At the beginning of May 2011, Hamas and Fatah signed a national unity agreement, brokered by the new regime in Egypt. This was supposed to see a new national government of technocrats, a unified security force across Gaza and the West Bank, and fresh elections within one year. In practical terms it seems nothing much has happened since then, with the main public stumbling block being the choice of Prime Minister. Mahmoud Abbas insists his main ally, Salam Fayyad, should continue as head of the interim government, while Hamas wants an independent figure. There is also disagreement over Abbas and the PLO’s determination to present a motion calling for recognition of an independent Palestinian state at the UN in September. On 17 July a leading member of Hamas, Ezzet Al Resheq, declared that Palestinian independence could only come through resistance and that Abbas’s insistence on continuing with the UN strategy was against the interests of national unity. He also condemned Fatah in the West Bank for continuing to arrest supporters of Hamas.
Abbas and Fatah have very little room to manoeuvre; they have been forced by events in the wider region, particularly Egypt, to respond to the growing demands within Palestinian society for a national unity agreement. On the other hand they are being squeezed by Israel and the imperialists to reject any notion of resistance and to agree to yet another round of ‘peace negotiations’ with Israel which will further weaken any basis for a Palestinian state. It seems that Abbas and Fatah see the UN option as the only card in their hands. However, US imperialism has threatened them with financial penalties if they persist in this strategy. At the beginning of July the US House of Representatives voted overwhelming 406-6 for a motion that warned the Palestinians that they risk cuts in US aid ‘if they pursue UN recognition of a future state not defined in direct talks with Israel’. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is completely dependent on foreign aid and is experiencing severe financial difficulties at the moment: Arab states have not given it promised funds, and PA employees are expected to receive only half their monthly pay in July. The Civil Servants Union in the West Bank has given the PA notice that if the situation is not sorted out soon then they could begin strike action. Whichever way Abbas and Fatah turn, they are facing serious difficulties.
Israel and imperialism extend siege of Gaza to Greece
It is just over one year since the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza was murderously attacked by Israeli military forces in international waters killing nine activists. A second Flotilla, Freedom Flotilla 2, was planned to set sail from Greek ports to Gaza at the end of June this year. In the run-up to its departure, Israel issued its organisers with several threats to which US imperialism lent its support. Hillary Clinton was open in her backing of further Israeli violence against the Flotilla, ‘Israelis have the right to defend themselves’ if ships ‘try to provoke action by entering into Israeli waters’. The Greek government, which is following an economic and political path directed by the IMF and is engaged in massive attacks on the living conditions of the working class in Greece, did all in its power to disrupt and block the Flotilla from sailing. Israeli divers have been allowed to operate in Greek docks sabotaging Flotilla ships and Greece has placed massive bureaucratic safety demands on the ships preventing their departure. At the time of writing only one ship, the French boat Dignity, had managed to set sail; on 18 May the Israeli navy seized it illegally in international waters and took it to the Israeli port of Adhdod.
The siege of Gaza continues with Israel continuing to deny the free passage of goods across the border. The Rafah crossing into Egypt, although now open for longer periods, is only normally a crossing for people, not heavy goods, and the flow of people allowed to leave Gaza is still severely restricted. The reality of life for ordinary people in Gaza remains one of grinding poverty. Chris Gunness, the spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the major aid agency for Gaza, described the situation to Noam Chomsky as desperate: ‘If there were no humanitarian crisis, if there weren’t a crisis in almost every aspect of life in Gaza, there would be no need for the Flotilla. 95% of all water in Gaza is undrinkable, 40% of all disease is water-borne… 45.2% of the labour force is unemployed, 80% aid dependency, a tripling of the abject poor since the start of the blockade. Let’s get rid of this blockade and there would be no need for a Flotilla.’
The Greek government, in a shameful attempt to excuse its craven behaviour, offered to deliver the humanitarian aid to Gaza instead. Over 60 Palestinian organisations signed an Open Letter rejecting this proposal, as the Flotilla, far from being just a collection of ships delivering aid, is making a political statement and is part of the international movement of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle:
‘The people of Gaza are only in need of humanitarian aid because we are prevented from building our economy. We are not allowed to import raw materials or to export; our fishermen and farmers get shot at when attempting to fish or to harvest their crops. As a result of deliberate Israeli policy, 80% of our people have become food aid dependent, our infrastructure is in shambles, and our children cannot imagine a day when they will know freedom. Your offer to deliver the cargo of the Freedom Flotilla entrenches the notion that humanitarian aid will solve our problems and is a weak attempt to disguise your complicity in Israel’s blockade.
‘We are so sorry not to accept your charity. The organizers and participants of the Freedom Flotilla recognize that our plight is not about humanitarian aid; it is about our human rights. They carry with them something more important than aid; they carry hope, love, solidarity and respect. Your offer to collude with our oppressors to deliver aid to us is strongly REJECTED.’
Bob Shepherd
Sheik Raed Salah
On Saturday 25 June, Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel and a participant in the 2010 Flotilla to Gaza, legally entered Britain to address a number of meetings across the country on the situation of Palestinians within Israel and the deteriorating situation of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Three days later on the night of Tuesday 28 June he was arrested, detained and told he would be deported from the country. Theresa May, Home Secretary, said that Salah shouldn’t have been allowed to enter the country, and that the UK Border Agency had made a mistake allowing him in as ‘the Home Office had excluded him for his anti-Semitic views’. This ‘exclusion’ was news to Salah, his solicitors and the organisation that had invited him to Britain, The Middle East Monitor. The fact is that even in Israel Salah has never been found guilty of making any anti-Semitic comments.
As Palestinian solidarity activists and defenders of democratic rights demonstrated against Salah’s arrest and detention, the Labour Party, voicing its continuing unconditional support for Zionism, once more expressed its racist contempt, not just for the Palestinian people, but for all those, asylum seekers and others, attempting to enter Britain. Labour’s Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, said the government’s rhetoric of being tough on border controls had been ‘exposed as an incompetent sham… The Home Secretary needs to urgently explain why an individual banned from this country was allowed to walk in and instead of being stopped at the border had to be pursued by the police instead’. She clearly did not care that Salah had never been banned and that May had been lying. Salah has now been released on bail after a successful appeal to the High Court against his detention. He will be fighting against the attempt to deport him.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 222 August/September 2011
