It was incredibly moving to see the Palestinians returning to what was left of their homes in a Gaza strip. The strip has suffered more bombing in two years than the bombings of London, Dresden and Hamburg combined during the Second World War. It was also very moving to be on Saturday’s huge pro-Palestine demonstration in London, where 600,000 marched with a sense of hope that at least in the short term the lives of the people of Gaza would improve, that they would not face the imminent death from bombing or starvation, and that they could begin to rebuild their lives.
At the same time the marchers had a sense of determination that they would not stop campaigning and fighting for solidarity with the Palestinians. While the ceasefire is welcome, it does not deal with a whole range of immediate and longer term questions: access to food, aid and medicine, which is still denied; the full withdrawal of Israeli troops; the nature of the apartheid state; the bringing to justice of those responsible for the genocide; the illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On top of this is the whole legacy of the Nakba and the need to end the occupation. Israel at present will control 58% of the Gaza strip.
This is a turning point and one that is a credit to the Palestinian people themselves who have shown such resilience and resistance over the past two years. It is also a credit to the international solidarity movement which is still growing, in which Britain has played a big part. The general strikes in Italy, and this week in Spain over Gaza, the huge demonstrations here and throughout the world, the BDS movement which is beginning to make real gains and questioning Israel’s sporting and cultural links, the flotillas whose brutal interception by the Israeli navy triggered protests across Europe, have all built pressure on the western governments to abandon their complicity.
All of it has been too little, too late, but it has forced increased condemnation of the Netanyahu government’s actions, belated recognition of a Palestinian state, and a gradual isolation of Israel, as witnessed by the near total walkout from the UN general assembly when Netanyahu spoke there. So far, so good. But no one should be fooled that the planned projection for Gaza is anything but an attempt by the imperialist powers to maintain their control in the region.
The peace deal, rushed through to enable Trump’s egotistical desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, takes any agency away from ordinary Palestinians and places it in the hands of a bunch of self-appointed administrators who will run Gaza. Incredibly, a key player will be the totally discredited Tony Blair, who presided, along with George Bush, over an invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 which claimed over 1 million lives. Despite ludicrous claims that Blair is some sort of successful peacemaker, his record both there and throughout the Middle East (not to mention in Afghanistan) tells a very different story.
The deal is a continuation of the brutal imperial carve-up in the Middle East. It has been agreed by the Gulf States and Egypt, brokered by the US president who is waging war on his own people, and rubber stamped by European powers desperate to halt the growing movement for Palestine solidarity. Blair’s involvement will ensure western investment which will benefit the investors not the people of Palestine. While talk of the Gaza riviera has been muted of late, Trump and Blair want to rebuild the shattered Gaza in their own image. Alongside this, the Palestinian people will be denied any democratic accountability or the right to elect their own representatives.
The release of the hostages will coincide with an international meeting presided over by Trump at which Starmer will also be present, along with the Egyptian dictator Sisi. Starmer and co will hope that the situation in Palestine will return to ‘normal’ and that he and his allies will be able to continue to sell arms to Israel and collectively try to weaken and overthrow the Iranian government, which is Trump and Netanyahu’s main target in the Middle East.
There is much talk of Israel’s ‘security’ but nothing about the security of the Palestinians who have suffered two years of bombing, destruction of infrastructure, imprisonment, starvation, ethnic cleansing, and persecution. This will not change. There are also several phases of the peace deal which can break down at any time. We know already that Israel is refusing to release several high profile prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti, and that it has no interest in allowing the Palestinians their freedom.
So the movement must continue: solidarity is a necessity while the Palestinians suffer. We have stood by the people of Gaza for the past two years – that isn’t going to change now. Much of our focus must be ensuring Keir Starmer does the right thing (however unlikely that is). There should be a stop on arms sales to Israel – which have increased over the past two months. There must be no diplomatic and trading links with the genocidal, apartheid state. Here at home, we must reverse his policy of raising military spending at the expense of welfare.
Starmer must also stop his repression of the Palestine movement here. The mass arrests of Defend our Juries protesters, the restrictions and obstruction of our marches for justice, the attempts to bring in even more repressive laws, are dangerous infringements of our democracy. They are also in strong contrast to the very lenient treatment of the Tommy Robinson march last month, where only a handful were arrested and large mobs rampaged through the streets, while there was incitement to violence from the stage and a Palestine flag torn up.
As I said on Saturday’s march, ours was a much bigger demonstration than Robinson could muster, and whereas his was a hate march full of threats and violence, ours was one of solidarity with people under threat. That’s important, because we have to confront the racism and Islamophobia which at least partly aims its fire at the Palestine movement. It also signifies that our movement has played a very important role in British and international politics over the past two years. The Palestinian people will need our solidarity as much as ever in the coming months.
Source: Counterfire