[NYTr] Palestine and "Strategic Solidarity"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Arab Resource & Organizing Center
http://www.araborganizing.org/solidarity

Defining Terms in the Age of Imperialism: 
Challenging Alleged “Strategic Solidarity”

A statement to U.S based social justice movements from 
Palestinian liberation and Palestine solidarity activists

Background

MADRE, an international women's human rights organization based in the
United States, recently released commentary about what solidarity
should look like for U.S. progressives committed to the Palestinian
struggle [See: http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0711-02.htm ].

“Palestine in the Age of Hamas: The Challenge of Progressive
Solidarity,” is not a proactive call for solidarity.  On the contrary,
this call for progressives to engage in ‘strategic solidarity’ was
issued in defense of the position taken by the organization’s
Communications Director, Yifat Susskind, a white Israeli woman, at a
plenary on imperialism held at the United States Social Forum less than
two weeks prior.  At the plenary, Susskind explicitly equated the armed
resistance of some people in occupied Palestine with the forces of
imperialism led by George Bush. Susskind and MADRE’s subsequent
statement further call for particular opposition to Hamas based on the
Islamaphobic assumption that all movements that incorporate Islam into
their politics are reactionary and repressive.

There was critical response to the position Susskind presented at the
Social Forum, especially because proposed Palestinian speakers had been
denied an opportunity to speak at that same plenary.  As a result, the
Social Forum’s National Planning Committee publicly apologized for
having an Israeli on the panel speaking about Palestinian resistance
movements, rather than a Palestinian, as originally proposed.  The
apology recognized the importance of social justice movements creating
spaces for those most impacted by imperialism to articulate and
critique their own struggles rather than defer to the often privileged
voices of those located within the power made possible by racism and
imperialism. The apology was then followed by a Palestinian American
woman reading a statement prepared by Palestinian, other Arab, and
solidarity activists to specifically respond to Susskind’s damaging
comments. 

We agree with Susskind that it is vitally important to have a clear
sense of what solidarity means and to discuss the matter publicly.
Given that Susskind’s position has been restated and defended by MADRE
in a wider forum, we are also taking the opportunity to respond more
broadly. 

‘Strategic Solidarity’ Recreates Oppressive Power Dynamics

Rather than use her time on stage at the Social Forum to demand an end
to US imperialism in Palestine and the Middle East, Susskind chose to
focus on criticizing political Islam and Palestinian resistance
leadership. At a moment when a central project of US imperialism is the
dominance of the Middle East/West Asia and, by extension, the
generalized repression and suppression of Islam, Arab people and Arab
states, this myopic concentration on ill-defined and inaccurately
generalized political Islam recreates and fuels anti-Arab racism and
anti-Muslim repression.  

Ironically, in MADRE’s follow-up defense statement calling for a
“strategic solidarity that accounts for the complexity of the crisis,”
they continue Susskind’s simplistic characterization of Hamas as
“reactionary,” thereby failing to heed their own organizational call to
pay attention to complexity.  Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common
occurrence in progressive circles in the U.S., as Lebanese activist
Bilal Elamine notes:

Many people on the left in the US make the mistake that any time they
see a movement that has Islam as part of the way it expresses its
politics, they immediately put it into one category that some go as far
as calling Islamic fascism and others call reactionary....There has to
be a deeper understanding and we have to lift the prejudice that just
because there’s religious expression in the politics it does not
immediately mean that it’s a reactionary movement or a movement that we
have to be wary of...We have to {snip} see the real content—what the
movement represents, what its goals are, what its tactics are—and judge
it on that basis.

In an article published in The L.A Times on the same day as MADRE’s
statement (7.10.2007), the deputy of the political bureau of Hamas,
Mousa Abu Marzook indeed speaks to the specificity of Hamas’ politics,
stating that “…our movement is continually linked by President Bush and
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ideologies that they know full
well we do not follow, such as the agenda of Al Qaeda and its
adherents. But we are not part of a broader war. Our resistance
struggle is no one's proxy, although we welcome the support of people
everywhere for justice in Palestine.”  

By calling for a “position” on political Islam, Susskind and MADRE fall
into the Bush/Olmert trap described above of collapsing all Islamic
movements into one entity, obscuring the specific root cause of the
anti-oppression struggles of the Palestinians.  The root cause of
Palestinian resistance – that Hamas is clear in articulating, much to
the chagrin of the US and Israeli governments – is the creation of a
Jewish State through the colonization of Palestinian land and
dispossession of Palestinian people, with the imperial backing by the
British and then the US governments.   This colonization did not begin
in 1967 as the MADRE statement misleadingly suggests; it is rooted in
the decades leading up to the 1948 founding of the State of Israel.

True Liberatory Solidarity:  “Stand Behind Me, Don’t Divide Me, 
and Don’t Decide for Me”

Throughout the last several decades of this colonialism, there have
always been various forms of indigenous Palestinian anti-colonial
resistance, and repeated calls for international attention to and
solidarity with this resistance.  Immediately following Susskind’s
presentation at the Social Forum, a long-time Palestinian activist from
the West Bank of Palestine, explained that he was deeply upset by
Susskind’s plenary remarks and felt inclined to share his understanding
of solidarity.  His impassioned description included three fundamental
principles: stand behind me, don’t divide me, and don’t decide for me.

These are not principles of a simplistic, “reflexive solidarity” that
fails to take into account the complexity of a situation.  These are
principles that help to keep our steps toward solidarity sure-footed
throughout the inherent complexity and contradiction of being based in
the U.S. while supporting a decades-long resistance struggle that is
targeted and divided with the direct support of the U.S. government.
Standing behind and in solidarity with a movement is about listening to
and supporting the needs of the movement, in the various and complex
ways those needs are articulated, while taking care not to use the
privileges of our location to speak on behalf of those movements.  

U.S.-based solidarity with the Palestinian people means resisting U.S.
imperialism in the region and U.S. support of the apartheid state of
Israel – one of the primary sources of the oppression of all
Palestinians, including women. We are not promoting the “afterwards”
strategy described by MADRE to end imperialism first, and end sexism,
homophobia and every other oppression later.  We recognize that
struggles to end imperialism are intimately connected to the struggles
to end all oppressions.  However, while there is a need for
progressives across the globe to create shared visions of liberation
and justice, those located at and most impacted by the intersection of
imperialism, racism, and patriarchy ought to be forging and leading the
articulation of those inter-connections and the movement and leadership
critiques they inspire. 

Solidarity with Palestinian women means insisting on movement spaces in
which they can articulate their own experiences and organizing efforts
in response to the intersections of occupation, colonization and gender
oppression. Speaking on behalf of Palestinians, rather than in
solidarity with Palestinians, maintains the West as the definers and
arbiters of what is valuable, acceptable, civilized, and just.
Palestine solidarity work is about listening to progressives in
Palestine and in the Diaspora and hearing what they need from us in
order to hold their ground and advance their struggles as best as they
can, on their own terms.   

As U.S. based anti-imperialist activists, we need to seek ways to
listen, learn and support, rather than engage in dividing, deciding or
speaking on others’ behalf.  

Yo sign on to this statement as an individual or organization, email:
justice at araborganizing.org

CO-SIGNING ORGANIZATIONS:

40/60 Campaign for Freedom and Return

Arab American Union Members Council 

Arab Resource & Organizing Center

Break the Siege

Break the Silence Mural Project

Freedom Archives

International Jewish Solidarity Network

Left Turn

Palestine Education Project

Youth Solidarity Network