Sumud (, meaning "steadfastness"
[Abed, 1988, p. 288.] or "steadfast perseverance"; derived from the verb ''ṣamada'', meaning "arrange, adorn, lay up, save") is a
Palestinian cultural value, ideological theme and political strategy that emerged in the wake of the 1967
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...
among the
Palestinian people
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous ...
as a consequence of their
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced.
No universally accepted model ...
and the
resistance it inspired.
[Nassar and Heacock, 1990, p. 28.] People who exhibit ''ṣumūd'' are referred to as ''ṣamīdīn'', the singular forms of which are ''ṣamīd'' (m.) and ''ṣamīda'' (f.).
As the term developed, Palestinians have distinguished between two main forms of sumud. The first, "static sumud", is more passive and is defined by
Ibrahim Dhahak as the "maintenance of Palestinians on their land." The second, "resistance sumud" (), is a more dynamic
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...
whose aim is to seek ways of building alternative institutions so as to resist and undermine the Israeli occupation of
Palestine
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
.
[
The ultimate ]symbol
A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...
associated with the concept of sumud and the Palestinian sense of rootedness in the land is the olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
tree, ubiquitous throughout Palestine
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
.[Schulz and Hammer, 2003, p. 105.] Another icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
of sumud that has often been portrayed in Palestinian artwork is that of the mother, and more specifically, a peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
woman depicted as pregnant.[
]
Origins and development
In the West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
, sumud represented the Palestinian political strategy as adopted from 1967 onward. As a concept closely related to the land, agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
and indigenousness, the ideal image of the Palestinian put forward at this time was that of the peasant (in Arabic, ''fellah
A fellah ( ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a local peasant, usually a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller".
Due to a con ...
'') who stayed put on his land, refusing to leave.[ ]Baruch Kimmerling
Baruch Kimmerling (Hebrew: ברוך קימרלינג; 16 October 1939 – 20 May 2007) was an Israeli scholar and professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Upon his death in 2007, ''The Times'' described him as "the first academ ...
writes that the adoption of a strategy of sumud was motivated by a desire to avoid a second ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
.[Kimmerling, 2003, p. 15.] Sumud as a strategy is more passive than the strategy adopted by the Palestinian fedayeen
Palestinian fedayeen () are militants or guerrillas of a nationalist orientation from among the Palestinian people. Most Palestinians consider the fedayeen to be Resistance movement, freedom fighters, while most Israelis consider them to be Pa ...
, though it has provided an important subtext to the narrative of the fighters, "in symbolising continuity and connections with the land, with peasantry and a rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...
way of life."[
]
Static sumud
In the 1970s, as the shift away from the underground militant activities of the Palestinian fedayeen fully gave way to the notion of sumud among Palestinians still living in what was once historic Palestine, the mother emerged as a representation of the sumud ideology. The heritage
Heritage may refer to:
History and society
* A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...
and folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
movement also thrived at this time, and the poster art produced made the image of visibly pregnant peasant women an icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
of sumud.[Jetter et al., 1997, p. 163.]
In the late 1970s, sumud called for "a collective third way between submission and exile
Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...
, between passivity and ... violence
Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
to end the occupation." Static sumud, though underscored by the determination to stay on one's land, was also characterized by an attitude of resignation. The objective of simply remaining in place manifested itself in a reliance on international aid
In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Th ...
such as that received from ''The Steadfastness Aid Fund of the Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
ian-Palestinian Joint Committee'', established by the Arab Summit Conference in Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
in 1978.[
]
Resistance sumud
The emergence of medical relief committees in the early 1980s, made up of doctors from hospitals in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
who would spend their days off volunteer
Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...
ing to establish and operate clinics
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care need ...
in Palestinian village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
s, was the first widespread manifestation of resistance sumud. By 1983, eight such committees were providing medical services throughout the West Bank. Uniting to form the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, this grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...
organization provided a model for other such committees which emerged in the years and decades to follow.[
In the mid-1980s ]Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...
, describing how sumud is a political strategy that is prerequisite to fighting, said, "The most important element in the Palestinian program is holding onto the land. Holding onto the land and not warfare
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of State (polity), states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or betwe ...
alone. Warfare comes at a different level. If you only fight — that is a tragedy. If you fight and emigrate
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
— that is a tragedy. The basis is that you hold on and fight. The important thing is that you hold onto the land and afterward — combat."[Schulz and Hammer, 2003, p. 106-107.]
