Violence in Palestine: an example of Bullying Behaviour

1. Violence in Palestine: an example of Bullying Behaviour Dr. Maria-Jose Lera Seville University

2. Bullying definition • A person is being bullied when he/she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons. • Negative action is when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways. • Olweus suggested that bullying occurs only when there is an "imbalance of power." (Dan Olweus) • Imbalance of power • Repetition • Intention

3. ResearchUniversity Students

4. Imbalance of Power?

5. Number of victims in the last years

6. Repeated over time?

7. UN RESOLUTIONS AGAINST

8. Bullying as social phenomena and roles Ayudante ayudante animador animador VÍCTIMA Agresor Víctima Defensor defensor Ausente Ausente Ausente

10. Relaciones y roles de los implicados en la violencia escolar HELPER USA animador animador VÍCTIMA Agressor ISRAEL VICTIM PALESTINE Defensor UN AUDIENCE EUROPE

11. Moral Disengagement • the strategies most frequently used by aggressors are moral disengagement mechanisms in order to be able to carry on such kind of deathly attacks against innocent people. • That kind of mechanisms are • using euphemisms • need to defend themselves • stereotypes and dehumanization • blaming the victims for the consequences of the aggressors.

12. Examples of Euphemisms • Violence or aggressive war against Palestinians..... Conflict • Global aggressive war ..................................Spreading democracy Individual resistance to aggressive war ..........Terrorism Group resistance to aggressive war ................Insurgency National resistance to aggressive war ..............Terrorist state / rogue state Political leader of resistance to aggressive war...Dictator / Tyrant Any Muslim who questions aggressive war ........al-Qaeda Any other person who questions aggressive war...Militant Department that promotes aggressive war.......... Department of defense Invasion to promote aggressive war .................. Incursion Israeli agents of aggressive war ....................... Israeli defense force Victims of aggressive war (the people of Gaza) .... Enemy entity Popular support for aggressive war ......................Democracy Massive funding for rich weapons makers............. Supporting the troops Genocide ......................................................... Degrading the enemy Civil society (children, man, women) kidnapped…… prisioners or detained • Soldier prisioner ………………………………………………….. kidnapped

13. Attack .............................................................. Defend Facts / evidence / objective reality ....................... Enemy propaganda Theft of natural resources ..................................Liberation Violence in pursuit of theft................................... National security Destroying civilians themselves ........................... Collateral damage Psychopathic mercenaries /death squads .............. Security forces Torture ..............................................................Interrogation We will nuke anyone anytime we like ...................... All options are on the table Distraction while we prepare to strike again ............... Peace process (which never ends) A child who got killed when she got in the way ........... Human shield Apartheid wall .......................................................Security fence Muslim .................................................................Islamist or Islamofascist Islam ...................................................................Anti-American radicalism Questioning zionist atrocities ...................................Anti-semitism Questioning U.S. funding for israel ............................Anti-semitism

14. The right of self-defense? • The need to defend themselves from any attack, in spite of the fact that they have been attacking Palestinians, Lebanese, and other Arabic countries for a long time. • So, they have nuclear missiles at Dimona.

15. Stereotypes and deshumanisation • Using any kind of information and propaganda to show that Palestinians are not human beings, such as: • Exaggeration of any negative aspect of Palestinian society • Words like dirty, terrorist, amoral, liars, evil, and associated with religion.

16. Blame the victim • Dissemination of any information that supports “they deserve it” , • Examples: The conference cannot be done in Gaza because one soldier is detained, so they deserve not to have water, electricity, food, medicines, not even visiters. • And affecting 1.5 millions of people!!!

17. Conclusions 1.- In spite of the lack of information, students (and most people) do know that it is “aggressive violence” rather than a “conflict”. 2.- Therefore interventions cannot be Mediation (which assume that both sides have equal power) • It must be: • Empowerment of the victim • Disempowerment of the aggresors 3.- Resilience must be developed for Palestinian people. Resilience is related to: • Family relations and security • Capacity of sense of humour • Creativity • Hope 4.- Interventions in social context are necessary in schools and families, as counselling and intervention programs to improved peaceful climate, security, trust, and care. 5.- Intervention programmes like Golden5 are highly recommended for schools and teachers