Samer Jaber
Al-Jazeera / August 18, 2024
The global pro-Palestinian movement must not fall for short-term goals that do not address Palestinian demands for justice and freedom.
It has been more than 10 months now of Israel waging its genocidal war on Gaza. Throughout this time, mobilization in solidarity with the Palestinian people has ebbed and flowed but it has not stopped. Large crowds have rallied across the world to protest inaction by world leaders on Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As we approach a year of genocidal warfare, important questions are emerging about the way forward for the Palestinian solidarity movement. In my conversations with various pro-Palestinian activists, one theme has emerged: the urgent need to shift the movement’s goal from stopping the war to decolonizing Palestine. That is because a ceasefire will not end the genocidal violence Palestinians face.
The limitations of antiwar marches
Mobilization against the war started almost as soon as Israel launched its aggression on Gaza. One of the slogans most often raised was “Ceasefire Now!” as a broad-based antiwar movement came together.
Given the urgency of the moment, the ceasefire goal was the bare minimum that allowed for bringing different groups together, Huwaida Arraf, a cofounder of the International Solidarity Movement, told me. She pointed out that this did not mean that the pro-Palestinian movement should limit itself to this objective.
But the demand for a ceasefire has remained the dominant call of public demonstrations throughout the past 10 months, severely limiting the scope of the protest movement. It seemingly implies that protests will stop once a ceasefire is announced. Yet we all know that the suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation and apartheid will not end when Israel stops bombarding Gaza indiscriminately.
Another problem with antiwar marches is that they often end up favouring certain agendas. Some activists I spoke to pointed out that such events often accommodate representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and reflect its perspective. The PA prefers a negotiated peace settlement and collaboration with Israel, which will not address the Palestinian demands for justice, the right of return to their homeland, etc.
Another issue with these demonstrations is that while they show the size and strength of the pro-Palestinian movement, they also often turn most participants into mere spectators. While people march, listen to speeches, and express their enthusiasm, the organizers tend to monopolize the message and direction of the movement.
Ali, a British political observer, who asked that I do not use his last name, highlighted the implications of this approach saying, “You can notice that individuals with close ties to organizers are sometimes given a platform to introduce themselves as candidates during antiwar demonstrations, while others equally committed to ending the war are not afforded the same opportunity. Such practices create an uneven playing field that disadvantages truly dedicated individuals, undermining the inclusivity and effectiveness of the movement.”
While protests play a vital role in expressing public dissent, their effectiveness in influencing international or external political issues can be limited. In some cases, protests act as a pressure valve, letting public frustration out without impacting policy.
Moving beyond the call for a ceasefire
Instead of focusing on a ceasefire, the pro-Palestinian protest movement should embrace demands for decolonization. It needs to place the Palestinian question back into an anticolonial framework and reaffirm its place within the history of the decolonization struggle. This entails deconstructing the delusion of the peace process promoted by the United States.
This decades-long process has not only failed to bring actual peace and protect Palestinian rights, but it has also created the false impression that this is a conflict between equal sides rather than between a colonizer and the colonized. It distracts from the reality of occupation and apartheid in which Palestinians live.
It is also important to link the discourse of decolonization to the right to self-determination and liberation, which are guaranteed by the UN Charter and international law. This approach is crucial to counter Israeli propaganda that this is a struggle between Muslim extremists and a civilized Israel and that the supporters of the Palestinians are anti-Semitic.
Recently, this propaganda has been used to paint pro-Palestinian protests as dangerous to Jewish communities and conflate them with racist, anti-immigrant riots, leading to calls to shut them down. That is why it is important to point out that calls for decolonization are legitimate and have legal justification under international law.
The decolonization framework also helps elevate the Palestinian question to a broader issue of justice. It helps people recognize the connections between their own economic hardship and political marginalization and the suffering of the Palestinians under colonial rule.
This makes the struggle for justice and peace for Palestinians a platform that gives communities visibility and power. This dynamic is particularly evident in immigrant-descendant communities in the United Kingdom and France and Black and Hispanic communities in the United States.
The participation of the Jewish community can also play a crucial role in transforming the pro-Palestinian movement from simply stopping the war to a broader decolonization effort. This transformation goes beyond proving that the anticolonial movement is not anti-Semitic and giving Jews a voice to tell Israel, “You cannot commit crimes in our name.”
The decolonization movement will provide a platform for the Jewish community to advocate for coexistence between Jews and Palestinians in one democratic state based on equal citizenship. This position will contribute to dismantling the colonial ideology of the Zionist enterprise, paving the way for a more just solution.
An effective protest movement
Israeli historian and activist Ilan Pappé recently argued that Israel’s extremism reflects the reality that Zionism’s final chapter is unfolding. While I share his perspective, I believe optimism shouldn’t be based solely on Israel’s internal contradictions.
