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Subject: Re: Do you condemn Hamas?
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2024 20:21:45 +0300
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On 7.6.2024 5.21, Sharx335 wrote:
> On 2024-06-06 6:18 p.m., *skriptis wrote:
>> Sharx335 <sharx35@telus.net> Wrote in message:r
>>> On 2024-06-06 3:27 p.m., NefeshBarYochai wrote:> This question became 
>>> seemingly ubiquitous following October 7. As> Palestinians defied the 
>>> imagination, breaking out of Gaza after over a> decade and a half of 
>>> living under total air, land, and sea blockade,> many found 
>>> themselves having to face this question.> > Whether it be from 
>>> Zionists using the violence we witnessed on that> day as a means of 
>>> creating story after story of atrocity propaganda —> to force 
>>> well-meaning allies into a corner or even those who genuinely> 
>>> considered themselves pro-Palestine who struggled with the reality 
>>> of> decolonial violence — the question of whether or not Palestinian 
>>> armed> resistance factions deserved support or criticism became a 
>>> major point> of contention. It was easy for many to support the cause 
>>> of> Palestinian liberation when they viewed Palestinians as perfect> 
>>> victims, but when Palestinians fought back, suddenly the question of> 
>>> solidarity became muddled.> > Months later, after tens of thousands 
>>> of Palestinians have been> murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces in 
>>> Gaza amid an ongoing> genocide, and after thousands in the West Bank 
>>> have found themselves> imprisoned or under regular attack, sympathy 
>>> for those resisting their> own annihilation has grown, with the 
>>> conversation becoming more clear> than it was in the days proceeding 
>>> October 7. As videos spread by> resistance factions across Gaza and 
>>> Lebanon find a regular and> enthusiastic audience and chants in 
>>> support of those putting their> lives on the line take root in 
>>> protests nationwide, it is clear many> have grown to accept the 
>>> necessity of armed struggle in the> Palestinian context, though a 
>>> true consensus has yet to be achieved.> > To that end, the answer to 
>>> the question “Do you condemn Hamas?,”> particularly for those of us 
>>> on the Left as we analyze the history of> Palestine and why 
>>> resistance occurs in a colonial context, should have> always been 
>>> clear.> > A violent phenomenon> > As Frantz Fanon’s oft-cited 
>>> statement from Wretched of the Earth has> made clear, national 
>>> liberation, national reawakening, restoration of> the nation to the 
>>> Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the> latest expression 
>>> — decolonization is always a violent event.> Palestine is not an 
>>> exception to this reality.> > The colonization of Palestine by 
>>> Zionists, like all colonialism> throughout history, brought with it 
>>> widespread and constant violence> levied in all forms against the 
>>> Palestinian people. This was by> design, as the very nature of 
>>> settler colonialism is a necessarily> brutal one given the end goal 
>>> of the wholesale elimination of the> Indigenous population in all 
>>> forms but nostalgia. This violence does> not simply manifest itself 
>>> through the military campaigns waged by> Zionist settlers and the 
>>> Israeli occupation army, but through every> part of the colonial 
>>> endeavor itself — an endeavor that can only be> sustained through the 
>>> suffering, exploitation, repression, and death> of Palestinians and 
>>> all else that the colony wishes to conquer.> > Palestinians, whether 
>>> in Occupied Palestine, in refugee camps in> bordering nations, or in 
>>> the diaspora around the world, are forced> every single day to 
>>> wrestle with the reality of this settler colonial> violence. The very 
>>> existence of the Zionist project poses an> existential threat to the 
>>> lives of millions, who have in some cruel> twist of reality been 
>>> deemed existential threats by the project for> the simple reason that 
>>> their existence undermines its legitimacy.> > This violence does not 
>>> occur without resistance. Throughout history,> whether it be in 
>>> Algeria, South Africa, Ireland, or Palestine,> colonized people have 