Sumud in this sense has meant "staying put despite continuous assault." It is not merely about passive endurance, but "an act of unyielding resistance and defiance." Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...
s, both those living within and outside of the occupied territories, often describe their ability to both resist and endure camp
Camp may refer to:
Areas of confinement, imprisonment, or for execution
* Concentration camp, an internment camp for political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or minority ethnic groups
* Extermination ...
life as sumud. The holding out of Palestinian refugees against the assaults on Tel al-Zaatar and Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
are cited as prime examples of sumud.[
Noam Chomsky, in his book The Fateful Triangle, quotes Raja Shehadeh who says that there are three ways to resist occupation: "blind hatred" ("the terrorist"), "mute submission" ("the moderate"), and the way of "the Samid". He quotes Shehadeh as saying "You, Samid, choose to stay in that prison, because it is your home, and because you fear that if you leave, your jailer will not allow you to return. Living like this, you must constantly resist the twin temptations of either acquiescing in the jailer's plan in numb despair, or becoming crazed by consuming hatred for your jailer and yourself, the prisoner."]
At the conclusion of the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis, a woman doctor in Gaza told Israeli journalist Amira Hass:
Now we're back home. I was so happy to return to the garden and our doves. They didn't die, although we hadn't fed them for four days. Like us, they also know the meaning of sumud (steadfastness)... Generation after generation, the Nakba
The Nakba () is the ethnic cleansing; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their s ...
(catastrophe of 1948) continues. Wherever we go, the Jews persecute us. But they won't eliminate us, that's impossible. They must understand that. We aren't (American) Indians. We'll stay and we will multiply. Nor will we forget... We don't believe in parties, in Hamas
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...
or Fatah
Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
. They can go to hell. But we have faith in God, in our people, in our land, in our homeland.
Non-violent civil disobedience
Since 1967, nonviolent protests mounted by Palestinians, such as general strike
A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...
s, boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
s and demonstrations, have been intimately associated with the concept of sumud. Raja Shehadeh's conceptualization of sumud, as a non-violent attitude of life that could forge a third way between acceptance of the occupation and opting for violent struggle, gave a voice to those many Palestinians who refused to leave their land and tried to go on with their daily lives. While simply carrying on with daily life under often impossible circumstances can in itself be considered a form of non-violent resistance, more active forms of non-violent civil disobedience have also been inspired and informed by the concept of sumud. In recent years, as a response to a spike of Israeli demolitions around At-Tuwani
Tawani or at-Tuwani () is a small Palestinian Territories, Palestinian village in the south Hebron Hills of the Hebron Governorate. Many of the village's residents live in caves. The village is located south-east of the village of Yatta, Hebron ...
and neighbouring villages in the South Hebron Hills, a ''Youth for Sumud'' group has formed, whose aim is to organize protests at the occupation and inspire locals to stay on their land in the face of persistent military and settler harassment.
First Intifada
During the First Intifada (1987–1993) the concept of resistance sumud gained full expression in the focus on "freeing Palestinians from dependence on Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
by refusing to cooperate and by building independent institutions and committees."[
A comprehensive nonviolence action plan, announced by Hanna Siniora and Mubarak Awad in January 1988, called upon Palestinians to boycott Israeli products and end cooperation with Israel. Merchants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank shut down their shops in protest over Israel's treatment of demonstrators. Palestinian women began to cultivate crops on previously uncultivated land so as to supplant the need for Israeli produce, and underground, makeshift schools were opened by Palestinians to respond to Israel's closure of 900 educational establishments in the occupied territories.][
In September–October 1989, as Israel tried to quell the Intifada, tax
raids were implemented, whereby Israeli military forces and tax officials would enter a town, levying heavy taxes against Palestinian individuals and businesses, and walking out with millions of dollars in savings, goods and household items. In ]Beit Sahour
Beit Sahour or Beit Sahur (; Palestine grid 170/123) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian town east of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank in the State of Palestine. The city is under the administration of the Palestinian Nat ...
, villagers responded by mounting a tax revolt under the slogan, " No Taxation without Representation." The refusal to pay taxes was met with the imposition of a total Israeli siege
A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...
on the village, preventing the entry of food and medical supplies, withholding electricity supplies and imposing strict curfew
A curfew is an order that imposes certain regulations during specified hours. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to remain indoors during the evening and nighttime hours. Such an order is most often issued by public authorit ...
s. Personal belongings, furniture, factory machinery and cars were confiscated by the army and many residents of Beit Sahour were also beaten and arrested. The villagers nevertheless persisted until Israel called off the siege and the raids at the end of October 1989, due to media exposure and the ensuing international outcry.[
]
Symbols, icons, literary references
In addition to the peasant, and the pregnant peasant woman in particular, the olive tree
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
and its long history of rootedness in the region is a primary symbol of sumud for Palestinians. This association manifested itself in Palestinian poetry, such as in Raja Shehadeh's 1982 poem which reads: "Sometimes, when I am walking in the hills ... unselfconsciously enjoying the touch of the hard land under my feet, the smell of thyme
Thyme () is a culinary herb consisting of the dried aerial parts of some members of the genus ''Thymus (plant), Thymus'' of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are native to Eurasia and north Africa. Thymes have culinary, medici ...
and the hills and trees around me, I find myself looking at an olive tree, and as I am looking at it, it transforms itself before my eyes into a symbol of the ''samidin'', of our struggle, of loss. And at that very moment I am robbed of the tree; instead there is a hollow space into which anger and pain flow."
Shehadeh, a West Bank lawyer, did not confine his references to sumud to poetry. In his book ''The Third Way'' (1982), he wrote, "We ''samidin'' cannot fight the Israelis' brute physical force but we must keep the anger burning — steel our wills to fight the lies. It is up to us to remember and record."[Kemp, 2004, p. 139-140.] Adriana Kemp notes of his representation of the samid that it is a situation of ambivalence, citing Shaehadeh's note on his voluntary return to the West Bank after being in Europe where he could have stayed, wherein he writes, "It is strange coming back like this, of your own free will, to the chains of sumud."[ Shehadeh also harshly critiqued the Palestinian elite who benefitted from paying "only widely patriotic lip-service to our struggle, ]hich
Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...
was more than my sumud in my poor and beloved land could stomach." Ironically, many Palestinians viewed people like Shehadeh, from a notable middle-class family in the West Bank, as forming part of the strata which benefitted most from the policies of financial support for the Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...
(PLO) in the 1980s and accused them of promoting maintenance of the status quo through the policy of sumud.[
]Edward Said
Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...
found encouragement in the increased self-consciousness and determination to stay in historic Palestine that had gained prominence among Palestinians in the occupied territories. In ''After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives'' (1986), he references Shehadeh's work and characterizes sumud as "an entirely successful tactical solution" at a time when no efficacious strategy is available.
In ''My Enemy, Myself'' (1989), Yoram Binur, an Israeli journalist and committed Zionist
Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
who lived undercover as an Arab labourer for six months in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
and Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
in order to experience what such a life might be like, describes sumud as "an attitude, a philosophy, and a way of life." It is " ..a more basic form of resistance growing out of the idea that merely to exist, to survive and to remain on one's land is an act of defiance — especially when deportation is the one thing that Palestinians fear most."
In describing more active forms of sumud, Binur tells of his encounter with two Arabs who were employed as construction workers at the Israeli settlement
Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...
of Beit El
Beit El or Beth El () is an Israeli settlement and local council (Israel), local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish town was settled in 1977–78 by the ultranationalist group Gush Emu ...
. In response to Binur's admonishment (in his role as an Arab) for working for the "worst of them", the workers replied that not only does the money they receive for such work allow them to be samidin by living where they are, but that in their work they take advantage of every opportunity to "fight them". Binur asks, "What can you do as a simple labourer?" To which one of the workers replies:"Quite a bit. First of all, after I lay the tiles in the bathroom or kitchen of an Israeli settler
Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...
, when the tiles are all in place and the cement has already dried, I take a hammer and break a few. When we finish installing sewage pipes, and the Jewish subcontractor has checked to see that everything is alright, then I stuff a sackful of cement into the pipe. As soon as the water runs through that pipe the cement gets hard as rock, and the sewage system becomes blocked."
Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian artist, has produced images that "gave visual form to the newly formulated ideology of Sumud", which Gannit Ankori describes as "a firm rootedness in the land, regardless of the hardships and humiliation caused by occupation." Among the examples of Mansour's work that are cited by Ankori are two oils on canvas, ''Olive-picking'' (1987) and ''Olive-picking Triptych'' (1989).[Ankori, 2006, pp. 73-74.]
Muhannad 'Abd Al-Hamid, columnist for the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, wrote that resistance (''muqawama'') is the legitimate right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
of the Palestinian people, but that, in light of its steep cost and limited results, other means of struggle should be used. Al-Hamid argues that:[http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=palestinian&ID=IA53809 MEMRI. "Fatah Members: "The Principle of Resistance and Armed Struggle Must Not Be Relinquished."" by C. Jacob, 6 August 2009. Retrieved: 27 August 2009.]
