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Palestine in 2022: A Year of Resistance
138 Plays2 years ago
In this episode of Rethinking Palestine, host Yara Hawari highlights the best bits of all our episodes in 2022 to give you a round-up of how Palestinian analysts and experts reflected on the most important events in Palestine this year.
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Transcript
Favorite Sound Bites of 2022
00:00:00
Speaker
In our final podcast episode of the year, we have put together some of our favourite sound bites from all the episodes in 2022. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoy putting it all together. We also want to ask you for your support.
Al-Shabaka's Mission and Fundraising
00:00:14
Speaker
At El Shabaka, we're working to strengthen the popular movement for Palestinian liberation with the analytical foundations necessary to dismantle structures of oppression
00:00:23
Speaker
and build a liberated future. At the heart of our efforts is our policy network. We bring together over 200 Palestinian experts and analysts from around the globe to collectively strategize, debate, and imagine paths towards liberation and self-determination. Our impact is more than just our outputs. We foster community in the face of violent fragmentation, drawing on the ideas and expertise from Palestinians across six continents.
00:00:51
Speaker
Now, we need your support in raising $30,000 to invest further in our most valuable asset, our 200 plus member strong policy network. Visit al-shabaka.org slash donate today to support this work in this upcoming year. Thank you for listening.
Palestinian Land Struggles and Resistance
00:01:17
Speaker
At the beginning of 2022, we saw escalating attempts to seize Palestinian land in the Nakub, particularly in the so-called unrecognized villages. Palestinian Bedouins resisted these attempts and were met with violent crackdowns. Rajya Sana, activist from the Nakub and director of WHO Prophets, explained how this resistance was a continuation of the May 2021 uprising. May 2021 changed the terrain of struggle in Palestine.
00:01:46
Speaker
a full stop. We cannot understand or there is no way of analyzing what is taking place at the moment in the knock-up, indistinct from May 2020, 2021. That was a moment of breaking the political way of operating on a number of levels. One, the level of collective agency, Palestinian collective agency in resistance to the Israeli state. And I think it kind of broke that whole notion and narrative
00:02:16
Speaker
of citizenry, of struggles of Palestinians in Palestine 48, of being distinct from the struggles of the whole Palestinian people. That's on the one level. But on the other level, I think what it did is that local struggles ceased to be understood and seen as only relevant on that particular local level.
00:02:42
Speaker
For example, what was happening in Sheikh Jarrah, forced displacement was an issue particularly in Sheikh Jarrah. But for Palestinians across the board, it resembled forced displacement policies across the board and how and kind of our collective living
00:02:58
Speaker
and struggle against Israeli settler colonialism. And I think that's also happening at the moment in the Nokab. Although the struggle is local, people are coming from across Palestine 48 to participate in struggle and in resistance in Sahway.
00:03:14
Speaker
itself, but also we saw demonstrations happening across different communities, not in solidarity, but in resistance to what is taking place in the mockup. So we saw demonstrations in Nazareth, in Haifa, in Yaffa, in Umm al-Fahayim, in Kufarqana,
00:03:35
Speaker
and led as well in protest against Israeli policies of forced displacement and dispossession in the knockup. And I think being on the ground, there is a different feeling. And I think it's important to also know there's a kind of a generational struggle as well that is taking place.
Generational Shift in Resistance Leadership
00:03:53
Speaker
And it's very apparent during the demonstrations. It's very apparent during the daily demonstrations that we have in front of the courts in Beersheva, where
00:04:03
Speaker
you see a younger, more politicized, a more daring and a more critical generation facing an older generation that is the kind of the Oslo years generation of the assimilation and the citizenry.
00:04:20
Speaker
the generation of the citizenry discourse. And that is very clear. And I think the generation that situates itself as part of the broader Palestinian body and in resistance to Israeli settler colonialism, despite this kind of tag of citizenship, is also a marker of something that also emerged in post-May or during May of 2021.
00:04:50
Speaker
They're very much connected and there's a continuation in that.
