All right, y'all.
Welcome to the show.
Back to it.
I'm Scott Horton.
From the Christian Science Monitor, csmonitor.com, West Must Recognize Peaceful Palestinian Resistance Movement by Sarah Marusek.
Welcome to the show.
How are you doing?
I'm doing fine.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Appreciate you joining us today.
Thank you for inviting me.
Uh, well, very happy to have you here.
Well, Palestinian, peaceful Palestinian resistance movement.
I'm in Texas.
And so therefore, I have never heard of such a thing.
Everyone knows that Palestinians never protest anything except with suicide vests, right?
Absolutely, of course, you know, this is precisely the Israeli Zionist narrative that comes out through the US mainstream media, consistently and never endingly.
And I'm here in Beirut doing research for the last year and a half.
And it's just so wonderful.
Seeing being being available here to witness every all the magnificent things that are happening among the Palestinian communities, but very diverse.
I think the article doesn't play up the diversity enough.
It's not just all different parties participating, but all different kinds of Palestinians, all different kinds of classes, ages, women are playing a very strong part people who are atheists who are pious, religious, all of these different Palestinians are coming together.
And it's the passion among them here in Lebanon is just something to behold.
And now, I guess, first of all, how many do you know, ballpark estimate how many Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon right now?
Well, this is quite a disputed topic here.
Generally, the UNRWA counts around just over 400,000 registered, but it's likely that far fewer are actually living here because the Palestinians in Lebanon were never granted any rights from the Lebanese government.
They have certain kinds of autonomy, which is quite nice.
So they can police their camps and everything themselves.
However, they get no services.
They get no citizenship.
They can't work in many different professions here.
They have to pay in, for example, if they do find a job, they have to pay into the National Social Security, but they can't withdraw anything out.
They have extreme limitations on what they can build inside their camps and they can't own any property.
And so the Palestinians life as a Palestinian in Lebanon is actually really quite dire.
It's probably approaching life as a Palestinian.
And so many Palestinians probably have gone elsewhere through either in neighboring countries or to Europe or to North America.
And so people think maybe between two to 300,000 Palestinians actually live here.
And so this is why it was so astonishing to see at least 50, if not perhaps 70,000 Palestinians coming out on Nakba Day in 2011 to protest for their rights, for their desire to go home.
And it was just amazing to see that many people come together.
And they were actually seeing their land, many of them, for the first time because they were young and they can't travel freely in Lebanon.
So they were seeing Palestine for the first time.
And the atmosphere was absolutely magnetic.
And it was just amazing to see so many people peacefully as well, committed to achieving their dream of going home, something that their parents and their grandparents haven't been able to do.
They're determined to get home now.
Well, and now you write here that well, you talked before about different classes and different amounts of religiosity, I guess, different, I guess, you know, some based from Gaza, some from other parts of Israel, or from the West Bank.
And also you list here Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
I guess I'm especially surprised to see Islamic Jihad in here.
This is, you know, the terrorists, right?
Zawahiri, Amin al-Zawahiri, number one now, I guess, in Al Qaeda, that's his former group, Islamic Jihad, right?
Now, Hamas, we know, yeah, they've done some suicide bombings, especially, I guess, during the second intifada.
But now they're the democratically elected government of the Gaza Strip.
So we could see why they would be more conservative in their activities kind of, you know, immediately from there.
But I'm pleasantly surprised, I guess, to see Islamic Jihad and these other groups listed in here, people who I think most would expect to be at the forefront of violent resistance against the Israelis.
And they're, what, holding big Gandhi-like rallies or what?
What is this?
Actually, there are a number of international activists brought pictures of Gandhi to the global march to Jerusalem that was held on 30th of March.
And they carried them, actually, all the way across Asia because they were coming from India.
So they, you know, there is a Gandhi in spirit.
Of course, a lot of the marches also are reflective of the Palestinian circumstances, the life a Palestinian lives, and all of the restrictions and the oppression and the violence that they have to live under occupation.
And so, you know, sometimes they may call for the downfall of Israel during their peaceful protest.
So their language can be quite angry, but they're never carrying any arms.
And they're always coming together with the intention of being nonviolent.
It's articulated in the meetings that I attended for the global march to Jerusalem over many, many months in the Palestinian camps here in Lebanon.
It was articulated every single meeting, this is peaceful, this is nonviolent.
And of course, this is not something that everybody universally wanted to agree to initially, because they're angry and they've had armed resistance.
And like you said, they support these parties.
But it's also important to point out that the parties themselves may espouse a certain violent armed struggle against Israel, but they're also the constituencies aren't necessarily violent.
