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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/04/zionism-in-crisis-palestinian-resistance-forges-a-new-horizon/">mondoweiss.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Zionism in crisis: Palestinian resistance forges a new horizon</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Palestinian Youth Movement</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">April 16, 2023<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lgpjihcx0" alt="image.png" width="458" height="306"><br>
<font size="1">Members of the Palestinian resistance hold their weapons during a
memorial service for Mohammed al-Azizi and Abdul Rahman Sobh, who were
killed by Israeli forces in July 2022, in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(Photo: Shadi Jarar’ah/ APA Images)
</font><p>Over the past few weeks, significant events have been unfolding
across historic Palestine. January 7, 2023, marked the start of Zionist
protests in response to proposed Israeli judicial reforms. In parallel,
we have also seen an intensification of the ongoing settler colonial
violence perpetrated by the Zionist entity against Palestinians –
January was the West Bank’s deadliest month in nearly a decade, and the
last few weeks have seen heightened violence towards Palestinians in
Al-Aqsa. In response to these assaults, we have seen increased
resistance efforts from groups across historic Palestine, as well as
Lebanon and Syria. While the media may lead you to believe that these
events are politically, geographically, and temporally isolated, they
tell a collective story of significant developments in the Palestinian
liberation struggle.</p>
<p>It is easy to dismiss Zionist protests against judicial reforms as
insignificant to Palestinians, for whom subjugation to Israeli violence
persists irrespective of who is in government. While this is true, the
deepening of contradictions within the global Zionist movement reflects
the shaky foundations upon which the Zionist state was built and the
subsequent tension between its fascist, underlying basis, and the
superficial surface of democracy that the entity projects to the world.
These tensions expose the artificial nature of the Zionist colony: while
all settlers are united against the external threat of Palestinian
resistance and in favor of the colonial social order, there is little
else politically binding or holding it together. </p>
<p>In this vein, it must then be noted that it is through the excesses
of the settlement project, through the colonization and exploitation of
the Palestinian people, that Zionism aims to resolve its internal
contradictions. Thus, the attempt to construct a binary between
“citizen” and “settler” – one where its “liberal” arm at times seeks to
distance themselves from the fascism of the settler movement, must be
interrogated. We argue that the two exist in relationship to one another
and, most importantly: in relationship to Zionist colonialism.
Zionism’s settler movement has long been integral to the expansion of
the Zionist state: the state through which liberal Zionists have wielded
power and within which they exercise the “democracy” that they claim
today to be fighting for. By refusing to engage this on the terms of
“democracy” versus “fascism” and instead interrogating the relationship
of this contradiction to colonialism, we are able to understand the role
of Palestinian resistance and unity in the inevitable demise of the
Zionist project.</p>
<p>While it is the interests of the fascist settler movement that are
being represented by the coalition government’s proposed judicial
reforms, it is also their interests that underpin the increasing
violence in Al-Aqsa. Many have been quick to correctly point out that
the current assaults on Al-Aqsa are text-book: Israeli violence towards
Palestinians is heightened during Ramadan each year, whether it’s
through invasions of Al-Aqsa or bombings on Gaza. However, violence
towards Palestinians also increases during Jewish holidays, and this
year, Passover, Easter, and Ramadan are all occurring at the same time
and the heightened violence, therefore, has to be read as such: as the
manifestation of an extremist state seeking to impose a new reality, one
that goes closer to the dismantling of Al-Aqsa in the hopes of building
Solomon’s temple atop of it. While it is true that the movement
insisting on entering Al-Aqsa during Passover is a community that has
been isolated from “pro-democracy” Zionists, these dreams of converting
Jerusalem into a city of a single faith are much broader in Zionist
society, again revealing the symbiotic relationship between Zionism’s
seemingly contradictory currents when placed within its broader colonial
setting. </p>
<p>In the face of Zionism in crisis, Palestinians have united and
coalesced around increased resistance efforts across historic Palestine,
building on the legacy of the 2021 Unity Uprisings. As the May
uprisings grew, a common chant rang from Haifa to Ramallah: <em>mishan Allah, ya Gaza yalla</em>
(for the love of god, come on Gaza). For the first time in memory, the
cities in the interior, lands conquered in 1948, lead an uprising rather
than support one. Youth from the two-million-strong community went into
uproar over the repeated incursions by police forces into Al-Aqsa.