Jerusalem's Sovereignty and the Flag March
00:04:54
Speaker
From the knockup to Jerusalem, the Israeli regime's judaisation efforts and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land is indeed relentless. In the summer of 2022, we saw that escalate once again, particularly around the time of the Israeli settler flag march in Jerusalem, which violently proclaims Israeli sovereignty over the city. Jalal Abu Khattar, Palestinian-Jerusalemite activist, explained this latest escalation to us.
00:05:20
Speaker
They wish to proclaim themselves sovereign in Jerusalem. The Israelis are really annoyed and really, really angered. I can see this in their media and how their journalists speak on TV during the prime time shows. They really hate the sight of the Palestinian flag at Al-Aqsa. They hate the sight of the Palestinian flag being raised in the heart of Jerusalem. They feel like that touches the issue of sovereignty so hard and they lobby and pressure the government. And there are thousands who do this.
00:05:47
Speaker
They even do polls on Channel 12 and 13 of Israeli society and everyone is supportive of the measures to suppress Palestinian flags and Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and they become like an angry bull which is just seeking to take down any Palestinian flag in Jerusalem and this this behavior
00:06:06
Speaker
of them wanting to exert forcefully subjugate Palestinians in Jerusalem and claim sovereignty. This behavior is leading to all the trouble we keep witnessing because that's what they want. They want a pure Israeli Jerusalem. They don't want any kind of resemblance of Palestinian identity in Jerusalem.
00:06:22
Speaker
This is a war over sovereignty. Their people are angry over Palestinian flags in Jerusalem. So the Israeli forces in occupied Jerusalem, they want to forcefully proclaim sovereignty. They want to forcefully send those thugs and hooligans, thousands of them, into our streets to become violent and raise the Israeli flag. They want to defend them, protect them. They want to put the flag in our faces, even if that means violence against us, against our homes, against our women and children.
00:06:47
Speaker
They really, really, really just want to raise the Israeli flag at Al-Aqsa, and not just Al-Aqsa, it's a symbolic thing, but they want the Israeli flag to be the identity representing Jerusalem, and anything else does not pass with them. That's why they become just angry bulls, especially whenever Palestinians proclaim their identity in the city of Jerusalem.
Suppression Tactics in Gaza and Janin
00:07:05
Speaker
Later in the summer in August, the Israeli regime launched a new assault on Gaza, killing 44 Palestinians, including at least 16 children, as well as damaging vital infrastructure. The attack on Gaza was part of a larger Israeli strategy to quash resistance across Palestine. Indeed, prior to the assault on Gaza, the Israeli regime army had been invading and raiding the northern West Bank city of Janin for quite a few months.
00:07:31
Speaker
One such raid saw the murder of veteran journalist Shirin Abu Akhle by Israeli soldiers. Following the so-called ceasefire between the Israeli regime and Islamic Shahad in Gaza, we also saw the Israeli army raid and invade the old city of Nablus, in which it killed three Palestinian resistance fighters.
00:07:48
Speaker
Dr. Ibrahim Frehad, Associate Professor in International Conflict Resolution at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and a Shabaka policy member got to the crux of how all of this forms part of a large Israeli strategy to crush Palestinian armed resistance.
00:08:04
Speaker
In order to read this strategy, really, we have to look at the targets that Israel is attacking. By no means, as Israel declared that they're targeting Islamic Jihad, the target was only Islamic Jihad. Brahimi Nablusi attacks Nablus was an extension of the Gaza bombing. Brahimi Nablusi is a fatah leader from Kata'ib Shwada al-Aqsa, Laksa Brigades.
00:08:28
Speaker
And Fateh is the ruling party in Palestine and lived by Mahmoud Abbas. You know, it's the party that's engaging in negotiations since 1993, since the Oslo Agora. But nevertheless, that did not exempt them from being targeted with the assassinations in Nablus and not only in Nablus Yarra, but also in Geneva.
00:08:51
Speaker
So who were fighting in Geneva, it was mainly taking the lead, Fatah Aqsa Brigade in Geneva, and also Islamic Jihad was taking the leading role there. So it wasn't only about the Islamic Jihad, it was about the military wings of the Fatah ruling party in Palestine that were attacked in Geneva and also later on in Nablus.
