Palestine is the World (2002)
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
The Israeli invasion of Palestine is an act of aggression of such gravity that it is almost impossible for me to speak of anything else. When the population of six cities and many villages is tortured daily in front of the whole world, and when those perpetrating these crimes are granted total immunity, then we have to stop and speak up because new standards are being established as to what is permissible internationally, which put us all in danger.
My first point, then, is that we have to oppose this aggression, these Israeli war crimes, in any way we can and there is a lot we can do since it is our money that pays for them. Without the United States Israel could not even function as an economy, much less have tanks to occupy every street in Palestine.
At the same time, we should not make the mistake of thinking that the situation in Palestine is unique. Palestine today is the image of what, in different ways, is occurring across the world.
The Israeli invasion of Palestine is a classic example of colonial conquest. In fact, the very creation of the state of Israel was part of the British colonization of the Middle East. This was acknowledged by Sharon when he told the president of France, Chirac, three weeks ago that : Palestine is our Algeria, with the difference (he added) that we are going to stay.
Over the last two decades the same colonial relations have been re-imposed by Europe and the U.S. on every part of the former colonial world, this time in the name of the debt crisis, globalization or the war on drugs” and, more recently, the war on terrorism. The slogans change but the objectives and the consequences are the same: uprooting the local populations, turning them into refugees, into cheap labor for the global market, appropriating their resources, their lands, their assets, their oil, their waters, their labor, either by the use of tanks and bombings or through trade agreements, structural adjustment programs, currency devaluations, all means of waging war on the people and the lands.
Not surprisingly, the same destructive policies that Israel is implementing in Palestine, with the use of deadly force through land expropriation, the expansion of settlements, the theft of water, and now the systematic destruction of every infrastructure (like water pipes, roads, power plants, sewers, schools, houses) are also being implemented, with the same results, in Africa, Asia, Latin America.
What in Israel is destroyed by the IDF, in many African countries is destroyed by the World Bank, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In Palestine it is the Israeli tanks that bulldoze schools and houses. In Africa, it is structural adjustment, the defunding of the public sector, currency devaluation, but the effects are the same. In Palestine the sick, the wounded, the women giving birth cannot go to the hospitals because the Israelis shoot them. In Africa people cannot go to the hospitals, even without the Israeli bullets–although Israel has played havoc in Africa too, propping every dictator, from Mobuto to the white South African apartheid regime. In both cases, the results are populations of refugees, the transfer of lands from the local people to the new colonial powers, forwarding and protecting the interests of international capital.
Comparing the role of the Israeli government and the Israeli army with that of the World Bank, the IMF and WTO is not to underestimate what is taking place in Palestine or minimize its gravity, but it is to show the continuity between war and economic policy and between the aggression of Israel against Palestine and the many wars that are now bloodying the world.
President Bush has announced that fifty countries are on the US government list as candidates for bombings. But as a matter of fact an equal number has already experienced Americas warfare over the last two decades, to such an extent that it will take them decades to regain some degree of normalcy. Think of Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan. Many of these countries have been so devastated that they are now economically dis-functional or have been placed under the UN trusteeship.
Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that we are witnessing a new, extensive process of recolonization, with Palestine being the experimental field.
In the US as well, warfare is the rule with mass incarceration of black and Latino youth,
the use of capital punishment mostly against black people, and the attack on healthcare, housing, welfare provisions, immigrant men, and women.
Capitalism is waging a war on the people of the world, a war that deprives us of all means necessary to reproduce our lives, a war that keeps seeking new names and justifications but at the core has one purpose: stripping us from our entitlement to the wealth of the world; turning us into refugees of one sort of another, homeless people who have no claim to this earth, allows us only to work and work when it suits our employers.
This is our destiny and the destiny of our children if we do not resist and if we refuse to become settlers, guards, policemen. Today the people of Palestine are being martyred, but we delude ourselves if we think that the destruction of their communities and their expulsion from their lands will have no consequences for our lives. Palestine is the world, and the blood it sheds–caused by the weapons and financial aid provided by the United States–will fall on us as well.
