Palestinians plan protests for their right of return

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As the imperialists began their war against Libya, their Zionist junior partners were stepping up at­ tacks on Gaza and openly threatening to launch an assault exceeding the murderous onslaughts of 2008 and 2009. In the most criminal episode of the current wave, on March 22, Israeli missiles killed eight Pales­ tinians, including three children and their grandfa­ ther who were playing soccer outside their home.

These attacks occur in a context of stepped-up theft of land and building of settlements, destruction of farms and orchards, eviction from homes, detentions, beatings by soldiers and settlers, and assassinations. At the end of March Israel’s parliament passed laws criminalizing commemoration of the Nakba (the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and establishment of the colonial-settler state of Israel), and legalizing refusal of towns to admit Palestinians as residents.

On March 21, Haaretz reported that Israeli Military Intelligence is spying on U.S. activists in the Boycott/ Divestment/Sanctions movement, on coalitions try­ ing to break the siege of Gaza, and on other peaceful solidarity efforts. USPCN noted that the U.S. govern­ ment had maintained complete silence on this outra­ geous violation of its own citizens’ civil liberties by a foreign government. U.S. silence is no surprise, of course, since the main targets of the current FBI and grand jury persecutions are Palestinians and Pales­ tine solidarity activists. This pattern is only the most visible example of a decades-long policy of repres­ sion, and has been demonstrated once again by the criminal prosecution of 11 Muslim students at UC Ir­ vine for yelling during a Zionist official’s speech.

But Palestinians continue organizing and mobilizing in the face of these attacks, and in fact have taken sev­ eral crucial new initiatives.

On Feb. 28, activists delivered a “Notice of Termina­ tion” to Palestine Authority officials in New York and Washington, DC. Noting that the PA had failed to keep its oath to represent the wishes of the Palestinian people, the notices demanded termination of the Oslo Accords, dissolution of the PA and the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas, an end to the blockade of Gaza, an end to all security arrangements with Israel, release of all Palestinian political prisoners from Palestinian jails, and unification of the resistance by building “a national platform upon which to coalesce Palestinian political parties and formations in their resistance to apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing.”

The latter demand is the continuation of a campaign launched by USPCN after Al Jazeera’s publication of the “Palestine Papers,” which revealed the PA’s com­ plete and repeated capitulation in negotiations with Israel to all the latter’s demands, and to its insistence that the PA help stamp out all forms of resistance. The activists noted that this surrender was only possible because of the lack of democratic representation for Palestinians—because of the exclusion of refugees and those within pre-1967 Israel, the cancellation or postponement of elections, and the undemocratic na­ ture of the PA and its existence as a creature of the Oslo accord.

The group called for new elections to the Palestin­ ian National Council in which all Palestinians around the world could participate. They also demanded the resignation of all members of the current PNC and of the Executive Committee of the PLO, and the estab­ lishment of a transitional national leadership body composed of representatives of all segments of the Palestinian people.

The significance of such elections was detailed in a March 29 column in the British Guardian by longtime Palestinian activist and author Karma Nabulsi. Refer­ ring to the uprising throughout the region, she wrote, “Since January Palestinians in the refugee camps and under military occupation have all been asking the same question: is this not our moment too?

“The solution to this fierce dilemma lies in a single claim now uniting all Palestinians: the quest for na­ tional unity. Although the main parties might remain irreconciled, the Palestinian people most certainly are not. Their division is not political but geographic: the majority are refugees outside Palestine, while the rest inside it are forcibly separated into three distinct locations. The demand is the same universal claim to democratic representation that citizens across the Arab world are calling for with such force and beauty: each Palestinian voice counts.”

This is far different from the new elections—for the PA and/or legislative councils in the West Bank and Gaza, not the PNC—promised by Abbas after demon­ strations for Palestinian unity took place in Gaza and the West Bank on March 15. In contrast, the PNC, as Nabulsi writes, “is the institutional body that gives both legitimacy and a mandate to the PLO, which is still recognized internationally as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

“The PNC, as the parliament of the PLO itself, was once the heart of the Palestinian national movement; made up of the resistance parties, unions and inde­ pendents, it could claim the legitimacy of a national liberation movement. But there have not been proper elections to it for decades: most of the seats are quo­ tas, reserved for the factions; members have died of old age; there is not even a definitive list showing who the current members are.

“This crumbling hollowed-out mausoleum once housed a vibrant and well directed Palestinian strug­ gle for freedom, full of dynamism and debate. Now only the mobilizing power of direct elections can make it the representative institution Palestinians demand.