00:09:16
Speaker
This leads us to when we put the puzzle together of trying to figure out what Israel wants. Israel is not targeting a certain group. And we have seen also this in Gaza when they say that Hamas is not part of this. But the target here is the Palestinian resistance, the Palestinian resistance in general, including those military brigades of the ruling party, Fatah, that are negotiating with Israel.
00:09:45
Speaker
And another indication of how the target is the resistance, the concept of resistance and the resistance movement itself, for the first time we're seeing that Israel is declaring in a number of statements that, and through a third party as well with this started bombing Gaza, that Hamas is not targeted.
00:10:06
Speaker
or Hamas will not be bombed in Gaza. And here we see the reason that the target is the resistance movement itself, where they're trying to create a gap between Islamic Jihad and Hamas and Fatah in Gaza.
00:10:22
Speaker
while targeting a group. And this actually led to some sort of tension between Islamic Jihad and Hamas on that level, because we have seen that Israel is bombing Islamic Jihad and Hamas is not joining the resistance or against Israel. Hamas is being led by its own calculations. They're in governments. In the government, they have responsibilities toward the Gazans and the governments in general, water, security, jobs, and all of that.
00:10:51
Speaker
And Israel succeeded to a certain extent to alienate Hamas and target only Islam Jihad, which again touches on that same exact point that you raised about the target is the resistance, the concept of resistance and the resistance movement in Palestine.
00:11:12
Speaker
Marim Barghouti, journalist and a Shabaka policy member, also explained the dynamics of this resistance that the Israeli regime has been so adamantly trying to crush and how the new generation is shaping it. What Israel is kind of doing in terms of trying to crack down on Palestinian resistance in all its shapes and forms, even to the point of just the imagination of liberation, but in places like Nablus and Janine, what you witness is this constant confrontation
00:11:41
Speaker
specifically with the Israeli military. So these are areas that aren't just purely surrounded by settlers or settlements. The exposure of the colonial project is through the lens of this brute military force. So what we're seeing is this continued growth
00:11:59
Speaker
of Palestinian resistance in different forms and manifestations that are in accordance with the current generation, right? So the generation of today will not fight the same way that generations in the past have thought. But nonetheless, what I'm witnessing, at least in Nablus, is there's this tendency to also confront and fight back in a very visible way.
00:12:23
Speaker
So people like Ibrahimine Nabilisi, who didn't even make it to his 19th birthday, was walking around with the rifle on his back very proud. And it's as though he was bearing a responsibility. But it's also very telling of how, whether you are known publicly or unknown, that you are targeted. So there's no point in even trying to really go underground. On the contrary, the point is to showcase that if
00:12:52
Speaker
this colonization continues as it is, then it will be met by Palestinian resistance. In the end, who wants to live an undignified life, especially a younger generation that has been exposed to different realities around the world in light of increased communication with technology development?
00:13:12
Speaker
Now, it's not just on the streets that we see Israeli regime oppression of Palestinians. It also extends to curbing the work of Palestinian civil society.
NGO Raids and International Response
00:13:20
Speaker
In 2021, the Israeli regime criminalized seven leading Palestinian NGOs, many of whom carry out critical human rights work. In addition to this criminalization, Israeli security forces conducted a raid in August 2022 on the organization's offices, stealing documents, damaging equipment, and in some cases, sealing the doors shut.
00:13:41
Speaker
Whilst many in the international community condemned the criminalisation and the raid, the condemnation was, as usual, limited to strongly worded statements that in some cases even ended up perpetuating the Israeli regime narrative. Milena, lawyer and international advocacy coordinator from Adamir, the Palestinian Prisoner's Support and Human Rights Association, explained more.
00:14:03
Speaker
So before the trade, the work of the international community was basically just statements of solidarity. Nine EU member states submitted a statement saying that the Israeli occupation hasn't yet provided us any substantial evidence regarding the designation or the outlawing, and hence we will not
00:14:24
Speaker
take this designation into accordance or into account. But then the statement from the nine EU member states in the second paragraph says, sadly, and it's very unfortunate that it continues like this, it says, should Israel provide us with additional information, we will act accordingly.
00:14:43
Speaker
And why I say it is unfortunate, it's because the continuation of the sentence entails that we are giving Israel the green light to provide whatever information they need or evidence. And why I say this is problematic because Adamir has been working in the Israeli judicial system for the past 30 years. We have seen students being prosecuted and arrested based on very bogus charges.
