A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #355 - Gaza: Trump's "Peace" Aims to Deprive Palestinians of Their Future (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation

For years, part of the Palestinian solidarity movement has been 
misleading us with the "recognition of the State of Palestine" and its 
corollary: the "two-state solution." This recognition was necessary: the 
Zionist project, from the outset, aimed to replicate what the United 
States and Australia had done to their indigenous peoples: to imprison 
them, massacre them, expel them, and in any case, render them incapable 
of defending their rights. "Courageously," France became the 150th 
country to recognize Palestine, preceded by others in the Western world. 
The positive effect is that the prospect of Palestine's disappearance 
through the massacre and/or expulsion of its people to other countries 
recedes. The Israeli genocidaires had this intention, but it was too 
much to ask of the vassalized Arab states. For Jordan, where 
Palestinians already constitute a majority without holding power, 
bringing in a million new refugees would have meant tearing the country 
apart. In Egypt, dictator Sisi briefly considered settling Gazans in the 
Sinai. He had the Egyptian city of Rafah evacuated for this purpose. But 
the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Cairo and Alexandria, the first 
since the 2013 coup, quickly dissuaded him. He had to find another solution.

Macron and Trump: Two Complementary Visions
In September 2024, the UN General Assembly voted by a large majority for 
a resolution demanding that Israel evacuate the territories occupied in 
1967 under threat of sanctions. Of course, Israel has intensified its 
settlement activity, and Minister Bezalel Smotrich explained (without a 
hint of irony) that "international law does not apply to Jews since they 
are the chosen people." Israeli policy has always been a mix of denial 
("we didn't expel anyone, the Arabs left of their own accord"), fait 
accompli, and impunity. The UN session in September should therefore 
have focused on sanctions and their implementation. And then, like 
Zorro, Macron arrived with a "brilliant plan," co-signed by a great 
democrat, Crown Prince MBS of Saudi Arabia, known for his skill in 
hanging or dissolving his opponents with acid. The plan aimed to promote 
an even more watered-down version of the "two-state solution." Palestine 
would have no borders, no army, no right to self-determination, no 
economy, and no territorial contiguity. The Macron plan revived an old 
imperialist tradition. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration gave Palestine 
to the Zionist settlers. In 1922, the League of Nations entrusted the 
British Empire with a "mandate" tasked with guiding this "minor" people 
(the Palestinians) to maturity. Today, the West and the feudal Gulf 
states are supposedly responsible for managing this decidedly rebellious 
people.
For those who pretend to believe in the "two-state solution," let us 
remember that there are currently approximately 10 million descendants 
of the Palestinians who were victims of premeditated ethnic cleansing in 
1948, and this "solution" does not concern them. It is therefore not 
peace. Furthermore, Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, based on 
ethno-religious principles, which is an aberration. No serious peace can 
be achieved while maintaining the Jewish state and the ideology that 
built it: Zionism.

In any case, Macron achieved his goal; the UN did not debate sanctions. 
The Macron-MBS plan and the Trump plan are not contradictory in any way; 
they are complementary. Moreover, Macron immediately approved the Trump 
plan. And French military personnel arrived in Kiryat Gat, Israel, to 
"oversee" the implementation of this agreement. They are not alone; the 
entire West is represented.

Why did the Palestinians sign?
First and foremost, because the survivors of this genocide could no 
longer endure it and would not have forgiven the continuation of the 
ongoing extermination. Life in tents, with a daily existence surrounded 
by death, famine, and suffering, was unbearable, especially for women. 
In this genocide, the Israeli army used cutting-edge technology and new 
methods of extermination. The release of the "hostages" (this word 
implies an unbearable distinction between Palestinians and Israelis 
deprived of their freedom. Its use is the result of a supremacist 
culture) was inevitable: in the long run, Israeli bombings would have 
killed them all.

Clearly, unless we're resorting to the kind of empty rhetoric sometimes 
heard in the solidarity movement, the Palestinians haven't won. But they 
haven't lost either: October 7th served as a pretext for a long-planned 
genocide whose aim was to empty Gaza of its population. Despite the true 
death toll undoubtedly exceeding 200,000 (10% of the population), and 
despite the refined brutality and cruelty of the atrocities, the people 
of Gaza remain, demonstrating their unwavering commitment to the 
remaining piece of land.

