[News] Criminalizing pro-Palestine politics - Solidarity is a verb, repression is a reality

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/solidarity-is-a-verb-repression-is-a-reality>
Solidarity is a verb, repression is a reality
Hanna Eid - October 27, 2023
------------------------------

European governments are clamping down on any and all attempts to show
solidarity with Palestine, going as far as to deny employment to Palestine
supporters, including the author, accusing them of anti-Semitism.

The ruling cliques in Berlin and Paris have attempted to prevent or
otherwise criminalize pro-Palestine rallies over the last two weeks, and
the move has been met with fierce resistance.

Currently, the French government is employing the police to brutalize
Palestinians
<https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/france-bans-pro-palestinian-protests-citing-risk-disturbances-public-order-2023-10-12/#%3A~%3Atext%3DPARIS%2C%20Oct%2012%20(Reuters)%2Cthe%20Israel%2DHamas%20conflict%20home>
and their allies in the streets, using tear gas and water cannons against
us. This is in the context of increasingly fascist-leaning policies in both
countries. The government in Paris is reeling from a series of coups
d’états in West Africa, which have led to an anti-colonial national
bourgeoisie from the military taking power in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

Macron and other French representatives of neoliberal fascism are trying to
find ways to maintain their military presence in the continent after such a
rebuke from Bamako, Niamey, and Ouagadougou.

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is still languishing in Lannemezan prison in
France for fighting for Palestinian rights to resist colonialism. The
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has been on the frontline
of this fight to free Abdallah, and this same group is now facing
repression in Germany <https://masarbadil.org/en/2023/10/4346/>, with
threats to make this organization illegal, and threats to deport movement
leaders like Ziad Abdulnasser.

This repression in Germany is not new, with the Munich city council calling
BDS an "anti-Semitic" movement in 2017, and while this decision was
appealed and considered unconstitutional by German federal law, the
Bundestag passed a federal law in 2019 claiming that BDS is an anti-Semitic
movement. In 2008, it was discovered that Germany and "Israel" were in the
process of developing a nuclear warning system in secret, and in 2023,
Germany bought the Arrow 3 missile system from "Israel" to provide to the
Banderite clique in Kiev.

>From the halls of the Bundestag, an anti-Palestinian sentiment pervades
much of German society. Outside of the governing clique in Berlin, there
exists a movement in Germany called the ‘anti-Deutsch’ movement. This
movement came from a split in the German left in the 1990s in which
anti-imperialists chose solidarity with Palestine, while Trotskyists,
anarchists, and liberals chose to say that Marxist theories of imperialism
are ‘structurally anti-Semitic’ and that therefore the anti-Deutsch see
"Israel" as an example of a genuinely left-wing state.

Needless to say, the analysis of the anti-Deutsch movement lacks
credibility and stems from ‘Deutsche Schuld’ or German guilt for massacring
Jews in World War II. A lingering question which remains for many; why does
Germany not give up one of their 16 states for a Jewish state if they feel
so bad for the atrocities they committed? What is clear is that there is a
shadow of fascist politics which pervades Germany, and that should be
remembered throughout what is being shared in this article and others.

This repression in Germany has personally affected me, and what I am about
to share is being shared for the first time in public here. In August, I
was denied a research job and PhD position in Germany for my writings
published on *Al Mayadeen*’s English website. The justification for denying
me the job was that I am "too partisan about Palestine" in my writing. The
leader of the Junior Research Group did not wish to be accused of
‘anti-Semitism’ and therefore revoked an employment offer a mere month
before I was meant to pick up my whole life and move to Germany. So while
the subject matter of the research concerns anti-imperialism in Africa, the
same sentiment is not extended to Palestinians struggling against
colonialism and imperialism in West Asia.

I feel nothing but pity for the Europeans who fall into this trap of false
equivalency, because they are held hostage by their corrupt governments.
Anyone can read my writings and they will find no traces of anti-Semitism,
which as a Muslim, I believe is a stain on the human spirit. Simply because
I speak up for my people’s right to resist colonialism, I was denied a job
which I earned on merit. Yet, despite any emotional suffering on my end,
this denial of work is nothing more than a speck of dust compared to our
martyrs and heroic soldiers in the Resistance who suffer violence and death
every minute of every hour of every day that this illegal entity exists. To
those who defend the Zionist colony–whether in conscious support or by
failing to find the courage to defend Palestine out loud–I want to quote a
beacon of light in our struggle, Ahmad Sa’adat: "What you call a list of
accusations… are in reality my patriotic duties". It is the patriotic duty
of every Palestinian everywhere to stand as a united front with our brave
resistance in their battle against tyranny and colonial occupation. I thank *Al
Mayadeen* for giving me a platform to amplify the anti-imperialist message.

In the United States, Palestinians and pro-Palestine groups face repression
in the same manner. As of 2021, 35 out of the 50 states in the US have some
sort of anti-BDS law on the books. In the midst of this heroic operation,
the US government is affirming its support for what activists have called
‘forever wars’. According to a report from *Al Mayadeen*:

Late on Monday night, it was reported that the White House is preparing a
support package
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israel-requests-10bln-in-aid-from-us-to-continue-genocide-in>
that includes aid for "Israel," along with assistance for Ukraine, funding
for strengthening the US-Mexico border, and aid for Taiwan.

Meanwhile, anti-Zionist Jews in America are harassed by their congregations
and called base and vile names by their Zionist coreligionists. One Jewish
Saturday school teacher near Chicago was fired for attending a
pro-Palestine rally, and others have faced ostracization from their
families and synagogues for standing up for truth and justice.

The Holy Land Five
<https://samidoun.net/2022/12/video-the-holy-land-five-palestinian-political-prisoners-in-us-jails/>–Palestinians
in the US accused of ‘funding terrorism’ through their charity–remain
behind lock and key, with no sign that they will be released any time soon.
In 2018, a speech language pathologist working in the state of Texas was denied
a contract extension
<https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/israel-texas-anti-bds-law/> because
she refused to sign what is in essence a ‘pledge of allegiance’ to the
state of "Israel".

So before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Palestinians and Arabs in the US were
facing pressure, and now Palestinians are not allowed to celebrate the
powerful symbolism of Palestinians–both soldiers of the resistance and
citizens of Gaza–breaking the fences, which have served to keep Gaza down.
Many people in the American and European left demand that Palestinians
include all sorts of caveats and exceptions to our solidarity with our
people on the ground, rather than examining how their own societies promote
and materially support genocide, occupation, and settler colonialism. In
the meantime, we must remain united and steadfast in our hopes for
liberation and peace in the region.
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