https://www.marxist.com/a-revolutionary-way-forward-for-the-palestinian-liberation-struggle.htm
A revolutionary way forward for the Palestinian liberation struggle
Hamid Alizadeh20 May 2020
Image: Joe Catron, Flickr
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We publish here an open letter to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner
Solidarity Network. The network has published an open appeal called “It
is time for the ‘Palestinian leadership’ to go!” This statement can be
read below the letter.
Dear comrades of Samidoun,
The Palestinian liberation struggle has always been a question of
extreme importance for Marxists. We were therefore very pleased to read
your latest appeal, “It is time for the ‘Palestinian leadership’ to
go!”, which one of your affiliates in Canada brought to our attention.
The appeal embodies the revolutionary will and determination which has
always characterised the Palestinian people. We wholeheartedly support
the revolutionary spirit in which it is written. But, there is one
important weakness in the appeal which we believe needs to be discussed.
Below, we will attempt to outline this and hopefully make a modest
contribution to the discussion about the way forward for the Palestinian
revolution.
For 72 years, the Palestinian people have been exposed to the most
barbaric oppression at the hands of Israeli imperialism. The Israeli
state has denied millions of Palestinian men, women, and children their
most basic rights. It has met the demand for a homeland with the
cruellest forms of persecution. Millions of lives have been lost or
destroyed in the process.
Gaza border protest Image מינוזיג MinoZig
The oppression of the Palestinians is a fundamental pillar of the
Israeli regime. On this question, the regime is united / Image: מינוזיג
MinoZig
The oppression of the Palestinians is a fundamental pillar of the
Israeli regime. The ruling class needs to foment nationalist hatred and
war hysteria to galvanise the most-reactionary layers of society behind
it on the one hand, and to use fear to keep other layers of society in
check on the other. Thus, on the Palestinian question, the regime is
always united. As the political crisis in Israel deepens, this has
become clearer. In the three elections of the past year, the two wings
of the regime rallying behind Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Ganz were
ruthless in their attacks on each other. But when it came to annexing
more Palestinian territory, they were in complete unity. Benny Ganz, who
is a darling of western liberals, was often more rabid in his proposals
than Netanyahu. Now he is the minister of defence, in charge of carrying
out the plans of Israeli imperialism.
The west is not without its responsibilities in the crimes of the
Zionists against the Palestinian people. The so-called democratic
governments and their lackeys in the western media are either silent
about the conflict, or crudely distort it to depict the Palestinians and
the Israeli military machine as two equal parties. They are the enemies
of the Palestinian workers and poor. And all the begging and pleading of
the liberals and NGOs will not change this fact. US and European
imperialism support the Israeli regime. They have spent hundreds of
billions of dollars in military and financial aid to create a bulwark of
reaction and counter-revolution in the Middle East.
The Arab bourgeois of the region are no better. They cry crocodile tears
over Palestine, but in reality, they only use the Palestinian question
for their own narrow interests. They have no real desire to solve the
problem. The Saudi royals, who are terrified of revolution, have
supported any counter-revolution in the region. For years they have
collaborated with Israel to undermine the Palestinian movement, in
particular its left wing.
And what about the other alleged friends of Palestine? The Egyptian
regime is an active participant in the blockade of Gaza and the
Jordanian regime is acting as Israel’s border guard on the West Bank.
Turkey, Iran, Hezbollah and the Assad regime always raise a hue and cry
about Palestine, but that is only in order to use the Palestinians as a
means of getting concessions from Israel and US imperialism, as well as
giving themselves a progressive veneer at home.
What we have is a coming together of the ruling classes internationally,
to crush the Palestinian movement. In the end, it all comes down to a
class question. This was the basis of the Oslo Accords and the so-called
Peace Process. This was a united front to subdue the Palestinian people,
who at that time were waging a revolutionary struggle on the streets
during the first Intifada. The so-called Palestinian Leadership came to
the aid of the capitalist class. This leadership had played no role
whatsoever in the real movement.
