ASSESSING SOLIDARITY MOVEMENTS: "As usual, there are multiple approaches to assessing popular and non-popular movements in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and opposing genocide, starvation, annexation, and displacement," remarks Palestinian commentator Hani al-Masri on Wednesday's PCI-(Palestinian citizens of Israel) focused news portal www.arab48.com.
The first approach greatly downplays the significance of these movements, as if they did not exist, dismissing them as street protests that have no effect on decision-making. The second approach sees that, because of its internal crisis, popular movements, and its political and moral breakdown, the occupation state has fallen into suffocating isolation and is on the verge of collapse, and that Palestinian victory is only a matter of time. Then there is a more realistic approach that values these movements appropriately, even those that emerge from within the occupation state itself. They are increasingly influencing government decisions. Serious shifts in Western public opinion have begun to be reflected in some official policies, even in countries traditionally supportive of Israel, such as France, Canada, and the UK. Signs of division have also begun to appear within the U.S. Republican Party regarding unconditional support for Israel, particularly in the Trump-aligned 'America First' faction. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn's party registered around 650,000 members within days, some of them from the ruling Labour Party, an unprecedented development and number.
Although these movements have so far failed to stop the genocide and starvation, they have succeeded in embarrassing decision-makers in Washington and Tel Aviv and forcing them to retreat from the deadly blockade that began on March 2, prohibiting even a crumb of bread or a pill of medicine from entering the Gaza Strip. Under pressure from global public opinion and the responsiveness of governments, some aid was allowed in, at first in limited amounts, then in larger quantities, though still under a systematic arrangement to prevent aid from reaching those in need.
Indeed, the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has served as a tool of war. Four distribution centers were set up as death traps, killing about 1,500 people and wounding many more as they tried to obtain aid. These centers were used as a tactic to spread chaos, inflame internal strife, and encourage criminals, gangs, and war profiteers to seize the aid.
If we imagine for a moment that the world had not risen in solidarity with Palestine as it is doing today, would the war have taken the same course? It likely would have been far worse. The occupation of the Strip might have been completed, and processes of displacement, settlement, and annexation begun, not only in the West Bank, but in Gaza as well. This means that solidarity movements may not have stopped the war, but they have helped reduce the occupation state's ability to fully achieve its goals. They have tied the hands of war criminals in Washington and Tel Aviv, forcing them to consider the risk of serious sanctions, international isolation, or even a full boycott of Israel.
There are growing indicators of this potential shift. Some of Israel's state allies have announced they will recognize the State of Palestine next September, Germany has suspended arms supplies, and there are partial sanctions already in place and others that may accumulate over time, especially if the resistance can endure and inflict significant human losses on the occupation forces, and if Israel's internal crises continue to deepen both horizontally and vertically.
However, all this remains contingent on the Palestinian political performance rising above its current level, and on a change in the official Arab position from mere statements to actual measures, using the Arab world's leverage and assets in international relations, especially with Europe and the U.S. This requires a realistic, national, revolutionary vision that avoids both passivity and adaptation to the facts imposed by the occupation on one side, and reckless adventurism that disregards reality on the other.
It must be a vision based on unity of purpose, unity of tools, and suitable forms of struggle to achieve that purpose. If full unity is impossible, then a degree of national consensus, coordination, and complementarity can be achieved, whereby each faction or camp acts independently, but all strike in the same direction. That direction must be made into reality or should create a reality that responds to existential challenges and threats while exploiting available opportunities, given that the Zionist project targets the entire Palestinian people: Their land, their cause, their institutions, and their movements, including both Fatah and Hamas and all components of society.
"In this project, there is no place for any Palestinian, nor for any part of their rights," concludes Masri.
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