Silvia Federici presented this talk at the Socialist Scholars Conference, April 2002.
The Unheard Struggles of Palestinian Women Amidst Global Feminism
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
To my Palestinian sisters,
Despite the global rise of the feminist liberation movement launched decades ago to amplify the voices of women, there exists a troubling disconnect and indifference towards your pain and cries. It seems as though the movement for women’s equality and the right to self-determination or emancipation was intended to uplift a specific group of women, while excluding and overlooking others.
I often wonder if this disconnect is rooted in the hatred for women whose skin color, religion, or class doesn’t qualify them worthy of the same fight. I often wonder if this disconnect is rooted in racism towards an entire population that was meant to be erased as their lands and homes were taken under occupation.
This indifference and silence towards you and your struggle beg crucial questions about the true commitment to the universal values of feminism and the need for a more principled stance by champions of equality. But is it too late? How is it that the principles that underpin feminist ideas—equality, justice, and human rights for ALL women—seem to be conveniently set aside when it comes to specific geopolitical hotspots?
It is important to highlight that in the chilling aftermath of over 150 days of brutal warfare between Israel and Hamas, over 30,000 innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed, and millions continue to suffer in the barbaric crossfire and siege. Among the significant civilian casualties, over 25,000women and children have fallen victim as the number of bodies trapped under rubble continues to rise. The destruction has displaced more than 950,000 women and girls, with a horrifying statistic revealing that every two hours, a Palestinian mother dies, making Gaza one of the most dangerous places for a mother and her children.
Additionally, the trauma of giving birth in a war zone where the majority of women suffer from anemia and lack proper nutrition, sanitation, and simple privileges such as privacy while giving birth has created an unfathomable psychological condition. Prior to October 7, maternity hospitals in Gaza were few and far between, with the capacity for ten births per day. Now the hospitals remaining are doing eighty, or sometimes even a hundred births. Women in Gaza are delivered in the corridors, and can stay for only a few hours after a vaginal birth and Cesarean Section before they are sent out to their tent and shelters.
Do Palestinian mothers and their children receive the same protection as others under U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3318 (XXIX), the “Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict”? This resolution explicitly states that “All States shall abide fully by their obligations under the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as other instruments of international law relative to respect for human rights in armed conflicts, which offer important guarantees for the protection of women and children.”
Humanitarian organizations highlight a cruel and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calculating the number of average deaths per day for Gaza could possibly surpass any other major armed conflict, which includes Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine, and Afghanistan. The very recent International Court of Justice’s ruling, which found plausible evidence of genocide, has done nothing to quell the ongoing bombardment and destruction of the largest concentration camp, which continues with no end in sight. More than half of Gaza’s population seeks shelter in overcrowded conditions near the Egyptian border of Rafah, where basic necessities such as clean water and sanitary products like pads become increasingly scarce. Israel, meanwhile, continues to restrict the flow of humanitarian aid. I have often wondered why my sisters in the West who rose up against decades of misogyny in the U.S. in 2016 after the election of Trump, who filled the streets of this nation and internationally rose up to yet again bring attention to the plight of women’s struggles, have remained so quiet. Where is the outrage of our female politicians or their calls for an immediate ceasefire?
As we celebrate Women’s International Month, bell hooks’ quote from “Ain’t I a Woman” comes to mind. Hooks says, “If women want a feminist revolution—ours is a world that is crying out for feminist revolution—then we must assume responsibility for drawing women together in political solidarity. That means we must assume responsibility for eliminating all the forces that divide women.” Hooks notes that American women, universally conditioned by societal norms, adopt biases of sexism, racism and classism, to certain extents. She suggests that by simply adopting the label of feminists these ingrained biases are not eliminated; rather, it demands an intentional effort to actively counteract the negative effects of socialization and work towards dismantling its enduring legacy at all cost. For the past 75 years we have not heard Western feminists question why Palestinian mothers have to witness their children’s imprisonment without due process, why they have to watch their children starve to death under the occupation, and why Palestinian mothers do not get the same sympathy, when they have to continue to bury their children as a result of war and destruction.
