The Palestinian resistance Isn’t a monolith
JVL Introduction
Bashir Abu-Manneh is disturbed by the virtual absence of any critical evaluation of Hamas and its military strategy, and even more by an unconditional support for Hamas expressed by some on the left.
It is, to say the least, odd to place “a socially regressive religious movement like Hamas into the universal emancipatory tradition of the Left”.
There is a fear that criticising the tactics of a group acting in the name of the oppressed will undermine their cause.
But this does a disservice to the Palestinian cause. Hamas does not speak for all. Hamas’s one election win in Jan 2006 was “not a blank check for eternity”.
Public opinion in Gaza has moved substantially against Hamas in recent months, and critical voices are widespread on the West Bank too.
In addition, Palestinian support for a single state has declined substantially in recent months. Faced with rampant Israeli ethnonationalism, sharing a future in one state doesn’t seem an attractive prospect.
It is important, asserts Abu-Manneh, that Palestinians are able “to work through their devastating predicament collectively, democratically, and without fear”.
Those in solidarity with Palestinians’ right to self-determination should not presume to close down discussion about the form the struggle should take.
RK
This article was originally published by Jacobin on Sun 28 Apr 2024. Read the original here.
The Palestinian resistance Isn’t a monolith
As Palestinians reckon with the genocide being inflicted on them and their prospects for national liberation, it does them a disservice to flatten their political diversity and complex ongoing debates.
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“Another interviewee, Samia, is even more damning. “The role of the resistance is to protect us civilians, not to sacrifice us,” she said. “I don’t want to die and I didn’t want my children to witness what they’ve seen and to live in a tent suffering from hunger, cold and poverty.”
Bashir provides no convincing evidence or support for the inferences in that article that Hamas is essentially the problem, or an obstacle, to democracy and peace in the Strip. When she quotes people suggesting the resistance should be protecting our people – how does she suggest Hamas does that? Tell the Israeli’s not to have bombed Gaza 5 times in the last 15 or more years? Ask them not to commit genocide? Provide Gaza civilians with bombproof shelters? Perhaps the ineffective Israeli Policing by proxy through Abbas and the Palestinian authority might provide the solution? A rubber bullet rather than a steel one?
Those in Palestine have the right to take up arms against the occupying army and the right to self-determination. The Zionist entity has no intention of allowing Palestinians the right to life, let alone argue about who is the resistance. Hamas and the “resistance” in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen carry the history of liberation on their flags. The enemy is the Zionists. The answer to their defeat is unity, not opinion polls.
These comments are justified. However, so-called international law does not operate in Palestine nor in the numerous other places where the oppressed oppose colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism.
Also, the future is for Palestinians is for them to decide; but Israel is a settler colonial society and, as George Bush Jr. observed, a US base in the Middle East. The deconstruction of the Israeli state is a necessity.
A really interesting and useful perspective that we hear little about, thank you. And what a tragedy that Palestinians generally no longer see a possibility to live alongside Israelis in one state – not at all surprising of course.
This is a really important discussion. How do we keep the space open for ‘critical support’ , which is more essential to the future than the uncritical kind?
On Saturday I marched and was uplifted as always. I did not reach the rally, but next day I saw video recordings of speakers on Not The Andrew Marr Show. And I got a jolt.
Many wonderful speeches enlarged my solidarity, especially from Stephen Kapos, Corbyn and the young woman speaking for Na’amod who drew directly on her own experience of violence and rape…
So it was massively jarring when an American-Palestinian spokesman said “When they drop bombs, we drop babies … in a year’s time hospitals will be filled with Palestinian mothers giving birth”. Surely we’ve had enough of this from the nationalists, the zionists and other colonialists? Demanding that women of every age be mobilised to have babies for the nation and give birth to more cannon fodder?
There were two other speeches which also worried me, and I’d like us to have more input into how speakers are chosen. I’ll be glad to have further discussion on this; I commend Bashir Abu-Manneh for the bravery of keeping this space open.
Abu-Manneh’s article, and Amira Hass’s on which it is partially based, are very thought-provoking. Those who excoriate Israel’s vicious genocide often go evasive when asked (eg by news correspondents with an agenda) for their view on Hamas. Its difficult. We need somehow to hold in one place simultaneously the Hamas which boldly destabilised the system of oppression Israel has sustained for decades, and the Hamas which has obscurantist religious positions and no appetite for democracy.
It is also depressing, but understandable, to hear that the one-state solution, favoured by many of Palestine’s most active supporters has taken a battering in Palestinian opinion. Who would want to share a state with a nation whose overwhelming majority are cheering on genocide?
Post October 7th we all need to rethink the way forward.