Activism is for change, for uniting

An activist is a person who feels strongly about a cause, who is also willing to dedicate time and energy towards advancing and realising this cause.

This might be my own limited interpretation of what activism means.

I was born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where the daily struggles of the community included challenging military occupation while attempting to survive under the harshest of circumstances.

Activism then involved civil disobedience, general strikes and confronting armed Israeli soldiers with stones and slingshots. But it also involved much more than that.

Activists in my refugee camp ensured the community remained unified in the face of adversity.

They provided sustainable community support to families with sons and daughters that were killed in clashes or incarcerated in Israeli prisons.

They rebuilt people's homes after they were demolished by Israeli dynamite or bulldozers. Some activists even offered free haircuts to those who couldn't afford them.

Activism, as I understood it, was largely a unifying, proactive force that kept the struggle and resistance alive.

When I left the refugee camp I had a massive culture shock when I witnessed the lack of any sense of community in the West.

These societies were formed of bustling cities full of nameless people trying to advance their own lot in life or, in the case of working-class people, to survive.

Due to the nature of my work I also travelled to numerous countries in the Middle East, south-east Asia and parts of Africa. I found it interesting and uplifting to see how societies ravaged by poverty, military occupations, civil war, sanctions and natural disasters tended to somehow also be the most communal, forward-thinking and effective at problem-solving.

In poorer societies entire communities can, in fact, be classified as "activists." They don't necessarily have websites or hold regular meetings.

Some draw their strength from holy books, ancient philosophies or traditions. Their dialectics are often straightforward rather than academic.

A child from Gaza who lost her family in its most recent war on the strip said, through gushing tears, that her loss would not weaken her resolve to free her country. Today she is being raised by neighbours and hopes to be a journalist.

While organising in support of the Palestinian struggle is not an easy task in most Western societies, it is still an essential one. Israel is armed and financed by the US and other Western governments.

It is the activists who hold the political key to reining in the Israeli military menace that has tormented Palestinians for generations.

The activists in the West who organise in support of the Palestinians also unwittingly contribute to their suffering - their taxes are used to arm Israel, their votes in elections validate the very parties who shield and defend Israel's crimes, and their media consumption feeds the very corporations that taint the victim as aggressor.

Activism, at least in the Palestine-Israel context, is not a matter of choice in Western societies - it is a moral responsibility.

Over the course of the last 15 years I have come across some of the world's most passionate, compassionate and sincere individuals. That is unquestionably a good thing. But I have also become disheartened and disappointed.

Many leftist groups insist on placing Palestine into its anti-imperialist campaign merely as a rally cry. Disenchanted leftists endlessly quarrel. Some cannot even stand the sight of one another.

There are the anti-zionist Jewish groups and the anti-anti-zionist Jewish groups. There are those who believe that the pro-Israel zionist lobby almost exclusively dictates Washington's policies on the Middle East, and those who believe that the lobby is getting its way simply because their agenda is consistent with Washington's existing agenda.

Different groups have their own meetings, petitions, rallies and merchandise, often competing with or rejecting each other. Take any issue pertinent to pro-Palestinian activism and you will find vastly differing factions that won't converge or meet.

Activism should not be bound by mere personal affiliation, and nor should it unreservedly embrace or accept ideological dogmas. Activists are ambassadors for their cause.

They must certainly be morally focused, but there should also be a willingness to serve as a unifying force and to strategise and organise accordingly.

Ramzy Baroud is an internationally syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).