PALESTINE: REVOLUTION CONTINUES AGAINST OCCUPATION & COLONIALISM
By Richard Becker--IAC Western Region Coordinator,
Member of IAC Delegation to Palestine, Nov. 200007 Nov 2000
While the corporate media focuses almost exclusively on street and military clashes, the reality is that all of Palestinian society is involved in the 2000 uprising (intifada) against Israeli occupation. This is not to say that the confrontations are not critical -- they are the front-line of this great struggle. But what the IAC delegation in late October-early November saw very clearly was that every sector and age group of the Palestinian people are part of the new intifada, joining in marches, funerals, self-defense, medical aid and other organized efforts. There, everyone follows the events not only day-by-day, but hour-by-hour if they can.
In fact, what has erupted in the still-occupied West Bank and Gaza is a revolutionary situation. "Revolution" is a word that is too-often loosely used. But the struggle today inside the West Bank and Gaza has many of the characteristics of a revolutionary situation.
The old order has broken down. The Israeli occupation authority can no longer rule in the way that it did before Sept. 28, because the Palestinian masses will no longer accept the intolerable conditions of life imposed upon them. The anger of the people, fueled by the decades of brutality, humiliation and deprivation that has come with the occupation, is universal. Seven years of unfulfilled "peace process" promises has deepened the unanimous sense of outrage. Whole families go to observe and support the clashes on the outskirts of the Palestinian-controlled cities.
There is dual power in the West Bank and Gaza, two centers of contending authority. One is the Israeli army and its paramilitary death squads, the settlers. The Israeli "authority" over the Palestinian people, to the degree that it continues to exist, is based on terrorist coercion and that alone. It has responded with unprecedented violence and firepower to the new intifada, now routinely using helicopter gunships and tanks against the civilian population.
Counterposed to the power of the occupiers is the Palestinian state seeking to emerge. Now, the Palestinians have control over only small and separated pieces of territory, divided from each other by settlements, by-pass roads and the Israeli military. The Palestinian military and security forces, which are engaging the Israeli army every day, are no match for the IDF in firepower, but they are as resolute as the youth in the streets. There are different political currents and views among the Palestinians, but all are united it militant determination to overthrow the power of the occupation and replace it with a full-fledged, independent Palestinian state.
The Palestinian revolution is aimed at ending colonial oppression. It is called by some the "Palestinian War of Independence." While earlier anti-colonial revolutions in Algeria, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), Vietnam and South Africa, have had their distinct characteristics, all were fought to free colonized peoples from the grip of imperialist/settler rule.
The anti-colonial revolution is the essence of the struggle in Palestine today, an essence often obscured, deliberately or otherwise, by attempts to portray it as a religious or ethnic conflict.
The new uprising has released, as revolutionary explosions always do, incredible energy, determination and desire to struggle. The mainly children, teenagers and young adults who go out, day after day to confront the Israeli troops with their vastly superior, U.S.-supplied weaponry, appear utterly disdainful of danger.
Racist Israeli and U.S. spokespersons try to make it appear that the Palestinians have "no regard for life," and that adults are using children as "human shields," in order to garner international sympathy. But this lie is just the latest in a long history of anti-Arab racist propaganda. It is not that the Palestinans, young and old, "don’t care about life" -- just the opposite.
What sends the youth to the streets day after day despite against seemingly insurmontable odds, is a burning sense of injustice. What they want, and are determined to get, is a life free from enslavement by their colonial oppressors. Their relentless and courageous confrontations with the misnamed "Israeli Defense Forces" (IDF) has the heartfelt backing of the people. Those who fall are deeply mourned and honored as martyrs of the liberation struggle.
AFTER SUNDOWN, THE BATTLE SHIFTS
At night, the battle lines in the war are different than during the daytime.
One evening, our delegation toured several Palestinian checkpoints in the Bethlehem/Beit Sahour/Beit Jala area, which has been a zone of heavy combat. The checkpoints, manned by Palestinian Authority (PA) security and military forces, are on the perimeter of Zone A. The West Bank and Gaza are divided into A (Palestinian civilian administrative and security control), B (Israeli security and Palestinian adminstration) and C (Israeli security and administration). The A zones comprise only 22% of the West Bank, the major cities and towns and little else.
After sundown, the Israeli army and paramilitary settlers groups frequently attack Palestinian-controlled areas, often with tanks and helicopters as well as with automatic weapons. The PA military forces, armed with much older light weapons, are deployed to protect Palestinian civilian areas in Zone A.
Israeli military attacks are unprecedentedly widespread throughout the West Bank and Gaza. We witnessed much evidence of these night-time assaults in West Bank cities and even more so in the Gaza refugee camps and towns. We saw many apartment buildings damaged by tank, helicopter and machine-gun fire, some in Gaza marked by hundreds of large bullet holes. U.S.-supplied "Apache" helicopters have rocketed civilian areas in many cities, including Ramallah, Nablus, Beit Jala, Jericho, Gaza and elsewhere.
Despite being heavily out-gunned, all of the Palestinian soldiers and police we spoke with expressed resolute determination to defend their territory and people. Many battles have taken place between Israeli and Palestinian armed forces, including militias of the Fatah party, and while most of the casualties in these clashes have also been on the Palestinian side, the Israeli army has taken losses as well.
When IDF soldiers have fallen, the Israelis have retaliated in the traditional manner of colonial occupiers, inflicting collective punishment attacks on the civilian population.
CAN THE PALESTINIANS WIN?
If one looks only at the material assets of the two sides directly involved in the conflict -- the economic resources, military might, and backing from U.S. imperialism -- a Palestinian victory would appear impossible. So, too, would have the victories of many earlier struggles. But what the imperialist strategists almost always leave out of their calculation is the role of the people in motion.
Many revolutionary situations, it must be also be noted, have not ended in revolutionary victory.
But the heroic and determined struggle of the Palestinian people will not easily be contained, much less defeated. And their struggle is reverberating elsewhere.
Of critical importance is the further intervention of the Arab people outside Palestine. The 2000 intifada has already had a great impact on Arab and other Middle Eastern governments, and has aroused anti-imperialist sentiments and actions throughout the region. Anger over the genocidal sanctions on Iraq is also widespread. The issues of Palestine and Iraq, along with the continued impoverishment of the masses in this oil-rich region, are fueling rebellion that could undermine the U.S. ruling class's domination of the entire area.
Solidarity from outside the region, particularly here in the U.S., given its role as main prop and backer of Israel, is crucial as well. It is encouraging that the largest pro-Palestinian demonstrations in U.S. history have taken place in the past few weeks. Much more, of course, is needed.
Whether or not the current intifada leads to victory in the short-term, it has established beyond any doubt that the Palestinian people are not going away, and until there is real justice for the Palestinians there will cannot be real peace in the Middle East. Real justice means a Palestinian state with contiguous territory and its own borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, and with the right to return for the nearly 5 million Palestinian living in exile. Nothing like this has yet been offered by the U.S./Israeli side in the negotiations.
The Palestinian people's long and heroic struggle is inextricably linked to the fight against imperialist domination and oppression here and around the world. It deserves the support of all who stand for justice.
International Action Center, San Francisco
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web: www.actionsf.orgPALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
