West Bank, Ramallah
October 14-16, 2010

Maciej Bartkowski was in charge of leading an educational seminar on civil resistance to encourage the development and implementation of a teaching curriculum on the subject of civil resistance. Participants included academics, activists, organizational leaders, and other civil society actors.

Participants were taken through several different sessions starting from a general overview of theoretical concepts of civil resistance and prevailing misconceptions. They then proceeded with a historical study of Palestinian nonviolent resistance, from the 1920’s through the first Palestinian intifada, and up to the current-day popular struggle. Also discussed were skills and operational components, including strategy, unity, nonviolent discipline, and leadership. The film, Budrus, offered a logical transition between the previous concepts and the subsequent ideas on mobilization and building alliances.


The challenges and opportunities movements face regarding oppression were discussed in the context of backfire phenomenon and dilemma actions, followed by the study of boycott campaigns. A series of breakout sessions helped academic and civil society groups focus on particular themes including cultural resistance, historical and contemporary cases of civil resistance, media and citizen journalism and the interplay of violent and nonviolent resistance.

Finally, discussions around curriculum development and programmatic activities among academics, organizations and community organizers paved the way for further talks on joint educational coursework.

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