• There are nonmilitary alternatives to Israel's war in Gaza

    From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to All on Sun Nov 12 12:27:19 2023
    XPost: alt.peace, alt.activism.peacefire

    There are nonmilitary alternatives to Israel’s war in Gaza

    The assumption that war is the only way to create safety is wrong.
    There’s a range of nonviolent techniques that can still be used right
    now.

    George Lakey November 7, 2023

    Israel and its allies have made a knee-jerk assumption that war is the
    only way to create safety and respond to the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas.
    This assumption — which upholds violence as the only path forward — is commonly accepted by extremists on both sides of the conflict, as well
    as most leaders and institutions across the U.S. and Europe. What’s
    more: It’s completely wrong. I should know; I’ve studied and taught
    courses about nonviolent responses to terrorism for many years.

    What I’ve learned is that it takes a failure of foresight to believe
    that an unprecedented bombing and ground campaign in Gaza can create
    safety — and a failure of imagination to believe it’s the only
    possible method. Conversely, nonmilitary techniques have, in numerous historical cases, reduced the threat of terror.

    Drawing from these cases, I compiled a list of such techniques, which
    I shared in a 2015 article for Waging Nonviolence titled “8 Ways to
    Defend Against Terror Nonviolently.” That article — published on the
    heels of a terrorist attack in France — is just as necessary today,
    which is why I’m republishing an edited version of it here. We all
    need to understand that there’s a wide range of options to generate
    safety beyond taking up arms.



    One of my most popular courses at Swarthmore College focused on the
    challenge of how to defend against terrorism, nonviolently. Who knew
    that non-military techniques have, in actual historical cases, reduced
    the threat of terror?

    I gathered for the students eight non-military techniques that have
    worked for some country or other. The eight comprised the “toolbox”
    that the students had to work with. We didn’t spend time criticizing
    military counter-terrorism because we were more interested in
    alternatives.

    Each student chose a country somewhere in the world that is presently threatened by terrorism and, taking the role of a consultant to that
    country, devised from our nonviolent toolbox a strategy for defense.

    Some students who assumed that military defense is crucial opened to a
    bigger perspective. They realized that, given the success some
    countries have had using just two or three of the tools, there is
    significant untapped potential: What if countries used all of the
    tools together, with the resulting synergies? For me the question
    arose: Why couldn’t populations rely completely on the nonviolent
    toolbox for their defense against terror?

    Here are the eight techniques:

    1. Ally-building and the infrastructure of economic development

    Poverty and terrorism are indirectly linked. Economic development can
    reduce recruits and gain allies, especially if development is done in
    a democratic way. The terrorism by Northern Ireland’s Irish Republican
    Army, for example, was strongly reduced by grassroots, job-creating,
    economic development.

    2. Reducing cultural marginalization

    As France, Britain and other countries have learned, marginalizing a
    group within your population is not safe or sensible; terrorists grow
    under those conditions. This is also true on a global level. Much
    marginalizing is unintentional, but it can be reduced. “Freedom of the press,” for example, transforms into “provocation” when it further marginalizes a population that is already one-down, as are Muslims in
    France. When Anglophone Canada reduced its marginalization, it reduced
    the threat of terrorism from Quebec.

    3. Nonviolent protest/campaigns among the defenders, plus unarmed
    civilian peacekeeping

    Terrorism happens in a larger context and is therefore influenced by
    that context. Some terror campaigns have lapsed because they lost
    popular support. That’s because terror’s strategic use is often to
    gain attention, provoke a violent response and win more support in the
    broader population.

    The rise and fall of support for terrorism is in turn influenced by
    social movements using people power, or nonviolent struggle. The U.S.
    civil rights movement brilliantly handled the Ku Klux Klan’s threat to activists, most dangerous when there was no effective law enforcement
    to help. The nonviolent tactics reduced the KKK’s appeal among white segregationists. Since the 1980s, pacifists and others have
    established an additional, promising tool: intentional and planned
    unarmed civilian peacekeeping. (Check out Peace Brigades
    International, for one example.)

    4. Pro-conflict education and training

    Ironically, terror often happens when a population tries to suppress
    conflicts instead of supporting their expression. A technique for
    reducing terror, therefore, is to spread a pro-conflict attitude and
    the nonviolent skills that support people waging conflict to give full
    voice to their grievances.