00:15:11
Speaker
We have seen children being detained for years under secret files and the use of administrative detention. So we understand that when Israel talks about evidence, they even talk about arresting people and subjecting to torture and ill treatment.
00:15:28
Speaker
during the interrogation to try to gain whatever testimonies or evidence they can. I comfortably say about evidence and mention it because we are almost positive that there are no evidence against the organizations. But how the international community keeps on tiptoeing and walking around eggshells around Israel
00:15:51
Speaker
and not to try to piss it off or try to go against its laws. It's completely ridiculous and it could be taken as double standards. I don't believe anywhere in the world a government can designate six prominent civil society organizations as terrorist organizations without providing any justification at all. And the international community till now is allowing to hear some arguments from the Israeli occupation.
00:16:21
Speaker
If you are enjoying this podcast, please visit our website, www.al-shabaka.org, where you will find more Palestinian policy analysis and where you can join our mailing list and donate to support our work.
00:16:36
Speaker
Now, in addition to its attack on Palestinians, the Israeli regime is also constantly working on its image abroad.
Environmental Greenwashing in Palestinian Territories
00:16:43
Speaker
For example, recently the Israeli regime has been ramping up the idea that it is the champion of environmentalism in the region. This is not necessarily new. The Israeli regime has often used a tactic known as greenwashing to improve its image.
00:16:57
Speaker
In general, greenwashing is an attempt to use certain environmental initiatives to hide behind the fact that someone is actually causing more damage than it's doing to help prevent it. The Israeli regime uses greenwashing to cover up the disastrous impact it is having on the Palestinian environment and landscape. Inaz Abderazah, advocacy director at the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy and a Shabakah policy member, explained this to us in the context of increasing environmental normalization projects happening in Palestine.
00:17:25
Speaker
this is the hypocrisy of this kind of dialogue or trust building project is that it allows Israel to present itself as a good faith actor, as someone who's ready to make a gesture when in reality, all of what this international diplomacy and normalization agreement and Abraham Accords do is entrenching and facilitating them
00:17:48
Speaker
continuing that dispossession. And the environmental impact are also extremely serious, and there have been over decades. I mean, the agriculture sector of Palestine has shrank. Farmers have stopped doing agriculture because it was so costly, because of the lack of water, because of the lack of access to land. So Palestinians have been denied food sovereignty and food security.
00:18:15
Speaker
We're looking also at the denial of infrastructure, especially the PA for years have been asking to build infrastructures like solid waste management, wastewater management, renewable energy,
00:18:29
Speaker
that has constantly been denied by Israel because it's located in areas that they want to keep under their control and they are annexing. So this has obviously had tremendous environmental impacts. Why? Because then Palestinians resort to other sources of energy like fuel. This is particularly dire in Gaza under siege, where Israel has bombed the only water, the power plants,
00:18:55
Speaker
And Gaza relies on fuel that is extremely polluting and it's harmful for people's health. But yet, again, the World Bank and USAID will be promoting projects of building solar panels in Gaza or treating some of the wastewater along the beach and then say that this is wonderful cooperation. So these are just some of the concrete impacts that we see.
00:19:21
Speaker
that again, maintain Palestinians under the full control of Israel and their interest in will. And it also has, I think, long-term impact for people's health and for the climate impact. Green washing isn't the only way the Israeli regime tries to improve its image.
Sports as a Political Tool
00:19:41
Speaker
Sports washing is another tactic. Abdullah Al-Arian, Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University in Qatar and editor of the recent book, Football in the Middle East, explained more.
00:19:52
Speaker
There's several elements to this question, one of which I think is interesting is people who've been looking more recently at the question of sports washing. This has become kind of a recent buzzword, the idea that states are using their footballing interest or their sports interests.
