In its fight for its legitimate rights, Gaza has united the entire planet
For decades, the struggle for national liberation in Palestine was rightly seen as an integral part of the global struggle for liberation, primarily in the Global South.
As national liberation movements were, by definition, the struggle of indigenous peoples to assert their collective rights to freedom, equality and justice, the Palestinian struggle was recognized as part of this global indigenous movement.
But the collapse of the Soviet Union, the growing dominance of the United States and its allies, the return of Western colonialism in the form of neocolonialism in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, led to many movements’ struggles native.
This proved costly, as it allowed France, the United States, Great Britain and others to once again divide the Global South into various zones of influence and control them in using military, political and economic strategies that they always had in mind.
Like the scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century, recent decades have given rise to a new form of colonial rush to the South.
In the Palestinian context, in particular, the struggle took on several aspects: the disappearance of world powers such as the USSR, which maintained a sort of geopolitical balance, isolated Palestinian resistance movements, particularly those involved in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
This forced them to seek political “compromises”, without getting anything tangible in return.
For Washington, these concessions by the former national liberation movement in Palestine were consistent with its goals in the region and its pursuit of a “new Middle East.” It also resulted in the ill-described “Palestinian division,” inter-organizational clashes in 2007, and the political paralysis that has characterized the so-called Palestinian leadership ever since.
Furthermore, while Palestinians were busy resolving their political and leadership crises, the Israeli settlement process accelerated, at the expense of what remained of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Of course, from an intellectual and historical perspective, this does not alter the essential nature of the Palestinian struggle, which remains that of an indigenous nation fighting for its rights. However, this has caused confusion in the definitions and political discourse surrounding the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This confusion is a direct result of the misrepresentation of the Palestinian struggle by Israeli propaganda and US-Western media, which have continued to promote the Israeli narrative.
Israel has invested in portraying the Palestinians as a divided people with no vision of peace, and their resistance movements as essentially “terrorist” groups, intent on destroying Israel, etc.
Yet things have begun to change in recent years, with the revival of indigenous movements around the world, from the Black struggle in the United States to the resurgence of indigenous peoples in North and South America, to the he emergence of a truly global movement, centered on landless societies and indigenous rights, which has invested heavily in global solidarity and intersectionality, which has allowed it to multiply its influence.
The commonality of “decolonization” – in all its manifestations – created cross-sectoral connections between various struggles across the world and allowed the Palestinian struggle for liberation to fit seamlessly into the new approach at the global level.
“Aboriginal Australians and Palestinians share a history and reality of erasure that has lasted well beyond the anti-colonial era of the turn of the last century, when most colonized peoples gained independence from colonial powers,” they said. write Eugenia Flynn and Tasnim Sammak in their article “Black Australia to Palestine: solidarity in decolonial struggle”.
The Black Lives Matter movement has also played a central role in refocusing Palestine around the most priority and active struggles in the United States and even beyond North America.
“Palestinians played a crucial role in the (2014) uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, which erupted that year following the police killing of black teenager Michael Brown,” wrote Russell Rickford In Vox. “Palestinian activists used social media to share tactics with African-American protesters for dealing with tear gas attacks from militarized police forces – an experience with which many victims of the Israeli occupation are all too familiar . »
This was only the beginning, however, as over the years Palestine began to feature as a vital part of the discourse of black struggle in the United States. Both movements fed off each other’s popularity, designing new networks and connecting other global struggles in the most seamless way possible.
All of this has been aided by the growing connections of activists and their struggles around the world, through the use of social media and independent indigenous media as essential elements of organizing and mobilization.
November 22, 2023 – The Middle East Monitor – Translation: Chronicle of Palestine – BoutrosA
