A Quiet Revolution: The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance

King, Mary Elizabeth

ISBN 10: 1560258020 / ISBN 13: 9781560258025

Published by Nation Books, New York, NY, 2007

About this Item

Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. xvi, 464 p. Illustrations, black & white. Notes. Index. In A Quiet Revolution, renowned civil rights activist Mary Elizabeth King questions the prevailing wisdom that the first Palestinian Intifada was defined by violence. She argues that initially, the uprising was characterized by a massive nonviolent social mobilization, rooted in popular committees often steered by women. These committees adopted strategies that began to lead to political results--among them the beginnings of a negotiated settlement. King traces the tragic movement away from peaceful protest following the killing of four Palestinian laborers in Gaza, and charts the PLOs increasing contempt for nonviolent struggle. She details the complicity of the media in this escalation of violence--TV crews would not cover peaceful protests, but Palestinian boys throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers would attract foreign cameras. King draws upon the history of non-violent movements and argues that only through nonviolent strategies can a negotiated peace be achieved with Israel. King believes that the residual knowledge of the power of nonviolent resistance from the first Intifada will provide the bedrock upon which to build this eventual, lasting peace. From Wikipedia: "Mary Elizabeth King is a professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the United Nations affiliated University for Peace, a political scientist, and author of several publications. She is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and has a doctorate in international politics from Aberystwyth University, Wales. She is also a Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute and a distinguished Scholar at the American University Center for Global Peace in Washington D.C. In 2009 she was awarded the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize. In May 2011, her alma mater Ohio Wesleyan University awarded her a doctor of laws (honorary) degree. After graduating college, King became a staff member for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She wrote a book on that four-year experience, Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and won a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award for it. King's participation in the civil rights movement prompted her to co-write essays on women's issues with fellow activist Casey Hayden, most notably Sex and Caste: A Kind of Memo (1965), which criticized sexism within the civil rights movement. Sara Evans attributes King and Hayden as founding activists for the women's liberation movement in her book "Personal Politics." Evans claims that King and Hayden used their knowledge of participatory democracy, learned through SNCC membership, to critique women's position in a system of patriarchy. She says their essays stirred the beginning of women's liberation. Between 1968 and 1972 King worked for the federal government during the Johnson and Nixon administrations under the U.S. office of economic opportunity helping to set up neighborhood health services for America's rural and urban poor. And in 1974 King, with five other women, established the National Association of Women Business Owners. She was president of the Organization in 1976. King was appointed deputy director of the independent subcabinet federal agency that housed the Peace Corps, VISTA, and various programs of the ACTION agency under president Jimmy Carter. Mary resides with her husband, Dr. Peter G. Bourne, in Virginia in the United States and in Oxford in the United Kingdom. Very good. Signed by author. Cover has slight wear and soiling.

Seller Inventory # 68716

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Quiet Revolution: The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance
• Publisher: Nation Books, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560258020
• ISBN 13: 9781560258025
• Binding: Trade paperback
• Edition: New ed.
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • PLO
  • Jews
  • Terrorism
  • Civil Rights

About this title

Synopsis

In A Quiet Revolution, renowned civil rights activist Mary Elizabeth King questions the prevailing wisdom that the first Palestinian Intifada was defined by violence. She argues that initially, the uprising was characterized by a massive nonviolent social mobilization, rooted in popular committees often steered by women. These committees adopted strategies that began to lead to political results -- among them the beginnings of a negotiated settlement. King traces the tragic movement away from peaceful protest following the killing of four Palestinian laborers in Gaza, and charts the PLOs increasing contempt for nonviolent struggle. She details the complicity of the media in this escalation of violence -- TV crews would not cover peaceful protests, but Palestinian boys throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers would attract foreign cameras. King draws upon the history of non-violent movements and argues that only through nonviolent strategies can a negotiated peace be achieved with Israel. King believes that the residual knowledge of the power of nonviolent resistance from the first Intifada will provide the bedrock upon which to build this eventual, lasting peace.

About the Author

Mary Elizabeth King is an expert on Nonviolent Political Strategies and worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. as a student. She is a Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace of the UN, and a Distinguished Scholar at the American University Center for Global Peace in Washington, DC. She is the author of Freedom Song (which won the RFK Memorial Book Award) and Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Power of Nonviolent Action. King lives in Washington, DC.