If Americans Knew
Calling Bono: Your Palestinian Gandhis Exist
... in Graves and Prisons
By Alison Weir, CounterPunch, January 8 - 10, 2010
Dear Bono,
In your recent column in the New York Times, "Ten for the
Next Ten," (Jan. 2, 2010) you wrote: "Ill place my hopes on the
possibility however remote at the moment that...people in
places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian
territories, will in the days ahead find among them their
Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi."
Your hope has already been fulfilled in the Palestinian
territories.
Unfortunately, these Palestinian Gandhis and Kings are
being killed and imprisoned.
On the day that your op-ed appeared hoping for such
leaders, three were languishing in Israeli prisons. No one
knows how long they will be held, nor under what condi-
tions; torture is common in Israeli prisons.
At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in the last six
years alone during nonviolent demonstrations against
Israels apartheid wall that is confiscating Palestinian crop-
land and imprisoning Palestinian people. Many others have
been killed in other parts of the Palestinian territories while
taking part in nonviolent activities. Hundreds more have
been detained and imprisoned.
Recently Israel has begun a campaign to incarcerate the
leaders of this diverse movement of weekly marches and
demonstrations taking place in small Palestinian villages far
from media attention.
The first Palestinian Gandhi to be rounded up in this
recent purge was young Mohammad Othman, taken on Sept.
22 when he was returning home from speaking in Norway
about nonviolent strategies to oppose Israeli oppression and
land confiscation. He has now been held for 107 days without
charges, much of it in solitary confinement.
The second was Abdallah Abu Rahma, a schoolteacher
and farmer taken from his home on Dec. 10, the only one to
be charged with a crime. After holding him for several days,
Israel finally came up with a charge: illegal weapons posses-
sion referring to the peace sign he had fashioned out of the
spent teargas cartridges and bullets that Israel had shot at
www.IfAmericansKnew.org 202.631.4060
contact@IfAmericansKnew.org
nonviolent demonstrators. (One such cartridge pierced the
skull of Tristan Anderson, an American who was photo-
graphing the aftermath of a nonviolent march, causing part of
his right frontal lobe to be removed.)
The third was Jamal Jumah, a veteran leader in the grass-
roots struggle, who was taken by Israeli occupation forces on
Dec. 16th and is now being held in shackles and often blind-
folded during Kafkaesque Israeli military proceedings.
Palestinians have been engaging in nonviolence for
decades.
When I was last in Nablus I learned of a massive nonvi-
olent demonstration that had occurred in 2001 estimates
range from 10,000 to 50,000 Palestinian men, women, and
children taking part in a nonviolent march. All sectors of
Nablus had joined together in organizing this public offi-
cials, diverse parties, religious, secular, Muslim, Christian.
Modeling their action on images of Dr. Martin Luther
King, they marched arm-in-arm, believing that Israel would
not kill them and that the world would care. They were wrong
on both counts. Israeli forces immediately shot six dead and
injured many more. And no one even knows about it. At If
Americans Knew we are currently working on a video to try to
remedy the last part; theres nothing we can do about the dead.
But theres a great deal you can do, Bono. You can use
your talent and celebrity to tell the world these facts. You can
write a New York Times op-ed about the Palestinian Gandhis
in Israeli prisons and call for their freedom. You can sing of
these Palestinian Martin Luther Kings you wished for, and by
singing save their lives.
For the reality is that nonviolence is only as powerful as
its visibility to the world. When it is made invisible through
its lack of coverage by the New York Times, the Associated
Press, CNN, Fox News, et al, its practitioners are in deadly
danger, and their efforts to use nonviolence against injustice
are doomed.
In the New York Times you publicly proclaimed your
belief in nonviolence. Now is your chance to demonstrate
your commitment.
 Killed by Israeli forces while demonstrating against the Israeli wall being built on Palestinian land
5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Tsadik Srour,
36, Shot in the chest with 0.22 calibre live
ammunition during a demonstration
against the Wall in Nilin.
April 17, 2009: Basem Abu Rahme, age
29, Shot in the chest with a high-velocity
tear gas projectile during a demonstration
against the Wall in Bilin.
December 28, 2008: Mohammad
Khawaja, age 20, Shot in the head with live
ammunition during a demonstration in
Nilin against Israels assault on Gaza.
Mohammad died in the hospital on
December 31, 2009.
December 28, 2008: Arafat Khawaja,
age 22, Shot in the back with live ammuni-
tion in Nilin during a demonstration
against Israels assault on Gaza.
July 30, 2008: Youssef Ahmed Younes
Amirah, age 17, Shot in the head with rub-
ber coated bullets during a demonstration
against the Wall in Nilin. Youssef died of
his wounds on August 4, 2008.
July 29, 2008: Ahmed Husan Youssef
Mousa, age 10, Shot dead while he and sev-
eral friends tried to remove coils of razor
wire from land belonging to the village in
Nilin.
March 2, 2008: Mahmoud Muhammad
Ahmad Masalmeh, age 15, Shot dead when
trying to cut the razor wire portion of the
Wall in Beit Awwa.
