Why protest? PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 11:24

Last month Dunedin held its own protest in support of the people in Gaza. James speaks to protest organiser Sam M.

Politically, what was the point of creating Gaza - a small part of Palestine on the other side of Israel? I.e. the 1947 partition plan.

Gaza is an area of Palestine that was assigned to the proposed Palestinian state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. The partition plan was based roughly around the geographic concentrations of Arabs and Jews in 1947. The proposed territory of Palestine was almost entirely inhabited by Arabs (or some other non-Jewish ethnic groups). However the proposed Jewish state was only about 55% Jewish. This is one of the main reasons Arabs were so opposed to the partition plan, because they could foresee that they would be the ones who would be forced off their land.

But those same Arabs didn't believe in a single, peaceful state, did they?

I honestly am not sure about the general opinion of the Arab leaders at the time. I think they knew that many Jewish (especially the more radical elements such as the Lehi) were planning to expel the Palestinian population from greater Palestine.

This is a common motive of most of the Israeli governments since the nation's creation. Do you believe that the recent Gaza invasion is a deliberate continuance of this policy, and if so, why?

It is difficult to tell, but the stronger Zionist aim of expelling all non-Jews from all of Palestine is still a major current in Israeli politics. The Likud party is the part of this lineage, and many of the members of Kadima are from Likud. I think the policy of making life so miserable for the Palestinians that they leave, can be seen in Gaza. But I think Gaza is deemed of secondary importance to the west bank. In 2000 Israel abandoned the direct policy of occupying Gaza with settlements, and focusing its efforts on expanding its settlements in the West Bank. The prize for Zionists is the West Bank, while Gaza is seen by many as too much of a hassle. I think this is why the Israeli government is trying to hand the suppression of Gaza over to the Egyptian regime. It has been relying on Egypt since the victory of Hamas in 2006, but is trying to make more concrete deals at the moment.

The Gaza invasion was met with anger and protest throughout the world. But realistically, outside of the US, what steps can protest movements take to have any influence over Israel?

There are several paths proposed for how to act. Obviously one is armed resistance, but that is not even a question for those outside Palestine. The other is a soft power approach involving sanctions, embargoes and boycotts, in an attempt to turn Israel in a Pariah state, like Apartheid South Africa. While I support these endeavors, I only do so as a way of influencing public opinion, by making people thinking this is a serious issue, because others are going so far. There is a major difference between Apartheid South Africa and Palestine. For one while Apartheid was a brutal system, its economy relied on the Black workforce; it could punish and kill them, but was never trying to ethnically cleanse South Africa. In Palestine the aim of many Israeli leaders is to ethnically cleanse the area In other words the violence they can inflict on Palestine is infinite. The other major difference is the role of the two countries in terms of Us Imperialism. South Africa was an important tool for the US in southern Africa, but southern Africa is not the Middle East. The role of Israel is to be a watch dog for the US in the world’s most strategically and materially (resources) important region. The fight to force the US to embargo Israel is going to be infinitely harder than South Africa; in fact I would say it is impossible without a major revolution in American politics or if the US ceases to be a Super power. The real solution will come from the workers and students of the Arab world. The solution will come from revolt in Cairo to overthrow Mubarak and install democratic rule. The Arab beougosies and leadership is as much responsible for the plight of the Palestinians as Israel. Our role on the other side of the world should be to build solidarity and support with Arab workers and students.

Pro-Zionists say Hamas is too dangerous to leave in peace. While they are the elected government of the Gaza Strip, they have a very violent militant wing. Do you believe we should be in solidarity with them?

While I do not condone the rocket attacks on civilian targets, even though this is very pretentious of me, is this sort of conflict you can't just say both sides are bad; therefore I will sit on the fence. Sitting on the fence means that far more people will die and the overwhelming majority will be Palestinian, and Israel will be even stronger. To many people the argument that both sides are bad seems reasonable, but the consequences of it are not. The question should be what the real problem is. The majority of the people in Gaza are refugees or the decedents of refugees, mainly from what is now southern Israel. They are living in an area not much bigger than the Otego peninsula. They have been bombed, humiliated, starved, and terrorized for 60 years. No matter how much they protest the leaders in the region and in the world do nothing. So when some of them decide to fire rockets, at what in many cases was their own land, are they the problem, or is the problem the state occupying their land?