Spring: The Critical Role of Military–Opposition Alliances. Swiss Political Science Review 17(4), 485–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, J (2010) The Second Palestinian Intifada: Civil Resistance. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
‘PA1’ (2018) Palestinian activist, interview with author. 5 January, Bil'in, Palestine.Google Scholar
‘PA2’ (2018) Palestinian activist, interview with author. 12 January, Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Pallister-Wilkins, P (2009) Radical Ground: Israeli and Palestinian Activists and Joint Protest Against the Wall. Social Movement Studies 8(4), 393–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapaport, M (2005) Gandhi Redux. Haaretz, 9 June, www.haaretz.com/1.4855757 (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Rasgon, A (2016) The Complicated Process of Picking Olives in the West Bank. Jerusalem Post, 25 October, www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/The-complicated-process-of-picking-olives-in-the-West-Bank-470785 (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
RHR (n.d.) RHR's Legal Department. https://rhr.org.il/eng/about-legal-department-2/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
RHR (2018) Israeli Soldiers Standing Idly Do Not Take Action to Protect Palestinians from Violence. 8 May, https://rhr.org.il/eng/2018/05/israeli-soldiers-standing-idly-not-taking-action-protect-palestinians-violence/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
RHR (2017) Summary: RHR 2017 West Bank Olive Harvest. https://rhr.org.il/eng/2017/12/summary-rhr-2017-olive-harvest-west-bank/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Rigby, A (1991) Living the Intifada. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Rigby, A (1995) Unofficial Nonviolent Intervention: Examples from the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict. Journal of Peace Research 32, 453–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, A and Garton Ash, T (eds) (2010) Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-Violent Action from Gandhi to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schirch, L (2006) Civilian Peacekeeping: Preventing Violence and Making Space for Democracy. Uppsala: Life and Peace Institute.Google Scholar
Schock, K (2005) Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Scott, J (1985) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Seitz, C. (2003) ISM at the Crossroads: The Evolution of the International Solidarity Movement. Journal of Palestine Studies 32(4), 50–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shalif, I (2018) Interview with author. 5 January, Bil'in, Palestine.Google Scholar
Sharp, G (1973) The Politics of Nonviolent Action. 3 vols. Boston, MA: Porter Sargent.Google Scholar
Sharp, G (2005) Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential. Boston, MA: Porter Sargent.Google Scholar
Snitz, K (2009) Interview. Just Vision, www.justvision.org/portrait/835/interview (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Stephan, M and Chenoweth, E (2008) Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. International Security 33, 7–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephan, M and Mundy, J (2006) A Battlefield Transformed: From Guerrilla Resistance to Mass Nonviolent Struggle in the Western Sahara. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 8, 1–32.Google Scholar
Strober, R (2017) Interview with author. 21 December, Tel Aviv, Israel.Google Scholar
Summy, R (1994) Nonviolence and the Case of the Extremely Ruthless Opponent. Global Change, Peace and Security 6(1), 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vardi, S (2017) Interview with author. 27 December, Jerusalem, Israel.Google Scholar
Vexler, M (2012) Visualizing Occupation: Children under Israel's Legal Regime. +972mag, 3 November, https://972mag.com/visualizing-occupation-children-under-israels-legal-regime/58973/ (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Weber, T (1993) From Maude Royden's Peace Army to the Gulf Peace Team: An Assessment of Unarmed Interpositionary Peace Forces. Journal of Peace Research 30(1), 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yacovobitch, A (2018) Interview with author. 2 January, Tel Aviv, Israel.Google Scholar
YNet (2008) Report: Canadian Student Faces Deportation from Israel Following Protest. 26 July, www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3573260,00.html (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Zatari, F (2018) Palestinian Culture of Sumud. Daily Sabah, 4 April, www.dailysabah.com/feature/2018/04/04/palestinian-culture-of-sumud (accessed 23 April 2019).Google Scholar
Ziv, O (2018) After a Decade, Evictions Set to Return in Sheikh Jarrah. +972mag, 3 December, https://972mag.com/after-a-decade-evictions-set-to-return-in-sheikh-jarrah/138977/ (accessed 23 April 2019)Google Scholar