To my sisters in Palestine, to Rania Abu Anza, who waited for 10 years for the arrival of her twins, only to have to bury them as a result of an Israeli airstrike, to Hind’s mother Wissam Hamadah, who awaited the arrival of her little girl while holding her pink backpack and her drawing pad, to Bisan Owda, to Dr. Amira Al-Assouli, to every Palestinian grandmother displaced, mother mourning the loss of her family, to every Palestinian daughter, I am sorry, we have failed you.
Image by Matt Hrkac, Creative Commons 2.0
Alain Alameddine interviews Mohammad Zraiy, the Gaza coordinator for the One Democratic State Initiative and English teacher, about the situation in Gaza, the legitimacy of the armed resistance, the ICJ as a colonial tool and the establishment of a secular state as the solution.
AA: How are things in Gaza? We know a genocide is happening, we don’t know how that actually reflects in real life. What is the situation on the ground?
MZ: The situation in Gaza is disastrous. We can see the genocide in almost all aspects of our lives. Direct killings, deliberate starvation and mass displacement and dispopulation. The Salaheddine Road is a few hundred meters away from our house, it’s the main road between Gaza and Khan Younes, and it goes through refugee camps [of the natives ethnically cleansed during the 1948 occupation of Palestine] in the middle of the Strip. The terrorist cells occupied it for two weeks. I recorded the destruction that happened there. They destroyed everything between the Al-Maghazi refugee camp and the Breij refugee camp. I don’t mean they targeted everything, or hit everything, or destroyed a lot of things, I literally mean “they destroyed everything“. The schools, the houses, the streets (literally, the streets’ concrete so cars, like ambulances, can no longer use them), the water pipelines, the sanitation pipelines, the electricity station, the UN supply depot. I walked there to record the flattening, and I could smell the stench of the martyrs under the rubble. The Palestinian defense forces succeeded at neutralizing a number of terrorists so the cells did not manage to remain, but they made sure the place would be inhabitable before they withdrew. I’ve known the word “genocide” all of my life but only now do I really grasp what it means.
AA: This is… there are no words. You said you could see the genocide in all aspects of your life and you mentioned starvation. Does this include the closure of the Rafah crossing? Also, Israel and Egypt have been trading barbs, each accusing the other of being responsible for the siege. Who do you think is the one enforcing the siege?
MZ: The siege has obviously made things worse. It is the only way we breathe, since the colony forbids anything from reaching us by land or sea. Of course, starvation is one of the genocide’s essential weapons. 90% of Gazans depend on the UN as their main and sole provider of foodstuff. Not only meat and sugar but also rice, flour, fruits and most vegetables. And instead of offering humanitarian help, or even just allowing others to offer humanitarian help, the imperalist powers are now defunding the UNRWA. This is less graphic than bombs but it’s just as lethal, just as criminal.
And this brings us to your question about Egypt. Yes, the Egyptian régime is closing the crossing. It blames Israel’s threat to bomb convoys that refuse to be searched. But we in Gaza know that it is complicit. I think the question “Is Egypt or Israel responsible?” implies that they’re two fully separate and sovereign entities. So I think framing the question this way obfuscates reality, which is that there is a global capitalist and colonial project. Israel is one manifestation of it (its most extreme one), and the Egyptian régime is another. Those defunding the UNRWA, many Palestinian and Arab leaders, armament industries, multinational corporations, a large number of the media (including Meta algorithms) are also part of this global project. The Zionist enterprise was launched within the frame of this global project, of which Israel is merely an advanced military colony. This whole structure is enforcing the siege, and all of its actors are guilty of genocide. Israel and the Egyptian régime are both guilty of genocide.
AA: You mention a global colonial project—do you think the ICJ’s decision can stop the genocide?