This so-called leadership went along with all the main powers, to divert
the movement down the blind alley of Oslo. In return, Israel graciously
turned them into the de facto prison wardens of the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian Authority is not, and will never be, a truly independent
state. Its main role is to hold down the Palestinian people on behalf of
Israel and to channel billions of dollars into the coffers of the
so-called leaders. Their collaboration with the blockade of Gaza, where
millions of Palestinians are perishing, speaks volumes about their true
allegiance.
Oslo Accords Image Vince Musi
The so-called Palestinian leadership went along with the imperialists to
divert the movement down the blind alley of the Oslo Accords / Image:
Vince Musi
It would also be wrong to assume that Hamas is any different. This
organisation was nurtured for decades by reactionary Arab monarchs and
businessmen as a means of fighting the left wing in the Palestinian
movement. For the same reasons, as is well known, the organisation was
actively promoted by Israeli intelligence for decades. The so-called
resistance of Hamas is in words only, and they have no concrete plan for
actual liberation.
The denial of the democratic rights of the Palestinian people is
therefore not just an Israeli endeavour. It is a general agreement
backed up by all the major capitalist powers in the Middle East and
beyond. The Oslo Accords were the basis of this agreement. It was a
gigantic betrayal sprinkled with empty democratic rhetoric about a peace
process and a “Palestinian Authority”. The “Deal of the Century”
promoted by Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Saudi regime
reveals this fraud.
Thus, as you note very correctly in your statement, the only path
forward is that of mass struggle. The Palestinian people will not find
any true allies in the courts, boardrooms and corridors of power
anywhere in the world. Neither do they have true leadership in the form
of Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashal. As you say, a new leadership must be
built! The people of Palestine can only rely on their own power and
those of their oppressed brothers and sisters across the region.
Recently, we have seen powerful movements in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Egypt
and Jordan. These are movements against the same ruling classes that
take part in the oppression of the Palestinians. The masses of these
countries have a common interest with the oppressed Palestinians.
The best way forward, therefore, is to form the broadest possible
alliance of the working masses of Palestine with the oppressed workers,
poor and youth of the whole region. All the preconditions for a
generalised struggle against the rotten rulers of the Middle East are
ripening as we speak. The present crisis will only add to the anger and
frustration of the masses against their rulers.
And here we come to the main weakness we see in your statement. You
write that you want a “restoration of the revolutionary democratic”
struggle. We support the struggle of the Palestinian people for their
democratic rights. However, what your statement seems to imply is a
struggle that would remain within the confines of capitalism. We think
that is a mistake. And it is precisely this idea, i.e. that Palestinian
liberation can be achieved without breaking with capitalism, that led
the movement down the blind alley that it is in today.
What all the movements of today reflect, is the rotten nature of the
capitalist ruling class, a class whose interests are diametrically
opposed to the wellbeing of the people of the Middle East. This region
produces enormous riches, and yet the vast majority are struggling to
survive on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the rich amass the most obscene
wealth. This is the logic of capitalism, a system which requires society
to be run not the interest of the many, but the few: the rich parasites
like the Trumps, Netanyahus, Al Sauds, Al Sisis, Erdogans, Al-Husseins,
Khameneis and yes, also the Abu Mazens and Khaled Mashals.
The struggle for Palestinian liberation cannot be disconnected from the
struggle against imperialism and the capitalist class as a whole. Even
if independence were achieved at some point, on a capitalist basis
Palestine would immediately come under the domination of the world
market and the same capitalist powers that dominate it by brute force
today. In the immortal words of James Connolly, speaking to fighters for
Irish liberation:
“If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over
Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist
Republic your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She
would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through
her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist
institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears
of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”
The same applies to the struggle for Palestinian liberation today. We
see how those words describe perfectly what happened with the
Palestinian Authority. Today, the capitalist system is at an impasse.
This system is not capable of providing the bare necessities of life for
billions of people. The Palestinian Leaders say that, under the present
conditions, there is nothing else they can do, and that they have to
carry out the austerity and attacks imposed by imperialism. They say
that fighting back is futile, but that is true only if we confine the
struggle within the framework of the capitalist system. However, now we
have the living proof of one revolution after another in the Middle East
that have shown us that this does not have to be the case. Everywhere,
the masses are looking for a way out of this impasse. These struggles
must be connected worldwide and across the region - and the Palestinian
struggle must become a part of it.