>>> risen up in the face of brutal violence to free> themselves from the 
>>> shackles of their own oppression. This resistance> does not generally 
>>> start as armed struggle, but through civil> disobedience, protests, 
>>> general strikes, and similar tactics. Yet when> these tactics fail, 
>>> as they often have, or when exceptional violence> is waged against 
>>> the people in response, armed struggle becomes a> necessity.> > The 
>>> colonial power, its legitimacy owed solely to the force it> 
>>> undertakes to maintain its existence, creates the conditions for the> 
>>> resistance that will rise against it. The more violence and 
>>> repression> colonized people face, the more they resist. Violent 
>>> resistance> becomes mainstream out of sheer necessity given their 
>>> material> conditions. This creates a cycle of violence, one 
>>> perpetuated first> and foremost by the violence of the colonial 
>>> entity itself.> > Even before the official foundation of the Zionist 
>>> project in 1948,> this cycle was well established. The Balfour 
>>> Declaration came into> existence in 1917, signifying Britain’s 
>>> official endorsement of> Zionist aspirations. By 1929, a fifth of 
>>> Palestinians found themselves> landless. By the 1930s, many 
>>> Palestinians found themselves unemployed> and economically destitute, 
>>> as Zionist capital, backed by favorable> imperial British laws and 
>>> treatment, began flowing ever more> intensively into Palestine, 
>>> according to Ghassan Kanafani’s seminal> work on the 1936 Great 
>>> Palestinian Revolt.> > These factors spurred resistance of their own 
>>> variety, including the> Buraq Uprising of 1929, efforts by 
>>> Palestinians to pool resources to> purchase land, sporadic violence, 
>>> as well as Palestinian notables> lobbying for better treatment from 
>>> their British overlords. This blend> of violent and non-violent 
>>> efforts would all be suppressed or> ultimately met with limited 
>>> success.> > In 1936, when British forces murdered Syrian 
>>> revolutionary figure> Shaykh ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Palestinian 
>>> popular resentment turned> into a general strike, and ultimately into 
>>> popular revolt, which was> put down brutally by Zionist and British 
>>> forces by 1939. Only a few> years later, Zionists would ethnically 
>>> cleanse more than 750,000> Palestinians from upwards of 530 cities, 
>>> towns, and villages and kill> thousands more in what Palestinians 
>>> refer to as the Nakba, or the> “catastrophe”. These ethnic cleansing 
>>> campaigns continue up to the> modern day.> > Palestinians would rise 
>>> up as a result of the subjugation they faced,> again through a 
>>> combination of violent and non-violent struggle that> would be met 
>>> with even more violent oppression. When Palestinians> waged 
>>> cross-border raids into occupied territory, they were met with a> 
>>> Zionist invasion in Lebanon and massacres at Sabra and Shatila. When> 
>>> Palestinians rose up during the First and Second Intifadas, they 
>>> were> met with violent crackdowns, mass arrests, and widespread 
>>> violence> that would lead to the intensification of their own violent 
>>> resistance> efforts. When Palestinians in Gaza took to marching to 
>>> the wall that> surrounded them in the March of Great Return, hundreds 
>>> were killed and> thousands more injured by Israeli soldiers. The 
>>> cycle of violence> continued and intensified.> > Fast forwarding to 
>>> today, Palestinians continue to live in bantustans> in the West Bank, 
>>> and what could functionally be described as a> concentration camp in 
>>> Gaza, with Palestinians in the 1948 and 1967> territories living 
>>> under brutal apartheid management structures. They> have resisted 
>>> every step of the way, each time seeing thousands> imprisoned, 
>>> murdered, displaced, and millions utterly subjugated and> exploited 
>>> as the Zionist project continues toward the ultimate goal of> 
>>> eliminating them in all forms but nostalgia.> > When armed struggle 
>>> becomes material necessity> > In the face of all of this violence, 
>>> armed resistance organizations> have risen up and established 
>>> themselves amongst the people, whether> they be Fatah, the PFLP, the 
