Organizing for a Free Palestine: The Committee for Justice in Palestine (CJP)
The Resource Center for Non-Violence (RCNV)
The Resource Center for Non-Violence (RCNV) was founded in 1976 by a group of predominantly white university graduates in their 20s with a commitment to nonviolent social and political change. Amidst a period of mass protests and social upheaval, the founders established the RCNV as a physical space for organizing and community gathering beyond protest to sustain lasting social and political change.
International solidarity was central to the RCNV’s platform with activists across various movements such as the Civil Rights movement, the War Resisters League, the Movement for a New Society, Plowshares, Fellowship of Reconciliation, United Farm Workers Union, religious communities, anti-nuclear movements in Europe, and human rights activists in Israel, Palestine, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, and more.
Palestine solidarity organizing has always been a focal point of the RCNV, with work dating back to the late 70s anchored by one of the founders of the center, Scott Kennedy. Scott Kennedy founded the “Middle East Working Group” within the center for issues around Palestine and other countries in West Asia. The RCNV has hosted rallies, vigils, film screenings, speakers, direct action training, international mutual aid, international delegations, and a community space for peace, justice, and non-violence around Palestine since its founding.
About the event
Held over a weekend, the event is structured around a series of exhibitions, workshops, and panel discussions. The exhibitions showcase a curated selection of photographs that tell compelling stories from various corners of the globe, each image accompanied by detailed narratives that provide context and deeper insight into the historical significance of the scenes depicted. These photographs are drawn from the archives of renowned photographers, as well as emerging talents, ensuring a blend of both classical and contemporary perspectives.
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The Resource Center for Non-Violence (RCNV) was founded in 1976 by a group of predominantly white university graduates in their 20s with a commitment to nonviolent social and political change. Amidst a period of mass protests and social upheaval, the founders established the RCNV as a physical space for organizing and community gathering beyond protest to sustain lasting social and political change.
International solidarity was central to the RCNV’s platform with activists across various movements such as the Civil Rights movement, the War Resisters League, the Movement for a New Society, Plowshares, Fellowship of Reconciliation, United Farm Workers Union, religious communities, anti-nuclear movements in Europe, and human rights activists in Israel, Palestine, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, and more.
Palestine solidarity organizing has always been a focal point of the RCNV, with work dating back to the late 70s anchored by one of the founders of the center, Scott Kennedy. Scott Kennedy founded the “Middle East Working Group” within the center for issues around Palestine and other countries in West Asia. The RCNV has hosted rallies, vigils, film screenings, speakers, direct action training, international mutual aid, international delegations, and a community space for peace, justice, and non-violence around Palestine since its founding.
What lessons can we draw from the organizational methods and politics of the RCNV?
What methods of organizing were used and why? What did these methods accomplish? How did the center’s politics of nonviolence shape Palestine solidarity organizing locally? How has the RCNV’s organizing and political platform evolved since? Have widespread shifts in the politics of the Palestine solidarity movement changed the RCNV’s role in local organizing around Palestine?
Above, Dr. William Dienst (third from left) and Scott Kennedy (fifth from left) accompanied by Palestinian security detail on the site where Rachel Corrie was killed, Rafah, Gaza Strip.
On the right, A woman sits upon the rubble of her destroyed home next to the al-Nasr Mosque in Jabaliya Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip. Israeli officials said weapons were found in the three homes destroyed along with the 800 year old mosque. (Scott Kennedy)
Language and the crimes we permit in Gaza, Scott Kennedy
“At one point during the summer, Israeli over flights created round-the-clock sonic booms and air strikes destroyed Gaza’s only power station. This single act reduced available electricity to Gaza by more than 65 percent and crippled the water and sewer treatment facilities.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly commented to his cabinet, ‘Nobody dies from not having electricity’ and ‘no one in Gaza should sleep.’ Relief and human rights organizations began to raise a cry about the onset of malnutrition and hunger and the impact of acute stress and trauma, especially on children.
An adviser to Olmert responded, ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’
People in Gaza clearly understand that their suffering is not accidental or ‘collateral damage’ caused by IDF operations to stamp out terrorism. The deprivation, suffering and death of the civilian population is an intentional strategy, imposed as conscious policy.”
The article was written by Scott Kennedy in late December of 2006 and published in The Electronic Intifada, an independent online news publication focused on Palestinian culture and politics, platforming commonly excluded perspectives and stories that challenge mainstream perspectives. In the previous year, the Israeli unilateral disengagement plan pulled its forces out of Gaza and dismantled settlements while maintaining control of almost all of Gaza’s borders, coastline, and airspace. Hamas won in the 2006 legislative elections and gained administrative control of Gaza and the West Bank, marking a transitional shift in power from Fatah to Hamas. In this period, Hamas refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist or reaffirm its commitment to previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, evoking armed confrontations and protests in 2006. As a response, the Israeli government, the EU, the UK, the US, and Russia imposed an economic embargo on Hamas’ government. The article uses photos and personal testimony of Scott Kennedy, a founder of the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz and long-time organizer of delegations to Palestine through Interfaith Peacebuilders, known today as Eyewitness Palestine, and the political climate of violence endured by Palestinians in the refugee camps and residential neighborhoods Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Jebaliya Camp, Gaza City, and Rafah during his visit to Gaza in 2006.