One of the goals of the October 7th uprising was the liberation of 
Palestinian prisoners. It should never be forgotten that 900,000 
Palestinians have been imprisoned since 1967. This represents 40% of men 
between the ages of 18 and 50. Israeli prisons hold children, and there 
are numerous cases of torture and denial of medical care. The bodies of 
those who die before completing their sentences are even kept there. 
According to Gilad Shalit, there had been 1,000 releases (including that 
of Yahia Sinwar), and one of the goals of the October 7th uprising was 
to secure the release of all prisoners. With the truce, nearly 2,000 
prisoners were released from this hell. While Israel is keeping its 
high-profile prisoners (Marwan Barghouti of Fatah, Ahmed Saadat, 
Secretary General of the PFLP, Dr. Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan 
Hospital, etc.), approximately 250 life prisoners were freed. All say 
that the exile they will endure is more enviable than Israeli prisons. 
The maintenance of the truce, of course, depends on the goodwill of the 
perpetrators, and this truce has already been violated numerous times. 
There are no guarantees. But this war was killing an average of 300 
people a day. That is probably over. Since March 2025 and Netanyahu's 
unilateral breach of the previous truce, famine had been deliberately 
engineered, and the images the Allies discovered in Nazi camps in 1945 
were beginning to resemble those of Gaza. Humanitarian aid trucks are 
now returning, and the Rafah border crossing is expected to reopen. This 
opening is fragile, and the number of trucks is insufficient. However, 
some are arriving, and UNRWA has pledged that, provided humanitarian aid 
is not obstructed, it will feed the entire population until next March.

A Palestine Under Tutelage and a Reshaping of Geography
The United States is a co-perpetrator of the genocide. It would have 
been stopped instantly if Biden, and then Trump, had halted arms and 
ammunition deliveries. A perpetrator has never been known to want to 
free their victim.
The Trump plan did not break with the colonial logic of the Riviera, and 
its goals remained unchanged.

First, it relies on a reshaping of Gaza's geography. Rafah, for example, 
was a city of 250,000 inhabitants. After heavily bombing the city, the 
Israelis brought in bulldozers to demolish the remaining walls. Then 
they had the rubble removed. Where there once was a city, only sand and 
dunes remain. A Palestinian can no longer recognize the place where he 
once lived.
Approximately 58% of the Gaza Strip remains occupied by Israeli troops: 
the area within 3 km of the border and most of the agricultural land. It 
is unlikely that residents will be able to return home. A "yellow line" 
already exists to separate the occupied zone from the evacuated zone. 
The same type of demarcation line has been used to expand settlements in 
the West Bank.
The scenario being implemented there seems to be repeating itself in 
Gaza: occupying as much territory as possible and cramming the 
population into overcrowded cities or areas. Gaza's population will be 
concentrated in a very small portion of the territory: parts of Gaza 
City and Khan Younis, the central area (Deir ei-Balah and Nuseirat), and 
the coastline (Al-Mawasi). The creation of these concentration camps 
foreshadows extremely harsh living conditions during the rainy season 
and winter.
To feed Gaza, all crossing points would need to be open. Currently, only 
Keren Shalom (Abu Salem) is partially open. The Rafah border crossing is 
supposed to open, but Palestinians are excluded from its control, which 
will be under Egyptian, European, and, of course, Israeli jurisdiction.
The Middle East has already experienced "reconstruction" after a war: 
the Beirut war was costly, the Gulf monarchies paid for it, and it was 
corrupt: the seafront was privatized, and the destroyed suburbs remained 
squalid.
Something similar is looming in Gaza. The perpetrators of the genocide 
will pay nothing; their accomplices, who signed the Abraham Accords, 
will. "Smart towns" will be rebuilt, with perfectly perpendicular 
streets and surveillance cameras everywhere. In short, a Riviera from 
which the locals could not be expelled.

It is significant that Trump threw around Tony Blair's name to oversee 
the Western project. He is British, which instantly evokes Balfour and 
the "mandate" that enabled the success of Zionism. He sent the British 
army to Iraq to destroy "weapons of mass destruction" that everyone knew 
were fictitious. He led the Quartet after the Oslo Accords, whose goal 
was to get the Palestinians to abandon all their demands. And he has a 
handsome smile. In the film "No Other Land," he is seen visiting a 
school that Bedouins built in Masafar Yatta to resist the ongoing ethnic 
cleansing. He smiles, shakes many hands, and shortly after his 
departure, Israeli bulldozers destroy the school.