“The call for PNC elections … is also the single revo­ lutionary principle that can overturn Palestinians’ current political imprisonment, because it reassures them that each voice contributes to determining na­ tional platforms, policies and strategies. Organizing around this demand takes the decision-making out of the hands of the few and puts it back into the hands of the people themselves—Islamist and secular, onestate or two-state supporters, conservative or radical.”

Nabulsi also noted that a reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas, which some pro-“unity” protesters fixate on, would not solve the problem of representation and revitalization of the liberation movement.

On March 15, youth in the West Bank and Gaza tried to replicate the mass sit-ins spreading throughout the Arab world, with their sole demand being the call for “unity”—that is, unity among all political groups to better fight the occupation. Turnouts were modest but spirited. Participants were brutalized by the se­ curity forces of both the PA and Hamas. In addition, although organizers had called on participants to only bring Palestinian flags, and not flags or signs for any political parties, Fateh activists came with their group’s flags and tried to outshout organizers with their own slogans.

We must note for future reference that the call for no flags raises longer-term strategic questions. As a tac­ tic to reinforce the theme of unity, it was a useful call Iraq’s ‘Day of Salvation’

On April 9, as protesters join the national antiwar march in New York, a new coalition in Iraq will hold a “Day of Salvation” against the occupation. The event will build on recent protests against the Iraqi government’s failure to provide services and jobs, especially the Feb. 25 “Day of Rage,” in which close to 70,000 rallied. The coalition has called for pro­ tests targeting the force most responsible for the country’s destroyed economy, the U.S. occupation.

They will hold rallies at U.S. military bases and at Iraqi government institutions.

Their demands include the departure of occupy­ ing forces, revocation of the security agreement with the U.S., revocation of the sectarian and ethnic quota system in the political process, transparent elections without the interference of occupation forces, release of political prisoners, and jobs.

The coalition also announced that April 9 would mark “the launch of a long-term sit-in in all Iraqi provinces to mark the eighth anniversary of the (Above) Women in Gaza City mourn for family members killed by Israeli airstrikes on March 22.

for the March 15 action. But grassroots Palestinian organizers and groups are confronting the inevitable need for political formations of their own, rooted in the working masses of Palestinians around the world.

It is too soon to say whether this is more likely to happen through revitalization and radicalization of existing left groups or the forming of new ones (and certainly the formation and activities of the USPCN are an encouraging sign of the potential). But it will certainly be the product of the gathering together of the best of those who are right now organizing at the base in the face of the PA’s capitulation and the quies­ cence and repression of Hamas.

Development of a political alternative will also come through clarification of what unity is for—i.e. what concrete goals and long-term vision can best unify the masses. Again, the demands of the USPCN for dis­ solution of undemocratic, collaborating structures and the enfranchisement of all Palestinians, all in the service of genuine liberation, including the right of re­ turn, are a good example.

The right of return is the central plank of upcoming activities on May 15. Through “Third Intifada” Face­ book pages and other means, organizers are calling for Palestinians and their allies around the world to mobilize on that date, the anniversary of the Nakba. As we go to press it appears there will be efforts to organize actual attempts at return—i.e., attempts by refugees to actually cross borders and return to the homes from which they were evicted.

If refugees turn out in numbers giving the actions only symbolic meaning, that would still represent a turning point in global awareness of the right of Pal­ estinians to return. And if on May 15, or subsequently, large numbers try to exercise this right in practice, it would represent a qualitative advance in the struggle, perhaps taking it to a level not seen since the first In­ tifada (1987-1993) or the Great Revolt of 1936. n brutal American occupation. ... This sit-in will not last hours or days, but will continue night and day until the protesters demands are met. ... For our sit-ins we will set up tents in front of U.S. military bases, which are located in every Iraqi province.”

On the Feb. 25 “Day of Rage,” 14 were murdered by government forces; the brutal repression pushed protesters to go from demanding reform and bet­ ter conditions to demanding that the government resign.

Unions and unemployed organizations have been rallying for years against the lack of electricity and drinking water, against hunger and unemployment, and faced in retaliation imprisonment, torture and murder. Joblessness is said to be in the range of 60 percent to 70 percent of the workforce.

Connections to the revolt throughout the Middle East are made in banners warning the government: “O inhabitants of the Green Zone—think about the others,” and, “Remember the fate of Arab dictator­ ship regimes and how their people revolted.”

— ANDREW POLLACK SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2011 5