# Are there any Palestinian leaders who espouse King and Ghandi **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-palestinian-leaders-who-espouse-king-and-ghandi/460151 "2008-08-15T22:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-palestinian-leaders-who-espouse-king-and-ghandi/460151/1 "2008-08-15T22:37:15Z")
Are there or were there any Palestinian figures who advocated a non-violent approach towards Israel a la MLK or Ghandi? As an aside, Syrian friend of mine claimed that up until the first Intifada, Palestinians primarily used this approach, but that doesn’t jive with my understanding of history. My knowledge of this subject is only casual, though. FWIW, I pointed out Munich and he shrugged it off as a minor footnote in the whole affair. Thanks for your help, Rob ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-palestinian-leaders-who-espouse-king-and-ghandi/460151/2 "2008-08-15T23:25:04Z")
Folks like [Mubarak Awad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubarak_Awad), [Ghassan Andoni](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassan_Andoni), and [Hanna Siniora](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Siniora) have definitely invoked Gandhi. So has [Sari Nusseibeh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_Nusseibeh) at times and the pragmatist [Faisal Husseini](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feisal_Husseini) is often claimed as a non-violence advocate, at least later in life. In general genuine pacifism hasn’t been embraced as a mass movement in the Occupied Territories ( understatement of the decade, I 'spose 😉 ). However their has always been an undercurrent of it, especially in the Palestinian Christian community and amongst certain intellectuals. Much more common would be a philosophy of pragmatic eschewing of violence. Support for such tends to wax and wane as current tensions play themselves out. Latest polls have actually been rather encouraging in this respect ( as with here: [Palestinians and Israelis Favor Nonviolent Solutions](http://www.gallup.com/poll/103618/Palestinians-Israelis-Favor-Nonviolent-Solutions.aspx) ), but if you look at the polls from the early 1980’s onwards you will notice swings back and forth, sometimes fairly dramatically. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-palestinian-leaders-who-espouse-king-and-ghandi/460151/3 "2008-08-15T23:46:59Z")
> [@](#): > > As an aside, Syrian friend of mine claimed that up until the first Intifada, Palestinians primarily used this approach, but that doesn’t jive with my understanding of history. [Your](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre) [friend](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maalot_Massacre) [is](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entebbe_raid) [wrong.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Klinghoffer) ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-palestinian-leaders-who-espouse-king-and-ghandi/460151/4 "2008-08-16T04:14:19Z")
[QUOTE=sweeteviljesus] Are there or were there any Palestinian figures who advocated a non-violent approach towards Israel a la MLK or Ghandi? [/QUOTE] Just a nitpick. His name is spelt Gandhi.