Interview with Jaldia Abubakra of Masar Badil
2023 will mark the inauspicious 30-year anniversary of the Oslo agreement between the Zionist state, US imperialism and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Oslo has come to mean massive Israeli colonial expansion in historic Palestine, the denial of the right of return to millions of refugees, a constant imprisonment campaign and frequent murderous wars upon Gaza, Jenin and other regions of Palestinian displacement.
Set up in exile, the Palestinian Revolutionary Alternative Path (Masar Badil) is seeking to reverse the Oslo catastrophe and renew the liberation struggle.
FRFI: Can you explain the significance of the Oslo agreement three decades on? And what role do you see the Palestinian Authority (PA) playing today?
Jaldia Abubakra: The significance of the Oslo agreement comes with the damage it has done to the Palestinian cause, to the Palestinian masses and their rights, with no positive meaning at all in this respect. The Oslo negotiations took the form of secret conversations, behind the backs of and without consulting the people, before its announcement once it had been signed. Thirty years on, its consequences for the Palestinian people and their cause are plain to see. This agreement enlisted the Palestinian leadership, or rather the PLO leadership, with conditions through which not only would we surrender many of our rights, such as the right of return for refugees, to self-determination and resistance to the occupation, but also imposed upon us an authority under the command of the occupation, as an agent in suppressing any kind of resistance or occupation.
There is no doubt that the results of the Oslo agreement still benefit the Zionist entity which, however, did not fulfil any of the terms it agreed to; the simplest example is the non-stop expansion of settlements in the West Bank. It is natural that the whole Palestinian people reject and resist this degrading agreement because it robs us of our rights and recruits a section of our people as our torturers. The PA was created out of Oslo to oppress the Palestinians and protect the occupation. Any people under occupation will naturally struggle against and reject any conditions imposed upon their resistance.
The role of the PA is that of an agent to execute the commands of the occupation authorities. They are servants of the occupation in a way that is not new to Palestine: we could mention the Vichy government of France under the German occupation, or those in South Africa who collaborated with the apartheid government in the oppression of Africans. That is, the coloniser always uses a section of the indigenous population as a proxy, recruited to collaborate against their own people. We must work to bring down this authority, to unite the sons and daughters of our people in the ranks of the resistance.
What is the particular role played by Palestinian political prisoners in this moment of crisis of leadership for the national liberation movement?
The political prisoners currently represent the first line of defence for the Palestinian cause. They are fighters because they struggle against and refuse pacification, and for this reason they are our role models. Despite their imprisonment, their struggle on the inside is unceasing and I think this inspires others on the outside of the prisons not to surrender. The national liberation movement has been passing through the phases of crisis since the period before Oslo but in the last two years we have seen developments in this situation, with a young generation set on seeking and making change. This brings us hope that we are now experiencing a point of change and the rebirth of the Palestinian revolution.
Can you introduce our readers to Masar Badil and its priorities? With your emphasis on being a revolutionary movement, how do you see the path to making this a reality?
The movement was formed as the result of the Masar Badil conference in Madrid in October 2021. It consists of organisations and individuals working for the Palestinian cause, including Palestinian, Arab and international activists. Its most important goals are:
- to work together to find an alternative path to the road of settlement, surrender and defeat that is leading us to the liquidation of our cause and erasure of the rights of the Palestinian people;
- to work for the liberation of all of historic Palestine;
- to support Palestinian resistance in all its forms;
- linking Palestinian and international resisters in the struggle to liberate Palestine and the entire world;
- restoring the status of the Palestinian cause globally after the wave of normalisation that has built up in recent years.
These are some of the movement goals, which we describe in greater detail on our website. As for the prospects of the revolutionary movement, there are always ups and downs in the history of liberation movements. I think we are now at the beginning of the ascent and the possibilities for success are high, with evidence that the current generation of youth have learned the lessons of their predecessors.
How do you see the connection between the Palestinian revolutionary movement and struggles against imperialism in Europe and the wider world?
It is paramount that we build communication between the Palestinian revolutionary movement and the anti-imperialist movements in Europe and the whole world. Imperialism gave birth to, supported and continues to back Zionism, with common interests between the two. The economic hardships experienced by the majority of the world’s population are primarily a result of the policies of capitalism, which lives and expands at the expense of the suffering of the working classes, and provokes wars in multiple regions of the world. Of course all of these crises negatively affect the struggle of the peoples, but sometimes magic can be turned against the magician and peoples see that their salvation lies in getting rid of these regimes. As I have mentioned, we are living in a moment of change. We need to unite our efforts.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 290, October/November 2022
