by Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 20.2.2018, http://www.the-isleague.com
Following Trump’s declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, many Palestinians hoped that the Palestinians Authority would cease all forms of collaboration with Israel, especially against Palestinians engaged in military actions against armed Zionist oppressors. The case of Jarrar has proven to many Palestinians that the PA continues to collaborate with Israel.
Ahmad Jarrar, a 22-year-old, who, according to Israel, killed an Israeli settler Raziel Shevah near a Jewish-only settlement near Nablus, in the West Bank, on January 9th, was killed by the Israeli military one week ago after he managed to escape them for almost a month. Raziel Shevah was not an innocent victim of terrorism, he was one of those right wing Zionists who actively steal Palestinian lands.
According to Al Jazeera a video posted on social media shows Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior member of Fatah, being expelled from the mourning tent for the Palestinians slain by the occupation forces. Israel claims that he was killed in act of self defense but it is more likely that he was killed like many other Palestinians – in cold blood.
The relatives accused al-Ahmad of complicity in Jarrar’s death, because of the ongoing “security coordination” of the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority with Israel.
Under the Oslo agreement, the PA is committed to sharing information with Israel about any armed resistance to the Israeli oppression. Such is the role of a Quisling – a collaborator within occupied lands, a term that originated in Norway during the German occupation in World War II.
The anger over the PA’s role in Jarrar’s death is part of the discontent among Palestinians over the PA role in collaboration with Israel. According to a December 2017 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 70 percent of Palestinians want 82-year-old Abbas to resign.
An increasing number of Palestinians understand that Oslo agreement only allows Israel to steal more lands with the collaboration of the PA. Already one year ago a poll showed that 65% of Palestinians no longer believe the two-state solution is viable. “The more people think the two-state solution is no longer viable, the more likely it is that they will shift and support a one-state solution” explains Dr. Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. [1]
As socialist revolutionaries who understand that only a workers revolution supported by the Fellahin and other oppressed groups and classes, will lead to the liberation of the Palestinians, we do not support nor glorify individual terrorist actions against oppression. Behind this position is the realization that in spite of what may be perceived as heroism and at times, real and spectacular demonstration of the human spirit, such actions do not lead to a socialist revolution and are exploited by the Zionists to steal more lands.
We are not pacifists and we do understand the power of the armed masses at a time of a revolution. In a different situation, Ahmad Jarrar would likely have been a dedicated socialist revolutionary. The only solution is one red democratic Palestine from the river to the sea to replace Zionist apartheid from the river to the sea.
Trotsky in his article: For Grynszpan (1939) explained our attitude today towards individual terrorism:
“We Marxists consider the tactic of individual terror inexpedient in the tasks of the liberating struggle of the proletariat as well as oppressed nationalities. A single isolated hero cannot replace the masses. But we understand only too clearly the inevitability of such convulsive acts of despair and vengeance. All our emotions, all our sympathies are with the self-sacrificing avengers even though they have been unable to discover the correct road. Our sympathy becomes intensified because Grynszpan is not a political militant, but an inexperienced youth, almost a boy, whose only counselor was a feeling of indignation. To tear Grynszpan out of the hands of capitalist justice, which is capable of chopping off his head to further serve capitalist diplomacy, is the elementary, immediate task of the international working class!” [2]
Despite many perceived similarities, Israel is not a Fascist or Nazi state, but a settler-colonialist society. It is a modern equivalent of white colonialism in North America, Australia, etc. and is most similar, although not identical, to the South African apartheid state. However, the path of individual terrorism yields the same misfortune everywhere where oppressed people struggle for freedom.
The heroic struggle of the Palestinians can win against the military might of Israel as part of the victorious Arab revolution and the Iranian revolution. It is only a question of time, that must be used to build a revolutionary leadership. The way forward is a mass Intifada as part of the world revolutionary struggle of the exploited and the oppressed.
Footnotes:
(1) http://mondoweiss.net/2017/01/democratic-palestinians-solution/
(2) Leon Trotsky: For Grynszpan. Against Fascist Pogrom Gangs and Stalinist Scoundrels (1939), https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/xx/grnszpan.htm
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For the analysis of the RCIT and its comrades in Occupied Palestine of the Palestinian liberation struggle, we refer readers to our numerous articles and documents accessed from the Africa and Middle East section of our website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/ as well at http://the-isleague.com/. In particular we refer readers to the following documents:
Jerusalem is the Capital of Palestine! Trump’s Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital “Will Open the Floodgates of Hell to the West”! Mobilize for a Popular Intifada – in Palestine, in the Arab and Muslim World, Globally! Joint Statement of the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and the Internationalist Socialist League (Israel / Occupied Palestine), 06.12.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/jerusalem-is-the-capital-of-palestine/
RCIT and ISL: Israel Starts Ground Offensive: Defend Gaza! Defeat Israel’s War! Support the Palestinian Resistance! For a Workers’ and Popular International Campaign to Boycott Israel! Down with the Regimes which Collaborate with Israel! For a Free, Red Palestine! 22.7.2014, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/joint-statement-defend-gaza/
Yossi Schwartz: Israel’s War of 1948 and the Degeneration of the Fourth International, in: Revolutionary Communism, Special Issue on Palestine, No. 10, June 2013, www.thecommunists.net/theory/israel-s-war-of-1948-1
Yossi Schwartz: Israel’s Six-Day War of 1967. On the Character of the War, the Marxist Analysis and the Position of the Israeli Left, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 12, July/August 2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/israel-s-war-of-1967/
Summary of the Program of the Internationalist Socialist League, February 2014, http://www.the-isleague.com/our-platform/
Michael Pröbsting: On some Questions of the Zionist Oppression and the Permanent Revolution in Palestine, in: Revolutionary Communism, Special Issue on Palestine, No. 10, June 2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/permanent-revolution-in-palestine
Michael Pröbsting: World Perspectives 2018: A World Pregnant with Wars and Popular Uprisings. Theses on the World Situation, the Perspectives for Class Struggle and the Tasks of Revolutionaries, 10. February 2018, Chapter V. Middle East and North Africa: Reactionary Offensive, Wars and Popular Uprisings, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/world-perspectives-2018/chapter-v/
RCIT: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Arab World: An Acid Test for Revolutionaries, 31 May 2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/theses-arab-revolution/