A-Infos (en) France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL AL #312 - Anti-racism, International, Libertarian Communist Orientation: For a Free and Democratic Palestine (ca, de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a colonial war, pitting an imperialist state 
against a despoiled people. To believe that, on both sides, religious motivations 
or economic interests are essential would be deluding ourselves. ---- The Israeli 
ruling class, and most of the political class, are deeply imbued with a 
nationalist and colonialist ideology, Zionism. This ideology was born in a 
context of the development of anti-Semitism and nationalism in Europe. Unlike 
assimilationist or revolutionary currents, Zionist currents considered 
anti-Semitism to be inevitable[...]and had the historic objective of constituting 
a Jewish national majority in Palestine, which went through the expulsion of 
Palestinians and Palestinians. throughout the colonial process[...].

Israel, a colonial state
Yet, far from being homogeneous, Israeli society, shaped by war and the search 
for an identity, is communitarized to the extreme. Israeli Arabs - including the 
Druze - are considered "sub-citizens" And do not enjoy the same rights as Jewish 
Israelis. Even within the Jewish population, significant tensions exist between 
the Ashkenazim, the Sephardim, the Mizrahim and the Jews and Ethiopian Jews. The 
anti-colonialist and anti-racist pole, although very much in the minority, 
represents one of the most direct concrete supports to the Palestinian people. At 
the other end of the spectrum, the nationalist-religious currents and the 
settlers' lobby constitute an ultra-nationalist, homophobic, patriarchal and 
die-hard pole that increasingly weighs on the Israeli state.

Zionist expansionism does not respond only to the characteristics of a war of 
conquest. It has constantly been coupled with a policy of ethnic cleansing. 
During the 1948 war, by pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians 
into an exodus without return. At the end of the 1967 war, by avoiding annexing 
the West Bank and Gaza - which would have obliged Israel to confer citizenship on 
its inhabitants - but by contenting itself with militarily occupying these 
regions, depriving its inhabitants. es of all rights.[...]The policy of forced 
colonization of East Jerusalem is the demonstration that a policy of ethnic 
cleansing can also be carried out in times of "peace".

Religion did not play a role in the emergence of Zionism, which defines 
Jewishness as a nationality, on the ethno-nationalist model. The creation of the 
State of Israel brought some of the religious currents which were initially 
opposed to it to rally to it in a "national-religious synthesis", which intends 
to justify the existence of the State a posteriori by arguments. religious[...].

Economic interests are not the root cause of Israeli expansionism either. 
Basically, the expansionist policies of the Zionists are typical of those rare 
situations where ideology trumps economic rationality. The economic and social 
cost of colonization and military occupation is out of proportion with the few 
advantages that can be represented by the control of natural resources and of a 
disenfranchised Palestinian proletariat.

One of the major springs of this ideology within the Jewish diaspora and the 
Israeli population is the fear of a new genocide, which leads to consider as 
essential the maintenance of a Jewish "national majority" in a "State of refuge., 
Israel, whatever the cost. Yet, far from representing a refuge from 
anti-Semitism, this policy contributes to the isolation of the Jewish minority in 
other countries, and leads the Israeli population into a headlong war and 
colonialism. It avoids the essential question of the fight against anti-Semitism, 
by wanting to subordinate it to support for the Israeli state, and also avoids 
other questions such as the " right of return".»In their country of origin of 
Mizrahim and Sephardic Jewish minorities whose Arab / Persian / Kurdish culture 
... is denied.

However, Israeli colonialism has a major economic and geostrategic interest for 
Western imperialists: from the British mandate to the creation of the State of 
Israel, supported by both the West and the USSR, the latter have always wished to 
keep under control the Near and Middle East, a major geostrategic and economic stake.

The Palestinian people, fighting for their rights.
The Palestinian people, in all their components, are fighting above all for their 
rights. The so-called "48" Palestinians (Israeli Arabs, including Bedouins) are 
fighting for equal rights and against discrimination. Those in the West Bank and 
Gaza are fighting against military occupation and for sovereignty over their 
lands. Refugees fight for the right to return or compensation for the harm 
suffered. Even if the priorities of these components may diverge, a deep 
solidarity binds them in the face of oppression.

cc Seb Godeffroy
Today, Palestinian resistance is essentially civil and peaceful resistance. 
Militarily, the Palestinian Authority - as before it and the Palestine Liberation 
Organization - does not weigh much against Israel. It is this inability to gain 
their independence by arms that may have driven desperate young Palestinians to 
become "martyrs" in suicide attacks.

Again, religion was not the primary motivation. Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque 
are above all national symbols.[...]The project of "democratic Palestine", 
carried by the PLO from 1969 to 1993, evoked a single, secular country, whose 
citizens, whether atheists or of Jewish, Muslim or Christian faiths , could live 
in freedom and equality. This project was intended to be the antithesis of the 
discriminatory ethnic state embodied by Israel.

The economic interests that the Palestinian people can have in their emancipation 
go without saying: social rights, the right to cultivate their land, the right to 
take the sea, freedom of movement, recovery or compensation for looted property, 
etc. It is the failure of the realization of this secular project that paved the 
way for "national-religious" currents like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, initially 
looked upon with kindness by the State of Israel, which saw the opportunity. to 
remove any prospect of a solution breaking with ethno-nationalism.

