How can Palestinian liberation be won?

By Donal Devlin

TANKS AND bulldozers demolished homes as they entered the city. Ambulances were not allowed to enter or leave, adding to the chaos. This atrocity was a microcosm of the oppression of Palestine, with a population of refugees seeking refuge from Israeli state terror once again.

At the beginning of July, the hashtag #JeninUnderAttack went viral after Jenin, a refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank, came under murderous assault from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The camp, which is just 0.4 km squared and home to 14,000 Palestinian refugees, was mercilessly bombed, leaving 12 dead.

Crucial reference point

For a growing section of young and working-class people internationally, the occupation of Palestine and the dispossession of its people is a harrowing symbol of the horrors of capitalism and imperialist rule over our planet. The Israeli State, with the fourth-largest army in the world – possessing an array of sophisticated weaponry, including nuclear arms – systematically and unrelentingly metes out savage repression against Palestinians. All of which is politically and financially backed by US imperialism and the EU to the hilt.

Faced with such a powerful force ranged against it, a crucial question is how such a mighty military force can be defeated. A starting point for waging such a struggle lies with the Palestinian masses themselves. A mass struggle organised through democratic councils in workplaces, communities, universities and schools, with the right to armed self-defence, could deliver real blows to the Israeli ruling class.

When faced with the brutal force of the Israeli Defence Force, such a struggle would naturally have the right to armed self-defence. This means that weaponry and arms in places like Jenin should be placed under democratic control, self defence councils established.

The impact that such mass struggle can have was witnessed in May 2021, when Israel launched one of its perennial massacres of the besieged populace of Gaza. A Palestinian general strike in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the other side of the Green line exerted real pressure on Israeli capitalism. It was a factor in bringing an end to this round of slaughter. For example, over 65,000 Palestinian workers in Israel’s construc- tion industry struck at a cost of $40 million to the bosses.

Workers’ strikes have recently occurred in the Occupied West Bank due to IDF and settler-colonial pogroms. These actions stand in the proud traditions of the First Intifada, a mass Palestinian uprising that exploded in Gaza and the West Bank in December 1987.

A crucial question in any mass Palestinian uprising against Israeli oppression will be; who are its potential allies if it is to defeat an enemy as powerful as the Israeli State? It is certainly not the corrupt, oppressive capitalist regimes in this region, like those of Egypt and

Saudi Arabia, despite their past rhetorical support for the cause of Palestine. The working class and poor majority in these countries, who live under stiflingly oppressive and impoverished conditions, can be a crucial ally, as a force that can begin to turn the tide on the economic, social and political order of capitalism and imperialism in this region.

Who are the allies of Palestine?

A vital, if understandably less obvious ally, is the working class of Israel itself – a force that can play a decisive role in defeating the Israeli ruling class. Clearly, it has been impacted by