March 28, 2007: Muhammad Elias
Mahmoud Aweideh, age 15, Shot dead
during a demonstration against the Wall in
Um a-Sharayet Samiramis.
F e b ruary 2, 2007: Taha Muhammad
Subhi al-Quljawi, age 16, Shot dead when
he and two friends tried to cut the razor
wire portion of the Wall in the Qalandiya
Refugee Camp. He was wounded in the
thigh and died from blood loss after
remaining in the field for a long time with-
out treatment.
May 4, 2005: Jamal Jaber Ibrahim Asi,
age 15, Shot dead during a demonstration
against the Wall in Beit Liqya.
May 4, 2005: Udai Mufid Mahmoud
Asi, age 14 Shot dead during a demonstra-
tion against the Wall in Beit Liqya.
February 15, 2005: Alaa Muhammad
Abd a-Rahman Khalil, age 14, Shot dead
while throwing stones at an Israeli vehicle
driven by private security guards near the
Wall in Betunya.
April 18, 2004: Islam Hashem Rizik
Zhahran, age 14, Shot during a demonstra-
tion against the Wall in Deir Abu Mashal.
Islam died of his wounds April 28, 2004.
April 18, 2004: Diaa A-Din Abd al-
Karim Ibrahim Abu Eid, age 23, Shot dead
during a demonstration against the Wall in
Biddu.
April 16, 2004: Hussein Mahmoud
Awad Alian, age 17, Shot dead during a
demonstration against the Wall in Betunya.
February 26, 2004: Muhammad Daud
Saleh Badwan, age 21, Shot during a
demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.
Muhammad died of his wounds on March
3, 2004.
February 26, 2004: Abdal Rahman Abu
Eid, age 17, Died of a heart attack after
teargas projectiles were shot into his home
during a demonstration against the Wall in
Biddu.
February 26, 2004: Muhammad Fadel
Hashem Rian, age 25, Shot dead during a
demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.
February 26, 2004: Zakaria Mahmoud
Eid Salem, age 28, Shot dead during a
demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.

Notes and Sources:

1. Israeli torture was first exposed in the West by the London
Times in the late 1970s. Foreign Service Journal wrote about Israeli tor-
ture of Americans in June, 2002, and Addameer gives specifics today.
2. Al Haq, the West Bank affiliate of the International
Commission of Jurists Geneva, writes: ...as part of their repres-
sion campaign, which coincided with the release of the Goldstone
Report, the Israeli forces have re-launched daily dawn raids in vil-
lages affected by the Wall, arresting youths and children, for the
purpose of extracting confessions about prominent community
leaders advocating against the Wall, and continued to intimidate
activists by destroying their private property and threatening
them with detention. Finally, Israel has directly targeted the
Grassroots Stop the Wall Campaign by arresting and intimidat-
ing its leaders...His village, Jayyous, has been devastated by the
Apartheid Wall
3. Human Rights Watch found that "The only reasonable con-
clusion is that Othman is being punished for his peaceful advocacy...
4. Abdallah Abu Rahma was taken when eleven military
jeeps surrounded his house, and Israeli soldiers broke the door,
extracted Abdallah from his bed, and, after briefly allowing him
to say goodbye to his wife Majida and their three children seven
year-old Luma, five year-old Lian and eight month-old baby
Laith, they blindfolded him and took him into custody.
On Jan. 6th Abdallah wrote:
I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a mil-
itary detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation?s
holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope....
Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has
been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in
our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and
persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commit-
ment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed
grassroots resistance to the occupation.
The price I and many others pay in freedom does not deter
us. I wish that my two young daughters and baby son would not
have to pay this price together with me. But for my son and daugh-
ters, for their future, we must continue our struggle for freedom...
5. Tristan Anderson was shot with a high-velocity canister
after photographing a nonviolent protest in Nilin on March 13,
2009. His ambulance was held up for a period of time by Israeli
forces before finally being allowed to take him to a hospital. Video
of parents press conference
6. Israeli forces interrogated Jamal Juma and then brought
him back home, handcuffed, and searched his house while his
wife and three children watched. Then they took him off to
prison. CounterPunch Despite being held for 20 days, no
charges have yet been brought against Jamal.
7. The Nablus march mentioned above took place on March
30, 2001, on Jerusalem Street in the south of Nablus, leading to the
Huwara checkpoint. This was on what Palestinians call the "Day
of the Land" or "Land Day" (information on Land Day can be seen
at http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/255.shtml).
8. In our study of the Associated Press, Deadly Distortion,
we commented: ...our analysts looked at hundreds of articles that
AP published on topics relating to the Israel/Palestine issue, and
noted a number of additional patterns that merit further examina-
tion... Nonviolence movement. Palestinian resistance efforts have
included numerous nonviolent marches and other activities,
many joined by international participants, Israeli citizens, and
faith-based groups. This nonviolence movement has been an
important topic in the Palestinian territories, with growing num-
bers of people taking part in 2004 the Palestinian News Network
reported on 79 major demonstrations that were exclusively nonvi-
olent. Yet, we did not find any reports in which AP had described
a Palestinian demonstration or other activity as nonviolent or uti-
lizing nonviolence.