Eyewitness Palestine
Revolution against
colonialism and occupation continues
By
Richard Becker
While
the corporate media focus almost exclusively on street and military clashes, the
reality is that all of Palestinian society is involved in the 2000 uprising or
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 an International Action Center delegation in
late October-early November saw clearly was that every sector and age group of
the Palestinian people is part of the new Intifada. They join in marches,
funerals, self-defense, medical aid and other organized efforts.
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 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, when the new uprising began, because the
Palestinian masses will no longer accept the intolerable conditions of life
imposed upon them.
The
people's anger--fueled by the decades of brutality, humiliation and deprivation
that have come with the occupation--is universal. Seven years of unfulfilled
"peace process" promises have deepened the unanimous sense of outrage. Whole
families go to observe and support the clashes on the outskirts of the
Palestinian-controlled
cities.
Dual
power in West Bank,
Gaza
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. Israeli
"authority" over the Palestinian people, to the degree that it continues to
exist, is based on terrorist coercion and that alone.
Israel
has responded to the new Intifada with unprecedented violence and firepower. The
army now routinely uses helicopter gunships and tanks against
civilians.
Counterpoised
to the occupiers' power is a Palestinian state seeking to emerge. Right now the
Palestinians have control over only small pieces of territory, divided from each
other by settlements, bypass roads and the Israeli military. The Palestinian
military and security forces, which engage the Israeli army in struggle every
day, are no match for their firepower. But they are as resolute as the youths in
the streets.
There
are different political currents and views among the Palestinians, but all are
united in militant determination to overthrow the power of the occupation force
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, 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 incredible energy, as revolutionary explosions always
do, along with determination and desire to struggle. The many children, teens
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. spokespeople try to make it appear that the Palestinians have
"no regard for life," and that adults are using children as "human shields" to
garner international
sympathy.
But
this lie is just the latest in a long history of racist anti-Arab propaganda.
It's not that the Palestinians, young and old, "don't care about life"--just the
opposite.
What
sends the youths into the streets day after day against seemingly insurmountable
odds is a burning sense of injustice. What they want, and are determined to get,
is a life free from enslavement by colonial oppressors.
Their
relentless and courageous confrontations with the misnamed "Israeli Defense
Forces" have the heartfelt backing of the people. Those who fall are deeply
mourned and honored as martyrs of the liberation
struggle.
After
sundown, battle
shifts
At
night, the battle lines in the war are different than during the
daytime.
One
evening, the IAC delegation toured several Palestinian checkpoints in the
Bethlehem/Beit Sahour/Beit Jala area, which has been a zone of heavy combat. The
checkpoints, staffed by Palestinian Authority security forces, are on the
perimeter of Zone A.
The
West Bank and Gaza are divided into zones called A (Palestinian civilian
administrative and security control), B (Israeli security and Palestinian
administration) and C (Israeli security and administration). The A zones
comprise only about a quarter of the West Bank--major cities and little
else.
After
sundown, the Israeli army and paramilitary settler groups frequently attack
Palestinian-controlled areas, often with tanks and helicopters as well as
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 widespread throughout the West Bank and Gaza. The delegates
saw evidence of many nighttime assaults in West Bank cities and even more so in
Gaza refugee camps and towns. We saw many apartment buildings damaged by tank,
helicopter and machine-gun fire. Some homes in Gaza were 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 U.S. imperialism's backing
of Israel--a Palestinian victory would appear impossible. So, too, however,
would many other struggles that have ultimately won. What the imperialist
strategists almost always leave out of their calculations is the role of the
people in
motion.
It
must also be noted, of course, that many revolutionary opportunities have not
ended in
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 rebellions that could undermine the
U.S. ruling class's domination of the entire
area.
Solidarity
from outside the region, particularly in the United States--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
recent weeks. Of course, much more 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
that there can be no real peace in the Middle East until there is real justice
for the Palestinians.
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 Palestinians 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.
Becker
was a member of the International Action Center
fact-
finding
delegation that visited occupied Palestine from Oct. 27 to Nov.
1.
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