00:20:07
Speaker
as a means of deflecting attention from their most abusive policies. So I think from what I can tell, at least, it seems like sports washing is actually kind of shortchanging the conversation a bit, because if we're talking purely about the idea of using sports as a deflection or distraction, I don't think that actually quite captures what many of these states are doing, Saudi Arabia included, but also when we look at, for instance, what Israel has done
00:20:31
Speaker
through sport is that it's not just using it to deflect attention away from ethnic cleansing, apartheid or occupation. I think what the Israeli state has explicitly tried to do is use it to end its own isolation and using its participation even to further specific political goals. And so one of the examples is when Israel planned to play the Argentinian national football team in the lead up to the 2018 World Cup. And so this was supposed to be kind of a warm up friendly match for Argentina.
00:20:59
Speaker
It was scheduled to be played, I believe, in Haifa or somewhere else, and then at the last minute. And again, this was just weeks after the Trump administration had moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, thereby kind of cementing the US acceptance of Israel's illegal annexation of the city. And so the Israeli Football Association moved the match.
00:21:21
Speaker
to Jerusalem to be played there almost as a means of yet again affirming kind of its sovereignty over the city and due to a massive pressure from campaign from activists from within Argentina from within Spain where of course Argentina star Leo Messi plays
00:21:37
Speaker
and from around the Arab region and even from within Palestine, eventually the Argentinian national team pulled out of playing in that match. And in fact, the same thing happened once again this year in 2022, another friendly match was canceled as a result of Israel's actions toward Palestinians. So I think it's crucial to see the extent to which this isn't simply about deflecting the actions, but in fact, sport has been used quite aggressively in fact, as a means of cementing certain claims.
00:22:04
Speaker
The same can be said, for instance, about Puma, the sportswear company that of course has been sponsoring clubs in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. And of course there's a massive boycott campaign of Puma because this only serves to legitimize
00:22:20
Speaker
the illegal annexation and appropriation of Palestinian land. And so I think the BDS movement in this regard has kind of found a way to position itself at least as a means of trying to kind of shine a light on some of these abusive practices rather than allow the state to kind of deflect attention or even worse yet to affirm its sovereignty over territorial claims or to shrug off any human rights abuses through the kind of normalization that comes with playing
00:22:49
Speaker
against outside opponents or even bringing in kind of a major sportswear brand like Puma into the settlements.
00:22:58
Speaker
Of course, all of these attacks on Palestinians and Israeli regime efforts to rebrand itself must be understood in their larger context of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid. At the beginning of February 2022 Amnesty International published a report condemning the Israeli regime of committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.
Critique of Amnesty's Report on Apartheid
00:23:20
Speaker
Building on decades of Palestinian research and lived experiences, the Amnesty Report explained in intricate detail how Palestinians are resisting a singular system of domination that operates varying mechanisms and levels of control, depending on where Palestinians live. The report was welcomed by the human rights community both at home in Palestine and abroad, yet there were also significant critiques from Palestinians.
00:23:43
Speaker
mainly that the report fell short in certain areas and particularly in its analysis of settler colonialism. Salah Hejazi, former head of office in Jerusalem for Amnesty International and a Shabbaker policy member, addressed this critique.
00:23:57
Speaker
Apartheid and settler colonialism are intrinsically linked. This is a crime that was codified in law coming out from a certain context, South Africa, which is a settler colonial context. First, there was the understanding of it as a political structure, a system of domination by one racial group over another that was then made a crime with a convention in 1973.
00:24:22
Speaker
and then later on in the Rome Statute in 2002. Amnesty is a human rights organization and its primary framework of work and analysis is international human rights law. And so this is perhaps a limit, but this is the organization's mandate. And therefore it looks at duty bearers, those who have the responsibility to ensure their respect for human rights, the fulfillment of
00:24:51
Speaker
obligations under international law and does its work according to that. And therefore Amnesty does recognize and that is in the report the validity of settler colonial analysis and the complementarity between the settler colonial analysis and apartheid. It just limits itself to then its mandate of work under international human rights law.
00:25:14
Speaker
The two things are not opposed and from my perspective it's another piece of the puzzle.
00:25:22
Speaker
It's not the whole picture, what Amnesty is doing, I mean. And therefore there's a role of others, primarily us Palestinians then, to be able to use this to kind of develop the bigger picture and be able to kind of communicate it to wider audiences and be able to use it as then a platform for action that would see the dismantling of system of oppression and domination and the settler colony.
