By Mike Kennard, acting secretary, Peterborough Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Hollywood was shaken at the Oscar ceremony when the award for Best Documentary was awarded to No Other Land, a hard-hitting story of resistance to Zionist violence and ethnic cleansing in one community on the West Bank. It was co-produced by an Israeli journalist and Hamdan Billal, a Palestinian resident of Masafar Yatta near Hebron.
Predictably, the Israeli government and its Western sponsors screamed “antisemitism”, their standard reply to any criticism of the Israeli state, but the local response was more violent. Last Monday evening, March 24, a large group of illegal settlers descended on Billal’s home armed with rocks, knives and sticks and began to attack his family property. When Billal went outside to remonstrate he was viciously beaten.
Eventually Israeli police arrived and the settlers withdrew, but the police then took control of the ambulance called for Billal and, incredibly, arrested him. He was taken to hospital and released 24 hours later.
Some commentators have suggested that the only reason Billal was not murdered, like hundreds of other Palestinians on the West Bank this year, was because of his celebrity status.
There is nothing that exemplifies the admirable resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of 77 years of ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation than the resistance to eviction of the community of Masafar Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. It is a group of villages in the so-called Area C of the West Bank, subject to total Israeli control, under the provisions of the Oslo Accords of 1993.
Oslo Accords full of loopholes
The deal agreed by Yasser Arafat’s PLO was supposed to be an interim measure leading to full independence of a Palestinian state, but it was full of loopholes. Its principal purpose was to allow the despotic rulers of Egypt and Jordan to make peace with Israel, something that their populations could never accept without Palestinian rights being taken into consideration, at least in words. There was supposed to be a halt to Israeli settlements on the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority was set up to govern the area.
But Israel has never honoured any agreements it has signed, and illegal settlements of hard-line Zionist groups continued to be established under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces and police. For decades, the Palestinian Authority has been little more than an administration serving Israel’s interests, and the violent expulsion of Palestinian families from land and homes, some of which they have occupied for centuries, carried out by settlers and by the IDF itself.
The Zionist state conducts its illegal evictions largely by declaring that an area is a ‘closed military zone’. Homes and entire settlements are under threat of forcible eviction and demolition, but the Palestinian residents resist in any way they can, short of taking up arms in a one-sided conflict that they would certainly lose.
The steady erosion of Palestinian territory has largely gone unreported and, in spite of UN resolutions and International Court judgements, completely unpunished. The State of Israel enjoys complete impunity, thanks to protection by its main sponsor the USA, with Western Europe tagging along.
Record of ‘Labour’ government is shameful
Occasionally a government may issue statements condemning the expansion of settlements and even impose travel restrictions on the most violent settler leaders, but no meaningful action is ever taken. In the meantime, the far-right Israeli government minister Ben Gvir hands out free firearms to the settlers and companies with international connections set up business on occupied land.
The record of British governments, including the present “Labour” administration is shameful. Opposition to Israel’s actions is described as antisemitic, demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of protestors have been demonised as “hate marches” and most recently subjected to failed police provocations.
Token gestures like a very limited arms embargo cut little ice, while essential parts for the F-35 aircraft – responsible for much of the carnage in Gaza -still flow freely. Britain hosts factories for Elbit, the main Israeli arms manufacturer and the RAF flies aerial spying missions from Cyprus over Gaza on behalf of the IDF.
Rank and file Labour Party members have a proud history of supporting oppressed peoples, playing a part in bringing down the South African apartheid regime. The current Stalin-style crushing of internal democracy may have muted the official response to the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, but overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause is still alive and well.
Equally, while some trades unions have played an active role, in others such as Unite, the leadership provide cover for support for Israel. In the 1970s, Rolls Royce workers in three factories blacked engines from the murderous Chilian air force, and in like fashion, there must be a complete arms embargo on Israel.
It is the duty of all socialists to stand against the destruction of a whole people, and Britain’s complicity. In addition to the massive national demonstrations, we must actively promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Sanctions helped to bring an end to South African apartheid, and they can help to bring justice for Palestine.
Feature picture is a still from trailer for No Other Land, see here.
