Abstract
“If only there was a Palestinian Gandhi.” In recent years this has been a common sentiment expressed by leading international figures such as United States President Barak Obama.¹ This is part of a wider liberal argument that failures to establish a sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians are primarily a consequence of Palestinian terrorism, and that if the Palestinians would embrace nonviolence, they would gain the support of the international community—including the USA—as well as find a resonant response within Israel itself. In reality, however, Palestinians have a long history of relying on nonviolence to resist oppression...