This debate started with two contributions that appeared in the
Sciruccazzu column in the past issues, in which we distanced ourselvesfrom the political movement Hamas, albeit within a framework of full
solidarity with the Palestinian people. It was also a distancing from
those Palestinian and pro-Palestinian political sectors in our country
that contest our positions not only by making a correlation between the
resistance and Hamas (something objectively irrefutable, even if not
exhaustive) but by rejecting our criticisms in the name of a Pilate-like
and opportunistic "don't nitpick what happens in Palestine".
The debate, however, has oriented itself towards the tortuous path of
cultural relativism and, in my opinion, has also gotten bogged down there.
The criticism of Hamas, again in my humble opinion, cannot be examined
from an anthropological and cultural relativist point of view, that is,
on the principle that no one can make value judgments on cultures
different from ours that present customs and values different from ours.
In fact, in the column we were not, nor are we now, discussing the uses,
customs and traditions of the Palestinian people, but rather a very
specific, totalitarian and fundamentalist political system that governs
the Gaza Strip, gaining consensus over time thanks to the corruption of
the Palestinian National Authority and the interested Israeli aid aimed
at dividing Palestinian society and reducing its secular
characteristics. Cultural anthropology cannot help us in this case.
In April 2023, during the congress of the International of Anarchist
Federations held in Massenzatico (RE), we addressed at length the issue
of Eurocentrism, therefore cultural colonialism, with which, for
example, the religiosity of indigenous peoples in Latin America was
analyzed, trying to impose an atheist and anticlerical point of view
that was completely out of place and dangerous, agreeing, with the
comrades of those places, that another approach is necessary, which
takes into account the specific cultural forms that have sedimented over
time among certain populations. While not abandoning the critical sense
of the libertarian vision, respect and the ability to understand must
prevail.
In the case of Palestine, our criticism refers to a very specific state
political system, and our interpretation can only be of a political
nature and have as its objective a consequent choice of clear positioning.
The decolonization with which some analyze the Palestinian question
cannot serve as a cover for a context that makes oppression in its
various declinations (of women, secularism, sexual, artistic,
associative and political freedom) a dogma. There can be no
decolonization without freedom, without liberation from the various
forms of slavery: economic, social, cultural, gender. A decolonization
based on nationalism, racism and the centrality of religion in
institutions and society must be countered by a decolonization that is
anti-capitalist, secular and bearer of a social project in the name of
peaceful coexistence between peoples and mutual support.
If we tried to adopt a relativist vision also with respect to political
institutions, states, and social hierarchies prevailing in different
areas of the planet, we would be forced to justify dictatorships, ISIS,
regimes like the Iranian one, perhaps enchanted by their position on the
opposite side to that of our enemies or adversaries.
Internationalism is a class solidarity practice, it leads us to take
sides against states, governments, masters and hegemonic classes, always
on the side of the people and the exploited. The contradictions existing
within each society do not invalidate its value and meaning, since the
practice of internationalist solidarity must always be careful to
distinguish between peoples and institutions, even when the consensus
towards the latter may be large and widespread.
Pippo Gurrieri
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
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