28 JUL, 2017 ISRAEL, PALESTINE
After increased Palestinian resistance to the recent control measures announced to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem, occupied Palestine since 1967, the world pressed and Israel suffered a major defeat: after 13 days, on 27 of July, it was forced to retreat. Israel had to remove the surveillance cameras and metal detectors installed at the entrance of the Muslim holy place, on the Esplanade of the Mosques, where the imposing Dome of the Rock Mosque can be seen. In addition, at first, Israel banned Palestinians under age 50 to enter to pray in Al-Aqsa, but reversed this the next day, provoking new protests.
By: Soraya Misleh
The victory cost the lives of at least four Palestinians in the last ten days, whose bodies Israel initially refused to return for funerals -which have been transformed into large demonstrations in tribute to the martyrs fallen in resistance,– which forced Israel to retract. There were a thousand wounded among the thousands who adhered to the protests. According to news portal Maan News, until last Friday (21), the month of July accounts for 14 fatalities in the hands of the occupation forces, and since the beginning of 2017, there are already 53 people.
Israel tries to eclipse the celebration for victory, which took to the streets of Jerusalem from the dawn of day 27. One hour after the withdrawal of the control measures, there was a new repression with a balance of 40 injured. However, the pride of those who recognize that their blood is not shed in vain seems indestructible. It shows that the myth of Israeli invincibility is outdated, which has been proven in recent times.
Another recent partial victory that shows this was obtained on May 27, after 40 days of hunger strike by nearly 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners – a move that counted, in their favor, with the support of the local workers, who staged a general strike on April 28.
The images of empty streets and shops closed in Palestine show the wide adhesion to the strike. The result was that Israel had to alleviate the suffering of the more than 6,000 prisoners for the simple fact of resisting a criminal occupation. Among the achievements is the expansion of family visits, access to education and improvements in medical care.
In the wake of Israel’s political defeats there is still the destruction of its image before the world – and its morality – after the bombing of Gaza for 51 days, leaving about 2,200 dead, including more than 500 children. Israel failed to maintain the ground operation, given the Palestinian resistance, frailly armed but absolutely determined. The strength of those who have nothing to lose but their chains, of those who put their lives at the service of a just cause, of those against the ones at the top, is the great differential that has guaranteed partial but important victories against the fourth military power in the world. That force has been brewing since 2011, the beginning of the revolutionary process in the Arab world, without making a new Intifada (popular uprising), but as a continuous and mass process.
What it proves is that the path is not only open but it is possible that it germinates when least expected. The water droplet may be the tightened control in Al-Aqsa or it may be another racist measure by Israel. The land is fertile – the Zionist project of ethnic exclusivity, concretized with the creation of the State of Israel (the Nakba, Palestinian catastrophe against the expulsion of the non-Jewish native population) almost 70 years ago, and the creation of the refugee problem, are definitely destroyed.
In the area of international solidarity, the increase in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, which caused it to suffer a 46% fall in foreign investments, fits this scenario. The criminalization of the movement and the greater repression by Israel are a sign of this.
Open omission
If, on the one hand, this sum of victories points in such direction, Al-Aqsa in particular, reveals that, if those rulers who protested against the control measures were not silent in the face of the daily atrocities committed by Israel since 1948, Palestine would have been free long ago, from the river to the sea. Moreover, the Zionist project would not have consolidated.
Faced with mounting protests in Jerusalem, governments around the world – from Saudi Arabia to the United States – condemned Israel and demanded the immediate withdrawal of measures. The servant Palestinian Authority, created to manage occupation from the infamous Oslo Accords in 1993, announced the suspension of security cooperation agreements with Israel, thus demonstrating the nefarious role of the collaboration with the Palestinian cause. The cherry on the cake was the requirement made by the United Nations (UNO), which determined for the occupying power until Friday 28 July as a deadline to retreat.
The Palestinian cause is still used as propaganda; the efforts of these entities have been to contain the resistance. Its enemies, which the Palestinian revolutionary Ghassan Kanafani set out in his analysis of the causes of the defeat of the 1936-1939 revolution in Palestine, are still present: imperialism, Zionism, Arab regimes, and the Arab-Palestinian bourgeoisie. The now dominant rhetoric was that Al-Aqsa should be defended as a sacred place and not because it is part of the struggle for a free Palestine, which must continue.
For them, the withdrawal of the control measures means demobilization, to end the protests. Those who do not surrender shall be inspired by the call of those who struggle against oppression and exploitation throughout the world.
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Translated by Corriente Obrera
Al-Aqsa: victory of those who do not surrender
