Solidarity in Action: Resisting Occupation in Palestine and Minnesota

I have been having a rough time since I returned from Palestine to Minnesota at the end of November. I really wasn't prepared to leave an occupied territory to return to Minnesota to another occupied territory. While I am not trying to claim an equivalency, it seemed liked the brutality had followed me home.

As many of you know, last September I was beaten up by an Israeli settler and hospitalized for five days and had minor surgery. And my wounds paled to what I was seeing in the streets of the Twin Cites and escalating in the villages of the West Bank. To be honest, there were times when I searched and could not find hope. Yet, I could sense something more durable that kept me going. I sensed it in Palestine and then I saw it emerge in Minnesota. It's like a "no frills" compassion where people sense the next right thing and just go do it, sometimes in an organized strategic way and sometimes spontaneously. Somehow, sometimes deep inside us we know what to do and find the courage to do it. I saw it when my friends stood boldly in a scorching sandy desert protecting shepherd's homes as they were spat on and clubbed by Israeli settlers. And I saw it when friends stood up to armored ICE agents trying to snatch our new neighbors on icy streets in freeing temperatures. And this compassion comes on so many other levels: sharing food, giving rides, washing clothes, demonstrating, paying rent, singing, providing legal assistance and just being present.

Who knows whether this gritty compassion can withstand the whirling violence that encircles us but we must make the attempt. As my old friend Gary Cohen reminded me the other day, "Even when its hopeless, you resist. It's your humanity. It's your self-respect."

Please join me on Monday at 11:30 am central US time, 12:30 pm eastern US time, 4:30 pm UTC and 6:30 pm Jerusalem time for a conversation with people in Palestine and Minnesota who continue to compassionately resist. My friend Anton Goodman of Rabbis for Human Rights has been added to the program,

With grit, grief and love,

Mel Duncan

Join Nonviolence International for a webinar on March 16, Monday, at 11:30am CT and 6:30pm Jerusalem time, entitled Solidarity in Action: Resisting Occupation in Palestine and Minnesota. This will be a conversation among Palestinian and Minnesota activists about nonviolent resistance to occupation and state violence. This webinar brings together organizers from two contexts where communities are confronting intensified state control, displacement and militarized enforcement: one new, in Minnesota, where federal immigration enforcement actions, characterized by a large deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents and have been resisted by community protests, grassroots defense and community building efforts have deeply impacted families and organizers, and veterans in the West Bank, where decades of military occupation shape everyday life and resistance, and have seen an increase of violence in the last months.

While there is no equivalency in duration or depth of violence and impunity, we have an opportunity to learn from people who have resisted occupation their entire lives and from those who may or may not have experienced it comparatively recently. Speakers will share their lived experiences, contrast strategies of resistance, shared learning and explore opportunities for solidarity and collective action. Through this exchange, we aim to center community agency, hope, and shared learning, and uplifting practices of resilience and organizing.

The webinar will be hosted by Mel Duncan, from Minnesota, co-founder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce and organizer of the Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine (UCPiP). And speakers include Amira Musallam, Head of Mission of UCPiP, Maddie Moon, Minnesota community organizer, and Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, Executive Director for UNIDOS MN.