Alone facing the occupant
The Palestinian resistance is today alone in the face of Zionist expansionism.

It has nothing to expect from the Western imperialist powers. The story is 
similar when it comes to states in the region. If they have used the Palestinian 
struggle, they have rarely served it. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar as well as 
Egypt or Syria, have been overwhelmed by the independence that the Palestinian 
resistance has shown towards them. They have sometimes fought it with arms, by 
perpetrating massacres like the one in Black September in 1970. Today, despite 
the pressure of their public opinions, these states prefer to normalize their 
relations with the Zionist state.[...]

The most sincere international aid for the Palestinian people will come from 
civil society, in the countries of the region, in the United States, in Europe, 
in Israel itself. It is from the action of Israeli anti-colonialists that 
Palestinians can expect the most.

Popular resistance unfortunately cannot rely on the Palestinian Authority, which 
is criticized and considered illegitimate by a large part of the Palestinian 
population because of its collaboration with the occupier, and in competition 
with the Hamas " government " in the process. Gaza strip.

A project for Palestine
Peace cannot be made without justice.[...]Trying to achieve peace without 
responding to the deep aspirations of autonomy and recognition of the Palestinian 
people can only lead to failure, disillusionment and, again, popular insurrection.

Hypotheses of immediate solution to the conflict:

The creation of a Palestinian state. This concession accepted by the PLO in Oslo 
in 1993 is a sad step backwards from the initial project of " democratic 
Palestine ". It recognizes the existence of the State of Israel and the need for 
ethnic partition. A state is today the short-term objective of the Palestinian 
resistance, which will allow a minimum of security within internationally 
recognized borders. But this solution seems impossible today because of the scale 
of colonization, the viability of such a state, as large as a French department 
and without territorial continuity, being more than doubtful.
The birth of an Israeli-Palestinian federation. Within single borders, two legal 
entities, one " Israeli " and one " Palestinian ". This project has the advantage 
of guaranteeing the cultural autonomy and equal rights of two peoples who think 
they are different, and in particular of responding to the deep aspirations of 
Israelis for a " Jewish national home ". But in the long term, it represents a 
risk of Lebanese drift, with its community fragmentation.
These two projects have essentially a tactical value. Non-antagonistic, they 
express what may be possible, in stages, in a given situation, at a given time. 
They should not focus the debates because, in themselves, they would not meet 
Palestinian expectations - they do not answer, for example, the crucial question 
of refugees and their rights, a question which as long as it does not exist. will 
not be resolved will be a source of major conflict.
A single country, secular and democratic , which could not be called " Israel " 
remains the only political solution capable of ensuring peace and equality 
between all and all citizens, whatever their cultural affiliation. This solution, 
if it may seem out of reach during the period, remains in order for all 
activists, Israelis and Palestinians, hostile to ethnic segregation and state 
racism.[...]
The prospect of a " socialist Middle Eastern federation " , if it is not a 
precondition for such a solution, can represent an important fulcrum for 
Palestinian resistance, sweeping aside regimes in the region that have interest 
in ruling out any real and anti-colonialist solution to the conflict.
Right to self-determination
For the Palestinian resistance, supported by the majority of the Palestinian 
population, this self-determination implies:

the evacuation by the Israeli army of all the territories occupied since 1967 and 
the end of the blockade of Gaza ;
the dismantling of all settlements and colonial infrastructure in the West Bank ;
the right of refugees to return to their homes and / or to fair compensation ;
substantive equality of rights between Arab and non-Arab citizens in Israel ;
the right to the creation of a viable state alongside Israel. Maintaining the 
long-term perspective of a single, secular and democratic country, however, 
remains a necessity ;
assistance in rebuilding all destroyed infrastructure and the Palestinian economy.
In the immediate future, the Libertarian Communist Union:

reaffirms its support for the Palestinian resistance ;
reaffirms its support for the anti-colonialists and the rebels of the Israeli army ;
condemns any racist or religious interpretation and claim linked to the conflict 
in Palestine. Both anti-Arab racism and anti-Semitism are instrumentalized by the 
Israeli state, by Zionist currents to justify the ethnic war that the Israeli 
state is waging, by nationalist-religious, by the leaders and dominant classes of 
the countries of the region . We affirm that the dual struggle against anti-Arab 
racism and anti-Semitism is an essential key to the resolution of the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Building a credible and concrete alternative to 
anti-Semitism is an essential condition for weakening the political influence of 
Zionist currents.
calls for the demilitarization of Israeli society.
calls for the exercise of economic sanctions on the colonial Israeli state, on 
the one hand by repealing the economic, military and scientific " association 
agreement " between the European Union and Israel ; on the other hand, without 
delay, by boycotting products imported from Israel via the international Boycott 
Divestment Sanction (BDS) campaign ;
calls for an end to all military cooperation with the State of Israel.
Federal coordination of the Libertarian Communist Union, June 2020

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Orientation-communiste-libertaire-Pour-une-Palestine-libre-et-democratique-8970
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