Workers: Confront Israeli Rulers’ Land Grab

WEST BANK, Sept 17 — As if Israel had not already inflicted enough pain by murdering over 2,100 Gazans, mostly civilians and children, they have now grabbed almost 1,000 acres of cultivated Palestinian land near Bethlehem. This is said to be further punishment for the killing of three Israeli teens in July. In reality, it is just part of the plan to gradually take over all of historic Palestine through illegal Israeli settlements and land grabs. Palestinians  now live on only 20 percent of this land.
On a recent visit to the West Bank, some U.S. comrades learned that many Palestinians have given up on the idea of a two-state solution (separate Israeli and Palestinian states) in favor of one state. Although the number of our contacts was limited, they all seemed to agree. Firstly, so much land has already been illegally “settled” by Israel, that not enough remains to make up a viable contiguous state.
More importantly, many have realized that Israel has never had any intention of allowing a Palestinian state.  The entire 25-year negotiating process is seen as simply a ploy to obscure the true Zionist intention, first espoused in 1948, of taking  everything for themselves, killing as many Palestinians as possible, and forcing them to leave by creating unbearable living conditions. However, the Palestinians have survived, and the population of the whole area is now about half Arab and half Jewish.
During our visit we were invited to a conference in Ramallah to discuss “One Democratic State,” an attempt to unite many small groups desiring this end. The attendees were almost all older Palestinian men, with only a few students or women, two Israelis, and some internationals present.
Ilan Pappe, a prominent Israeli historian who has been forced into exile for telling the truth about Israeli history, was one of the speakers. He said that the whole two-state solution was only a charade to pretend that the occupation is temporary.  He wanted to change the term to colonization (the suppression of natives by settlers) which may continue with or without a military occupation. The struggle must be for a single just state.
Unfortunately, no one talked about how that single state should be structured. A PL’er attempted to make the point that in the U.S. or South Africa, inequality and racism remain rampant because they are capitalist states, but she was not permitted to finish her remarks. Also, no one discussed what means of struggle are needed to promote the fight. Only the international boycott of Israel, a petition, and pressure on Palestinian politicians were mentioned.  Clearly a mass campaign of civil disobedience would be needed to move forward.  All agreed, though, that Fatah and Hamas will never lead an effective struggle, they will only sabotage it.
One man who has led a winning grass roots movement is Ayed Morrar, who organized the people of his village, Budrus, to fight an Israeli land grab in 2004.  Every resident, including women, was encouraged to participate and take leadership. They confronted the soldiers and bulldozers seven days a week, suffering two deaths, until they won back over 90 percent of their land and saved 3,000 olive trees. They allowed no interference or funding from politicians and united all factions in the town.
Unfortunately, this model has not been replicated. Ayed hosted us in his home for a day and described the sad state of current village protests. As in the best known, B’ilin, the fight occurs only once a week, the day the Israelis are not working, and is geared to attract media attention, outside visitors, and government and NGO support. Consequently, not much has been won. There is no existing organization, from the so-called communist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), that is organizing grass roots struggle.
One encouraging sign we saw was a lack of anti-Semitism. Most Palestinians clearly separate hatred of Zionism from hatred of Jews. They have met supportive Israelis and international Jews who come to support their struggle and hope to expand these ties and live together peaceably. This is in sharp contrast to the pervasive anti-Arab racism espoused by 90 percent of Israelis, to the extent that they celebrate the deaths of thousands of Gazan civilians.  This racism results from inculcation with paranoid and racist ideas from earliest childhood.
Our comrades and the 10 percent or so of Israelis who reject this idea face a difficult path, but they do organize demonstrations and refuse to fight.  Now the task is for anti-racist Jews and Palestinians to join together and fight not just for a single state but for a communist state. Only when workers rule can racism and exploitations be ended.