Nonviolent Resistance in the Western Sahara by Naomi Dann • Solidarity Rising

March 7, 2024

Nonviolent Resistance in the Western Sahara

Naomi Dann argues that the nonviolent resistance movement in Western Sahara is overshadowed by coverage of violence, both in Moroccan state media and in Western news. Her case study is the Gdeim Izik protest camp set up near El Aaiún in October 2010. The camp grew from a few dozen tents to thousands of people and stayed peaceful for a month before Moroccan security forces destroyed it in November 2010. Its demands focused on discrimination in housing and jobs.

Dann looks at the obstacles nonviolent activists face: a Moroccan media blackout, restrictions on foreign journalists and a news culture that favours conflict over peaceful action. She points to Aminatou Haidar’s hunger strike in 2009 as a successful effort to draw international attention, and describes the use of tents to occupy public space as a powerful symbol. She also notes that the protest did not cause the economic disruption that would have given it more leverage.

Her main concern is the cycle of violence after the camp was destroyed, when some young Sahrawis turned to force. She recommends training in nonviolence for young people and concludes that sustained nonviolence is both a moral and a practical necessity for a movement facing a much stronger army with little UN support, and that its success depends on media attention and international solidarity.