00:25:45
Speaker
At Ashabaka we believe in the importance of carving out blueprints for our liberated futures and much of the work that we do seeks to provide a space for Palestinians to do just that. Part of the work involves a critical reflection of Palestinian society and institutions as well as imagining alternatives.
00:26:02
Speaker
This is something that Yara Asi, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida and former U.S. visiting fellow for Shabaka, has done with the Palestinian health and education sectors in the West Bank and Gaza, which have been neglected by Palestinian authorities and the donor community for decades. Indeed, the security sector consumes more of the Palestinian authorities budget than the education, health and agricultural sectors combined. And yet both health and education are fundamental human needs and rights.
00:26:29
Speaker
and a population that has access to better health and education services is more able and better poised to develop a movement for liberation. Yara discussed what a decolonised plan for health and education sectors that were free Palestinians of donor-imposed conditions and restrictions could look like.
00:26:46
Speaker
Decolonization is about disrupting power, about identifying and removing forms of supremacy, about, in many cases, like Palestine, literally dismantling colonial structures and legacies.
Reimagining Palestinian Health and Education
00:27:01
Speaker
So as you can imagine, this is a large and decentralized project. There's no leader for this. This is, at this point, really a bunch of academics and practitioners having conversations among themselves about what this could look like.
00:27:14
Speaker
Some even hesitate to call it a project or a movement. The problem with these ideas as discussed today is that they still largely stem from the global north about the global south. And many of these discussions exclude the very people they claim to want to support and liberate. You see this
00:27:32
Speaker
especially in this humanitarian aid model that's imposed on Palestinians. Well, we're just trying to help you. We're helping you. How could that be bad, right? So Palestine is unfortunately a perfect microcosm of this. Palestinians are rarely seen as the best arbiters of what Palestinians want or need. They're rarely even trusted as witnesses of their own experiences. They're constantly questioned. They're seen as biased.
00:27:57
Speaker
They're seen as perhaps even in some circles uncivilized and an understanding of the realities of the world, so to speak. So decolonization in this sense involves centering Palestinians and Palestinian voices, embracing indigenous health. So, you know, the health system in Palestine and in many health systems that were created by donors essentially were built to resemble the health systems that the donors themselves had these kind of very neoliberal, very capitalist,
00:28:26
Speaker
very individualistic models of health. And decolonization would involve almost a radical transformation of a health system that serves its population and not the entities that have paid for it for decades. It is Palestinians shaping their own narrative, identifying their own needs, and going forth to pursue them without needing the permission or approval of external actors.
00:28:53
Speaker
So it's not a short-term project, but then again, none of this is. Reimagining various sectors in Palestine also necessitates us to grapple with larger political questions. In the aftermath of the Palestinian local elections, which culminated in March 2022, Ferdy Koran, Shabaka policy member and the vast campaign director shared with us his honest and sobering reflections on where Palestinian politics are now and what has to happen to take us on a radically different path.
Reviving Palestinian Liberation Efforts
00:29:22
Speaker
I think Palestinian society at large is moving towards that big picture, particularly the younger generation who are more hopeful, are moving towards that big picture. We want Palestine liberated. We want all Palestinians liberated no matter where they are. And we're willing to sacrifice and find ways to engage, to achieve that goal. The challenge with that subgroup that goes back to the point you mentioned, Tiara, is
00:29:47
Speaker
There's still no clear body because, you know, the PLOs basically, we can broken down, the political parties are dilapidated. There's no movement that those individuals feel they can be a part of to achieve that larger goal. Although, you know, in their heart psychologically, that's what they want. And so they end up being kind of sidelined from the day to day
00:30:09
Speaker
politics and I think this is for Palestinians listening I think this is the question we need to answer is how do we revive the Palestinian Liberation Movement and create spaces for all the young people and all the Palestinian people who want a better future to re-engage in politics and I think Palestinian National Council elections or you know some form of reform to the PLO taking the PLO away from Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies is an important step on that path.
00:30:39
Speaker
In these imaginings of the future, looking to internationalist struggles and global experiences are of vital importance. 2022 saw a massive shift towards leftist and progressive governance and politics in Latin America, a region that has had a significant role in the Palestinian struggle throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Hussein Samer, researcher on foreign policy between Latin America and the Israeli regime, explains how such a shift provides fertile ground for grassroots mobilization in shared struggles.