>>> DFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas,> or others. These groups, and 
>>> the violence they employ, did not come to> exist in a vacuum. Rather, 
>>> they are the result of decades of brutal> colonial violence, and the 
>>> culmination of Palestinian efforts to> liberate themselves from it.> 
>>> > The tactics they employ on the ground are the culmination of this 
>>> same> struggle. These groups chose to undergo operations they 
>>> determined may> advance their liberatory struggle. Many outside of 
>>> Palestine, and even> Palestinians themselves, may have disagreements 
>>> with these tactics, or> on a grander scale, disagreements with the 
>>> core principles and> ideologies of one or several of the groups 
>>> deploying them. For those> of us in the Western Left, however, 
>>> removed from the reality of> on-the-ground struggle, this cannot mean 
>>> that we undermine the very> legitimacy of armed struggle itself.> > 
>>> Hamas is a key example of this. Like them or not, the efforts they> 
>>> have waged and continue to wage have made more of a material impact> 
>>> toward the liberation of Palestine than anything any of us in the 
>>> West> will ever make. They are taking on the brutal violence of 
>>> colonial> power and waging a campaign of armed struggle that has, at 
>>> the current> moment, with coordination with other resistance 
>>> factions, made the> Zionist colony more of a pariah than it has ever 
>>> been on a global> stage and shattered the image of military 
>>> invincibility and overall> stability it has spent decades 
>>> cultivating. Countless years of> struggle have culminated in this 
>>> flashpoint.> > The path forward, as history has repeatedly shown, 
>>> will be largely> forged through the armed struggle of resistance 
>>> factions on the> ground. Their very survival depends on it, and it 
>>> continues to> challenge and erode the power of the Zionist entity 
>>> itself.> > Palestinian armed resistance has forced the Zionist 
>>> project to wage an> increasingly violent campaign that is sharpening 
>>> contradictions in> such a way as to lead to its continued unraveling. 
>>> As the masses in> the imperial core, specifically those of the United 
>>> States, come to> realize that their interests are at odds with the 
>>> interests of the> Zionist project and their government leaders who 
>>> are sustaining the> project’s ongoing genocide, the traditional 
>>> support base the project> relies on has eroded. In its place is an 
>>> ever-increasing mass standing> in firm support of Palestinians, 
>>> rather than their colonizers.> > In Palestine, the Palestinian 
>>> struggle for liberation has developed> what can be called a “Popular 
>>> Cradle” of resistance — a state of unity> and cohesion that has 
>>> developed between the Palestinian armed> resistance and broader 
>>> Palestinian society. That “popular cradle,” as> the Palestinian Youth 
>>> Movement has so aptly described it, has worked> as an organ of the 
>>> liberation struggle by conceptualizing resistance> as both a normal 
>>> and necessary state of being. This has led to a> reality where the 
>>> resistance is sustained by the masses themselves,> who support them 
>>> and readily accept the consequences of their> continued fight for 
>>> liberation.> > That armed struggle, a material necessity, is reaping 
>>> material> results, even in spite of mass violence, crackdowns, and a 
>>> campaign of> outright genocide. In Gaza specifically, that very 
>>> struggle in no> small part led to the withdrawal of Zionist settlers 
>>> from the> territory which forced Zionist planners to rework how they 
>>> went about> their occupation of Gaza. The struggle has kept Israeli 
>>> Occupation> Forces from entering Jenin and other refugee camps across 
>>> historic> Palestine without serious consequence. In many ways, the 
>>> resistance> struggle has been a key element of continued Palestinian 
>>> survival.> > Moving past the question> > The question of whether we 
>>> condemn Hamas is more than just a question> of condemnation. At its 
>>> core, we are being asked to disavow decolonial> violence altogether — 
>>> to support Palestinians only when they are> perfect victims or only 
========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========