Violence in Palestine: an example of Bullying Behaviour

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Violence in Palestine an example of Bullying
Behaviour

• Dr. Maria-Jose Lera
• Seville University

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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

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ResearchUniversity Students
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Imbalance of Power?
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Number of victims in the last years
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Repeated over time?
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UN RESOLUTIONS AGAINST
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Bullying as social phenomena and roles
Ayudante ayudante animador animador VÍCTIMA
Agresor
Víctima
Defensor defensor
Ausente Ausente Ausente
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(No Transcript)
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Relaciones y roles de los implicados en la
violencia escolar
HELPER USA animador animador VÍCTIMA
Agressor ISRAEL
VICTIM PALESTINE
Defensor UN
AUDIENCE EUROPE
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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.

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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 ......................D
  emocracy 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

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• 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

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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.

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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.

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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!!!

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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