In the next period, new and even more powerful revolutions will erupt in
one country after another. This will at some point also have an impact
inside Israel itself. The present political crisis in Israel is only a
precursor for deep social turmoil in the next period. The grip of the
reactionary Zionists over Israeli society will begin to be loosened as
class contradictions inside Israel itself will inevitably increase under
the hammer blows of the deep crisis we have entered. Along with a
general revolutionary wave in the region, this will open a path for the
Palestinian masses to reach out to the workers and poor of Israel. In
2012 and 2013, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the street,
carrying signs such as “fight like an Egyptian”. In the future, such
developments will take place again, on an even higher level. The
Palestinian movement could use this as a lever with which to divide
Israeli society along class lines, thus weakening the power of the
Israeli state apparatus. This would be a precondition for bringing to an
end Israeli imperialism altogether.
Capitalism is entering the deepest crisis of its history. While this is
causing much suffering for the workers and the poor, it is also spurring
them on to the path of revolution. We invite you to join us in the
struggle against capitalism in the Middle East and across the world. A
new world is within our reach, where all oppressed peoples can live
without exploitation and oppression, free to take their destinies into
their own hands and shape their own future. This would be a socialist
society, without barbaric wars and destruction. And where friendship and
unity of peoples would be the basis for the wellbeing and prosperity of all.
Down with imperialism!
Down with the Oslo Accords and the “deal of the century"!
Full support to the oppressed Palestinian people and their just struggle
for a homeland!
Down with capitalism!
For a Socialist Federation of the Middle East and beyond!
Revolutionary regards!
Hamid Alizadeh, on behalf of the International Marxist Tendency
Palestinian youth and student organizations: It is time for the
“Palestinian leadership” to go!
We, the undersigned Palestinian youth and student organizations, and
with us the associations, organizations and institutions that have
signed this statement, call on the masses of Palestinian youth and
students throughout occupied Palestine and in exile to join us in a
popular initiative for the advancement and initiation of national
development for the restoration of the revolutionary democratic approach
for a new stage of struggle. The core of this initiative is the
objectives of our Palestinian people: return, liberation, and continuing
struggle to achieve all of their legitimate national goals and
aspirations, no matter how long it may take.
The cause of Palestine, the sacred cause of our people, the cause of the
exploited popular classes in our Arab homeland and the forces of freedom
in the world, is today intended for liquidation, to be uprooted from the
awareness and memory of our people and our nation. The rights of our
people everywhere are subjected to all forms of distortion and
confiscation. Nothing will protect this great cause from the ravages of
liquidation and destruction except for the minds and arms of our people,
the will of the committed, patriotic and revolutionary youth, and the
steadfastness of women, workers and peasants.
Therefore, today, we call on our Palestinian people, especially the
young Palestinian generations, to reject and repudiate the policies and
positions represented in the approach of Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas and his cohort, and to affirm that the leadership of the
Palestinian Authority does not represent our people and is outside the
ranks of our national struggle. We also call upon our great people to
embody this popular will on the ground by organizing the widest, unified
popular framework to overcome the disastrous phase of Oslo and all of
its accompanying effects.
PPSN 2 Image Joe Catron Flickr
The struggle for Palestinian liberty cannot be won on a capitalist
basis. We need a revolutionary solution! / Image: Joe Catron Flickr
We invite you to participate broadly in the overthrow of the program of
the so-called “Palestinian leadership,” which is based on a path of
surrender and abandonment. This corrupt approach has come to its last
days after over 40 years of marketing the project of a phantom state.
This political class that has brought only shame and disaster to our
people seeks today to convert the administrative autonomy in the
occupied West Bank into the end of our liberation projects. The money of
this class is mortgaged to the agents of the occupation, to “economic
peace” and normalization projects. It has become imperative for our
people to isolate this sector and defeat its program in the squares,
streets, factories, farms, universities and schools inside and outside
occupied Palestine.
