Rewarding non-violence in Palestine: Send pizza to the West Bank as well as Wisconsin
09 March 2011By Jane Stillwater
Yeah well, talking about injustice in Palestine is
always a thankless task. But we still gotta do it
because Palestine is still a big thorn in the foot of
the Middle East and if the Middle East ain't happy,
then ain't nobody happy -- at least nobody who likes
to drive cars.
If you want Middle Eastern gas in your tank without
having to spend a bunch of trillions of dollars more
on war toys in order to steal it at gunpoint, then you
are gonna have to come to terms with ending the
illegal Palestine occupation.
"But Palestinians send rockets into Israel! And they
have suicide bombers! We have to support the
occupation because Palestinians are violent!" you
might say. But are they? Violent? Not really. Not any
more. That's just old-skool thinking.
For approximately the last ten years, more and more
Palestinians have become non-violent in the tactics
they have used to protest against being illegally
occupied by one of the largest and most combat-ready
armies in the world. But are Palestinians getting any
kind of recognition, kudos or rewards at all for
having gone all non-violent? No. Hell no. Nothing,
zip, nada.
For over fifty years, Palestinians had already tried
the old "Red Dawn" armed-resistance scenario and it
hadn't been working. And so in approximately the last
ten years they have noticeably changed their tactics
and given non-violent protests a try instead. But so
far the only results that have resulted from
Palestinians' non-violent protests have been to get
shot at -- and shot at and shot at -- by one of the
largest and most combat-ready armies in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4q7RQGuOzvw.
Bummer.
So. If Americans truly want peace in the Middle East
and cheap gas in their tanks, perhaps instead of
continuing to give billions of dollars in military aid
to one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in
the world as it illegally occupies Palestine, perhaps
we should try something else and actually start
REWARDING Palestinians for their efforts to be
non-violent -- while still trying to express their
deep frustration with being constantly under the thumb
of a violent and illegal occupation force.
And if we truly want to reward and encourage
Palestinians for trying to be the next Gandhis, then
what can we do?
"Order Pizza!"
Hey, it worked in Wisconsin.
I have friends in the small Palestinian town of Ni'lin
and every Friday for the last several years, they have
bravely gone out and non-violently protested the
seizure of their small quiet town by one of the
largest and most combat-ready armies in the world --
and these ordinary towns-people are getting gassed,
shot at and killed one by one. However, non-violence,
while heroic as hell and very New Testament and all
that, isn't really working for them so far because one
of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the
world clearly doesn't give a rat's behind about
Palestinians.
So I am suggesting that you do to my friends in Ni'lin
the same thing that the people of Egypt did for the
people of Wisconsin. "Order Pizza."
Is there a pizza place in Ni'lin that takes credit
cards? If so, give me its e-mail address and, instead
of waiting patiently for Hillary Clinton to do it,
I'll reward these non-violent protesters myself -- and
order them pizza.
And imagine if everyone else in the world who could
afford to spare a few dollars also barraged one of the
largest and most combat-ready armies in the world with
pizzas as well? Problem solved. Cheap gas for all.
And then what if we also barraged Wall Street, K
Street, the Federal Reserve and even the Taliban with
pizzas? It's the volume that counts.
PS: Everyone's always talking about ending America's
huge deficit. Hey that's easy to do. Just make major
cuts in our out-of-control military spending, duh. And
then let's replace all those pricey Bradley tanks and
luxurious F16s with pizzas.
Let's build a huge wall of pizza (deep-dish
Chicago-style with anchovies and olives) all around
our shores and forget about the rest of America's
"empire". And then let's turn America back into a
country that is self-sufficient in manufacturing
again. And let's start by manufacturing pizzas.
"But Jane, that's just crazy!" Not as crazy as wasting
our country's resources and patrimony on manufacturing
weapons -- cold merciless steel weapons designed only
to kill, maim and hurt.
PPS: In his recent article on US polices toward
Israel, Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper stated
that, "Israel is the number-two supplier of arms [in
the world]." http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02
/working-around-america- a-new-strategy-on-israelpalestine.html?
utm_source=Mondoweiss+ List&utm_campaign=
d30ed960da-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN &utm_medium=email
#respond.
And of course we all know who is the Number One
supplier of arms.
So why is everyone relying on the United States and
Israel to be in charge of keeping the peace -- both in
the Occupied Territories and in the rest of the world?
Isn't that a bit like expecting two very hungry bears
to be in charge of guarding a honey tree?
PPPS: Even Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has a
few unkind words to say about Israel, believe it or
not: "Israel's previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert,
had to resign because he was accused of illicitly
taking envelopes stuffed with money from a
Jewish-American backer. An Israeli court recently
convicted Israel's former president Moshe Katsav on
two counts of rape, based on accusations by former
employees. And just a few weeks ago, Israel, at the
last second, rescinded the appointment of Maj. Gen.
Yoav Galant as the army's new chief of staff after
Israeli environmentalists spurred a government
investigation that concluded General Galant had seized
public land near his home. (You can see his house on
Google Maps!)" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/../
opinion/02friedman.html?_r=1
Perhaps we should be sending the Israelis some pizza
too.
PPPPS: What if all of us little people from all over
the world who are sick and tired of being bossed
around by military thugs, bullies and sadists for the
sole reason that their, er, guns are bigger than our
guns -- what if we all got together and refused?
Refused to be soldiers, refused to make weapons,
refused to murder, refused to...just refused. Then
what would happen?
Ultimately it's all in the numbers.
For every one of the bullies, sadists and thugs that
hide behind the largest and most combat-ready armies
in the world, there are at least 99 more of us who are
sick of all this bloodshed.
Tunisia, India, Egypt, South Africa, Jesus and the
American South have all shown us that non-violent
tactics really do bring about peace -- if you have the
numbers. In fact, Tunisia and Egypt apparently even
consciously took a leaf from Ni'lin's non-violent
playbook. So. Let's put all of the world's largest and
most combat-ready armies on notice. "Chill out now --
or else risk ending up like Mubarak, Bull Connor,
apartheid and the British Raj."
We're armed and dangerous too -- we've got pizza!
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