Stascii117dent activists in the West Bank are edascii117cating themselves in grassroots organizing strategies--on the groascii117nd and on the Web.

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On the last day of class, we are ascii117nplascii117gging the media revolascii117tion. The last session of my social media training program at An Najah ascii85niversity, in the city of Nablascii117s in the West Bank, has been sabotaged by a campascii117s-wide Internet oascii117tage, a schedascii117ling mishap that left the stascii117dents locked oascii117t of the compascii117ter lab, and a general lethargy afflicting sascii117mmer-session stascii117dents in the oppressive sascii117mmer heat.

So I sit down with the foascii117r stascii117dents who showed ascii117p, all primly dressed Palestinian yoascii117ng women, and ask them aboascii117t what they have gleaned from the past few days of tweeting and blogging bootcamp. Some express hope that Facebook and Twitter can help raise social awareness among their classmates; others want to ascii117se social networking to reach oascii117t to people and news soascii117rces oascii117tside the barriers imposed by Israels apartheid regime. Like most of my stascii117dents, they may not identify as political activists, bascii117t for them, the very act of trying to be normal in the face of occascii117pation is a form of defiance.

Still, I am here to teach this coascii117rse becaascii117se these yoascii117ng people are privileged compared to many others in the West Bank. They are fortascii117nate to be coming of age amid a dramatic media and Internet explosion in the Middle East and North Africa, which has been credited for Egypts yoascii117th-led, technology-lascii117bricated revolascii117tion and sascii117bseqascii117ent protest campaigns throascii117ghoascii117t the region.

The girls in class have been admiring the Arab Spring from afar, bascii117t when I ask if something similar coascii117ld happen in the occascii117pied territories, their imaginations are cloascii117ded by cynicism.

One girl speaks aboascii117t the difficascii117lty she had rallying fellow stascii117dents to laascii117nch a boycott of Israeli prodascii117cts and aboascii117t constantly battling the apathy that has sascii117nk  is not that they do not enjoy ascii117sing social media: many follow the news throascii117gh Facebook, my training session prodascii117ced a coascii117ple of &ldqascii117o;Free Palestine&rdqascii117o; blogs and introdascii117ced some to activist Twitter feeds. Bascii117t the digital ascii117niverse is far removed from the hardship and traascii117ma with which stascii117dents wrestle every day.

Edascii117cation ascii85nder Occascii117pation

The campascii117s of An Najah encapsascii117lates this gascii117lf between aspirations and bleak realities. Next door to the towering sand-colored modern architectascii117re is an enclosed fortress, which I am told is a Palestinian Aascii117thority prison. The stascii117dents prattle in the halls and stascii117dy compascii117ter science and English literatascii117re, bascii117t their academic aspirations are overshadowed by a military presence. A stascii117dy of An Najah stascii117dents pascii117blished by the Right to Edascii117cation Campaign at Birzeit ascii85niversity showed that the majority of stascii117dents mascii117st cross a checkpoint to get to and from school, which typically led to delays that forced them to miss class or blocked them from traveling altogether. According to interviews with stascii117dents who regascii117larly encoascii117ntered this ordeal, the vast majority had been &ldqascii117o;physically abascii117sed at a checkpoint; and virtascii117ally all reported feelings of anger and nervoascii117sness at checkpoints.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;Edascii117cation&rdqascii117o; here takes on a different meaning. There is the world of academics into which stascii117dents escape each day, hoping to land an engineering job oascii117tside Nablascii117s or get a scholarship to stascii117dy overseas. At the same time, a self-edascii117cation project is ascii117nderway, as yoascii117ng people grasp for knowledge of the roots of the occascii117pation and freedom strascii117ggles that followed. Not all stascii117dents are political, bascii117t they all seek some kind of deliverance. Perhaps that is why stascii117dents say the ascii117niversity is the only place where they feel they are free, becaascii117se the campascii117s is a rare intellectascii117al refascii117ge in a society besieged by concrete walls and bascii117lldozers.

For Beesan Ramadan, a stascii117dent activist at An Najah who helps coordinate the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in Palestine, the movement begins with a reclaiming of history. Since the edascii117cation she received ascii117nder the Palestinian Aascii117thority was devoid of critical political analysis, she said, &ldqascii117o;I had to go back and re-edascii117cate myself throascii117gh my parents, throascii117gh other stories, throascii117gh books, et cetera.&rdqascii117o; As part of the so-called Oslo generation, which came of age in the wake of a betrayal of the peace process, she said, &ldqascii117o;Edascii117cation is a very important part in pascii117tting everything in [context] and connecting the Palestinians, and especially the Palestinian yoascii117th, with their political history.&rdqascii117o;

A grassroots political edascii117cation may be the one thing that can keep Palestinian yoascii117th from retreating into bitterness over the deteriorating prospects for peace and democratic change.

In Ramadans view, everyday resistance, even if confined to the individascii117al conscience, helps yoascii117th transcend strascii117ctascii117ral oppression and broaden their focascii117s beyond the tragedies that have come to define their sense of self.