They may support the use of violence, but they themselves are personally not violent in the same way that, you know, the United States has citizens who support the army going into other countries and attacking other countries, it doesn't mean that they're violent people, but they support the use of the army to achieve political goals.
And so I think you find here, for example, in Lebanon, this is my where my experience is primary is that you have a lot of people who are very, they're committed to nonviolence in many ways, but yet they support Hamas and yet they support Islami jihad.
And I think another thing that we have to remember is that the the Arab uprisings have really regenerated, I think, the Palestinian spirit.
And so it was so amazing for them to see, you know, Mubarak fall from masses of people coming into the streets and not using, you know, weapons to achieve their goals, but to use people power.
And so I think that this this notion of the Arab street has really inspired people throughout the Middle East and as well as the Palestinians.
And it's a shame that because Palestinians have so many restrictions, particularly the refugees, and as well as those Palestinians living in Palestine and in occupied Palestine, they because they can't move around freely, and it's really hard for them to get together because, you know, the powers that be, whether it's the Israeli government, or sadly, the Lebanese government or the Jordanian government, they try their best to prevent these massive accumulation of people coming together to protest for their rights.
And so it's a shame that people aren't putting the pieces of the puzzle together and connecting all of these movements and these and they're happening on a daily or weekly basis.
And so the media is just not paying attention to this.
And people just don't know about it.
And it's really frustrating to be here on the ground and to see so much democratic and amazing mobilization.
And like I said, with the youth, and they're so fired up, and they're just so committed, it's, I really think that this is a changing point in the entire conflict.
And it's, it's about time that maybe some of the power went to the refugees, because they've been left out of the political negotiations between the PLO and between Israel.
And they're not very PLO is not very well representative of the Palestinian refugee population.
You know, some people support the PLO, of course, but since Oslo, many others don't.
And so it's nice to have a situation where Palestinians themselves are taking their future in their own hands, and they're going out into the streets and saying, this is my voice, and you have to hear it.
All right, we're talking with Sarah Marusek.
She is in Beirut, Lebanon, and she's a member of the International Central Committee of the Global March to Jerusalem, and is a student there.
We will be back after this break, I want to talk more about what you mentioned about the media blackout and the all importance of it.
On this issue, when we get back her piece in the Christian Science Monitor, West must recognize peaceful Palestinian resistance movement.
All right, y'all, welcome back to the show.
It's anti war radio.
I'm Scott Horton, and I'm talking with Sarah Marusek, a member of the International Central Committee of the Global March to Jerusalem.
She's got this piece in the Christian Science Monitor, called West must recognize peaceful Palestinian resistance movement.
And now Sarah, if I had to guess, I would bet you that this very moment, someone somewhere in North America is saying, Oh, yeah, well, how come all they ever do is suicide bombings and terrorism and throwing rocks at little girls?
And how come there's just no peaceful resistance in Palestine if they're the victims?
Because as far as they know, there has never ever been a peaceful protest in Palestine.
Because it's just never I mean, even in the Christian Science Monitor, this is a miracle.
And they're one of the best newspapers around as far as fairness goes on coverage of issues like this.
But as far as TV goes, I mean, I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure I'm right that ABCBS, NBC, Fox, whatever have never ever, ever done a single story about peaceful protests in the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip or Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, or any kind of real peaceful resistance movement there at all.
Too right.
And even when they do cover some something that should be represented as something that's nonviolent and peaceful, it's always conflict erupts between soldiers that fire at unarmed protesters.
And then, of course, the protesters pick up stones on the street and throw back.
And that's the eruption of violence and not one side attacking the other.
Right.
I mean, even a young lady, an American citizen was shot right in the face with a tear gas canister a couple of years ago, and that wasn't even newsworthy.
Oh, of course, I know.
Interestingly, I think the Occupy movement and all the protests that are happening, whether it's for NATO or Occupy in America, as well as the protests that are happening in Canada, do make a lot of news in this region and people pay attention.
And I think that it is inspiring people, not only in the Middle East, but I know from Asia as well.
And of course, Europe.
So I think that even if we're not speaking to our own people, at least our voices are being heard by others around the globe.
Yeah.
Well, and at some point it's got to break through.
You know, I would I would hope I guess I would also hope that the Palestinian people don't give up because that's what it that is what it's going to take is the American people reaching some kind of super majority opinion, first of all, about who's occupying who exactly and what ought to be done about it.
It's going to take a real change in the consensus in America about what's going on over there and what's justice in order to get the American government to force the Israeli government to change.
Indeed.
Yeah.
