Following a momentous 2-week period of conflict and popular struggle across Palestine, a new milestone has been reached and the beginning of a new era has been established.
On the 10th of May 2021 the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza initiated conflict with the Zionist regime, first setting an ultimatum for Israel to halt provocations in Jerusalem and then firing a barrage of rockets when they did not.
11 days of continuous Palestinian rocket fire into Israel later, the Zionist government offered a ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance accepted with conditions.
The following is a brief collection of observations by this one author of some of the factors of how the long oppressed Palestinian people performed this immense victory over one of the largest military powers in the world.
- Palestine has a base area. Gaza, despite being an overcrowded open-air prison camp (which has been kept on starvation rations with poisoned drinking water for nearly 2 decades), is run by the Palestinian Resistance not by Zionist occupiers like 48 Palestine or their Palestinian puppets in the West Bank. Palestinians liberated this urban territory in 2005 and it has been a thorn in the side of “Israel” every since. The Palestinian resistance is able to locally produced missiles within this concentration camp that can shut down the entirity of the Zionist entity. Neither the Zionist airforce or army can stop this.
- The Palestinian resistance operated in a united front with a joint operations room to co-ordinate actions. This caused more radical sections from sold-out counter-revolutionary groups like Fatah to split off and re-activate on the side of the resistance.
- The Palestinian resistance had a broad and deep array of tactics to implement their strategy. Everything from defiant protests to rioting to destruction of police stations to general strikes to drive by shootings to transport blockades to special forces operations to coordinated missile barrages to spontaneous individual guerrilla attacks to drones to ATGM strikes – and much more – were used across all of occupied Palestine and it’s neighbours.
- Palestinians refused to allow themselves to be divided. The people of Palestine and beyond did not fall in to the Israeli strategy of segregation by different degrees of ‘privilege’. The Palestinians in the Gaza concentration camp or under the Zionist occupation regime or the neocolonial Palestinian puppet statelet all experience different forms of oppression which is intended instill recrimination and disunity among them. However these Palestinians were instead united and acted according to a single strategy with a single goal of liberation in mind, supporting each other and by disrupting the enemy at the various weak points.
- Palestinian refugees and exiles on the borders of Israel played a key role. As moments when Gaza and the occupied cities of Palestine were under severe pressure by the Zionist regime, Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere opened new fronts by massing on the borders and breaking through the colonial barriers to enter Palestine. Missiles were fired from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, which the Zionist entity feared to even acknowledge let alone respond to.
- The Palestinian diaspora and international solidarity movement helped to mobilise some of the largest Palestine marches ever seen: 180,000 in London one day was beaten by 250,000 in Detroit the next. In France huge and militant demonstrations were held despite bannings by the French police state. Enormous rallies took place on every continent on Earth, particularly in places where the government is a key ally or sponsor of the Zionist regime. A handful all of minuscule pro-israel demonstrations took place after the conflict had ended. There is no doubt to anyone who the world stands with. Crucially, there have also been occupations of Zionist arms factories abroad, the destruction of Israeli products sold, and the blockading of Israeli ships from docking. Furthermore their help in strategic alliances with popular mass activist protests such as Black Lives Matter, which will keep Palestine at the forefront of global struggle.
- The Palestinian Resistance has been able to get technical support and training from dedicated allies such as Iran, but is also self reliant in manufacturing it’s basic weapons. The result is a resilient and powerful force which the Israeli entity is unable to exterminate by either it’s tactics of slow or fast genocide. This is a losing condition for an occupier.
- The media war has shifted decisively to Palestine. The Palestinian Resistance gave a powerful media performance through spokespeople such as Abu Oneida, and through inspiring cinematic propaganda. Humiliating moments for the Zionists were captured by mobile phone and shared widely across social media (despite the social media company’s attempts to suppress them). Intelligent and articulate Palestinian voices were given a small opening on mainstream media and successfully took control of the narrative. By contrast, the vaunted Israel lobby’s slick PR machinery – the best money can buy – was quickly overwhelmed and collapsed, defeated alongside their political and military leadership.
- Self belief is infectious. The last war which Israel won was in 1967. I’m 2000 it was kicked out of South Lebanon and in 2006 it was defeated again when it tried to re-occupy. Similar to this defeat 15 years ago, Israel now in 2021 is unable to enter tiny Gaza with its military and must instead bomb the inhabitants from a far. The truth is out among both israelis and Palestinians that the Zionists have been defeated and they are on a losing trajectory – a paper tiger! With most israelis having a European, Russian or American passport, they vote with their feet and depart on mass as things get tough for them. Palestinians on the other hand know that their liberation is on the horizon, and within their lifetimes, and that is in their hands.
- A anti-revisionist communist movement is a central part of the joint Palestinian resistance. Hamas is the largest Palestinian resistance group, and is a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate which overall has some severe differences with anti-colonial movements fighting for National liberation and socialism. However the Palestinian people needs are so strong and clearly expressed that Hamas is pushed to lean in a national liberation and militant direction as opposed to reactionary elements that also exist within it. One of the reasons why the Palestinian people have such political consciousness is the long term mass work of the PFLP. The PFLP has been engaging with both the Palestinian masses and other resistance groups, providing uncompromising leadership and a pathway towards liberation. The PFLP is one of the strongest communist movements in the world and one with experiences others can learn from. Meanwhile, one alternative ideology which has been thoroughly discredited the past decade has been chauvinist Islamism. Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the “Free Syrian Army” have all been parked on the border with Israel for nearly a decade – and not only have they never conflicted but they have been recieving the vital support they need to continue from the Zionist entity. It was backwards elements of Hamas which opportunistically allied with these forces from 2011-2014, but which have since been sidelined and Hamas have reconciled with the Syrian government.
Overall this conflict in May 2021 has been in an enormous psychological victory for the Palestinian resistance but also one which lifts and inspires people around the world. If there is any hope for the existence of billions of people and much of life itself around the world, it was a first step in a new revolutionary era that will resound and amplify across the world in leaps and bounds.
We congratulate our Palestinian brethren for their incredible achievements and know that the best way to honour and support them is to match their resistance in our own localities. If this brief article can provoke some wider reflections and discussion that will be a useful component of that.