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Charts on Structural Violence

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Jean Zaru's Chart on Forms of Violence Against Palestinians

Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks by Jean Zaru (2008)

Possible Responses

Forms of Violence

  • Build multiple nonviolent strategies for resistance and confidence building (e.g., Witness for Peace, international solidarity movements, and international protection forces)

  • Expose and delegitimize the violence of the powerful and the state

  • Advocate ban on arms sales and production

  • Advocate human rights and international law

  • Economic boycott

  • Arms embargo

Direct Violence

  • Killing (e.g. targeting civilians, political assassinations)

  • Torture

  • Domestic violence

  • Closure, siege

  • Use of civilians as human shields

  • Imprisonment without charge or trial

  • Expulsions

  • House demolitions

  • Advocate economic rights, water rights, land rights, and ecological sustainability

  • Create jobs

  • Advocate fair trade

  • Advocate right sharing of resources

Economic Structural Violence

  • Restrictions by Israel (e.g., road blocks, closure, control of roads, house curfew)

  • Unemployment and impoverishment

  • Economic marginalization and exclusion

  • Exploitation of water, land, people’s work

  • Destruction of civil society and infrastructure

  • No protection

  • Advocate political rights according to international law and UN resolutions

  • Advocate human, water, and land rights

  • Advocate for self-determination

Political Structural Violence

  • Military occupation

  • Settlements

  • Denial of self-determination, sovereignty, right
    of return

  • Closures

  • Siege

  • Encagement

  • Fragmentation

  • Media and education strategies building on authentic witness

  • Dialogue

  • Encounter

  • Participation in decision making

  • Learn about Palestinian history and heritage

Cultural Structural Violence

  • Stereotyping of Palestinians, Arabs, women in the media, education, language

  • Anti-Arabism

  • Discrimination of women

  • Imposition of other cultures and their value systems (e.g., patriarchal culture, Western culture)

  • Authoritarianism and glorification of militarism/the violence of the state and direct violence

  • Destruction/shelling of cultural heritage sites, both archeological and architectural

  • Expose the political chauvinism of fundamentalist movements and their stand against women, as well as their religious and political exclusivity

  • Contextual and liberation theology based on nonviolence

  • Work for ecumenism and unity

  • Disassociate ourselves from fundamentalisms

  • Education on Islam (e.g., among Christians)

  • Alternative pilgrimages

Religious Structural Violence

  • Language (chosenness)

  • Disunity among the churches

  • Christian Zionism

  • Fundamentalisms

  • Demonization of Islam

  • Negation of Arab and Middle Eastern Christians (e.g., pilgrimages without contact with local Christians, missionary movements)

  • Adherence to international environmental conventions and protocols (e.g., Convention on Combating Desertification, Convention of Conservation of Biodiversity, Kyoto Protocol)

  • Adherence to Geneva Conventions which call for protection of natural resources of Occupied Territories

  • Observe international human rights standards which call for clean water and sanitation

  • Support international environmental organizations working in the Occupied Territories

  • Eco-friendly tourism

  • Support greening campaigns in Occupied Territories

  • Recycle, reuse, reduce

Environmental Structural Violence

  • Confiscation and destruction of agricultural land

  • Uprooting of trees

  • Pirating and diversion of water resources
    Restrictions on water well drilling and water capture

  • Dumping of solid and toxic waste in Occupied Territories

  • Settlement sewage onto village lands

  • Restrictions on movement and settles violence prevent farmers access to their lands

  • Damaged infrastructure leads to public health problems such as no clean water and no refrigeration for vaccines

Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice:
An African-American Quaker Scholar-Activist Challenges Conventional Narratives (2020)
by Harold d. weaver, jr.

The BlackQuaker Project Chart

on Selected Direct and Structural Violence against African Americans

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Direct Violence

•    Police brutality
•    Mass incarceration 
•    Expulsion/eviction from homes
•    Gang violence
•    Burning of African American churches
 

Economic Structural Violence

•    Poverty
•    Unemployment
•    Inadequate minimum wage
•    Urban renewal/razing Black neighborhoods
•    Lack of municipal resources in Black neighborhoods
•    Redlining residential areas/housing segregation  
 

Political Structural Violence

•    Voter ID Laws
•    Mandatory minimum sentencing and three-strike laws
•    Increased use of death penalty
•    Voter disenfranchisement for ex-felons
•    Election days on work days 
•    Restricting vote by mail
•    Militarization of the police force
 

Cultural Structural Violence

  • Appropriation of African culture into mainstream, white culture

  • Stereotyping of people of color in media

  • Destruction of Afrocentric cultural landmarks

  • Construction of Eurocentric, anti-Black monuments and landmarks

  • Omission from and distortion of African American history in the larger US narrative

Religious Structural Violence

•    Islamophobia 

Environmental Structural Violence

•    Lead poisoning in tap water (Flint, MI)
•    Cancer corridor stretch from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, LA
•    Dangerous chemicals in older homes (asbestos, lead paint, etc.)
•    Polluted air in urban areas
•    Food deserts (no availability of fresh food)
 

Health Structural Violence

•    Racist medical assumptions and practices 
•    Prescription overpricing 
•    Opioid epidemic
•    Criminalization of drug use
•    Linkage of health insurance to employment 
•    Increased maternal health risks

Educational Structural Violence

  • School-to-prison pipeline

  • Demand that students behave “white” (school policies against Black natural hair)

  • Over-punishment of Black students

  • Omission of accurate African American history from textbooks

  • Few teachers of color, a lack of role models 

  • Uneven funding between school districts

  • Secondary-school counselors who demean students of color and their capabilities 

  • Lack of high expectations for students of color

  • Racial isolation of school districts

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