I am an American “corporate refugee” – a woman who worked for 20+ years making a six-figure salary, with my eyes fixed on the next rung up the ladder (in “big pharma” no less). I was aware that there were parallel worlds, and that I was living in what could be called the “Comfort Corridor.” But I didn’t do anything concrete about it, other than read voraciously.
And then I began the odyssey that ejected me from my protected bubble. I acted on an adventurous whim -- made possible by a particularly good bonus -- and travelled to Palestine in 2007. It changed my life. That first educational trip led to a second one just a year later, this time as an ISM (International Solidarity Movement) volunteer during the olive harvest and protests in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah. The conversion into an activist was nearly complete. The last step was a corporate acquisition that gave me the excuse I was looking for to break free of my “golden handcuffs.” I walked away from my profit-driven existence and…took my first trip to Gaza, a Codepink delegation for International Women’s Day, 2009. Those who have been to Palestine understand how it gets into your blood. I had the extra advantage of now having a “tabula rasa” – a chance to re-invent my work, or at least to try. It wasn’t long before I decided to live and volunteer in the Gaza Strip for six months; if I ever hoped to eke out a living in this arena, I needed a deeper understanding. Six months isn’t long compared to a lifetime, but I felt it was enough to put “my feet firmly on the ground,” as well to teach me the diversity and nuances within the overall culture.
When I returned, I spent the next three weeks on a speaking tour from one coast to the other…and thinking about what I could do as an individual to make a difference, to not squander the experience and connections I now had. I didn’t want to focus on political activity alone; it’s a given for me, but progress just seems too slow. I also feel a need to do something that has a real, concrete, practical impact.
So, I asked myself, what can I do that will use my education and experience in communications to both help the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and chip away at the ignorance and stereotypes that prevent more Americans from empathizing with their plight? (Most Gazans will tell you that the greatest contribution you can make to their cause is to change our own government’s discriminatory and biased policies. The only way to do that, I’ve concluded, is to change public opinion, so that pressure is eventually exerted on their elected officials.)
One of the most common comments I hear when I return from Palestine and speak to various groups, even from relatively educated activists, is “what the Palestinians need is a Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr.” It’s the same “cult of the leader” we saw in the United States when Obama was running for president and so many people saw him as a “savior” of sorts. Yet, what the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions should have shown us all once again is that we cannot always wait for a strong leader to emerge, and one is not necessary to bring about the change we need. Palestinians have many “Gandhis” among them who are resisting occupation and corrupt government every day in very creative ways. So, I have joined with a friend of mine to document these stories and given them an audience. The individuals we are interviewing do not have the notoriety of Gandhi and MLK, but all they need is a platform, which we hope to help provide. They also do not have a similar mass following — in many cases, because Israel has attempted to snuff out their budding fame by raiding their homes and imprisoning them or their family members. Others are still young, only needing encouragement and recognition to become the leaders of the future. We hope to provide them a platform to amplify their voices.
When I returned to Gaza this January, I decided to invest some of the funds I still had to kickstart the project by filming interviews with individuals such as:
· The organizer for the popular resistance committee who led weekly protests in the deadly “buffer zone” by the Israeli border, learning from the growing support for protests against the “separation wall” in the West Bank. (Unfortunately, those protests came to a stop the week of my return. The Israeli military began shooting everyone who entered.)
· A businessman who responded to the ban on imports of glass and other construction materials by making tiles, ashtrays and decorative sculptures out of recycled glass from the destroyed buildings.
· Youth who are telling their stories and expressing their emotions through blogs, painting – and even sculpture made from cacti and spent munitions. (I partnered with a graphic artist to produce a poster showcasing some of these powerful images.)
· Troupes who are “acting out” through breakdance and rap, while helping other youth do the same instead of turning to militias or giving in to apathy.
· A young professional who is planning for the return of Gaza’s former status as a favorite tourist spot in the region, refusing to give in to the lack of hope for a “normal” future to which so many others have succumbed.
There are so many Palestinians who need a megaphone. I heard a young Palestinian poet, Dina Omar, recently, who said that sometimes she wants to shout at all the activists to be quiet just a minute and listen to the voices of the occupied. That is what this project is all about, and we hope to expand it into a library that includes voices from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the refugee camps of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon (which are almost totally ignored). You can help make it happen: here at Palestinian Gandhis.