And I think that, you know, it's happening slowly in the United States.
And I think the two of the best things that we see are the subtle changes among the Jewish American community, especially the younger generation.
And I taught in the United States and it was very refreshing to have Jewish students who were very open minded about the conflict and very interested in what Israeli citizens were doing to try to stop the end the occupation.
And I thought that was quite inspiring.
And then, of course, the other thing is that we have a new generation of Arab American students who are increasingly coming out and identifying themselves as Arab American or Muslim American or, you know, it doesn't it doesn't really matter.
But they're saying that, you know, this is who I am and I'm for Palestine and I will do these protests and I will make my voice heard.
And so I think it is definitely getting better.
And we see that, you know, some of the attacks against the professors who do teach about these issues are starting not to work because they're so personalized.
And it's like it seems like a lot of the public relations battle is being lost at the universities.
However, we have a lot more to do in the media and in the popular mainstream culture.
The voices aren't getting heard.
We aren't getting the movies made.
We aren't getting the mainstream media coverage like you were mentioning.
But I have to say that the Palestinians that I know in Lebanon and in Jordan and other parts, they're so like I said, they're they're inspired to achieve their goals and their dreams.
And they're not going to accept anything except, you know, a homeland, a place where they could call home and, you know, live with whoever wants to live there.
But, you know, they have to have the right to be there themselves.
Are there any particular characters in this movement that you've met that you've come to know and would like to tell us about kind of bring the issue home to people?
Well, I can talk a lot about the people I work with here in Lebanon, just because I know them quite deeply.
And so, for example, one of the women who was very key in organizing the global march to Jerusalem, she again, she a lot of the people I work with aren't members of particular parties, although they may support, you know, here in Lebanon, they may support the resistance against Israel.
So in that sense, they would be with the Hezbollah coalition that's currently in charge of the government here in Lebanon.
But she knows she doesn't wear a hijab.
She is so articulate.
She is a woman who stands her ground.
People listen to her.
People are inspired by her.
The men all, you know, cede their positions to her.
She ran the online Facebook campaign for the global march to Jerusalem.
And it was just tirelessly up until four o'clock every morning.
Even though here in Lebanon, we don't have electricity 24 hours a day.
And unfortunately, for those people outside of Beirut, they often don't have it for 12 hours a day.
And so yet she would find the time to be online somehow, somewhere on her computer, posting Facebook and connecting and building a community of, I believe, 12,000 people who were supporting the event and giving them information about what was happening.
And then after the protest, showing them pictures from Korea, from Brazil, from Jordan, from Gaza, from Paris, from everywhere.
And so I think that people like her really, for me personally, motivated me to be involved in a very deep way.
And I think that she's the future of Palestine.
And her children are also, they attended every meeting as well, because she can't afford health care.
So she has a teenage daughter who would be doing her homework at the meetings, and then a four-year-old daughter who would come around offering us all nuts or cookies so that we weren't going hungry.
And she wanted to share with all the participants, the adult participants.
And so I think that these are the people who are the future of Palestine for me.
And it's very refreshing to see women play a role, although I have to admit the women still need to play a larger role.
We see this everywhere, I think, in the world, but particularly in the struggle for Palestine.
I think that women's voices have to be stronger.
And they were initially, but somehow, somewhere in the parties, these voices have been left out.
And so this is why I think that these these movements that bring together not only people from the parties, but people from the grassroots, people from civil society, that is a way to actually create some sort of democratic constituency that will be able to represent the Palestinian people and hopefully, you know, change the tide and reverse the power imbalances and hopefully put it on an equal footing so that there can be a real solution to this crisis.
Right.
Yeah, I mean, you really hit it on the head when you said it comes down to access to, you know, having movies made, that kind of thing, just where the regular consciousness of just regular people who aren't even necessarily political people, but at least there's just sort of a basic understanding of everybody understands, everybody knows, at least this much about it, that they can make some kind of fair judgment.
I mean, I get emails from time to time for people who say, you know, who's occupying who over there anyway, they don't even know they think that the Palestinians invaded and have been occupying Israel all this time.
And so no wonder the Israelis are so paranoid and whatever, it's just exactly there's and you know, it really is you talk about a character like this woman, she needs an English language TV reality show, even if just on YouTube or something, you know what I mean?
This is how you change people's minds as you show them, hey, look, this was like to be a Palestinian on a daily basis, you know?
Yes, yes.
And how hard she works tirelessly, right?
And her beautiful family and her community that supports her.
All right.
Thanks so much for your time.
Really appreciate it.
Sarah Marousek, everybody.
Christian Science Monitor.
