[News] Uncovering the roots of Palestinian resistance

[Anti-Imperialist News]

    Uncovering the roots of Palestinian resistance
    <http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/7883-uncovering-the-roots-of-palestinian-resistance>


    Published on Wednesday, 30 July 2014 17:01

*http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/7883-uncovering-the-roots-of-palestinian-resistance*
<http://english.pnn.ps/last2014/Palestinian_resistance.jpeg>/By Rich Wiles./

Last week's Qalandia demonstration was the biggest since the first 
intifada -- just why are Palestinians rising up in a manner that has not 
been seen for a decade or more?

Many of the protesters who marched 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2014/jul/24/gaza-crisis-palestinian-death-toll-passes-700-live-updates> through 
Ramallah towards Qalandia checkpoint on Thursday 24 July had not 
participated in actions on that scale before. The masses, whose numbers 
have been reported at anywhere between 20-50,000, included many young 
activists who were just children when the second intifada broke out 
nearly 14 years ago. At a popular level, intifadas are collective 
actions but they are led by the new generation. Some commentators are 
even calling the Qalandia demonstration the biggest since the first 
intifada.

The current massacres 
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/28/gaza-crisis-boycotts-israel-impunity-apartheid> being 
perpetuated against Palestinians in Gaza are eerily reminiscent of the 
bombardment that began on 27 December 2008, often remembered as 
Operation Cast Lead, although with the death toll already reported at 
more than a thousand, it seems quite probable that even that massacre 
may be eclipsed by current events. Demonstrations broke out across the 
West Bank and within "1948 occupied Palestine" during Operation Cast 
Lead 
<http://www.amnesty.org/ar/library/asset/MDE15/015/2009/en/8f299083-9a74-4853-860f-0563725e633a/mde150152009en.pdf>, 
but nothing that even comes close to the uprising that is erupting 
across Palestine today. So what is different now, and why are 
Palestinians rising up collectively in a manner that has not been seen 
for a decade or more?

*Grassroots solidarity*

Intifadas do not erupt from within a vacuum. Neither are they the 
spontaneous yet somehow collective "cycles of violence" that the western 
media all too often portrays them as. Over the last year or so, forms of 
Palestinian community organising have been developing, usually 
unreported by the media, within which new young activists are building 
on tools that were employed successfully in previous uprisings.

In Nablus villages, which suffer regular settler attacks, communities 
have been organising "popular committees" to defend villages at night 
and, on several occasions, these committees have defended the village 
successfully against night-time raids. In the village of Qusra, 
villagers apprehended 18 masked settlers during an attack in January 
before handing them over to Israeli forces via Palestinian security 
liaison teams. Popular committees have been doing similar work in many 
villages. During the recent mass-arrest campaign across the West Bank, 
many towns and cities formed resistance committees in which networks of 
connected youth kept watch at night to resist military invasions.

Most notably in Ramallah, for many months now, youth have been enforcing 
economic strikes in the city centre following the killing of 
Palestinians. This practice was widespread in the first intifada and the 
early years of the second intifada, but its re-emergence over recent 
months has shown that the new generation are working to rebuild 
grassroots solidarity, perhaps learned from the experiences of older 
family members who were active in previous intifadas, and this strategy 
has now spread to other West Bank cities.

Such strikes have been complemented by direct actions such as those 
during the mass hunger strike of political prisoners. These actions have 
seen offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, United 
Nations and European Union blockaded and closed down, as activists 
demand that such bodies must be held accountable for their inaction 
amidst Palestinian suffering.

Time may also be a factor in the resurgence of resistance. The previous 
two intifadas have lasted in the most intensive phases for three to four 
years. Following these periods, resistance has continued in localised 
pockets and political negotiations have ensued. After the first 
intifada, the process of political manoeuvrings continued for close to 
10 years, amidst localised small-scale resistance, until the second 
intifada broke out. Such troughs in resistance are periods in which the 
next generation grow along with collective frustration, until it reaches 
a crescendo and erupts once more with a new generation at its helm. A 
similar period has now ensued during which the fatigue of the majority 
has been addressed with people seeking, although not achieving, 
political developments and today's youth now seem ready to organise and 
lead the struggle again.

