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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210518-unity-at-last-the-palestinian-people-have-risen/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210518-unity-at-last-the-palestinian-people-have-risen/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Unity at last: The Palestinian people have risen</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Dr Ramzy Baroud - May 18, 2021</div></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-post-content"> <p>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.</p> <p>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<a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/israel/return/" target="_blank"> enshrined</a> in international and humanitarian law and the illegality of Israeli violations of human rights in Palestine is<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-182472/" target="_blank"> recognised</a> by the United Nations itself.</p> <blockquote><p>If it is a war, then it is a unilateral Israeli war, which is met with humble, but real and determined Palestinian resistance.</p></blockquote> <p>Actually,
it is a Palestinian uprising, an Intifada unprecedented in the history
of the Palestinian struggle, both in its nature and outreach.</p> <p>For the first time in many years, we see the Palestinian people <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-violence-why-east-jerusalem-has-become-a-flashpoint-in-a-decades-old-conflict-160697" target="_blank">united</a>,
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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could never have anticipated that a routine act of <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210510-israel-cant-impose-its-own-laws-to-evict-palestinians-un-rights-group-says/">ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem's</a> neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah could <a href="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" target="_blank">lead</a> to a Palestinian uprising, uniting all sectors of Palestinian society in an unprecedented show of unity.</p> <p><strong><a title="Palestinians do not want anti-Semites at our rallies" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210517-palestinians-do-not-want-anti-semites-at-our-rallies/">OPINION: Palestinians do not want anti-Semites at our rallies</a></strong></p> <p>The Palestinian people have decided to move past all the political divisions and the<a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160809-divide-and-rule-how-factionalism-in-palestine-is-killing-prospects-for-freedom/"> factional squabbles</a>.
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 <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/201703_UN_ESCWA-israeli-practices-palestinian-people-apartheid-occupation-english.pdf">apartheid</a>
normal. Equally important, a strong Palestinian voice is now piercing
through the international silence, compelling the world to hear a single
chant for freedom.</p> <p>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 <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/" target="_blank">military occupation</a>.
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.</p> <p>Finally, they are rising.</p> <p>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 <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/what-israel-calls-real-estate-dispute-really-ethnic-cleansing-n1266897" target="_blank">ethnic cleansing</a>
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.</p> <div id="gmail-attachment_470985" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_2742-scaled.jpg?fit=933%2C579&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="- Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="476" height="296"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">No human rights in Gaza – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]</p></div><p>Yes, the ongoing violence was <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-mk-vacates-sheikh-jarrah-office-in-return-for-more-policing-in-area/" target="_blank">instigated</a>
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.</p> <p>Netanyahu may have <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-gantz-said-seeking-to-delay-court-hearing-on-sheikh-jarrah-evictions/" target="_blank">hoped</a>
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.</p> <p>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 <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SaveSheikhJarrah&lang=en" target="_blank">#SaveSheikhJarrah</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23FreePalestine&src=typed_query" target="_blank">#FreePalestine</a>, among numerous others, are now <a href="https://thewire.in/world/palestine-jerusalem-forcible-removal-families-sheikh-jarrah" target="_blank">interlinked</a>
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.</p> <p><strong>READ: <a title="Netanyahu incites against Palestinian citizens of Israel" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210517-netanyahu-incites-against-palestinian-citizens-of-israel/">Netanyahu incites against Palestinian citizens of Israel</a></strong></p> <p>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.</p> <blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote> <p>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 <a href="https://www.caritas.org/2019/03/gaza-health-crisis/" target="_blank">lack</a> of medicine, polluted <a href="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." target="_blank">water</a>, the lack of <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Gaza%20Electricity%20Crisis.pdf" target="_blank">electricity</a> and the dilapidated infrastructure.</p> <div id="gmail-attachment_471696" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/UN-OCHA.jpg?fit=553%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="Gaza Strip fatalities [UN OCHA]" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="329" height="476"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Gaza Strip fatalities [UN OCHA]</p></div><p>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 <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210427-israel-committing-apartheid-against-palestinians-hrw-says/">Human Rights Watch</a> – and Israel's own rights group, <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210112-israel-is-apartheid-state-concludes-major-human-rights-group/">B'Tselem</a>, joining the call for the dismantlement of apartheid in all of Palestine.</p> <p>Speak up. Speak out. The Palestinians have risen. It is time to rally behind them.</p> <p>The
views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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