    5. Post-terror recovery programs

    Not all terror can be prevented, any more than all crime can be
    prevented. Keep in mind that terrorists often have the goal of
    increasing polarization. Recovery programs can help prevent that
    polarization, the cycle of hawks on one side “arming” the hawks on the other side.

    Recovery programs build resilience, so people don’t go rigid with fear
    and create self-fulfilling prophecies. The leap forward in trauma
    counseling is relevant for this technique along with innovative
    rituals such as those the Norwegians used after the 2011 terrorist
    massacre there.

    6. Police as peace officers: the infrastructure of norms and laws

    Police work can become far more effective through the reduction of the
    social distance between police and the neighborhoods they serve. In
    some countries this requires re-conceptualization of the police from
    defenders of the property of the dominant group to genuine peace
    officers; witness the unarmed Icelandic police. Countries like the
    United States need to join the growing global infrastructure of human
    rights law reflected in the Land Mines Treaty and International
    Criminal Court, and accept accountability for their own officials who
    are probable war criminals.

    7. Policy changes and the concept of reckless behavior

    Governments sometimes make choices that invite — almost beg for — a terrorist response. Political scientist and sometime U.S. Air Force
    consultant Robert A. Pape showed in 2005 that the United States has
    repeatedly done this, often by putting troops on someone else’s land.
    In his recent book “Cutting the Fuse,” he and James K. Feldman give concrete examples of governments reducing the terror threat by ending
    such reckless behavior. To protect themselves from terror, citizens in
    all countries need to gain control of their own governments and force
    them to behave.

    8. Negotiation

    Governments often say “we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” but when
    they say that they are often lying. Governments have often reduced or eliminated terrorism through negotiation, and negotiation skills
    continue to grow in sophistication.

    Realistic application of non-military defense against terror

    At the request of a group of U.S. experts on counter-terrorism, I
    described our Swarthmore work and especially the eight techniques. The
    experts recognized that each of these tools have indeed been used in
    real-life situations in one place or another, with some degree of
    success. They also saw no problem, in principle, in devising a
    comprehensive strategy that would create synergies among the tools.

    The problem they saw was persuading a government to take such a bold, innovative leap.

    As an American, I can see the direct contradiction between, on the one
    hand, my government’s huge effort to convince taxpayers that we
    desperately need our swollen military and, on the other, a new policy
    that mobilizes a different kind of power for genuine, human security.
    I understand that for my country and for some others as well, a living revolution might need to come first.

    What I like about having an alternative, non-military defense in our
    back pocket, though, is that it speaks to the real need of my fellow
    citizens for security in a dangerous world. Psychologist Abraham
    Maslow long ago pointed out the fundamental human need for security.
    Analyzing and criticizing militarism, however brilliantly, doesn’t
    actually enhance anyone’s security. Imagining an alternative, as my
    students did, may give people the psychological space they need to put
    energy into something more life-giving.

    Our role at the grassroots

    The good news is that a number of these eight techniques can be
    applied by civil society, without waiting for governmental leadership
    that may never come. Two are no-brainers: Spread the skills and
    strategy of nonviolent protest, and teach a pro-conflict attitude.

    The Black Lives Matter movement found many white people joining in on Black-initiated turf — that’s a concrete example of reducing marginalization, a concept that generates dozens of creative moves by
    whoever happens to be mainstream (Christian, middle class, etc.). We
    can also initiate recovery programs after terror has erupted in our
    midst, as it did during the Boston Marathon.

    Activists are used to launching campaigns to force the government to
    give up some of its reckless policies, but may forget to frame
    activism that way. A scared public needs to know that activists hear
    the fear, and are on the side of safety.

    By my count, these five of the eight tools can be used by people
    taking bottom-up initiatives to reduce the threat of terror. They
    might be incorporated by those who want to bring a holistic and
    positive approach to the fear that otherwise depresses and paralyzes.
    As usual, what helps others lightens the load for each one of us who
    takes that step.


    George Lakey
    George Lakey has been active in direct action campaigns for over six
    decades. Recently retired from Swarthmore College, he was first
    arrested in the civil rights movement and most recently in the climate
    justice movement. He has facilitated 1,500 workshops on five
    continents and led activist projects on local, national and
    international levels. His 10 books and many articles reflect his
    social research into change on community and societal levels. His
    newest book is the memoir "Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and
    Justice."

    Source: https://t.co/RegeMFZYwx

    <https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/11/there-are-nonmilitary-alternatives-to-israel-war-gaza/>
    --
    Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
    Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
    Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
    E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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