Palestine: what kind of solidarity?
More political action outside Palestine!
This year, the Jewish state of Israel celebrated its 60 years of existence. An existence built on the theft of Arab lands, massacres and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians which started in 1948 and are continuing till now. On this sad and humiliating anniversary, the Palestinian people find itself in the most dramatic situation of its dark history.
In Gaza - where the Hamas Movement came to power through a completely democratic election and continues to be the target of the Israeli army that threatens to eliminate it - the population, who gave it its trust, is subject to a ruthless blockade and collective punishment to which the so called "international community" closes its eyes. And in the other part of the occupied Palestine, the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority linked to the Fatah party, supported by the European Union and the United States, is openly collaborating with the occupier and joining with him to hunt for resistance fighters.
As for the international solidarity movement, it has good reasons to wonder about its inability to influence the United States and the European Governments policy regarding Israel and about how relevant is the support it has given to the Palestinians.
In such a situation, if this solidarity movement wants "to really exist, not as the auxiliary of an alleged "peace process" but as a player that can contribute to change the power balance and to really help the Palestinians through sustainable and effective actions that could isolate the State of Israel", it must act "in the unambiguous assertion of a total solidarity with the Palestinian people’s constant demands in its resistance against colonial conquest and ethnic cleansing."
Being in solidarity with the Palestinians is, first of all, to begin to listen to what they have to say about the kind of action to be made, instead of talking in their place as has generally been the case so far. It is also to remember that, the call for a boycott against Israel launched by 170 Palestinian organisations in July 2005, remained virtually unanswered outside English-speaking countries.
A Palestinian opinion in the occupied Jerusalem
We asked Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian political and cultural analyst, what kind of support the Palestinians expect and most need from the international solidarity movement. He answered without any hesitation: “I published recently an article regarding what we need. In short, my main point is: charitable assistance is good and needed, if, and only if it is accompanied by persistent political action to end Israel’s occupation and apartheid.
What we need more than anything else right now is to hold Israel accountable for its grave and systematic violation of international law and to end its nauseating impunity, particularly in the West. Israel is committing in occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, crimes against humanity and war crimes in a very gradual, sophisticated and under-the-radar method, to get away with its piecemeal ethnic cleansing. This is what is most urgent to expose and to effectively oppose right now, mainly through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). If not now for applying BDS, then when?” [To be continued ...]
Read all at: http://www.silviacattori.net/article643.html
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