WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY PALESTINA ISRAEL News Journal Update - (en) Italy, FDCA, Il Cantiere #18: West Bank: pogroms and new forms of resistance - Pierre Stambul. March 2023 (1) (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The occupation of the West Bank has lasted for 56 years. About 800,000 Israeli

Jews (12% of the population) live beyond the "green line", the internationally
recognized border, that of the 1948-49 armistice. ---- If some of the settlers
live in the urban suburbs, attracted by privileged living conditions (large
economic residences, ring roads, abundant water, etc.), a good half are religious
fanatics. Their reading of the Hebrew Bible, an ethnic and nationalist reading,
has become widely accepted among religious Jews: "God gave this land to the
Jewish people." So there is nothing to discuss. The Palestinians are intruders
and to please God they must be expelled or locked up.
Piss into the pool from the top of the trampoline
The expression is from Sylvain Cypel, author of Israel against the Jews. He
reflects the current behavior of the majority of Israelis. Zionism, a colonialist
and racist ideology, has led to a lasting hegemony of the far right in all
sectors of Israeli society: among the religious and the settlers of course, but
also among the Sephardim, the Russians, in the army... the violence against the
Palestinian population has never ceased. In the Jenin camp, in Sharon's time, the
Israeli army experimented with new methods: tearing down buildings with tanks and
walling up the inhabitants. In the old city of Hebron, settlers dump their
garbage on Palestinian streets and educate their children to throw stones at
Palestinian school children. All of this is not new. What is good is that the
settlers now feel strong enough and no longer hide. They are in power directly
with key positions. Every day a Palestinian (preferably a child) is killed. The
army openly supports the settlers when they attack the farmers or build a new
colony. Impunity and in particular the absence of sanctions and protests suggests
that anything goes. What happened to Huwara is one step further. A real pogrom,
like in Russia in the past, with a complementarity between the rioters who loot,
  kill, burn everything and the army that protects them and forbids any response.
With in addition the ministers openly calling for the murder. Bezalel Smotrich,
finance minister, has called for Huwara to be razed to the ground. Suddenly, a
new Nakba (catastrophe, planned ethnic cleansing) is on the agenda.

To live is to resist

The Palestinians have tried and continue to try every form of resistance. And it
is clear that they have no interlocutor on the Israeli side. What is on the
agenda against them are bombings, murders, mass imprisonments, land thefts,
destruction of houses. Yet Palestinian society is still alive. The population
continues to educate children, to produce when possible, to celebrate.
The Palestinian Authority is perceived mostly for what it is: a collaborative
entity that zealously enforces the one thing that was signed in Oslo: that the
occupied provide the "security" of the occupier. He killed opponents (Nizar
Banat), persecuted the rebel civil society (in particular the theater of freedom
in Jenin), fought the pluralism of Palestinian society. She intervened violently
against the funeral procession of a Hamas militant, killed by the Israeli army,
and accused of an attack on two settlers. Many political parties are discredited.
We perceive a certain "authorization" towards them in the population.

An almighty army

In 56 years of occupation, the Israeli military has become extremely powerful.
His technology allows him to control everything from spying on phones to tracking
the slightest movement in society with drones. Its firepower is unmatched. He has
the "legal" right to torture and kill. Each occupation has led to forms of
collaboration. Against the Palestinians all means are good. A Gaza fisherman,
taken prisoner in the middle of his work, recounted the proposal that the
security services had made to him: "You know, your mother has cancer and
anticancer drugs are banned in Gaza. But if you help us, she can be cured ... ".
If the intelligence services have discovered that a Palestinian is homosexual or
that a Palestinian woman has had extramarital affairs, blackmail can make them
collaborators. As a result, targeted executions of combatants have multiplied.

Armed struggle?

A poll in Palestine shows that a fairly clear majority of the population supports
the armed struggle. And during every Israeli attack, the crowds at the funerals
of slain fighters are staggering. Notable Palestinian politicians such as Leila
Shahid also praised them. Two Palestinian political parties have an offensive
weapon: Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Against Jihad, the Israeli army has always used the worst methods: 49 died in
Gaza last year during the massive bombing of Gaza. Merav Michaeli, leader of the
Labor Party, considered a modernist and feminist, said at the time: "Wherever
they are, the members of Islamic Jihad must be wiped out". Jihad, which is both a
nationalist and a religious party, has a reputation for being incorruptible and
unitary. Despite many losses, his resolve is intact.
But it is outside the festivals that new groups have arisen, the most famous of
which is "Areen al-Usud[The Lions' Den]".
Little is known about these groups. For them, total secrecy is an obligation. We
don't know any "leader" for them, a bit like in the revolt movement in Iran. Any
known leader would be brought down immediately. They're young. They have groups
in Nablus, Jenin, Jericho, probably elsewhere as well. They are not affiliated
with any political party. The Palestinian Authority has tried to bribe them by
offering them jobs in exchange for giving up the armed struggle. They declined.
Their armament is light. They only attack the army and settlers. Naturally, their
chances of achieving a victory against the Israeli military are very slim.
I will conclude on them by quoting the words of my father, a former member of the
Manouchian group(2): "we knew that if we didn't fight, we would be sentenced to
death. And if we fought, we were also sentenced to death. So we chose to fight.»

(1) The article appeared in Courant Alternatif number 329 of March 2023. The
newspaper is published in France by Organization Communiste Libertaire
(2) Missak Manouchian was an Armenian partisan, a leading member of the
Francs-Tireurs et Partisans de la Main d'Oeuvre Immigrée, a partisan formation of
the French resistance during World War II.

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