After the Israel-UAE-Bahrain Deal: No to the “Normalization” with Israel!
Continue support for the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian People!
Statement of the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 17.09.2020, www.the-isleague.com and www.thecommunists.net
On 15 September, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed in the White House in the USA an agreement for the “normalization” of diplomatic relations with Israel.
In a joint statement, the United States, Bahrain and Israel said "opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region." (1)
Speaking to reporters in a call from the White House soon after Friday's announcement, Kushner said the UAE and Bahrain agreements "will help reduce tension in the Muslim world and allow people to separate the Palestinian issue from their own national interests and from their foreign policy, which should be focused on their domestic priorities." (2)
According to the joint statement between the US, Israel, and the UAE released on August 13 by US President Donald Trump: "As set forth in the Vision of Peace, all Muslims who come in peace may visit and pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem's other holy sites should remain open for peaceful worshippers of all faiths." (3)
This terminology is an open invitation to Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. "According to Israel and [and apparently to the United States] anything on the Temple Mount that is not the structure of the mosque itself is defined as 'one of Jerusalem's other holy sites' and open to prayer by all - including Jews." (4)
"One of the biggest Palestinian and Muslim fears is that Israel intends to change the status quo on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif which once housed the Jewish temple and today is the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the years denounced such fears as incitement. Yet in June 2016 Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau told the Knesset Channel that he would like to see a Third Temple built, and expressed his belief that the Muslim holy sites located on Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount need not be demolished in order to make room for it”. (5)
It is clear that the Israel-UAE-Bahrain deal agreement was orchestrated under pressure by Donald Trump. The public opposition to this deal in the two countries is very evident. "Dissidents in the UAE established an association against the normalization deal being signed between Israel and the Gulf state, reported the Turkish Anadolu Agency in August. The association, the UAE Resistance Union Against Normalization (al-Rabetat al-Emaratiyat Le Moqavemat al-Tatbi’e) rejects any form of normalization with Israel, including on economic, sports, security, social and political issues. Bahraini opposition groups have rejected a decision by the Gulf state to normalize relations with Israel with a leading Shia Muslim leader calling on the people of the region to resist." (6)
Netanyahu has been criticized for flying to the US as Israel braces for the new lockdown, which will see schools and many businesses shuttered for three weeks, even though the so called normalization agreements are popular with the Jewish public including the protest movement. Yair Lapid, the head of Israel’s right wing Yesh Atid party that is considered a left wing party in Israel "congratulated Netanyahu on the normalisation of relations with the UAE". (7)
Not all the Palestinians in the West bank oppose the deal; there are some Quislings (traitors). The Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have in recent days arrested a number of pro imperialists associated with Mohammed Dahlan after he criticized the PA for burning United Arab Emirates (UAE) flags and insulting Arab rulers who announced the normalization of ties with Israel.
At the same time the Arab leadership in Israel has called for a demonstration in Wadi Ara.
From the little information that was released on the content of this agreement it is clear that what is behind these empty words is a military agreement against Iran and its allies and the support of Israel’s repression of the Palestinians.
Facing this reality Fatah, Hamas and the other Palestinian faction agreed to form a united front to fight the deal. A deal that Palestinian leader rightly denounced as "another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause". "On Saturday, Palestinian groups led by Hamas and Fatah agreed on a "unified field leadership" comprising all factions that will lead "comprehensive popular resistance" against the Israeli occupation, a statement said. " (8)
The Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), denounces this deal and supports the idea of a Palestinian anti-imperialist united front. However to form a real anti-imperialist united front it is necessary to mobilize the armed Palestinian people in each town and village, in every neighborhood, to democratically elect the leadership of every popular committee and to form a national leadership leading the struggle. A united front only from above will not be able to fight the oppression.
The problem with the existing Palestinian petit-bourgeois and bourgeois leadership as we have seen for so many years is that they came too late in history to lead a democratic revolution. They are too afraid of losing control over the struggling masses. The only leadership that can lead to a victory is a revolutionary working class leadership fighting for red democratic Palestine in the framework of a socialist federation of the Middle East
The oppressed Palestinians can win this struggle as part of the Arab Revolution against all the oppressive corrupted Arab local rulers serving the imperialists.
Footnotes
4) Ibid
5) Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man Israel’s chief rabbi urges building Jewish temple on Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif + 972 Magazine June 11, 2016
7) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200813-uae-israel-agree-to-normalise-relations/
For programmatic documents of the ISL and the RCIT on Palestine we refer readers to:
The ISL’s program can be read here: http://www.the-isleague.com/our-platform/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/summary-of-isl-program/
Yossi Schwartz: Israel's War of 1948 and the Degeneration of the Fourth International, http://the-isleague.com/1948-war-5-2013/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/israel-s-war-of-1948/
Michael Pröbsting: On some Questions of the Zionist Oppression and the Permanent Revolution in Palestine, http://the-isleague.com/zionist-oppression-and-permanent-revolution/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/permanent-revolution-in-palestine/