MZ: No. The Court saw that a genocide was happening but failed to call for an immediate cessation of the aggression. And, by design, it has no power to enforce its decisions. Of course, we value the efforts of South Africa, as well as the decisions of most judges on the Court. And we know the Court’s admitting this was a genocide is a helpful tool to use in challenging Israel’s alleged legitimacy. But at the same time, we understand that the ICJ and other international institutions like the UN are colonial tools. How could they achieve justice for Palestine while they are the same institutions that caused its partition and recognized the legitimacy of the settler colony in 1947-48? These international institutions legitimize all the horrors that precede 1967 such as the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing and the seizure of Palestinian houses and properties. Today they stand idle as our right to return is denied and as Israel practices apartheid and settles theland. Even rare decisions in favor of Palestine have not been applied. These institutions belong to a colonial world order that we all need to be freed from, not through.
AA: Alright. Back to Gaza: Israel first said it wanted to eliminate Hamas. Then it said it wanted to dismantle its fighting capacities. What is happening with the armed resistance? And how do Gazans feel about it, particularly those who do not support Hamas?
MZ: Let me first correct something that the media often doesn’t mention: Hamas is not the only one fighting terrorism today. All Palestinian factions, whether they’re Islamic, nationalist or leftist, are fighting together. Despite ideological differences, they are united in the field, and they launch joint military operations on a daily basis.
Now, regarding Hamas in particular, since you asked me about them: I have deep disagreements with them and with Islamists in general. I am secular and I am convinced that the establishment of a secular state in Palestine is the fundamental antithesis, and solution, to the existence of the settler colonial state that defines itself as “exclusive to Jews”. This said, Hamas is not the terrorist faction as Israel and its allies claim it to be, neither do Palestinians view it as such. It is a national liberation movement. Its program explicitly states that its fight is not against Judaism but against Zionism. A number of its leaders have actually endorsed the establishment of a state for all of its citizens as the only solution. Hamas also represents a large section of Palestinian society, and its formidable resistance has increased its popularity. Israel can kill Hamas members (which it is doing as part of its campaign to kill everything that moves in Gaza), but as even the US, the UK and France haved admitted, there is no way Israel can eliminate Hamas. We Palestinians know that Hamas is a response to the occupation and persecution, not its cause. On the contrary, we know that the resistance is what is protecting us.
Israel knows this very well, and makes it a point to respond to our counterterrorist operations by killing civilians. Sometimes, when the Internet is cut, we know the resistance dealt the occupation a blow because of the enemy’s increased bombing of civilians. As if Israel was saying, “for each of our soldiers that die, dozens of your children will pay the price”. For example, a short while ago, the bombing became madder than ever. We didn’t know why because there was no Internet, but we knew that something major had happened. We eagerly waited for the Internet to be back so we could learn about what had happened. It turned out that our defense forces had succeeded at neutralizing a cell of 21 terrorists by booby traping a house they had led them to.
How do we feel about it? We are proud, defiant, and hopeful. No colonized people were ever freed from their colonizers without force. Force is the only language that Israel in particular understands. The resistance is what made it withdraw from Lebanese and Palestinian lands. And the resistance’s continued existence against all ods shows that Zionism’s plan to achieve peace by eradicating the natives has failed. At the same time, resistance is a tool, not an objective in itself. For it to achieve anything lasting and substantial, it needs to be attached to a political project that proposes an actual solution.
AA: A political project that proposes an actual solution—How so?
MZ: Well, the immediate need is obviously for this aggression to stop. But then what? The past 75 years have shown that creating a state exclusive to Jews has been a nightmare for all, succeeding at killing Palestinians and failing to keep the Jews it has used to settle our land safe. I want the Zionist nightmare to end so that both its primary victims (Palestinians) and its secondary victims (Jews) can finally be safe. We need to discuss the day after Zionism: The day where we can finally replace it with a secular Palestine. The world today is still talking about the “two-state solution”, which is just a euphemism for “the occupation of 80% of Palestine and the exclusion of 60% of Palestinians”. I hope this genocide can at least help our allies stop talking about the two-state non-solution and start talking about the historical Palestinian vision for liberation: One inclusive, secular, democratic Palestinian state, from the river to the sea. And me and my comrades at the One Democratic State Initiative are working for this to happen.
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