*Anti-PA sentiment*

When Mahmoud Abbas 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-abbas> chose to continue the 
Oslo charade by re-entering the negotiation process in July last year it 
was met with widespread condemnation in the Palestinian street. 
Palestinians have lived through 20 years of this process which has 
brought only deepened colonisation of their lands and continued 
Palestinian displacement, imprisonment and death.

The collapse of the latest round of negotiations was followed by the 
mass hunger strike of political prisoners which turned out to be the 
longest collective strike in the history of the struggle against 
Zionism. Demonstrations in support of the hunger strikers were met with 
Palestinian Authority repression, as Abbas continued his security 
coordination policies with the occupation. Many see these policies as an 
"outsourcing" of the occupation to PA forces for the economic benefit of 
the PA elite. These practices reached a head when Israeli forces invaded 
Ramallah city centre in June for the first time since 2007. Taking up 
positions outside the central PA police station, the occupation forces 
rained bullets at Palestinian youth, as armed PA forces watched from the 
station windows under orders not to raise a weapon in defence of their 
people. Similarly, when demonstrations broke out after the recent 
killing of Mohammad Abu Khdair 
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28174519>, PA forces 
stepped in on several occasions to prevent activists reaching the 
targets of their demonstrations - Israeli military bases and settlements 
in the West Bank.

Talking to people in the streets of West Bank cities, one sentiment 
remains constant - people feel trapped between the occupation on the one 
hand and the PA on the other, as they prevent popular resistance against 
the occupation. Anger is tangible.

*The rise of Hamas in the West Bank?*

Following the announcement of the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation 
agreement, Hamas flags have re-emerged at demonstrations in the West 
Bank, albeit with some trepidation at first. With such high levels of 
frustration aimed at the PA combined with Hamas's role in resistance in 
Gaza, is Hamas filling the Palestinian political void?

Palestinians are clear that the current attacks on Gaza are attacks 
against Palestinians everywhere. Before the current wave of Israeli 
massacres in Gaza, mass arrest campaigns were being carried out across 
the West Bank and protesters in Jerusalem were being attacked for days 
on end following the murder of Abu Khdair. Similarly, demonstrations 
from Haifa to the Naqab and from Ramallah to Jaffa were being suppressed 
with varying degrees of violence and arrest campaigns. Palestinians are 
one collective people, irrespective of their Israeli-issued ID status or 
their status in international exile. The massacres in Gaza and the 
ongoing siege are one cog in the collective wheel of Zionist 
settler-colonialism, and it is that deeper expansionist project that is 
the target of resistance.

It is true that there may be some rise in Hamas's popularity in the West 
Bank given their current role in resistance, but it is the /act/ of 
resistance itself rather than Hamas as a political or ideological body 
that is receiving most of the support. Hamas is not alone in resistance 
in Gaza, other factions are also playing their part and the same is true 
in the West Bank and in 1948 Palestine - people are resisting because of 
their identity as Palestinians, rather than because of factional policies.

The recent announcement by the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs' 
Brigades <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1760492.stm> in 
the West Bank that they are no longer part of a ceasefire is a clear 
example of this, as they went against the official party line. The day 
after the mass Qalandia demonstration, members of al-Aqsa brigades 
opened fire at occupation forces at Qalandia and a prolonged gun-fight 
ensued. The same night the military wing of the Popular Resistance 
Committees - the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades 
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=716523> - claimed 
responsibility for an attack against occupation forces in Nablus in 
response to "ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people". 
Organised resistance in many forms is erupting as a new uprising takes 
shape.

*Palestinian unity from the bottom-up*

Although the announcement of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement 
was welcomed by most people in principle, it was also met with 
widespread scepticism in the West Bank, with few believing it would 
amount to real political advances.

Possibly the most significant factor in the growth of the current 
uprising is the resurgence of grassroots Palestinian unity. National 
unity does not start with factions signing agreements, but rather with 
collective action in the streets. The demonstrations after Abu Khdair's 
murder that broke out across historic Palestine supported this trend. In 
particular, the protests that broke out amongst Palestinian communities 
in 1948 Palestine showed that the current uprising is not tied to 
factions, given that the political role of Fatah, Hamas and other 
factions have their base in the 1967 occupied lands.

