Summary
Falk’s name — replacing his earlier “legitimacy war” — for the turn in Palestinian grand strategy he advocates and traces through Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope: a nonviolent, soft-power strategy of resistance and liberation resting on international law, human rights standards and morality, mobilising Palestinians and a global solidarity movement to change the political climate in Israel and the United States (PDF p.20-23).
Details
- Definition in the Introduction: “The essence of this legitimacy struggle is its reliance on soft-power initiatives that draw on the capacity of people to serve as the principal agents of historical change.” It was, Falk argues, “creatively prefigured by the intifada of 1987” (PDF p.21).
- The rename: Falk had used “legitimacy war” as the thread of the book; persuaded by friends and critics that “war” is misleading and regressive, he writes that he will “from now on refer to this turn in the Palestinian grand strategy of resistance and liberation” (PDF p.20). The older term continues to appear in the posts themselves, written before the rename (for example PDF p.30, p.44, p.60, p.64-69).
- Its main arena at present is the BDS movement; its target “is not the sovereign state of Israel, but Israeli policies and practices”, and it “affirms rights under international law for both Israelis and Palestinians on the basis of equality and respect for other ethnicities” (PDF p.22-23).
- Its historical claim: the side prevailing in a legitimacy struggle has generally — not always — controlled the political outcome of conflicts since the end of World War II; the anticolonial struggles, Vietnam, Eastern Europe in the 1980s and the South African anti-apartheid campaign are Falk’s exhibits, and Tibet, Kashmir and Chechnya his counter-instances (PDF p.21-22, p.25).
- In the December 2013 post the approach is described as Hegelian rather than Marxist: its battlefields are “mainly symbolic and nonterritorial” and its mechanism “the conversion of ideas into people power” (PDF p.64-65).
- Genuine hope, as distinct from optimism: “It is a time when genuine hope becomes plausible thanks to Palestinian successes in waging a multifront legitimacy war.” (PDF p.69)
Related pages
Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, Richard Falk, BDS movement, Lawfare, Self-determination, First Intifada