Following the first anniversary of our establishment in Turkey, our movement has had another step forward and now we have the Committee of the Friends of Palestine. This new body has pubished a manifesto which puts forward the essentials of our approach on the Palestine issue. This document will also stay on our web page in a seperate tab (Our Manifesto) for those who wish to read it:
The Manifesto of the Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism
The Friends of Palestine Against Imperialism and Zionism Platform stands unequivocally against the religiously-motivated, sectarian and racist political stances which misleadingly conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, emphasizing that those have nothing to contribute to the Palestinian people’s cause. It welcomes endorsements from and is willing to collaborate with non-anti-Semitic, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist persons and organizations.
An Accurate Identification of the Palestinian Question
The Platform deems the political entity called Israel and its Zionist ideology a cancerous cell, which metastasizes all over the Palestinian territory. Palestine, historically a part of Bilad Al-Sham where Arabs and Jews have been living together, has witnessed a string of serious transformations since the early 20th thanks both to the invasion of the region by the imperialists after the World War I, and to the Jewish immigration waves to dramatically change the demographic density and composition of the country that were predicated on the 1917 Balfour Declaration and orchestrated by the imperialists and Zionists who revealed their true colors by prioritizing American Jews rather than European ones brutally persecuted by the Nazis. Those immigrant settlers led by Zionist gangs such as Hagannah and backed by the English imperialism have ventured into usurping the Palestinian resources and lands during the period up to the Nakba, that is, the establishment of the political entity called Israel in 1948. That usurpation has been made permanent and legitimate after 1950 when the Zionist entity enacted the ‘Absentees’ Property Law’ alongside the regulations stipulating that the Jewish-owned lands and means of production shall not be purchased or rented by non-Jewish persons.
The establishment of the Zionist Israel has inflicted devastating damages on Palestine and its people as does a cancerous cell to the organism within which it grows. The apartheid-like treatment of non-Jewish people has become an ordinary practice in the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli state built a colossal segregation wall to so-called “protect” the territories under its occupation against their rightful holders. It has also systematically violated the Palestinians’ basic human rights such as the right to freedom of movement. On top of that, the Zionist entity passed a law on 19th July 2018 which declared that only Jews have the right to self-determination in the country; that Arabic is no longer an official language; and that the Jewish settlements are “national values”, of which number will be increased.
That cancerous cell has metastasized beyond its place of origin by occupying the Golan Heights, temporarily seizing the Sinai Desert and unleashing a ferocious attack on Southern Lebanon. That Israel has never defined its official territorial borders and drafted a binding constitution that would risk its expansionism undoubtedly emboldens those Zionist belligerences. But one should never forget that this malign entity would have never attempted to realize its aspirations if it had not forged special bonds with imperialism. There is a mutually beneficial relationship between them. As imperialism has backed Israel almost uninterruptedly since its birth certificate issued by the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist entity in return serves as its outpost in the region. Israel, however, has a unique characteristic which makes it different from other reactionary regional regimes doing dirty jobs for imperialism. That is its influence on the US foreign policy, which makes it more dangerous than the usual servants (Saudis, Sisi etc.) of imperialism.
Fight against Zionism
It is futile to expect that cancer can be cured by administering painkillers. So is it to seek remedy in the “resolution initiatives” such as Oslo or Camp David in order to be able to confront the Zionist destruction because Israel, as a self-proclaimed legitimate state, has always turned a deaf ear to the proposals made by the parties with whom it has held negotiations, and continued its discriminatory policies unabated against the Palestinian people.
For instance, Zionists were still unsatisfied even though Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had conceded in his speech at the Knesset or the so-called Israeli parliament in 1977 that an independent state territorially confined to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would be acceptable to the Palestinian people. The “two states to two nations” proposals made, respectively, by Sadat himself and by the PLO during the Camp David negotiations held in 1978 and 1988-1989 have never been treated by Zionists as proper resolutions. The result was therefore nothing but a huge disappointment. As for the Oslo negotiations held in 1993, they marked the beginning of a disgraceful period that has culminated in the “Palestinian Autonomous Authority” turning eventually into a stooge of Zionism, and that witnessed the Palestinians’ right to return were revoked by the treaties signed in 1994 and 1995.
Like cancerous tissues need to be removed from the body to halt metastasis, Israeli state should be eradicated from the region. To be more accurate, it should be annihilated. As historically proven, the means to achieve that goal are armed struggles, strikes and mass mobilizations. During the post-1948 period, the Palestinian people has retaliated against Israeli Zionist aggression by waging armed struggles in 1964, 1967 and 1969 led, respectively, by Al-Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad. Those counter-attacks have succeeded in repelling the Zionist attacks. In 1991, that is, the year when the first Intifada reached its climax, Israel was forced to announce that it would retreat from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Following the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, the Palestinian people started an all-out fight under the joint leadership of the national resistance organizations against Israel that squeezed the latter into a corner and forced it to withdraw its occupation forces from the Gaza Strip. Israel conceded an utter defeat in 2006 when its flagrant assault on Lebanon was repelled by Hezbollah combatants. It has since then been refraining from conducting military operations beyond its northern frontiers.
Liberation of All Palestinian People from the Zionist Yoke
The Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism Platform tirelessly reiterates that the bi-national one-state solution is the only cure to the Zionist cancer, and that an anti-imperialist, democratic, secular, socialist and unified Palestine extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is the only way to create a country where Palestinians of all nations, religions and sects will in harmony. The Platform urges Arabs and Jews to unify around that program.
As we are going through an era that capitalism drags humanity towards a total catastrophe, that program aimed at freeing both Arabs and Jews requires actions such as expropriation both of the Zionist capital whose interests are in parallel with the Israel’s apartheid regime, and of the bureaucracy led by Abu Mazen which is in collaboration with the former; nationalization of Palestinian means of production and natural resources exploited by a handful imperialists and Zionists; establishment of a secular order that ensures the fraternity of the people of different religions; disbanding the organizations which protect imperialist interests, and thus cause the people to slaughter each other.
Palestinian socialist movements which adopt those objectives are welcomed by the Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism Platform as comrades. The Platform intends to learn from their experiences as well as to build internationalist solidarity. We consider the Islamist organizations, primarily Hamas, notwithstanding that they are not aligned with such objectives, to be allies in the arduous fight against Zionism, without giving any political supports to them, that is, without replacing the Palestinian left with them, and with exposing their political limits and swerves when required. The Platform will also expose the hypocrisy of the pseudo-anti-Zionism, as epitomized in the case of AKP, which has, on the one hand, pretended to be the champion of the Palestinian cause and, on the other hand, made various treaties with Israel and sold out the Gaza people by dropping the Mavi Marmara Flotilla case for the sake of being able to buy natural gas from Israel.
The Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism Platform supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and acts in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
29.11.2019
Istanbul
