Non-violent Revolutions and the Tactics of Peacemaking: Comparing South African Apartheid and the Israeli Occupation

• In Event: 449 - Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Social Movements of Peace and War

Abstract

This paper provides a comparative case study of the failure of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestine with the success of the South African anti-apartheid movement. Nepstad (2011) finds that nonviolent revolutions are triggered by structural shocks that provide opportunities for mobilization resulting from internal or international political pressure. The tactic universal to successful nonviolent revolutions is the ability to undermine the regime’s power to sanction protesters. This paper expands on this literature by focusing on the structural and cultural factors that shape the availability of this tactic: first, by contextualizing Nepstad’s middle range factors at the macro level by employing concepts from world-systems theory and Hardt and Negri’s analysis of global order; and second, by contextualizing the forms of cultural legitimacy available in each case by drawing on Alexander’s (2012) social construction of trauma. Israel’s more central position in the world-system is associated with less intense international pressure and economic isolation than South Africa experienced—particularly with respect to U.S. advocacy. This in turn is tied to the specific forms of ideological legitimacy available for the Israeli occupation that was lacking in South Africa. These structural differences shape the available tactics of the opposition: The anti-apartheid movement successfully withheld desired resources in the form of labor, a tactic not available in Israel after the first Intifada. Finally, the prospect of a general strike led to a curtailing of South Africa’s power to sanction—a marked difference from the Israeli case.

Author

• Paul C. Fuller, Illinois College