Monday, May 24, 2010

Abu Mariya

This week's Economist had an article on a Palestinian protest leader in the West Bank named Abu Mariya. The thrust of their article is that both Fatah and Hamas are trying to gain legitimacy by linking themselves to the peaceful protests led by Abu Mariya. Until the Economist article, I hadn't heard of Abu Mariya, who is apparently married to a Jewish-American and is behind a lot of the peaceful protesting we've been seeing in the West Bank. Shouldn't more be done to highlight peaceful leaders such as this one? A high-profile peaceful resistance movement would undermine the hawks on both side--note Hamas members marching along the peaceful protesters, trying to reclaim lost status in the West Bank.