by Jonathan Kuttab*

At Christmas, the entire world thinks of the coming of the Prince of Peace, and his radical teachings of nonviolence, love of enemy, and seeking nonviolent methods of dealing with oppressive and unjust situations. 

Palestinians facing genocide after the events of October 7, rightly ask us whether the message of Christ, and the methods of nonviolence continue to be relevant to us in our current situation.  My own answer is a clear and inequivalent yes.  Nonviolent continues to be the best method for facing the evils of oppression, occupation, apartheid, and even genocide.

To understand this, however, we need to appreciate that nonviolence is not an easy, cowardly, or cost free method.  It starts with understanding that Palestinians have the right, under international law to resist, and even use armed resistance, but that they may choose nonviolent as the more effective and preferable method.  It also starts with a proper understanding that nonviolence does not mean submission to oppression, or compromise, or passivity.  Mahatma Ghandi famously said that if his only options were violence or submission to oppression, he would choose violence.   Instead, he advocated a principled program of relentless organized resistance, that did not include killing  the British, but a comprehensive wide spread movement of civil disobedience, non cooperation, and boycotts, that in the end made India no longer governable, and forced Britain to grant them independence.

While every situation is different, and the will and resources for a nonviolent campaign may not be always readily available, yet there is a wide variety of nonviolent options open to Palestinians. Nonviolence International has published in English , Arabic, and other languages, a catalogue of over 300 methods and tactics.  Palestinians have been using many of these methods, with varying degrees of commitment and persistence : Commercial strikes, boycotts, BDS, hunger strikes, alternative governance mechanisms, demonstrations, appeals to international tribunals, documentation of Human rights violations,  stubborn sumoud,  and many others. 

In fact, it can be argued that given the extremely militarized nature of Israeli society, and  its tremendous destructive power, violence is hardly an option for Palestinians who can hardly expect to outviolence the Israeli army.  On the other hand, while violence can hardly be expected to achieve its objectives for Palestinians, nonviolence has distinct advantages. Since neither Palestinians nor Israelis can eliminate each other, each group is highly dependent on outside support, and therefore very vulnerable to methods of struggle that reduce or challenge such continued support.  Nonviolence can reduce support for Israeli aggression from outside powers, while planting the seeds and possibilities for joint coexistence, which is harder to contemplate with armed resistance leading to anger, desire for vengeance, and long term hostilities.

The beauty of Christ’s message of rejecting violence, is that it invites us to think of our problems in a radically different way, and instead of thinking of destroying our enemies, it invites us to think of solutions where they are no longer our enemies.  It may sound idealistic and visionary to some people, but it is certainly a much more inviting vision of a better future for all.  Violence has failed in our area so far:  It has not produced liberatin for Palestinians or security for Israelis.  Perhaps it is time for both of them to consider Christ’s message of nonviolence. 

Atttorney Jonathan Kuttab is the executive director of Friends of Sabeel in North America (FOSNA). He is a Palestinian an international lawyer and co founder of Al Haq |Center for human rights in Ramallah and foudning board member of Nonviolence International.