Dear Pam-
I would strongly urge you to partner with organizations, especially Palestinian-led ones, that are already doing some of this work, rather than ‘reinvent the wheel.’ I recommend to your attention the IMEU, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, as a project already committed to doing much of this work in the long term. It is important to realize that our relative privilege, which allows us to parachute into an issue, even in a way that we feel is life-transforming for us, also can also blind us to how we operate. Being accountable to Palestinians is important, because they are the ones in whose name our struggle exists and for whom we act. While “acting as a megaphone” may seem like you are merely stepping out of the way and allowing their voices to speak, your editorial vision and voice will of course be dominant in a documentary you make, and as a recent “convert” I worry that you may get caught up in the heady rush wanting to do something, anything, without worrying about accountability and responsibility. I would have made this a private message to you, but could not find your contact information anywhere. Respectfully yours.
EH: “I would have made this a private message to you, but could not find your contact information anywhere.”
All you need to do is click on the “Palestinian Ghandis” link at the end of her post, then click the “send message” link immediately below the main title.
As for your message, I think it’s good advice to build bridges to similar organisations, after all Zionist support in America is a network rather than a monolithic structure. But I don’t think you should discourage “social entrepreneurs”. Just as in business when you spot a gap in the market, it’s often easier to create a start-up than to get an existing, larger organisation interested. Once up and running, it’s then often easier to make the connections.
Pam Bailey looks like she has the skills and motivation to make things happen and I wish her well with her project. People like her are needed, particularly in the US.
“I worry that you may get caught up in the heady rush wanting to do something, anything, without worrying about accountability and responsibility.”
Now there is something Zionists ought to know something about.
This is an impressive story. There is a common feeling that if “Americans only knew” opinion would change. Last January I met in Jerusalem an evangelical minister (now an activist) whose view was completely changed by one encounter. I’m not sure the right course you should take (for me, either) but anyone with the kind of skills needed to be a corporate exec will be a powerful voice. And the Likudnik discourse, which seems so thick, can crack so easily, (its proponents realize too, which explains their intolerance for debate). To see our Congress yesterday was depressing, but it can change very fast.
Good!
If Americans knew, they would take the Obama stand.
1. Support for Israel’s defense against those willing to unilaterally shell civilians
2. Support for peace-making reconciliation efforts
3. Support for development efforts within Palestine as Palestine
Any effort that is not an #and# effort, that is an #either/or# effort (partisan political ones) will end up hindering Palestinian efforts for upliftment and freedom.
“Support for Israel’s defense against those willing to unilaterally shell civilians”
Don’t worry. Israeli ‘defense’ makes sure that shelling civilians is a decidedly bilateral affair. Well, okay. It’s nearly unilateral because 99% of the shelled civilians are Palestinians.
Also: I usually won’t say things like this, but this is a real opportunity for you to shut up for once. Your sanctimonious preaching is comically out of place here.
Israelis are among those unilaterally shelling civilians. So Americans are going to support Israelis by… rejecting them?
Pretty much the entire Arab world supports a two state solution under the Arab Peace Plan. The Israeli head of state (and you) reject it. Supporting peace-making reconciliation efforts means supporting pretty much anyone but Israel. Hamas are nasty and vicious but at least when they cease fire, they CEASE FIRE until attacked.
Neither you nor Netanyahu are willing to remove the settlements. All of them. And return East Jerusalem. Or the Jordan River Valley. There is no Palestine that can exist because you aren’t even giving the Palestinians table scraps, you’re giving them crumbs and dictating how fast they can eat them.
spring is here
the arab’s?
everyone’s
once fear is overcome
fear of failing?
the consequences thereof
such as?
from little or none to “makes me uncomfortable even thinking about what failure might bring upon me and my family, let alone this or that organization, tribe, comnunity, state, even world”
besides, “such and such is just the way it is, nothing anyone can do about it, so why try?”
and then something like tahrir square happens along?
fear?
abandoned
it now being safe to come out
& once out?
justice for palestine
the start-up
en route to?
recapturing the dawn
oh happy day