A free Palestine: what does it mean?

from A-Infos

by Mazen Kamalmaz

Freedom for Palestine!! Who can say no!! Even Mr. Biden accept such a demand in his own special way .. But why only for Palestine ? That looks easy : because it is an oppressed people .. But what actually does it mean ? Does it mean that the those who would rule the land that is called Palestine not Israel: its rulers, policemen, jailors, judges, executioners, public opinion manipulators, the economical and financial elite, etc, to be Palestinian .. That its "legitimate authorities" will prefer Arabs to other "citizens", that Arabs, especially Muslims, can abuse and bully their non-Arab and non-Muslim neighbors or bystanders ...

It is inhuman to ask Palestinians not to think so after ages of being abused and manipulated by almost everybody, let them be Jewish or Muslim, Israeli or Arab .. You can describe such a situation as a state of freedom if you are one of beneficiaries of the new arrangement of privileges, but for those who live in jails, slums, other types of concentration camps like psychiatrics hospitals, it is the same or even worse ..

Believe it or not, Hamas' repression of Palestinians is worse and more brutal than Israel's one .. Palestinians can protest against Israel's repression but not that of Hamas..

After sacrificing one million lives to get independence, as young Algerians is told, these young Algerians sacrifice even more lives trying to escape their independent state to join the land of their ex-oppressors and be French again ..

That is not a point for colonialism, it is a big point against the state, all states, of all types, let it be "free" or not, "colonial" or not ..

Israel is a colonial state ?

Who can deny that !!

But can anyone imagine or mention a state that is not a colonial? Of course
we can .. All "weak" states avoid attacking their neighbors and refrain from occupying other nations who can defend themselves successfully .. But unfortunately no one can tell for sure how they would act if they become stronger than their neighbors .. Who can assure that the free Palestine' statemen or generals will not try to occupy their Arab or non Arab neighbors if they could ..

In a word : A free Palestinian state would not mean freedom or even better welfare, neither for Palestinians or even for their neighbors and everyone ..

One last word for young people who adore the race, nation, religion, etc, of their parents and grandfathers, and think that it is better than others and deserve to prevail and take control of everybody else, you have a lot of suitable alternatives to choose among but anarchism is not of them!!!

Mazen Kamalmaz
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There are 4 Comments

An eminently sensible, and obvious, argument from first principles. Nationalism bad, 100%

It doesn't feel relevant in terms of trying to relate to what is happening, either near an Israeli consulate or in any part of 48 or 67 Palestine.

Criticizing the final outcome of the Algerian independence movement is legit, I suppose, but I don't think it's as evidently applicable to the present-day Palestinian anti-colonial movement, especially in its current state of contingency and possibility. Also it's hard to imagine a parallel final outcome re; Jewish citizens of Israel who, in many cases, have no other citizenship and no metropolis to return to

I think the answer to Zionism and Israel really does need to be radical cosmopolitan values. When you look at all the new left based discourse they always shoot themselves in the foot going after Zionism due to the OBVIOUS fact that Israel was very much driven by the 20th century nationalist movements that are considered good in the eyes of the(now old) legacy new left based left. This discourse will never have what it takes to defeat something like Zionist Israel which is a much more complicated sophisticated monster then-say-South Africa which was a cookie cutter old white western villain state.

It also helps to have the correct radical upstream position against something like this. Part of what made taking down SA possible was rock and roll and other values that were created by sociocultural movements that were pre/non-political. Zionism attracted the same types of people that had the values that took down the old white/western order(people like Goodman and Chomsky) A lot of the left was part of the start energy the powered Israel. What will take it down is radical authentic cosmo values that are not only not geopolitical heavy but pre/non-political.

This is why I emphasize being anti-zionist and not pro-palestinian. There are just too many problems with that nationalist dominated position, not the least the structural antisemitism that creeps into that movement over and over again(Postone's hypothesis actually does apply to the Arab/Middle East world more-so the contemporary Western states) Free Palestinians not that Arabnat abstraction Palestine. Nationalism is what created this and had Hitler and company won it likely would have been the Jews in place of the Palestinians.

I wish the western would would consider this when viewing the ongoing abuse the people of Palestine endure as acceptable. There is nothing reasonable about the slaughtering of innocent people at the hands of the Israeli government in the name of retaliation for violent abuses that Israel’s own abuses have helped conceive. This eccocentric view that deminishes the conflict to a matter of good vs evil is a cancerous and detrimental ill conceived way to justify human rights violations. Years of blockades and illegal military action with no feasible way to allow the innocent means of escaping a militarized zone is evil.

Free Palistine.

So you're ending a rather valid statement with yet more... nationalism.

"Free Palestine" doesn't really mean "free Palestinians", which is something I'm sure a lot of Israelis are agreeing with.

All the brutal violence exerted upon Gaza right now does not justify atrocities committed by jihadists, but neither is justifiable by it. It doesn't even justify a Palestine, as this Palestine is and might very well remain the domain of bloody authoritarians like Hamas.

When people go around protesting for Free Palestine they're doing it overwhelmingly carrying a nationalist flag that equates to jihadism and to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. It becomes yet another nationalist march where the cult of the nation is held as the defense argument against Israel's wrongdoings.

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