Palestine for the Palestinians
Despite a new "Nakba," despite a genocide of incredible proportions, 
Palestine has not disappeared. There are still roughly as many Israeli 
Jews as Palestinians between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. 
But the latter are fragmented and suffer a great many forms of 
oppression, discrimination, and destruction. For the fascist messianic 
leaders in power in Israel, the genocide in Gaza is a laboratory for 
testing the feasibility of the original Zionist project: can the 
Palestinian people be made to disappear? Everything indicates that they 
will not succeed. Palestine has survived for decades thanks to a network 
of associations, from tiny neighborhood groups, women's associations, 
farmers' groups, and student groups, to large NGOs. It is also 
characterized by an almost unbelievable relationship with children. 
Everything is done to educate them, to encourage them to learn, as if a 
better world were possible for them.

In the midst of the genocide, the organization of Gazan civil society 
held firm. Civil defense (volunteer firefighters), healthcare workers, 
and journalists continued their work despite the numerous targeted 
assassinations they suffered. Municipalities continued to function, and 
whenever possible, water and medicine were distributed and garbage was 
collected. Ministries did their job, organizing healthcare and producing 
daily statistics on destruction and killings. OCHA (the UN Office for 
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) consistently confirmed their 
reports.

The population organized itself in the camps where it was deported. 
Collectively, it provided food, hygiene, healthcare, and education for 
children whenever possible. Some students were able to take their 
baccalaureate exams, often online. Psychologists are doing fantastic 
work, particularly with women, to help victims continue living despite 
the annihilation of their former lives. Where possible, some agriculture 
has resumed. When Israeli patrol boats were occupied by flotillas, 
fishermen went out to sea and brought back some fish. Gaza is not just 
an educated population; it is a pluralistic one that cannot be reduced 
to political parties, and even less so to Hamas. Hamas is criticized for 
not being able or willing to take responsibility for the consequences of 
October 7th and for being incapable of protecting the population. 
Following a meeting in Beijing in 2024, an agreement was reached in 
Cairo by various Palestinian factions. The goal is to prevent Palestine 
from falling under imperialist control and to ensure its voice is heard. 
For the solidarity movement, this is a crucial issue: responding to the 
needs and demands of civil society, helping with its reunification, and 
making it the primary actor in the promised reconstruction.

Trump and his allies are announcing an occupation of Gaza and urging the 
population to leave the territory.

This war is being fought on our own soil.
All wars waged by an imperialist and/or colonial power have only ended 
when a significant fracture appeared within the colonial society. This 
was the case for France during the Algerian War, for the United States 
during the Vietnam War, and for apartheid South Africa. There will be no 
fracture in Israeli society as long as it is not subjected to sanctions 
across all sectors.
The genocide has permanently shattered Israel's image. Very large 
demonstrations took place in Spain, Italy, Ireland, and even the United 
States and Great Britain.
Some countries severed diplomatic relations. At the UN, a clear majority 
of countries expressed their outright hostility toward the genocidal 
state. Demonstrators literally expelled the Israel Premier Tech cycling 
team from the Vuelta a España. Israel was banned from the World 
Gymnastics Championships.

This genocide was made possible by a three-way complicity: that of the 
United States, that of the major Arab countries, and that of Europe. It 
is a total complicity: political, military, economic, ideological, 
media, union, banking...
The war is being fought on two fronts:
In Palestine, and particularly in Gaza. Despite the atrocities they are 
suffering, the Palestinian people must continue to form a society. One 
of the tasks of the solidarity movement is to help producers, to work 
with civil society so that it can take control of daily life.
This is also happening here at home. Public opinion has begun to shift. 
The BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement is achieving 
significant successes. Israel must become a pariah state. We must give 
no respite to the perpetrators of the genocide and their accomplices. 
The genocide in Gaza is a laboratory for the brown tide that is 
beginning to sweep across the world and destroy everything in its path: 
freedom, solidarity, social justice, the rights of peoples... Defending 
Palestine is not a matter of principle; it is defending our very lives. 
We must do everything in our power to force the world's dominant forces 
to isolate and sanction Israel, just as was done against apartheid South 
Africa. By reshaping Palestine at the cost of tens of thousands of 
lives, the dominant forces are reshaping the world and establishing the 
law of the jungle. Let's not let them do it!

Pierre Stambul

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4587
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