The grandson of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, is to join a series of civil based protests against the Israeli occupation.
A Ramallah based coalition of Palestinian anti-wall protestors, members of non-governmental organizations, and Fatah activists are organizing the events.
Gandhi, head of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in the United States, will be the star speaker in three mass rallies planned in Ramallah, Abu Dis and Bethlehem between August 26 and August 29.
The civil based protests were coordinated with the Palestinians for Peace and Democracy group in the U.S. The group’s leader, Mohammed Al Atar, said they felt ‘an urgency to find another way to resist occupation.’
Terry Boulata of East Jerusalem, the principal of a private school in Abu Dis and a major anti-fence activist, played a central rule in linking Ramallah group and the U.S. based one.
The separation wall separates Boulata’s home from her place of work and from her husband’s family.
In a telephone call from the United States, Gandhi said he is coming both to learn and to teach his philosophy.
‘I will tell the Palestinians that it is their responsibility to change. If the Israelis do not want to listen, it does not mean we cannot act.’ He said.
