[News] Unity at last: The Palestinian people have risen

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210518-unity-at-last-the-palestinian-people-have-risen/
Unity
at last: The Palestinian people have risen
Dr Ramzy Baroud - May 18, 2021
------------------------------

>From the outset, some clarification regarding the language used to depict
the ongoing violence in occupied Palestine, and also throughout Israel.
This is not a 'conflict'. Neither is it a 'dispute' nor 'sectarian
violence' nor even a war in the traditional sense.

It is not a conflict, because Israel is an occupying power and the
Palestinian people are an occupied nation. It is not a dispute, because
freedom, justice and human rights cannot be treated as if a mere political
disagreement. The Palestinian people's inalienable rights are enshrined
<https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/israel/return/> in international and
humanitarian law and the illegality of Israeli violations of human rights
in Palestine is recognised
<https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-182472/> by the United
Nations itself.

If it is a war, then it is a unilateral Israeli war, which is met with
humble, but real and determined Palestinian resistance.

Actually, it is a Palestinian uprising, an Intifada unprecedented in the
history of the Palestinian struggle, both in its nature and outreach.

For the first time in many years, we see the Palestinian people united
<https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-violence-why-east-jerusalem-has-become-a-flashpoint-in-a-decades-old-conflict-160697>,
from Jerusalem Al-Quds, to Gaza, to the West Bank and, even more
critically, to the Palestinian communities, towns and villages inside
historic Palestine – today's Israel.

This unity matters the most, is far more consequential than some agreement
between Palestinian factions. It eclipses Fatah and Hamas and all the rest
because without a united people there can be no meaningful resistance, no
vision for liberation, no struggle for justice to be won.

Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could never have
anticipated that a routine act of ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem's
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210510-israel-cant-impose-its-own-laws-to-evict-palestinians-un-rights-group-says/>
neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah could lead
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-jerusalem-has-all-the-ingredients-for-a-new-intifada-but-so-far-it-hasn-t-happened-1.9788002>
to a Palestinian uprising, uniting all sectors of Palestinian society in an
unprecedented show of unity.

*OPINION: Palestinians do not want anti-Semites at our rallies
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210517-palestinians-do-not-want-anti-semites-at-our-rallies/>*

The Palestinian people have decided to move past all the political
divisions and the factional squabbles
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160809-divide-and-rule-how-factionalism-in-palestine-is-killing-prospects-for-freedom/>.
Instead, they are coining new terminologies, centered on resistance,
liberation and international solidarity. Consequently, they are challenging
factionalism, along with any attempt at making Israeli occupation and
apartheid
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/201703_UN_ESCWA-israeli-practices-palestinian-people-apartheid-occupation-english.pdf>
normal. Equally important, a strong Palestinian voice is now piercing
through the international silence, compelling the world to hear a single
chant for freedom.

The leaders of this new movement are Palestinian youth who have been denied
participation in any form of democratic representation, who are constantly
marginalised and oppressed by their own leadership and by the relentless
Israeli military occupation
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/>.
They were born into a world of exile, destitution and apartheid, led to
believe that they are inferior, of a lesser race. Their right to
self-determination and every other right were postponed indefinitely. They
grew up helplessly watching their homes being demolished, their land being
robbed and their parents being humiliated.

Finally, they are rising.

Without prior coordination and with no political manifesto, this new
Palestinian generation is now making its voice heard, sending an
unmistakable, resounding message to Israel and its right-wing chauvinistic
society, that the Palestinian people are not passive victims; that the ethnic
cleansing
<https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/what-israel-calls-real-estate-dispute-really-ethnic-cleansing-n1266897>
of Sheikh Jarrah and the rest of occupied East Jerusalem, the protracted
siege on Gaza, the ongoing military occupation, the construction of illegal
Jewish settlements, the racism and the apartheid will no longer go
unnoticed; though tired, poor, dispossessed, besieged and abandoned,
Palestinians will continue to safeguard their own rights, their sacred
places and the very sanctity of their own people.

