What role for Palestinian supporters today?

By Agustin Velloso

"1. Supporting Palestinian resistance: today as in 1947.

After receiving from Chilean e-journal www.hojaderuta.org ("hoja de ruta" means "roadmap") the question "What does it mean today to engage in political action for the Palestinians?" the first thing I thought was : the same thing it meant forty years ago (in 1967) and sixty years ago (in 1947). That is to say, to support Palestinian resistance, which amounts to fighting the Zionist project in Palestine. The reason is that the problem has not changed: a colonialist enterprise is in motion of a scope that threatens the very existence of Palestinians as a people.....

4. Conclusion.

Relevant political action today means firstly to reassert the urgency of justice for the Palestinians and consequently peace for everyone in the area and beyond by insisting on the supremacy of the Palestinian resistance above anything else: peace processes, peace summits, peace initiatives, special envoys from the Quartet or the United Nations. After that, the next step is to support the resistance in agreement with its democratically chosen leaders.

Relevant questions concerning political action are: Who leads the resistance, confronting a much superior enemy who makes no concessions whatsoever? And who has abandoned resistance in exchange for nothing but words? Who benefits from dialogue with the enemy and who, on the other hand, suffers and resists the occupation? What have peace conversations achieved? What can a nation expect from corrupt leaders fawned on by Israel, the United States and the European Union, the very same powers that feed the occupier? The answers to such questions will suggest who is to be supported in the liberation struggle and who is to be discarded.

Any other action is tantamount to playing along the Zionist script, whether in its Likud costume or its Labour costume. To do otherwise is also to make oneself an accomplice of the Western left wing's sleight of hand vis-à-vis the problem of Palestine. It is not by chance that the Labour Party is member of the International Socialist, amongst whose principles –although not in its political actions- "peace, disarmament, solidarity, justice, democracy and human rights" are enshrined. http://www.socialistinternational.org/4Principles/dofpspa.ht
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Before asking Palestinians to close ranks, it would be much more useful if Western leftists made public whether they plan to continue offering Palestinians empty ethical principles – as their governments do - or whether they plan solid support for the resistance. If they take the wrong decision, all the Westerners will lose is their sense of shame. But the Palestinians may lose everything."