Palestinian Anarchists.

        If you look you can find information about anarchists from anywhere in the world, well almost. One place that doesn't spring to mind when thinking of anarchism is Palestine. Their battle has been against 60 odd years of occupation, land stealing and genocide, there battle has been one of survival against a brutal expanding occupying power. This tends to, though not necessarily so, lead to nationalism, a coming together under a different banner. I have no doubt that their battle will employ principles of anarchism, but that type of battle tends to emphasis a people against another people. However nationalism is not a healthy state of mind, it tends to have an "us" mindset and usually leads to differences, rather than similarities, divisions rather than co-operation.

This from The Hampton Institute:

       Importantly, Hassan extends her own understanding of anarchism beyond positions merely against state or colonial authoritarianism. She refers to Palestinian novelist and Arab nationalist Ghassan Kanafani, noting that although he challenged the occupation, "…he also challenged patriarchal relations and the bourgeois classes… This is why I think we Arabs - anarchists from Palestine, from Egypt, from Syria, from Bahrain - need to begin reformulating anarchism in a way that reflects our experiences of colonialism, our experiences as women in a patriarchal society, and so on."

      "Just being part of political opposition won't save you," warns Ramadan, who adds that for many women, "When you stand against the occupation, you also have to stand against the family." In fact, the over-emphasized portrayal of women at protests, she maintains, masks the fact that in reality many women have to fight just to be there. Even attending evening meetings requires young women to overcome social boundaries not faced by their male counterparts.

Well worth reading the full article HERE:

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Anarchism In Palestine.

       We hear of anarchist activity from countries across the globe but not a lot from that land that can be described as the world's largest open air concentration camp, the occupied lands of Palestine. However, since anarchism is a very natural approach to he way we want to live, it will obviously be there in daily actions. Though its anti-state stance will be directed not at the home grown state, since there isn't one, but at the  state of an occupying military force, but self determination is still the desire of the individual and the group. The Institute for Anarchist Studies has an interesting article by Joshua Stephens on anarchism in Palestine.

      In Palestine, elements of popular struggle have historically often been self-organized. Even if not explicitly identified as “anarchism” as such, “People have already done horizontal, or non-hierarchical, organizing all their lives,” says Beesan Ramadan, another local anarchist, who describes anarchism as a “tactic” yet questions the need to attach a label. She continues, “It is already there in my culture and in the way Palestinian activism has worked. During the First Intifada, for instance, when someone’s home was demolished, people would organize to rebuild it, almost spontaneously. As a Palestinian anarchist I look forward to going back to the roots of the First Intifada. It did not come from a political decision. It came against the will of the PLO.” Yasser Arafat declared independence in November 1988, after the First Intifada began in December 1987, Ramadan says “…to hijack the efforts of the First Intifada.”

Read the full article HERE: