.Stirrings of less violent protest in Hamas-ruled Gaza [View All]

[Jefferson23]

by Adel Zaanoun Adel Zaanoun – Wed Apr 14, 3:16 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – They walked across shelled-out no man's land on the edge of the Gaza Strip, drawing within 200 metres (yards) of the Israeli border before gunshots snapped over their heads.

And yet the Palestinians who made their way towards the border last week had not come to fire rockets or bury explosives, but to wave flags and hurl stones in protest against Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

After years of armed struggle, growing numbers of Gazans are now taking up the kind of "popular resistance" pioneered in the West Bank, where similar weekly protests against Israel's controversial separation barrier have emerged as a central expression of the Palestinian cause.

snip* Organisers of the protests insist they are not trying to replace the armed struggle, which they argue is justified under international law because of Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.

But the sheer scale of the war and its lop-sided results may have convinced many Gazans that a less violent strategy may be in order.

"This will have a greater impact than bullets and rockets," Zaq said.

in full: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100414/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazademo_20100414071615