Latin America's Role in Palestinian Liberation
00:31:10
Speaker
It's important for us as Palestinians to tap into or to support indigenous struggles in Latin America, to support decolonial organizing, anti-racist organizing, abolitionist organizing, feminist and queer organizing. And I think in many ways, what's exciting about what's happening in Latin America is probably less to do with Palestine and more to do with the success of organizing and protests and building power.
00:31:38
Speaker
So Borich in Chile came into power off the back of maybe not consistent, but 10 years of protests on the street. The election of Gustavo Petro in Colombia comes off the back of indigenous and mass movement in the last year or so. And I think that also speaks to the potential of Palestinians in diaspora to build connections and to build
00:32:00
Speaker
struggle with Latin Americans. So during the uprising of the unity intifada last year, this coincided with these mass uprisings that we saw in Colombia and we saw on the streets of many places in North America and in Europe, Palestinians and Colombians protesting and marching together and making connections between their struggles and the support of the US in both projects and the militarization or the military connections in both countries. So I think there is a lot to build up from.
00:32:30
Speaker
As I said before, we currently have or we will have in Latin America potentially center or left wing governments in Cuba, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina. And these could provide opportunities at a policy level, but we are still stifled by our leadership and how far these governments can go. I can't remember who said it, but they can't be more Palestinian than the Palestinians. So it does hopefully provide opportunity for grassroots movements.
00:32:59
Speaker
in favour of Palestine to find space to advance a more radical and progressive agenda than what's currently being offered by our leadership. In the final clip of this episode, Aline Bataarsi, board member of the Shabaka and visualising Palestine Executive Director, discusses important lessons from both the unity in Tfada and the assassination of Shireen Abu Akhli, and how unity is the key to defying the Israeli regime.
Unity in Resistance and Shireen Abu Akhle's Impact
00:33:26
Speaker
It's not easy, but I feel like for me it's a source of inspiration and I have to remind myself of it all the time because we have to imagine that a different world is possible and we have to work towards it. And I think just to answer the question Yara around, you know, what do we
00:33:43
Speaker
learn moving forward from the unity in Tifada. And for me, the biggest, most important lesson is that unity is possible, despite Israel's fragmentation, despite everything that Israel is doing to make sure that we do not unite, that it is united. And of course, despite the Palestinian Authority's complicity as well in making sure that
00:34:05
Speaker
the status quo remains the same. So you've talked about this a lot, Yara, in your analysis as well. Last year, during the unity intifada, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship
00:34:17
Speaker
basically worked around organizing the general strike. And because they are such a huge part of the Israeli workforce, it really impacted the economy. I feel like there's just so much that we can do to build on it. It just needs the persistence and the patience. And this is why our work together, I think, is very important because we have to have sort of the patience for it to make it happen.
00:34:46
Speaker
And I feel like it's not an overstatement to say that because it does take time and it does take
00:34:51
Speaker
ability to take our imagination to a different place and to think of a better future. That is a future of freedom for everyone. And I think we also saw this so clearly during the funeral for our beloved Shaleen on May 13. Despite all of Israeli restrictions, the military checkpoints they set up to prevent mourners from joining the funeral, from attacking Palestinian mourners carrying Shaleen's coffin,
00:35:18
Speaker
to arresting mourners that were carrying the Palestinian flag. Palestinians still united in love and in pain, and I don't think I've ever seen Jerusalem, you know, this Palestinian. It was such a beautiful moment, even though, of course, it was full of sorrow. But, you know, we see what we can do when we really unite and get together, and that we can defy Israel's fragmentation, and it's in no way easy. But I do think that this resistance is very important. This faith in ourselves is really important.
00:35:49
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Thank you for listening to our end of year podcast.
Conclusion and New Year Wishes
00:35:52
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All of us at Shabaka would like to wish you a happy new year filled with hope, light and continued struggle. Thank you for listening to Rethinking Palestine. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. For more policy analysis and to donate to support our work, please visit our website www.al-shabaka.org.
00:36:17
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