And as we confront the U.S., Zionist and reactionary policies that today
target the rights of our people to life and existence, in the face of
the acceleration of the hostile liquidation project that aims to
demolish the horizons of the national liberation project and abort all
possibilities for renewal, in front of the daily brutal attack on the
prisoners’ movement in the occupation prisons, and amid the confiscation
of all of the natural and human rights of our people in the camps,
silence becomes complicity, betrayal, a form of submission and failure.
The time has come for these leaders of surrender to depart from the
Muqata’ headquarters in Ramallah and to isolate this defeated sector
that holds itself close to the Zionist entity and the CIA, participating
in the collective punishment of our people in Gaza, depriving the
families of martyrs and prisoners of their rights, suppressing the
resistance and coordinating with the occupation forces to target the
fundamentals of our society, its national resistance and its youth and
student vanguard.
The defeat of the Oslo project and the isolation of Mahmoud Abbas and
his cronies are more achievable and realistic than ever, despite all of
the capacities and resources that the forces hostile to the Palestinian
people use to support the leadership of the Authority. However, the
crucial element in this lengthy historical battle is the role of the
popular masses and their ability to generate the revolutionary approach
from the grassroots and bring it into the light, from the depths of our
history and our militant legacies of struggle and from the womb of our
Palestinian societies in every popular community, every neighborhood,
camp, city and village.
We call on all Palestinian resistance forces, with their various
political and intellectual currents and paths, to end the state of
disintegration and fragmentation by forming a unified national front.
This will be a support and sustenance for our people everywhere, and it
sword and shield will protect our people as they continue on their
historical road of great sacrifice and struggle in order to obtain their
rights and break their chains, achieving our collective and complete
liberation from the clutches of Zionism.
We call on you to broad popular engagement and to intensify popular
national activities during the Week of Palestinian Struggle, May 15-22,
2020, as our first stage in announcing a new phase of struggle under the
slogan: Palestine Day – the Day of Return and Liberation. Let history
bear witness to the crime, the ongoing Nakba that has continued since
1947-48 and, at the same time, testifies to the ongoing Palestinian
resistance that continues until victory, despite all of the sacrifices
and lengthy years of struggle.
No to the path of surrender and liquidation! No to the project of the
“self-rule government” and “administrative autonomy!”
Yes to the path of return and liberation. Yes to the resistance and
intifada until victory!
To add the signature of your group or youth organization, please email
bayanyouth.students@xxxxxxxxx.
Initial Signatories:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
HIRAK: Palestinian Youth Mobilization – Germany
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
“Sada” Movement – Jerusalem- occupied Palestine
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition / North America
Palestinian Arab Cultural Center \Rio Grande de Sol, Brazil المركز
الثقافي العربي- الفلسطيني/ ساو بولو، البرازيل
Unione Democratica Arabo-Palestinese (UDAP)- Italy الاتحاد الديمقراطي
العربي الفلسطيني- إيطاليا
Democratic Palestine Committees\ Brazil لجان فلسطين الديموقراطية- البرازيل
مركز النّقب للأنشطة الشبابيّة – ِAl Naqab Center for Youth Activities
Palestinian Chess Forum- Shatila refugee camp الملتقى الفلسطيني للشطرنج-
مخيم شاتيلا
AlKarama-Palestinian Women Movement in Spain حركة نساء فلسطين الكرامة في
إسبانيا
Centro Cultural e Politico Al Janiah\Brazil مركز الجانية الثقافي
والسياسي\البرازيل
Brazilian Arab Palestinian Society – Corumba\ Brazil
Students for Justice in Palestine at John Jay College
Students for Justice in Palestine at Butler University
GUPS SFSU
Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
Canada Palestine Association
Palestinian Student Association at Wilfrid Laurier University/ Canada
Palestine Solidarity Collective at York University
Palestine Solidarity Group at University of Windsor
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McMaster University
Midwest Students for Justice in Palestine
Handala Coalition of Michigan
Palestinian Cultural Club – Beirut / Lebanon
Palestinian Arab Cultural Club\ Lebanon
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Steven Pinker
“It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer.
But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming
naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's
highest callings.
[Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005]”
― Steven Pinker