The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ People in Gaza clearly understand that their suffering is not accidental or ‘collateral damage’ caused by IDF operations to stamp out terrorism. The deprivation, suffering and death of the civilian population is an intentional strategy, imposed as conscious policy.”
Discussion Questions
What is the value of international delegations as a method of building solidarity? Nationally in the U.S.? Internationally in Palestine? What are the risks, limits, and possibilities of solidarity tourism?
What does Scott Kennedy mean when he states “Gaza is a 140 square mile area packed with 1.5 million people. In Gaza I observed not only the consequence of our nation’s toleration of certain policies and practices. I also saw how language is used to obscure and distance us from the evil that we tolerate.”? What purpose does language “obscuring” and “distancing” ourselves from evil serve? How do we see this in U.S. society? How can we challenge it?
How do the living conditions of an average American’s life differ from that of Palestinians in Palestine? What are the consequences of our nation’s language, rhetoric, and policy on the daily lives of Palestinians?
Analyze the quote: “In this case, ‘clashes’ reinforces images of two somewhat equal parties engaged in conflict. In fact the might of one of the most powerful militaries in the world is arrayed against an essentially defenseless civilian population in Gaza.”. How does Scott Kennedy frame Palestinians? Is the statement that people in Gaza are defenseless true? Does the diminution of Palestinian people in terms of their own struggle reproduce a language that has consequences on Palestinian lives?
As taxpayers, how do we contend with our material complicity in U.S.-backed colonization and genocide? How do we organize with this understanding?
Additional Resources
Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism Across Occupied Palestine JL Kelly
“Today, when there is almost no opposition to the atrocities of the Israeli government, when the Israeli peace camp has evaporated into thin air, a cry must rise, a cry that is as ancient as man and woman, a cry that is beyond all differences of race or religion or language, The cry of motherhood: Save our children.”
Discussion Questions
How does Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s positionality as a settler inform her perspective? What does the text reveal about the broader politics of Israeli society?
Nurit Peled-Elhanan speaks of an end to the violence and war created by the occupation. What does she envision as a resolution in ending this violence? What are the values of this resolution? What possible problems do these resolutions pose for Israeli and Palestinian society?
Evaluate:“For me the struggle is not between Palestinians and Israelis, between Jews and Arabs. The fight is between those who seek peace and those who seek war. My people are those who seek peace. My sisters are the bereaved mothers, Israeli and Palestinian, who live in Israel and in Gaza and in the refugee camps. My brothers and fathers who try to defend their children from the cruel occupation, and are, as I was, unsuccessful in doing so.”.
To Women in Black Nurit Peled-Elhanan
“Children in uniform and children without uniform, children with guns and children with Molotov cocktails, children of Israeli commandos, and children of Palestinian guerillas. And all this to satisfy the murderous ambitions of the Philistines and their greed for land that is not theirs.”
“For me the struggle is not between Palestinians and Israelis, between Jews and Arabs. The fight is between those who seek peace and those who seek war. My people are those who seek peace. My sisters are the bereaved mothers, Israeli and Palestinian, who live in Israel and in Gaza and in the refugee camps. My brothers and fathers who try to defend their children from the cruel occupation, and are, as I was, unsuccessful in doing so.”
Historical Context:
To Women in Black is the English translation of Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s speech to the mass rally of Women in Black on Friday June 8, 2000. Nurit Peled-Elhanan is a professor of language and education at the Hebrewy University of Jerusalem, translator, activist, and the mother of Smadar Elhanan who was 13 years old when killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997. Nurit Peled-Elhanan is the daughter of Matti Peled, an ex-General of the IDF who became active in the peace movement and helped organized the International Coordinating Committee for NGOs on the Question of Palestine after the first international NGO meeting at the United Nations in Geneva and founded the American Israeli Council for Israeli Palestinian Peace.
Along with the speech is a letter to Prime minister Ariel Sharon at the time, Minister of Security Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and the IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz by 62 Israeli youth refusing military conscription because of Israel’s land theft, arrests, executions, and other human rights abuses which they label as “terrorist actions”. The letter encourages other youth to join and refuse to serve in the IDF. The author of this speech, which was given to a mass rally of women in black in June of 2008, was delivered by Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a professor of language and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, translator, activist, and the mother whose daughter was 13 years old when killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997. Nurit Peled-Elhanan is the daughter of Matti Peled, an ex-General of the IDF who became an organizer in the peace movement. This pamphlet was distributed by the Resource Center for Nonviolence in the early 2000s.
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