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Palestinian Solidarity and Internationalism in Practice

By Max Watson, September 2005

Shortly before I left for Palestine last year, I went to a Radical Activist Network meeting where the subject of the role of internationals in Palestine came up for discussion. Tom Hurndall had been buried not long before then, and the role of the ISM was being widely debated amongst the left.

Some expressed concern that internationals going to Palestine sometimes have little knowledge of the historical situation or culture there, and can often end up patronising Palestinians with their preaching of non-violent direct action. Others believe that, as the ISM is a Palestinian-led outfit, those internationals travelling there in solidarity are simply aiding a movement already in existence, much like the International Brigades in the 1936 Spanish revolution.

Although I spent some time with ISM in Nablus during 2003, I want to talk here about my role as an international with the Alternative Information Centre (www.alternativenews.org), with whom I recently worked for eleven months.

When you walk into AIC board-member Dr Majed Nassar’s office, one postcard on his wall stands out: “If you are coming here to help us, then you are wasting your time and might as well leave,” it reads. “But if you are here to fight alongside us as an equal, then you are most welcome.”

I worked in Palestine not out of solidarity or as a gesture of good will, but as an equal partner in the fight for justice in that deeply troubled part of the world.

It was a privilege to work with such like-minded internationalists – Israelis and Palestinians, plus other foreigners like me – in a country dominated by such contrary ideologies; nationalism, radical Islam, Zionism. As assistant editor of News from Within (www.newsfromwithin.org), the AIC’s monthly English language journal, I edited work by Palestinian and Israeli socialists, communists, anarchists, feminists, and other radical democratic activists and academics. And I too was given space to report in those pages, despite being an outsider.

In this, NfW is a fairly unique beast inside Palestine/Israel. This reflects the egalitarian structure of the AIC, which contrasts with most other so-called partnership NGO’s; they are often in fact Israeli-dominated with Palestinian field-workers reporting to their Israeli ‘colleagues’.

One outstanding memory from my time in Palestine was a meeting we organised in Beit Sahour (in the Bethlehem region). Israeli film-maker Eran Torbiner introduced his film Matzpen (www.matzpen.org), to an audience of Palestinians and internationals. The film documents the Israeli anti-Zionist socialists who fought in the 1960s and 70s against the occupation and for social justice within Israel and Palestine.

It was the first time most of the Palestinians had heard of the now-disbanded group, let alone heard an Israeli Jewish activist speak in the West Bank about their struggle – they were discussing openly with an Israeli who came to their town not in military uniform or as a colonialist settler, but as an egalitarian openly debating the politics of their country.

We had another meeting in Beit Sahour with two ‘refuseniks’ from the organisation New Profile (www.newprofile.org), which has a progressive, feminist-orientation which drives their refusal to serve in the illegal occupation forces of Israel. There were over 100 people in attendance, able to discuss their situation for the first time with Israeli conscientious objectors. The two activists had already been to speak in Europe, Australia, the US and elsewhere, but this was their first Palestinian audience in the West Bank.

Another friend described to me the difficulties of living during the 1980’s, as a member of the Communist Party, in Hebron – a particularly conservative, religious city by Palestinian standards. Whatever your views of Stalinism, it is impossible for a socialist not to admire the courage of those who fought against both religious bigotry and the Israeli occupation at the same time; losing friends, family contacts, work and much else besides.

The AIC participates with their partners in the World Social Forum, and actively campaigns on global issues, building alliances and common fronts with people – no matter what their religion or ethnicity – around the world. This internationalist current within Palestine, whilst far from being the mainstream, is by no means a new phenomenon.

Eran Torbiner is making a new film about volunteers in the International Brigades of the Spanish revolution. Over 300 men and women left Palestine in 1936 – both Jews and Arabs – and fought alongside their comrades against Franco’s fascist coup.

This internationalist current blossomed in the 1960’s with the Maztpen and the Israeli Black Panthers, as well as the Palestinian secular left who built strong networks and influence up to and during the first Intifada. And despite the fall of the Soviet Union; the dominance of US imperialism; the so-called End of History and the New World Order; this current survived.

Indeed, since the second Intifada, there has been a further radicalisation of the Israeli left. Of course, it is small, as it is here in Europe; but when the Al Aqsa Intifada erupted in September 2000, the Zionist ‘left’ and ‘Peace Bloc’ went into hiding, and many activists departed from that tradition, disillusioned with the failure of the mainstream to seriously challenge the policies of Sharon and co.

Indymedia Israel was born just in time for the second Intifada, and a new generation took up the torch of radical activist reporting; today there are several groups worth mentioning in Israel that fight alongside their Palestinian brothers and sisters as partners in struggle: Anarchists against the Wall, Black Laundry (www.blacklaundry.org, a radical gay rights movement), Coalition of Women for Peace (www.coalitionofwomen.org), Ta’ayush (www.taayush.org), the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) (www.icahd.org), and more.

When fifty or so Israeli activists join the weekly demonstrations in the heroic village of Bil’in, an important process takes place: they are forging friendships in struggle with Palestinians and internationals – proving that not all Israelis support the occupation, and that they can work and live together as equals.

The AIC provides a service to these activist groups, in the form of magazines (in three languages), resource-centres and meeting spaces, pamphlets, websites and other material to strengthen their grassroots activism and provide for them a platform, give them a voice. The AIC does not pose as a competitor to these groups, as the sectarian groups in the UK view one another.

Whilst my role was that of an equal with my comrades in Palestine/Israel, my situation was of course privileged: in comparison with Palestinians I could pass through checkpoints relatively easily, I could expect not to be beaten to a pulp on a demonstration or be incarcerated without trial in a military prison; and ultimately, I could always leave the country to go home again.

Nevertheless, hearing about friends taken to prison, unlikely to be released again for months (see AIC website for details of Ahmad Abu Hannya's detention), having to negotiate past unnecessary checkpoints in the hot, sweltering sun, or being held up and questioned at a roadblock or threatened on a demonstration – all of the things that Palestinians endure regularly – I felt not only humbled, but angry and determined. In the end, it felt personal too – an attack on my dignity and freedom as much as an attack on theirs.

Those who back the Israeli occupation are the same forces who strive to end our freedoms and rights here at home. The warmongers, the neo-liberals with their crusade against trade unions and workers rights – as well as our civil liberties here in the UK – and those who support the Zionist occupation, are one and the same. In other words, we have a common enemy, and should recognise Palestine as global struggle, rather than a localised national issue.

I wholeheartedly recommend working alongside internationalists in Palestine/Israel – be it as an ISM volunteer, with the Israeli anarchists, Black Laundry, ICAHD, Indymedia, Stop the Wall (www.stopthewall.org) or the AIC – but most importantly as an activist with an equal input to the struggle there, regardless of your ethnicity or cultural heritage.

And those Palestinian and Israeli internationalists should be welcome to join us here, with an equal say in our struggle against the policies of Blair and co. As my comrade and friend Nassar Ibrahim said as I left for the UK, the radical left does indeed “have a long way to travel,” yet we will “continue to pursue our dreams together. See you again in a free Palestine!”

Max Watson in an independent activist and campaigning journalist based in London. He currently works on Palestine News (www.palestinecampaign.org).