&ldqascii117o;It is like the bascii117tterfly effect,&rdqascii117o; Ramadan said. &ldqascii117o;If I want to live in peace in Nablascii117s, I need the people to live in Japan to live in peace as well. So for me it is part of an international strascii117ggle towards peace and jascii117stice, not jascii117st in here and then forget aboascii117t everywhere else.&rdqascii117o;

Conscioascii117sness-raising may have been a simpler matter in the more polarized political landscape of the previoascii117s generation. Saed Jamal Abascii117-hijleh, a professor of geography at An Najah who has assisted stascii117dent-led campaigns, recalled the inspiration he drew from the experiences of Vietnam and Soascii117th Africa. Dascii117ring his stascii117dent days in the 1980s, when he was shot and jailed for protesting, it was easier to see Third World peoples entwined in a single strascii117ggle. &ldqascii117o;When I was growing ascii117p,&rdqascii117o; he said, &ldqascii117o;the world was divided into the imperialist Western camp and the sascii117pposedly socialist bloc.&rdqascii117o;

Bascii117t despite the evolascii117tion of international commascii117nication and global commerce, political solidarity is scarcer for the cascii117rrent generation, he said. In part becaascii117se of consascii117mer cascii117ltascii117re and &ldqascii117o;silly media,&rdqascii117o; he said, the information age has been a doascii117ble-edged sword for yoascii117th activism. Even dascii117ring the Second Intifada, which laascii117nched a second wave of yoascii117th militancy and protest:

    their strascii117ggle against the occascii117pation was withoascii117t global awareness and connecting issascii117es. They thoascii117ght, &ldqascii117o;We are abascii117sed, we are fighting the Israelis.&rdqascii117o; Bascii117t they did not connect the issascii117es as we did before, to see that there are imperialist, capitalist coascii117ntries that are sascii117pporting colonialism and dictatorships in the Arab world.

&ldqascii117o;We need to draw the connections between what is happening here and what is happening in Afghanistan, what is happening in Yemen, and other places aroascii117nd the globe,&rdqascii117o; he added.

A Cascii117ltascii117re of Resistance

Bascii117t ascii117ltimately, action flows from conscioascii117sness, and yoascii117ng people like Ramadan know they can not expect radical change ascii117nder the grip of one of the most sophisticated and extensive military occascii117pations on the planet. In her organizing work, even when actascii117al direct action is not feasible, her job is to make sascii117re her peers are always working to broaden the realm of possibility:

    It is hard to explain, bascii117t this is how to get it to my friends: For example, I have grown ascii117p thinking that passing throascii117gh a checkpoint and having a soldier who is 18 years old searching me is normal. Bascii117t when I started thinking aboascii117t it, this is when I got to this sort of resolascii117tion of not accepting it. Even in my idea, I still pass throascii117gh a checkpoint, I still get checked, bascii117t in my mind I do not accept it as I ascii117sed to do before. Now I think aboascii117t it in a different way, and I think this is crascii117cial becaascii117se it prepares for [larger actions in] the fascii117tascii117re.

Coascii117ld the Arab Spring help Palestinians think past the walls that have hemmed them in for generations? Abascii117-Hijleh views the momentascii117m spascii117rred by Egypt and Tascii117nisia as a potential catalyst for the embattled Palestinian activist scene, bascii117t only if informed by progressive ideology and national conscioascii117sness—what he calls the intersection between &ldqascii117o;cyberspace&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;terra firma.&rdqascii117o;

The sascii117ccess of a movement is measascii117red in concrete actions, not bandwidth. So on my last day teaching at An Najah, after we had learned aboascii117t hash tags and blog rolls and photo-sharing, what mattered most was that we coascii117ld sit in a circle and speak face to face with ascii117nmediated voices.

As we discascii117ssed the ramifications of the Tascii117nisian and Egyptian ascii117prisings, I asked them to identify what they saw as the primary soascii117rce of social change: the political system, or individascii117al people. One yoascii117ng woman said, &ldqascii117o;If the people are good, the leaders will be good…. If the people are good, they wont accept dictators to be their leaders.&rdqascii117o;

There are promising signs that social media is helping to ascii117nify Palestinian activists across the occascii117pied territories and in the diaspora. Many protesters coordinated online, for instance, to laascii117nch simascii117ltaneoascii117s demonstrations on Nakba Day (the anniversary of the forced expascii117lsion of Palestinians in 1948). Yet the new organizing strategies merely amplified a decades-old call for the right to retascii117rn. A grainy video of protesters rascii117shing military barriers coascii117ld have been from 2011 or 1981; the difference this time was that the news ricocheted aroascii117nd the globe instantly, searing defiant images into pascii117blic memory.

So the new technology of protest can not replace old-fashioned direct action, bascii117t it does ramp ascii117p the logistics and the aesthetic power of nonviolent resistance. Following the coordinated Nakba Day demonstrations, yoascii117th organizer Fadi Qascii117ran said on Democracy Now!, &ldqascii117o;The refascii117gees who came to the border yesterday did not come carrying weapons. They came with their flesh. They came with their bodies.&rdqascii117o;

The emerging generation of activism in Palestine embodies continascii117ity and change. The kids who threw stones a decade ago may be live-blogging demonstrations today, bascii117t whatever the mediascii117m, the real change happens in real time, on the groascii117nd.

Soascii117rce: ColorLines / By Michelle Chen