Many among the new generation of activists are rejecting the entire Oslo 
framework, and both the divisive factionalism and elitism that it 
spawned. Instead, they are working collectively at the grassroots level 
and calling for a truly representative national leadership that could 
take the form of a restructured PLO, or possibly an entirely new 
framework altogether. Whichever of these approaches are preferred by 
individual activists, the demand is that the body must be representative 
of the entire Palestinian people. This includes Palestinians in 1967 
occupied lands, those in 1948 Palestine, and all those in international 
exile. For activists following this route, whether or not the 
Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement ever amounts to anything becomes 
almost a side-issue given that such a reconciliation would only sustain 
the current political impasse rather than working to create a truly 
representative political unity.

*Abbas's about-face*

When Mahmoud Abbas assured Israel that the PA-Israel security 
coordination practices were "sacred" two months ago, his comments were 
met with popular disgust. Following last Thursday's mass demonstration, 
Abbas's own Fatah party joined calls for a collective Day of Rage 
<http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/middle-east-unrest/day-rage-protests-erupt-jerusalem-west-bank-n164666> against 
the massacres in Gaza. Among Fatah leaders publicly promoting this 
resistance were some of Abbas's closest aides. This cannot have been 
done without his knowledge. So what led to this about-face from Fatah 
and why did Abbas not instruct his forces to prevent the demonstration 
as they have done at so many recent actions?

The PA relies on international funding to prop up its regime. Such 
funding is reliant on the suppression of resistance. The US-Israeli 
neoliberal economic plan that the PA jumped into with both feet was at 
the expense of Palestinian rights - this is a widely acknowledged fact 
in the Palestinian street. Yet Abbas also appreciates that with support 
for him at an all-time low, he is treading a fine line, and barely 
holding on. When tens of thousands marched to Qalandia, Abbas knew that 
he quite simply didn't have the political power to stop it, and doing so 
would have been his final act of political suicide. Instead his Fatah 
party took the opportunity to appeal to the current waves of anger and 
attempt to co-opt them. By calling for a Day of Rage to follow the 
Qalandia demonstration, the PA leadership hoped that they could score 
points and raise their public profile. Instead, the call proved largely 
insignificant, with demonstrations taking place as they have done every 
Friday for many weeks - those who did attend protests that day did not 
do so because the PA supported the call for them. With this act, 
Palestinians rejected structural co-optation of the intifada, aware of 
its disastrous results when factions gained control of the first 
intifada leading the people towards Oslo, and similarly the 
factionalisation of the second intifada which again led only to the 
benefit of the "chosen few" in their seats of power.

Abbas may also face a challenge in controlling his own forces if events 
continue to develop. Following an Israel-PA deal in 2005, several 
hundred members of the resistance, particularly the Fatah 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/fatah>-aligned al-Aqsa Martyrs' 
Brigades, were absorbed into the PA forces in return for being removed 
from Israel's "wanted list". A look into the eyes of many of the young 
members of the PA forces as they prevented Palestinians from attending 
recent demonstrations highlighted an evident lack of belief in their 
current roles. Should the tides truly turn and the streets break free 
from any PA shackles, it is not unlikely that many of these young men 
may opt for the struggle and the street rather than their employer's 
demands. All of this proves that Abbas is losing more and more control 
by the day.

*Collective pain*

At the root of all this, it becomes clear that many different factors 
are playing a role in the current uprising. The men, women and children 
being killed every day in Gaza and also in the West Bank are first and 
foremost human beings not statistics, they are also Palestinians and not 
"Gazans" or "West Bankers". This is a collective pain that is felt by 
all, and amidst this pain Palestinians have chosen, once more, to resist 
en-masse. With an "international community" that, at least at official 
level, has no political will to right its wrongs, Palestinians are again 
fighting back.

At the heart of this resistance is a new generation who are now taking 
the lead as previous generations have done before them. It is being led 
by Palestinians because /they are/ Palestinian, not because of their 
factional affiliations, and it is resistance being carried out against a 
settler-colonial project not a religion or a people. People are 
struggling for an end to the theft of their land, the killing of their 
people and a life of real freedom, they are also calling for a 
leadership to support their struggle that truly represents them all. The 
masses of people around the world who are now supporting Palestine in 
various ways must take heed of this context when they protest, and be 
aware that calls to "End the siege" or "Free Gaza" do not encompass the 
root demands of Palestinians. Only real justice and true human 
liberation can save the Palestinian people. It is that liberation for 
which people are struggling.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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