[image: - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]]

No human rights in Gaza – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Yes, the ongoing violence was instigated
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-mk-vacates-sheikh-jarrah-office-in-return-for-more-policing-in-area/>
by Israeli provocations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East
Jerusalem. However, the story was never about the ethnic cleansing of
Sheikh Jarrah alone. The beleaguered neighbourhood is but a microcosm of
the larger Palestinian struggle.

Netanyahu may have hoped
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-gantz-said-seeking-to-delay-court-hearing-on-sheikh-jarrah-evictions/>
to use Sheikh Jarrah as a way of mobilising his right-wing constituency
around him, intending to form an emergency government or increasing his
chances of winning yet a fifth election. His rash behaviour, initially
compelled by entirely selfish reasons, has ignited a popular rebellion
among Palestinians, exposing Israel for the violent, racist and apartheid
state that it is and always has been.

Palestinian unity and popular resistance have proven successful in other
ways, too. Never before have we seen this groundswell of support for
Palestinian freedom, not only from millions of ordinary individuals across
the globe but also from celebrities – movie stars, footballers, mainstream
intellectuals and political activists, even models and social media
influencers. The hashtags #SaveSheikhJarrah
<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SaveSheikhJarrah&lang=en> and
#FreePalestine
<https://twitter.com/search?q=%23FreePalestine&src=typed_query>, among
numerous others, are now interlinked
<https://thewire.in/world/palestine-jerusalem-forcible-removal-families-sheikh-jarrah>
and have been trending on all social media platforms for weeks. Israel's
constant attempts at presenting itself as a perpetual victim of some
imaginary horde of Arabs and Muslims are no longer paying dividends. The
world can finally see, read and hear of Palestine's tragic reality and the
need to bring this tragedy to an immediate end.

*READ: Netanyahu incites against Palestinian citizens of Israel
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210517-netanyahu-incites-against-palestinian-citizens-of-israel/>*

None of this would be possible were it not for the fact that all
Palestinians have legitimate reasons and are speaking in unison. In their
spontaneous reaction and genuine, communal solidarity, all Palestinians are
united, from Sheikh Jarrah to all of Jerusalem, to Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah,
Al-Bireh and even Palestinian towns inside Israel – Al-Lud, Umm Al-Fahm,
Kufr Qana and elsewhere.

In Palestine's new popular revolution, factions, geography and any
political division are irrelevant. Religion is not a source of divisiveness
but of spiritual and national unity.

The ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza are continuing, with a mounting
death toll. This devastation will continue for as long as the world treats
the devastating siege of the impoverished, tiny Strip as if irrelevant.
People in Gaza were dying long before the Israeli airstrikes began blowing
up their homes and neighbourhoods. They were dying from the lack
<https://www.caritas.org/2019/03/gaza-health-crisis/> of medicine, polluted
water
<https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/water-gaza-scarce-polluted-and-mostly-unfit-use#:~:text=The%20coastal%20aquifer%2C%20which%20Gaza,the%20aquifer%20is%20non%2Dpotable.&text=The%20World%20Health%20Organization%20has,water%20consumption%20at%20100%20liters.>,
the lack of electricity
<https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Gaza%20Electricity%20Crisis.pdf>
and the dilapidated infrastructure.

[image: Gaza Strip fatalities [UN OCHA]]

Gaza Strip fatalities [UN OCHA]

We must save Sheikh Jarrah, but we must also save Gaza; we must demand an
end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and, with it, the
system of racial discrimination and apartheid. International human rights
groups are now precise and decisive in their depiction of this racist
regime, with Human Rights Watch
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210427-israel-committing-apartheid-against-palestinians-hrw-says/>
– and Israel's own rights group, B'Tselem
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210112-israel-is-apartheid-state-concludes-major-human-rights-group/>,
joining the call for the dismantlement of apartheid in all of Palestine.

Speak up. Speak out. The Palestinians have risen. It is time to rally
behind them.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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