Why read Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement?

Book cover of Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement

Book description

Why do some national movements use violent protest and others nonviolent protest? Wendy Pearlman shows that much of the answer lies inside movements themselves. Nonviolent protest requires coordination and restraint, which only a cohesive movement can provide. When, by contrast, a movement is fragmented, factional competition generates new incentives for…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Ches Thurber

Author

Few conflicts have received more global attention than the struggle between Palestinians and Israelis. Media commenters frequently ask “Why has there been no Palestinian Gandhi?" Wendy Pearlman shows why this is the wrong question.

Despite difficult structural conditions, and in the face of heavy repression, she shows that there has been widespread use of nonviolent methods by Palestinians. When campaigns have turned violent, she shows that it is often the result of fragmentation within the movement that makes it difficult to ensure discipline and creates incentives to embrace more extreme tactics.

She provides a valuable lesson on the need to…

From Ches' list on nonviolent protest in global politics.