[News] Palestine - Of course, it is an intifada

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Of course, it is an intifada: This is what you must know

Oct. 11, 2015

By: Ramzy Baroud


*http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768182*

/Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, author and the 
founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a 
Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story./

When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli 
massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by 
the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what 
Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based ‘terrorists.’

The interrogative questions were aimed at relocating the narrative from 
a discussion regarding possible war crimes into a technical dispute over 
the application of language. For them, the evidence of Israel’s 
violations of human rights mattered little.

This kind of reductionism has often served as the prelude to any 
discussion concerning the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict: events are 
depicted and defined using polarizing terminology that pay little heed 
to facts and contexts, and focus primarily on perceptions and 
interpretations.

Hence, it should also matter little to those same individuals whether or 
not Palestinian youth such as Isra’ Abed, 28, shot repeatedly on October 
9 in Affula - and Fadi Samir, 19, killed by Israeli police a few days 
earlier, were, in fact, knife-wielding Palestinians who were in a state 
of self-defense and shot by the police. Even when video evidence emerges 
countering the official Israeli narrative and revealing, as in most 
other cases, that the murdered youth posed no threat, the official 
Israeli narrative will always be accepted as facts, by some. Isra’, 
Fadi, and all the rest are ‘terrorists’ who endangered the safety of 
Israeli citizens and, alas, had to be eliminated as a result.

The same logic has been used throughout the last century, when the 
current so-called Israeli Defense Forces were still operating as armed 
militias and organized gangs in Palestine, before it was 
ethnically-cleansed to become Israel. Since then, this logic has applied 
in every possible context in which Israel has found itself, allegedly: 
compelled to use force against Palestinian and Arab ‘terrorists’, 
potential ‘terrorists’ along with their ‘terror infrastructure.’

It is not at all about the type of weapons that Palestinians use, if any 
at all. Israeli violence largely pertains to Israel’s own perception of 
its self-tailored reality: that of Israel being a beleaguered country, 
whose very existence is under constant threat by Palestinians, whether 
they are resisting by use of arms, or children playing at the beach in 
Gaza. There has never been a deviation from the norm in the 
historiography of the official Israeli discourse which explains, 
justifies or celebrates the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians 
throughout the years: the Israelis are never at fault, and no context 
for Palestinian ‘violence’ is ever required.

Much of our current discussion regarding the protests in Jerusalem, the 
West Bank, and as of late at the Gaza border is centered on Israeli 
priorities, not Palestinian rights, which is clearly prejudiced. Once 
more, Israel is speaking of ‘unrest’ and ‘attacks’ originating from the 
‘territories’, as if the priority is guaranteeing the safety of the 
armed occupiers – soldiers and extremist settlers, alike.

Rationally, it follows that the opposite state of ‘unrest’, that of 
‘quiet’ and ‘lull’, are when millions of Palestinians agree to being 
subdued, humiliated, occupied, besieged and habitually killed or, in 
some cases, lynched by Israeli Jewish mobs or burned alive, while 
embracing their miserable fate and carrying on with life as usual.

The return to ‘normalcy’ is thus achieved; obviously, at the high price 
of blood and violence, which Israel has a monopoly on, while its actions 
are rarely questioned, Palestinians can then assume the role of the 
perpetual victim, and their Israeli masters can continue manning 
military checkpoints, robbing land and building yet more illegal 
settlements in violation of international law.

The question, now, ought not to be basic queries about whether some of 
the murdered Palestinians wielded knives or not, or truly posed a threat 
to the safety of the soldiers and armed settlers. Rather, it should be 
centered principally on the very violent act of military occupation and 
illegal settlements in Palestinian land in the first place.

 From this perspective then, wielding a knife is, in fact, an act of 
self-defense; arguing about the disproportionate, or otherwise, Israeli 
response to the Palestinian ‘violence’ is, altogether moot.

Cornering oneself with technical definitions is dehumanizing to the 
collective Palestinian experience.

“How many Palestinians would have to be killed to make a case for using 
the term ‘massacre’?” was my answer to those who questioned my use of 
the term. Similarly, how many would have to be killed, how many protests 
would have to be mobilized and for how long before the current ‘unrest’, 
‘upheaval’ or ‘clashes’ between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli 
army become an ‘Intifada’?

And why should it even be called a ‘Third Intifada’?

Mazin Qumsiyeh describes what is happening in Palestine as the ‘14th 
Intifada’. He should know best, for he authored the outstanding book, 
Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment. 
However, I would go even further and suggest that there have been many 
more intifadas, if one is to use definitions that are relevant to the 
popular discourse of the Palestinians themselves. Intifadas – shaking 
off - become such when Palestinian communities mobilize across 
Palestine, unifying beyond factional and political agendas and carry out 
a sustained campaign of protests, civil disobedience and other forms of 
grassroots resistance.

They do so when they have reached a breaking point, the process of which 
is not declared through press releases or televised conferences, but is 
unspoken, yet everlasting.

Some, although well-intentioned, argue that Palestinians are not yet 
ready for a third intifada, as if Palestinian uprisings are a calculated 
process, carried out after much deliberation and strategic haggling. 
Nothing can be further from the truth.

An example is the 1936 Intifada against British and Zionist colonialism 
in Palestine. It was initially organized by Palestinian Arab parties, 
which were mostly sanctioned by the British Mandate government itself. 
But when the fellahin, the poor and largely uneducated peasants, began 
sensing that their leadership was being co-opted – as is the case today 
– they operated outside the confines of politics, launching and 
sustaining a rebellion that lasted for three years.

The fellahin then, as has always been the case, carried the brunt of the 
British and Zionist violence, as they fell in droves. Those unlucky 
enough to be caught, were tortured and executed: Farhan al-Sadi, Izz 
al-Din al-Qassam, Mohammed Jamjoom, Fuad Hijazi are among the many 
leaders of that generation.

These scenarios have been in constant replay since, and with each 
intifada, the price paid in blood seems to be constantly increasing. Yet 
more intifadas are inevitable, whether they last a week, three or seven 
years, since the collective injustices experienced by Palestinians 
remain the common denominator among the successive generations of 
fellahin and their descendants of refugees.

What is happening today is an Intifada, but it is unnecessary to assign 
a number to it, since popular mobilization does not always follow a neat 
rationale required by some of us. Most of those leading the current 
Intifada were either children, or not even born when the Intifada 
al-Aqsa started in 2000; they were certainly not living when the Stone 
Intifada exploded in 1987. In fact, many might be oblivious of the 
details of the original Intifada of 1936.

This generation grew up oppressed, confined and subjugated, at complete 
odds with the misleading ‘peace process’ lexicon that has prolonged a 
strange paradox between fantasy and reality. They are protesting because 
they experience daily humiliation and have to endure the unrelenting 
violence of occupation.

Moreover, they feel a total sense of betrayal by their leadership, which 
is corrupt and co-opted. So they rebel, and attempt to mobilize and 
sustain their rebellion for as long as they can, because they have no 
horizon of hope outside their own action.

Let us not get bogged down by details, self-imposed definitions and 
numbers. This is a Palestinian Intifada, even if it ends today. What 
truly matters is how we respond to the pleas of this oppressed 
generation; will we continue to assign greater importance to the safety 
of the armed occupier than to the rights of a burdened and oppressed nation?

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