RE: Said piece, solidarity and violence (Mark)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Mike wrote:

> ... and I hope she continues to do so. I'm responding to her words
> on this list, which are advocating a position for the solidarity
> movement that will monkeywrench its 'organizing against the violence
> of the occupation'.

Why do you think that the willingness to organize against the Israeli
occupation on my part or on anyone's part for that matter is
conditional upon uncritical acceptance of _all_ tactics and
strategies used by _all_ Palestinian factions?  Already in the
solidarity movement, there are principled pacifists, left-wing
Zionists like refuseniks, Jewish voices for peace, and so forth, who
have and will be organizing against the Israeli occupation, while
criticizing or sometimes even condemning deliberate and
indiscriminate attacks on civilians in public.

> Yoshie's I quoted. He was talking about unequivocal support and
> eschewing positions with respect to "Palestinian violence" on the
> part of solidarity.

Said criticized those who condition the willingness to organize
against the Israeli occupation upon Palestinian adherence to
non-violence -- so do I.  Said didn't demand, though, that those who
are already organized against the occupation eschew any position on
Palestinian politics -- he wanted us to especially side with secular
humanist and nationalist currents in Palestinian politics who are
willing to stand up against Arafat and the PA, who compromise away
all Palestinian demands, and Islamist factions, whose political
programs do not command the majority support among Palestinians and
whose strategies and tactics have not and will not bring any
measurable gains to Palestinians.

Mike wrote:

> Yoshie insists that for the solidarity movement, taking a position
> favoring a tactic or tendency among the Palestinians will do no harm
> to the movement.

As the solidarity movement is composed of different political
traditions, schools of thoughts, and class interests, I don't expect
that there will be consensus, in the sense of the movement taking a
clear collective position on what Palestinian strategies and tactics
are likely to be most promising, what faction of Palestinians should
gain most support from solidarity activists, etc.  I've already
clearly stated what I think is necessary:

At 6:59 PM -0400 10/15/03, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> What I am arguing for is totally different: frank and honest
> collective discussion about all aspects of the Palestinian
> liberation movement -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- with
> attention to competing political factions within it, with different
> ends, means, and interests, as well as about the standards of
> revolutionary conduct in keeping with liberation movements,
> including legitimate and illegitimate means, targets, etc. in armed
> struggle.  Such discussion, whether or not it results in any sort of
> consensus, can only help us develop intellectual resources to be
> employed when we fan out into a wider public sphere, to expand the
> base of the solidarity movement by convincing potential activists to
> take practical actions and winning over critical constituencies to
> support of Palestinian rights -- the only practical means in our
> hands that allow us to support the Palestinian struggle, not just in
> words but in deeds.

Mike wrote:

> During the late 70s we built a broad campus (and off campus, as
> well) coalition to demand divestment from businesses in South
> Africa, as many did. We held massive demonstrations and had forced
> the issue on the Board of Trustees, among whom we had allies.

As you can see, that's not the state of Palestinian solidarity
activism today.  The movement to divest from Israel does not have and
will not likely gain strong allies among the power elite in the USA
any time soon.  The divestment movement in particular and the
solidarity movement in general have grown, but the growth seems to
have hit a plateau, as you probably saw during the protests that
marked the third anniversary of the second intifada.  Needless to
say, we have yet to bring any tangible gains to Palestinians.

> We were a successful movement at a major university. Along came a
> group that favored "armed struggle." The problem was, this group
> wanted the Coalition Against Apartheid to adopt a position
> advocating armed struggle and supporting one of the South African
> anti-apartheid groups (PAC, I believe it was), which they viewed as
> having the correct line. They wouldn't let go. Folks got caught up
> in discussions of which faction to support, or how much violence was
> appropriate. And when the majority rejected this, the redbaiting and
> threats began. The long and short of it is, people became
> discouraged and left, and the movement dwindled.

That's what happened, for instance, when New Jersey Solidarity lost
many of its members, including all its Arab leaders.  Those who were
skeptical of the merits of deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on
civilians inside the Green Line felt that a minority pledging
_uncritical_ support for _all_ currents of Palestinian politics
substituted their position for a wide range of positions that
actually exist in the group in particular and the solidarity movement
in general.

If you say that only silence on the justice and expedience of each
and every Palestinian action counts as true opposition to the Israeli
occupation, the solidarity movement fragments, as the divestment wing
of it did this year, resulting in two conferences.

Socialists -- including ANSWER -- take a much more flexible stance on
coalition-building when it comes to mobilizing against the US
occupation of Iraq.  Why take an extremely rigid position when it
comes to mobilizing against the Israeli occupation (a harder nut to
crack than mobilizing against the US occupation of Iraq)???
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>


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