From nonviolent practice toward a theory of political power

ABSTRACT

This article builds on foundations laid by Etienne de La Boétie to develop a theory of political power, in which violence is a marginalised and marginal phenomenon in the multiple dimensions in which power operates. This positive understanding of nonviolence depends for its success on a willingness to use our own bodies (not those of others) to preserve our own freedom and that of others, the capacity to communicate without intersubjective violence, and numbers. Using examples from nonviolent practice in Israel and occupied Palestinian territory it demonstrates that it is possible to do politics differently without the support of violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonviolence
• power
• Israel
• Palestine
• Etienne de la Boétie

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Gandhi distinguished between satyagraha and the negative duragraha. The latter allowed for the use of any means that avoids visible violence to pressure, humiliate, and undermine opponents.

2. Established in 2006, Israel Social TV is a non-profit independent media organisation promoting social change. https://tv.social.org.il/eng/about-us.

3. The On our Land project involved a team of researchers from Coventry University led by Marwan Darweish, and including Elly Harrowell, Patricia Sellick, Mahmoud Soliman and Laura Sulin. It received support from the British Council’s £30m Cultural Protection Fund, in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which is set up to protect cultural heritage at risk due to conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. http://onourland.coventry.ac.uk.

4. In Israel there is no recognition of the right to conscientious objection for men, and an incomplete recognition of the right for women. All Israeli citizens and permanent residents aged 18 to 40 are liable to military service. Special rules apply to the exemption of Jewish and Druze religious students and women. The Ministry of Defence does automatically exempt all non-Jewish women and all Palestinian men (except for the Druze) from military service. Palestinian Israelis may still volunteer to perform military service, but very few (except for among the Bedouin population of Israel) do so.

5. Interviewee in Yatta, May 2018.

6. Interviewee in Al Twaneh, March 2018, ‘People from Abu Jendia family and Alhammedeh family from Ar-ara in the Negev came to live with us.’

7. Interviewee in Al Twaneh, March 2019, aged 67 remembered Jordanian rule saying ‘What they did was worse than what Israel did. The Israeli army would not come and stay, they would not feel safe. But the Jordanian army did not care, … you had to feed them, they would not care. They would come to arrest someone and if the person they came for was not here, they would stay for two or three days. They would order us to feed their horses, to give horses sugar to eat. They would stay until the person they came for returned. What the Jordanians did to us was not little. May God take our revenge from the Jordanians, the Israelis, and the Palestinians. May God get rid of them all.’

8. 1 dunam is about 900 square metres.

9. Interview, Qawawis, 2018.

10. Interview, Al Twaneh, 2018.

11. http://www.operazionecolomba.it/en/ accessed 9 January 2019.

12. Interviewee, Al Twaneh, March 2018.

13. Interviewee, Al Mufagarah, September 2018.

14. https://whoprofits.org/company/hewlett-packard-enterprise-hpe/ Accessed 9 January 2019.

15. https://whoprofits.org/updates/removing-veolia-environnement-transdev-and-caisse-des-depots-et-consignations-cdc-from-the-who-profits-database/ Accessed 9 January 2019.