Report from London meeting
Sept 2010: Victory to the Intifada activists unravel a sample of the thousands of petitions they have collected over the last ten years with signatures of those opposing Marks & Spencer”s links with the racist state of Israel. The picket outside M&S in Oxford Street, London, marked the 10th anniversary of the intifada.
On 27 October, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! London hosted a meeting to mark ten years of the Intifada and to discuss the current and future struggle of the Palestinian people against occupation by the racist Israeli state. For the past ten years FRFI’s Victory to the Intifada campaign has organised meetings and demonstrations to highlight the Palestinian struggle and in London has been centrally involved in maintaining a weekly demonstration outside Marks & Spencer on Oxford Street, as part of the campaign against M&S’ corporate sponsorship of Zionism.
The meeting was addressed by two Palestinian speakers, who powerfully and clearly described the current situation in Palestine, setting out both the geographical and practical effects of occupation: the siege of Gaza, the increasing land-grab by Israel, the apartheid wall, the isolation, the roadblocks, the settlements. They also provided an honest appraisal of the difficulties and complexities of the political situation since the 1993 Oslo Accord, following which the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has played an increasingly opportunistic role, leaving Hamas as virtually the sole consistent organisation leading the resistance.
The meeting was attended by a variety of participants, some well versed in Palestinian politics; others new to the issue, with searching questions for discussion. Also in attendance was Zionist blogger Richard Millett, presumably keen to report that the meeting was taken up with espousal of violent terrorism and racist anti-Semitism. (The police had also rung and visited the venue, apparently on suspicion that ‘a terrorist’ would be speaking at the meeting.)
In the absence of any such discourse, Millett was left to ask a half-hearted question about why the 22% of Palestinian territory on offer wasn’t ‘better than nothing’. The answer from the platform was clear that the issue is not how much or how little land the Palestinians would accept but the unrelenting expansionist character of Zionism. This was complemented by a speaker from the floor, who pointed out that the Zionist regime is supported both politically and economically by Britain and the task of socialists and progressive people in this country remains to oppose British imperialism and support the Palestinian resistance and that ultimately we share the same enemy.
While Palestine is occupied – resistance is justified!
Long live Palestine, Long live Gaza!
Victory to the Intifada!