Buses from tens of Palestinian cities descended upon Jerusalem, with the
police dispatched to block the main streets. The dramatic images of the
elderly choosing to walk on foot and bypass the checkpoints
crystallized the unity between two areas that Zionist policies have
spent 75 years attempting to fragment. When the resistance entered into
the fray, the isolated and besieged Gaza responded to Jerusalem and
imposed itself on the calculus of Tel Aviv. Around the same time in
Jenin, the 25-year-old martyr Jamil Alamoury and his comrades coalesced
into the Jenin battalion, beginning a new chapter in confrontation that
takes the local urban environment as its area of operation and the
popular cradle as its shield. Small resistance units began forming
throughout the West Bank and today preoccupy close to 60% of occupation
forces. When Gaza can guarantee war, the interior and Jerusalem an
uprising, and the West Bank a war of attrition and popular resistance,
the costs of Zionist impunity become unbearable. The Palestinian people
today possess something Israel has strived to dismantle: unity and
revolutionary optimism.</p>
<p>The May 2021 uprisings amalgamated into the ‘Unity of All Fronts’
approach, and we are currently witnessing this slogan being transformed
into a political reality. In particular, we are seeing the expansion of
this notion to Lebanon and Syria. In response to a repeat of the 2021
abuses on worshipers in Al-Aqsa, Palestinian factions operating in
Lebanon and Syria on two occasions in the past week launched rocket
barrages into northern Palestine. Protests are growing in the cities of
‘48, and the West Bank battalions have redoubled their efforts. Zionist
leaders chose to attack Gaza in response, confirming that policies of
containment and isolation have failed and that the ‘Unity of All Fronts’
prevails. For the first time in memory, it was the Zionist entity that
acted with restraint, rushing to absolve regional actors in Lebanon and
Syria of the role they undoubtedly play in supporting the Palestinian
resistance. The Zionist regime also ensured that its bombardment of Gaza
avoided large loss of life and resistance assets. </p>
<p>On April 10th, Israeli journalists <a href="https://twitter.com/ItayBlumental/status/1645355535120703488?s=20">confirmed</a>
that the occupation forces stopped using the name “Operation Break the
Wave” to describe their attempts to stifle Palestinian resistance in the
West Bank, implicitly acknowledging that Palestinian resistance groups
are here to stay. On April 11th, Netanyahu announced that settlers would
not be able to enter Al-Aqsa for the duration of Ramadan in fear of
rising tensions in Jerusalem. These examples collectively illustrate the
lack of confidence in the Zionist entity’s security calculus as it
comes to terms with the strength of Palestinian resistance today. </p>
<p>Advocates of Palestine must never forget the truth that this reveals:
gone are the days of the Zionist entity’s invincibility, and it is the
persistence and accumulation of Palestinian resistance that have brought
this about. </p>
<p>For too long, the Palestinian diaspora and the global solidarity
movement have been paralyzed by a reactive position that understands
Palestinians to only be victims of Israeli violence. However, this
moment calls us to question the invincibility of the Zionist project and
to reassess the tools of our struggle. Today, we can argue that Zionist
project is as fragile as it has ever been. At the same time,
Palestinian resistance is the strongest it has ever been. The global
shift we are currently witnessing reflects the potential for a paradigm
shift in this framing: we are victims of their violence but we are also
capable of taking our fate into our own hands. In the diaspora, this
means joining organizations to build transnational power and engage in
principled struggle to realize the promise of liberation. </p>
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