"Resistance is survival and steadfastness. It is planting trees, developing education, boycotting Israeli products, aunchinga popular uprising against the racist separation fence, building homes in astJerusalem, reopening the institutions here
Here may refer to:
Music
* ''Here'' (Adrian Belew album), 1994
* ''Here'' (Alicia Keys album), 2016
* ''Here'' (Cal Tjader album), 1979
* ''Here'' (Edward Sharpe album), 2012
* ''Here'' (Idina Menzel album), 2004
* ''Here'' (Merzbow album), ...
struggling against all forms of corruption, boycotting companies that contribute to the Judaization of Jerusalem and also to the building of the settlements, and also boycotting companies that supply arms to the occupation army. There are a hundred more ways of resistance that will damage the occupation more than they will damage us, while preserving the legitimate right of resistance under conditions that will not harm the security and interests of the alestinianpeople.
However, some other high-profile Fatah members, such as Husam Khader, declared: "Fatah has not changed its national identity, and it retains the option of resistance and armed struggle. But now, for the first time ... it is permitting the option of negotiations as one of the Palestinian people's strategic options and as a possible way of attaining its political goals."[
]
Contemporary references and applications
A photography exhibition, ''The Spirit of Sumud'', composed by James Prineas and supported by the Arab Educational Institute and the Artas Folklore Center in Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
and Palestine-Family.net, defines sumud today as "the non-violent resistance of the Palestinians against land confiscation and ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
. Like an old olive tree deeply rooted to the ground, those practicing sumud refuse to move away despite political, economic and physical injustices committed against them."
Michael Oliphant, a South African Ecumenical Accompanier based in Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
as part of a program coordinated by the World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...
(WCC), discusses the importance of sumud to Palestinian life in withstanding economic and political hardships. In a March 2007 report describing his experiences in the West Bank, he writes that sumud "describes the Palestinian spirit or geist
''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. ''Geist'' can be roughly translated into three English meanings: ghost (as in the supernatural entity), spirit (as in the Holy Spirit), and mind or int ...
. Regardless of the situation, Sumud kicks in and regulates the response to the threat or danger and humanity kicks in and lifts the communal spirit and makes coping possible — coping at all costs. This has the effect of presenting a deception that all is okay. More importantly it also engenders sharing widely amongst family members: better to have 20 families sharing 3000 shekels than 19 families going hungry." Oliphant also likened sumud to the traditional Southern Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
n concept of ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...
.
Toine van Teeffelen of the Arab Educational Institute in Bethlehem defines the sumud concept as, "on the one hand, elatingto a vertical dimension, 'standing strong' on the land, having deep roots. On the other hand", sumud indicates "a horizontal time dimension – an attitude of patience and persistence, of not giving up", despite the odds. Motivated by the need to find sources of hope in the present Palestinian context, the Arab Educational Institute recently developed pedagogical applications of the sumud concept, taking it outside strictly political boundaries. The following values are stressed as constitutive of sumud: its democratic or participative character, openness to many different life stories, agency or willpower, an aesthetic perspective, and the possibility of connecting sumud with wider human values and circles of community.[See For a contribution on sumud as "resistance in daily life," explaining the aims of the Peace Sumud House established near the Separation Wall at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, see . ]
See also
* Olive wood carving in Palestine
* Psychological resilience
Psychological resilience, or mental resilience, is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis, or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.
The term was popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by psychologist Emmy Werner as she conduc ...
* Sisu
is a Finnish word variously translated as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness. It is held by Finns to express their national character. It is generally considered not to have a single-word ...
, a Finnish concept somewhat similar to sumud
* Stiff upper lip
* Thawabit
Al-Thawabit al-Wataniyya (), shortened as Thawabit ('fundamental principles') and sometimes referred to as Palestinian red-lines, are a set of Palestinian principles representing the core issues of national consensus on the Israeli–Palestinian ...
, a set of fundamental national principles formulated by the PLO in 1977
* '' The Olive Harvest'', a 2003 Palestinian film directed by Hanna Elias
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
{{refend
External links
Sumud vs. Apartheid
by Jeff Halper
Jeff Halper (; born 1946) is an Israeli-American anthropologist, author, lecturer, and political activist who has lived in Israel since 1973. He is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and a co-founder of The On ...
Sumud: Soul of the Palestinian People by Dr. Toine van Teeffelen
Arabic words and phrases
Palestinian nationalism
Culture of Palestine (region)