Defending Palestinian solidarity

There has been a recent escalation by the 'Israel Lobby' to muzzle the growing Palestinian solidarity movement.

By Ali Abunimah
Al-Jazeera

"The Electronic Intifada, the online publication about Palestine that I co-founded in 2001, finds itself at the centre of a storm as a pro-Israel group applies pressure to have a grant from a Dutch foundation withdrawn.

This assault on our freedom of conscience is about much more than our website. It is part of a well-coordinated, escalating Israeli government-endorsed effort to vilify individuals and cripple organisations that criticise Israel's human rights record and call for it to respect Palestinian rights and international law.

The latest salvo came in a scurrilous article in The Jerusalem Post based on allegations from a group called NGO Monitor, accusing The Electronic Intifada of "anti-Semitism" - without citing a single example from the almost 12,000 articles we have published. The Electronic Intifada has responded to NGO Monitor's accusations. Of course the charge of "anti-Semitism" has long been a weapon in the hands of Israel's apologists when they cannot find a factual basis to challenge the site's reporting and analysis......

Now, these same lobby groups find themselves fighting against growing support for the alternative their own actions have rendered inevitable: a struggle for equal rights for all the people who inhabit the land. Their war against "delegitimization" offers nothing more than anger, hatred and demonization, often in alliance with the most racist and openly Islamophobic elements in Israel and North America. That is not a vision but a dead-end. And while it will be another challenge on top of so many faced by Palestinians, it won't stop those who have a vision for justice, equality and universal rights and who are working to make it a reality."