Our focus should be on developing effective strategies for decolonizing Palestine. True liberation won’t come from Israel’s internal collapse but from a successful Palestinian decolonization struggle. So what would that look like?
Student activism provides a good example. As a grassroots movement, it empowers members to participate democratically in decision-making processes, precluding the possibility of gatekeepers emerging and taking control of narratives and actions.
At the same time, given the large size of the student population in any country, student protests can mobilize significant numbers and thus hold major leverage over educational institutions and local authorities.
The student protests in the US earlier this year made clear how effective such activism can be. They did not just call for a ceasefire and an end to military aid for Israel. Instead, they made local and tangible demands within the anticolonial framework: divestment by their universities from any companies that support Israeli colonization and cutting off collaboration with Israeli institutions.
Students were able to spur their own professors and local communities into action. A significant number of academics felt compelled to declare their anticolonial stance and engage with the student movement. At the same time, many student protests, especially in urban environments, received community support thanks to effective outreach activities.
The campus demonstrations were effective because they targeted elite institutions that produce the next generations of technocrats, corporate leaders, and political decision-makers. This directly challenged the Israeli government’s “commanding heights” strategy, which focuses on influencing leaders to ensure support for Israel.
The spread of the student protests and their mass appeal pushed the student movement beyond the ability of the establishment to contain it. It now has the potential to transform itself into a popular movement with the capacity to influence popular culture and lifestyles.
Mobilization and grassroots work
The student movement can chart the way forward for other mobilizations. One place to look is the labour movement.
Although many workers’ unions across Western Europe have expressed solidarity with Palestine and called for a ceasefire, this position has not translated into concrete actions that put pressure on their governments to stop arming Israel and withdraw their support for it.
Stewart, a UK activist I spoke to who did not want to provide his last name, emphasized that labour unions can play an important role in ending the war and starting the decolonization of Palestine. Their strength lies in organizing boycott initiatives, such as workers refusing to load ships or aeroplanes that supply arms to Israel, which can match to a certain extent the “disruptive” impact that student movements had.
Other movements that can learn from student mobilization include the various initiatives to exert political pressure on governments and parties through conditional voting in local and national elections.
In the US, the “Uncommitted” and “Abandon Biden” movements are pressuring the Democratic Party to shift its stance on Israel in exchange for votes from certain communities in the upcoming November elections. The challenge with this approach is that not voting could potentially result in a second Trump administration, which would be highly detrimental to the Palestinian cause.
To navigate this situation, the pro-Palestinian movement in the US should focus on advocating for specific, achievable objectives both before and after the election. This is particularly important because the new Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, appears to be responsive to the demands of protesters.
Furthermore, promoting certain candidates in any election just because they support Palestine is myopic. People generally prioritize daily concerns over foreign policy when they cast their ballots. This was evident in the latest UK election, where voters were primarily focused on internal socioeconomic issues.
That is why it is crucial that these campaigns – just like the student movement – build wide networks of support by making clear the links between the plight of the Palestinians and the oppression of various other communities – the working class, immigrants, etc. Support for the Palestinian struggle should be connected to other progressive policies that address impoverishment, racism, inadequate social provision, the urgent need for a green transition, etc.
The role of the Palestinians
In all of this, the Palestinian civil society, encompassing social movements, trade unions, popular committees, and public figures both within Palestine and the diaspora, can play a key role.
The Palestinian anticolonial narrative and strategic alliances with global civil society initiatives should be driven by Palestinian civil society itself, much like the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement that gained momentum during the second Intifada, Salah al-Khawaja, a co-founder and leader of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, told me.
This narrative and these alliances are essential for leading the global solidarity movement within the framework of decolonization. Efforts are already under way to unite various Palestinian civil society actors. The author of this article is co-leading efforts at the international level.
This proposed alliance aims to achieve two key objectives. First, it seeks to solidify the understanding that the Palestinian struggle is part of a broader fight for global freedom and justice against all forms of colonialism, racism, warmongering and discrimination. Second, it aims to empower Palestinian civil society to take the lead in framing the movement politically.
A unified Palestinian civil society can more effectively promote the decolonization narrative and highlight a proposed settlement of the conflict with Israel in which one democratic state is established with equal citizenship for Israelis and Palestinians. By assuming this leadership role, the Palestinian civil society can guide the global pro-Palestinian movement and give Palestinians a voice that is not coopted or serving a certain agenda.
The genocide in Gaza and the global mobilization against it have put the Palestinian struggle at an important juncture. It is essential for Palestinians and their allies to seize this moment and push for a solution that dismantles colonial structures and establishes a single, democratic state where all citizens, regardless of ethnicity or religion, are equal.
Samer Jaber is a political activist and researcher
