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<h2 class="contentheading"> <a
href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/7883-uncovering-the-roots-of-palestinian-resistance">
Uncovering the roots of Palestinian resistance</a></h2>
<h2 class="contentheading"><small><small>Published on Wednesday, 30
July 2014 17:01</small></small></h2>
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<div style="float: left; width: 340px;" class="img_caption
left"><b><small><small><small><small><small>http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/opinion/7883-uncovering-the-roots-of-palestinian-resistance</small></small></small></small></small></b><br>
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</a><em>By Rich Wiles.</em></div>
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<p>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?</p>
<p><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size: 10pt; line-height:
1.8;"><big><big>Many of the</big></big> </span><a
style="font-size: 10pt; line-height:
1.8;"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2014/jul/24/gaza-crisis-palestinian-death-toll-passes-700-live-updates">protesters
who marched</a></big></big></big></big></big><span
style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.8;"><big><big> 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</big></big>.</span></big></big></big></big></p>
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<p dir="LTR" align="left">The <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/28/gaza-crisis-boycotts-israel-impunity-apartheid">current
massacres</a> 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 <a
href="http://www.amnesty.org/ar/library/asset/MDE15/015/2009/en/8f299083-9a74-4853-860f-0563725e633a/mde150152009en.pdf">Operation
Cast Lead</a>, 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?</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left"><strong>Grassroots solidarity</strong></p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left"><strong>Anti-PA sentiment</strong></p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">When <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/mahmoud-abbas">Mahmoud
Abbas</a> 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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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 <a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28174519">Mohammad
Abu Khdair</a>, 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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left"><strong>The rise of Hamas in the West
Bank?</strong></p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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?</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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 <em>act</em> 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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">The recent announcement by <a
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1760492.stm">the
Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades</a> 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 - <a
href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=716523">the
al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades</a> - 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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left"><strong>Palestinian unity from the
bottom-up</strong></p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left"><strong>Abbas’s about-face</strong></p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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 <a
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/middle-east-unrest/day-rage-protests-erupt-jerusalem-west-bank-n164666">Day
of Rage</a> 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?</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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<a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/fatah"> Fatah</a>-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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left"><strong>Collective pain</strong></p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="left">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 <em>they
are</em> 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.</p>
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