[News] Challenging Alleged Strategic Solidarity
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Aug 1 11:10:13 EDT 2007
Defining Terms in the Age of Imperialism:
Challenging Alleged Strategic Solidarity
A statement to U.S based social justice movements
from Palestinian liberation and Palestine solidarity activists
http://www.araborganizing.org/solidarity
Background
MADRE, an international women's human rights
organization based in the United States, recently
released commentary about what solidarity should
look like for U.S. progressives committed to the
Palestinian struggle
<http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0711-02.htm>http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0711-02.htm.
Palestine in the Age of Hamas: The Challenge of
Progressive Solidarity, is not a proactive call
for solidarity. On the contrary, this call for
progressives to engage in strategic solidarity
was issued in defense of the position taken by
the organizations Communications Director, Yifat
Susskind, a white Israeli woman, at a plenary on
imperialism held at the United States Social
Forum less than two weeks prior. At the plenary,
Susskind explicitly equated the armed resistance
of some people in occupied Palestine with the
forces of imperialism led by George Bush.
Susskind and MADREs subsequent statement further
call for particular opposition to Hamas based on
the Islamaphobic assumption that all movements
that incorporate Islam into their politics are reactionary and repressive.
There was critical response to the position
Susskind presented at the Social Forum,
especially because proposed Palestinian speakers
had been denied an opportunity to speak at that
same plenary. As a result, the Social Forums
National Planning Committee publicly apologized
for having an Israeli on the panel speaking about
Palestinian resistance movements, rather than a
Palestinian, as originally proposed. The apology
recognized the importance of social justice
movements creating spaces for those most impacted
by imperialism to articulate and critique their
own struggles rather than defer to the often
privileged voices of those located within the
power made possible by racism and imperialism.
The apology was then followed by a Palestinian
American woman reading a statement prepared by
Palestinian, other Arab, and solidarity activists
to specifically respond to Susskinds damaging comments.
We agree with Susskind that it is vitally
important to have a clear sense of what
solidarity means and to discuss the matter
publicly. Given that Susskinds position has
been restated and defended by MADRE in a wider
forum, we are also taking the opportunity to respond more broadly.
Strategic Solidarity Recreates Oppressive Power Dynamics
Rather than use her time on stage at the Social
Forum to demand an end to US imperialism in
Palestine and the Middle East, Susskind chose to
focus on criticizing political Islam and
Palestinian resistance leadership. At a moment
when a central project of US imperialism is the
dominance of the Middle East/West Asia and, by
extension, the generalized repression and
suppression of Islam, Arab people and Arab
states, this myopic concentration on ill-defined
and inaccurately generalized political Islam
recreates and fuels anti-Arab racism and anti-Muslim repression.
Ironically, in MADREs follow-up defense
statement calling for a strategic solidarity
that accounts for the complexity of the crisis,
they continue Susskinds simplistic
characterization of Hamas as reactionary,
thereby failing to heed their own organizational
call to pay attention to
complexity. Unfortunately, this is an
all-too-common occurrence in progressive circles
in the U.S., as Lebanese activist Bilal Elamine notes:
Many people on the left in the US make the
mistake that any time they see a movement that
has Islam as part of the way it expresses its
politics, they immediately put it into one
category that some go as far as calling Islamic
fascism and others call reactionary....There has
to be a deeper understanding and we have to lift
the prejudice that just because theres religious
expression in the politics it does not
immediately mean that its a reactionary movement
or a movement that we have to be wary of...We
have to {snip} see the real contentwhat the
movement represents, what its goals are, what its
tactics areand judge it on that basis.
In an article published in The L.A Times on the
same day as MADREs statement (7.10.2007), the
deputy of the political bureau of Hamas, Mousa
Abu Marzook indeed speaks to the specificity of
Hamas politics, stating that
our movement is
continually linked by President Bush and Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ideologies that
they know full well we do not follow, such as the
agenda of Al Qaeda and its adherents. But we are
not part of a broader war. Our resistance
struggle is no one's proxy, although we welcome
the support of people everywhere for justice in Palestine.
By calling for a position on political Islam,
Susskind and MADRE fall into the Bush/Olmert trap
described above of collapsing all Islamic
movements into one entity, obscuring the specific
root cause of the anti-oppression struggles of
the Palestinians. The root cause of Palestinian
resistance that Hamas is clear in articulating,
much to the chagrin of the US and Israeli
governments is the creation of a Jewish State
through the colonization of Palestinian land and
dispossession of Palestinian people, with the
imperial backing by the British and then the US
governments. This colonization did not begin in
1967 as the MADRE statement misleadingly
suggests; it is rooted in the decades leading up
to the 1948 founding of the State of Israel.
True Liberatory Solidarity: Stand Behind Me,
Dont Divide Me, and Dont Decide for Me
Throughout the last several decades of this
colonialism, there have always been various forms
of indigenous Palestinian anti-colonial
resistance, and repeated calls for international
attention to and solidarity with this
resistance. Immediately following Susskinds
presentation at the Social Forum, a long-time
Palestinian activist from the West Bank of
Palestine, explained that he was deeply upset by
Susskinds plenary remarks and felt inclined to
share his understanding of solidarity. His
impassioned description included three
fundamental principles: stand behind me, dont
divide me, and dont decide for me.
These are not principles of a simplistic,
reflexive solidarity that fails to take into
account the complexity of a situation. These are
principles that help to keep our steps toward
solidarity sure-footed throughout the inherent
complexity and contradiction of being based in
the U.S. while supporting a decades-long
resistance struggle that is targeted and divided
with the direct support of the U.S.
government. Standing behind and in solidarity
with a movement is about listening to and
supporting the needs of the movement, in the
various and complex ways those needs are
articulated, while taking care not to use the
privileges of our location to speak on behalf of those movements.
U.S.-based solidarity with the Palestinian people
means resisting U.S. imperialism in the region
and U.S. support of the apartheid state of Israel
one of the primary sources of the oppression of
all Palestinians, including women. We are not
promoting the afterwards strategy described by
MADRE to end imperialism first, and end sexism,
homophobia and every other oppression later. We
recognize that struggles to end imperialism are
intimately connected to the struggles to end all
oppressions. However, while there is a need for
progressives across the globe to create shared
visions of liberation and justice, those located
at and most impacted by the intersection of
imperialism, racism, and patriarchy ought to be
forging and leading the articulation of those
inter-connections and the movement and leadership critiques they inspire.
Solidarity with Palestinian women means insisting
on movement spaces in which they can articulate
their own experiences and organizing efforts in
response to the intersections of occupation,
colonization and gender oppression. Speaking on
behalf of Palestinians, rather than in solidarity
with Palestinians, maintains the West as the
definers and arbiters of what is valuable,
acceptable, civilized, and just. Palestine
solidarity work is about listening to
progressives in Palestine and in the Diaspora and
hearing what they need from us in order to hold
their ground and advance their struggles as best
as they can, on their own terms.
As U.S. based anti-imperialist activists, we need
to seek ways to listen, learn and support, rather
than engage in dividing, deciding or speaking on others behalf.
Please forward to your networks, post on your
website, or continue the discussion by creating
your own messages defining solidarity needs for
your own communities liberation struggles.
CO-SIGNING ORGANIZATIONS:
To sign on to this statement as an individual or
organization, email:
<mailto:justice at araborganizing.org>justice at araborganizing.org
40/60 Campaign for Freedom and Return
Arab American Union Members Council
Arab Resource & Organizing Center
Break the Siege
Break the Silence Mural Project
Freedom Archives
International Jewish Solidarity Network
Left Turn
Palestine Education Project
Youth Solidarity Network
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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