>From: "T Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Resolution of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth >International > > >RESOLUTION ON PALESTINE > > > The bloody autumn unleashed by the provocation committed by general >Ariel Sharon, supervisor of the massacres at Sabra and Chatila in Lebanon >in 1982 �� with the escort graciously provided for him by general Ehud >Barak, "Labour" prime minister of an Israeli state more than ever dominated >by the military �� already constitutes one of the most brutal episodes of >the long history of criminal violence perpetrated by the Zionist enterprise >against the Palestinian people. > The entire world has seen yet again to what point the discourse of >the imperialist powers on human rights and the rights of peoples is >variable according to the interests of their world hegemony: intensive >bombardments and murderous embargos for Iraq and Serbia, "rogue states"; >unequalled levels of military aid and friendly advice for Israel, key >member of the strategic apparatus of imperialist domination in this major >oil-producing area of the world and in any case non-recognition of national >rights, whether of Palestinians or Kosovars. > Sharon's provocation was nonethless only the drop of water that >made a cup that had been full to the brim for a very long time run over. >It shattered the process opened up by the Oslo accords and their signature >in Washington, on the White House lawn, in September 1993. It is the >consequence of the overaccumulation of frustrations in the course of the >seven years since then, during which the economic and social position of >the Palestinian people have worsened. > In signing these accords, general Rabin offered the Palestinians a >fraudulent deal: he could proceed to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from >inside the zones of Palestinian population in the territories occupied in >1967 �� a withdrawal which Israel's military top brass had demanded since >the Intifada in 1988, motivated by a concern to preserve the moral of their >army and worried about the consequences of its being bogged down in the >tasks of repression in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on its state of general >preparation in relation to the Arab environment. > Beyond this redeployment, Rabin offered no concession of a nature >to satisfy the elementary demands of the Palestinians: dismantling of the >Zionist settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, total withdrawal of >the Israeli army from the territories occupied in 1967, establishment of a >Palestinian state on the whole of these territories, including East >Jerusalem, and the return to Palestine of the refugees of 1948 and 1967. > It only held out the possibility of accepting a largely truncated >and perverted version of Palestinian aspirations, on the express condition >that the Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by Yasser Arafat fulfilled its >part of the deal, by showing that it was capable of bringing the population >of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to heel efficiently and on a lasting basis. > This fraudulent deal very quickly came up against a major >contradiction: successive Zionist governments, those of Rabin, Peres, >Netanyahu and Barak, conceded to the Palestinians only some of the promises >of Oslo, with an eyedropper and increasingly late, demanding each time that >the PA increase its proxy repression as condition for the following stage >Their "security"-fixated mentality, their chauvinist arrogance and their >racist contempt for the Palestinians meant that their priority concern was >pandering to the most reactionary fringe of Israeli public opinion. >Meanwhile, they have carried out a policy of development of the Zionist >colonies and a military and infrastructural parcellization of the >Palestinian territories, which has been humiliating and revolting to the >highest point for the population of these territories. > In such conditions, it was totally predictable that the PA, >confronted with the exasperation of the inhabitants of the West Bank and >Gaza Strip, would experience a lot of difficulty in muzzling Palestinian >society completely, despite its efforts to do so. Moroever, Yasser Arafat >and his lieutenants were much less inclined to push the repressive >escalation further given that, on the one hand, they knew that in losing >all legitimacy in the eyes of their population, indeed in the eyes of a >section of their troops, they weakened themselves in relation to Israel; >while on the other, they feel increasingly that they have been duped. > This increasingly obvious impasse determined the recent explosion >and the bloody autumn which has resulted from it and which is still going >on. These events illustrate in a cruel manner the total bankruptcy of the >strategic choice of the Arafat leadership, consisting in counting on the >benevolence of the Zionist state and the so-called arbitration of >Washington so as to obtain a Bantustan in the 1967 territories. The >increasingly evident bankruptcy of this strategy only fostered the growth >of Islamic fundamentalism among the Palestinian population. > Barak, who is trying to win the participation of Ariel Sharon in a >government of Zionist unity, proclaims today his intention to go back to >the initial project of the Israeli military leadership, as it was conceived >in 1988: to carry out unilaterally the redeployment of the Israeli army in >the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in such a way as to consolidate strategic >Israeli control of these territories and their external frontiers, placing >the enclaves of Palestinian population under permanent siege, reduced to >the situation of vast self-managed concentration camps, constantly >threatened with being asphyxiated by a retightening of the Israeli >blockade. > The first difference between this perspective and the Israeli >interpretation of the Oslo accords would be the absence of direct >collaboration between the Palestinian leadership and the Zionist government >and a contemptous indifference on the part of the latter as to the internal >management of the Palestinian territories. Faced with this, the only >progressive perspective which is offered to the Palestinian people would >be to develop anew the forms of self-organisation which characterised the >early days of the Intifada, instead of of the repressive and highly corrupt >administration set up in the framework of the Oslo accords. > The Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip does not >have the means on its own to free itself from the Israeli yoke. The >relationship of forces is unfavourable to it in a crushing way. It can hope >to change it only by finding the points of support which until now have >been cruelly lacking: > - in the pressure of the popular movement of solidarity on the Arab >governments to force them to give the Palestinians the diplomatic support >and economic aid which are indispensable to them; > - in the pressure of the movement of international solidarity for >the recognition of the right of the Palestinians to a state, for an >emergency international aid, to stop the state of Israel from pursuing its >policy of strangulation of the Palestinian territories and to cut off all >military and related aid; one of the conditions for an effective movement >of solidarity with the Palestinian people is to forcefully reject any >expressions of antisemitism; > - inside the state of Israel itself, where the outburst of violence >of which those Palestinians holding a second class Israeli citizenship >have been the victims has shown to what depths Israeli society could >plunge. It is to be hoped that this fearful perspective could impel a >large number of Israelis to mobilise to force their government to stop >starving the Palestinians and to recognise their right to a sovereign state >on the whole of their territories occupied in 1967, as an indispensable >element on the road to a just settlement on the principle of equal rights >of all people Arabs and Jews without which this region of the world would >have no perspective of the future other than murderous violence and >permanent >insecurity.___________________________________________________________ >Get more from your time online. FREE MSN Explorer download : >http://explorer.msn.com _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. 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