What does “peace” mean in occupied Palestine?
Not ceasefire, but the end of Zionist apartheid.
Since the events of October 7, when Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shattered the illusion of Zionist invincibility, the Western media has unleashed a deluge of bile against anyone who speaks out in defense of Palestinian or Arab lives. This has created an environment in which it is possible for Bernie Sanders, a Jewish man and a descendant of Holocaust victims, to be boycotted as an antisemite by the current leader of the German Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken, for having the “audacity” to condemn Israel and Hamas equally for targeting civilians.
The slander against Sanders and others serves a dual function. They attempt to define the parameters of the pro-Israel position as constituting only those who support the present invasion and indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. At the same time, they label as anti-Israel (or “pro-Hamas” or “antisemitic”) any view that calls for military restraint on the part of the Zionist occupiers.
Opponents of the current genocide must reject this framing. Slogans calling for a “ceasefire,” or vague appeals to “peace” are not sufficient, because they accept the Zionist premise of the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. Such a perspective effectively endorses the status quo in occupied Palestine, which is one of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, in which millions of Arab Palestinians have been forced to live in concentration camps for more than 70 years. It treats the Al Aqsa Flood as a spontaneous explosion of violence, rather than what it was: a desperate reaction to the slow-motion genocide that has been ongoing since the Nakba. Now that that reaction is being used as an excuse to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, calls for ceasefire are tantamount to demanding that Palestinians lay down and die “peacefully.”
Socialists obviously do not share the methods or the program of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Nevertheless, we do not call on both sides to agree to a ceasefire. We say: end all aid to “Israel,” recognize and facilitate the right of return for all displaced Palestinians, punish the Zionist genocidaires, release all Palestinian political prisoners, abolish special privileges for Jews, and establish one Palestinian state based on equality, freedom, and democracy. We will not content ourselves with mealy-mouthed appeals to the false “peace” of the apartheid regime that is currently attempting to exterminate the residents of Gaza. We are with the Palestinian resistance until victory.
The Palestinian question marks a blood red line between those of us who unconditionally support the struggle of the oppressed for liberation and those willing to compromise with imperialism and settler-colonialism. For too long, too many on the left have tried to straddle that line with pacifist platitudes. It costs nothing to shed tears over the deaths of oppressed people when they can be portrayed as passive victims, as was the case during the first Nakba, or during the peaceful March of Return, or in the countless Zionist murders that have taken place between and since. It is much more difficult for them to support the oppressed when they rise up against their oppressors; when the mouthpieces of power condemn them with one voice as “terrorists,” and those who solidarize with them as callous apologists for real or fabricated barbarities. Do not surrender to this moral blackmail. History will vindicate those of us who say, clearly and unequivocally, that we are with the global Intifada. May those who waver go down in infamy.
Zack Frailey Escobar is a communist dock worker and sociology student living in San Diego. You can find more of his work at redhorizon.home.blog.
