The Palestinian Authority Once Again is Betraying the Palestinian People!

 

Statement of the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 30.06.2020, www.the-isleague.com and www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

While it is still possible that Netanyahu will declare that Israel will annex one third of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, this is not certain and likely will not happen.

 

Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz tries to postpone the implementation of the ”Middle East Peace Plan” pushed forward by the US President, Donald Trump. However, Gantz seems to be powerless.

 

Netanyahu said in a closed discussion of the Likud party that Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz's Kachol Lavan (Blue and White Party) has no say regarding annexation.

 

“We are in talks with an American team here in Israel. We are doing so discreetly”, Netanyahu said. “The matter doesn't depend on Blue and White”.^[1]

 

While the Israeli government understand that after the presidential elections in the USA (which most likely will end the presidency of Trump) it will be more difficult for the Zionists to annex the 30% of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, it seems also that Israel’s intention are not the same as of Trump.

 

"For Trump the prospect of annexation is a pressure tactic to get the Palestinians to engage with his peace plan, to bring the PA into the Anti-Iranian alliance. For Israel the “peace plan” is just a smokescreen for annexation. American and Israeli officials are deeply divided on the question, an issue that could determine how and when any annexation proceeds. Chances are that on July 1^st Israel will not declare the annexation due to American pressure." ^[2]

 

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has sent a letter to the Quartet (that includes the USA and Russia) which states that that the Palestinians are "prepared to renew direct talks" after those came to a stop back in 2014. Just some months ago the same Palestinian Authority (PA) declared it will end all its agreements with Israel in response to Netanyahu’s plans of annexation. However, now they declare that "no one has a vested interest in reaching a peace agreement like the Palestinians, and no one has more to lose from lack of peace than the Palestinians."

 

The document shows that the PA would be willing to accept some territorial changes within the context of a peace agreement, noting that they are "'willing to have a state with a limited amount of weapons and with a strong police force for maintaining law and order'," adding that they would accept an international entity, such as NATO, to receive a mandate from the UN for supervising the peace agreement, if and when it happens." ^[3]

 

Such a statement that accepts this kind of extremely limited autonomy, not even a mini state, means a turn of the aspiration of the Palestinian self-determination to a Bantustan. It would be in the style of the South African Apartheid regime and will act in the service of Israel and the American imperialists as yet another tool in the inter-imperialist rivalry of Western imperialism with the Eastern imperialists China and Russia.

 

The Palestinian people oppose the Zionist repression and they do not trust the PA to the fully, however they may not see a big difference between an Apartheid de facto or de jure. They are furthermore concerned with the high unemployment rate and the health situation in times of the Covid pandemic.

 

Instead of a leadership fighting the Zionist oppression and land theft, the Palestinians find in the Palestinian Authority an obstacle to a revolutionary mass struggle for freedom. Without removing those traitors of the PA, a declaration of annexation by itself is not a guarantee for the start of a new Intifada. However, the renewal of the Arab revolution which is in the motion will spark the Palestinian resistance and might even inspire the new Intifada.

 

Some “soft” Zionists claim that the annexation will implement Apartheid in Israel. In the real world, it will turn Israel from a de facto Apartheid state to a de jure Apartheid state. It is already the case that illusions into a Two-State solution (a mini Palestinian “state” on less than 20% of Palestine, alongside imperialist Israel on over 80% of the land) have been shattered in the last years. An official annexation will end this reformist daydream as it will expose Hadash and Maavak Socialisti (CWI section in Palestine) as those whose political plans are no more than a pie in the sky.

 

The only solution is a red, free and democratic Palestine from the River to the Sea after abolishing the Zionist Apartheid state.

 

The International Socialist League has criticized for years the reformist illusion of the ”two states” formula as it has been used by Israel to steal more lands and to build more settlements. This reformist illusion has helped to prepare the ground for the annexation as with the help of its other imperialist allies, Israel has been presented as a liberal democracy instead of the brutal Apartheid regime it is in reality.

 

The question to ask is why the Palestinian Authority has again changed its policy from opposing the Annexation plans to begging for new peace agreements? And the answer is fear, as the Arab masses have renewed the struggle against the corrupted ruling classes in Lebanon and Iraq, who are nothing else but servants of the imperialists. It seems that the Palestinian Authority is well aware that the struggle will take place in Palestine not only against Israel ... but that it will turn against the corrupt PA as well.

 

The International Socialist League (ISL) as the section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine calls for the immediate organization of mass mobilizations against the plans of further annexations. Resist the betrayal by the Palestinian Authority! Only an uprising in the form of a Third Intifada which opens the road towards abolishing the Apartheid state can stop the annexation plans once and for all. Only a revolutionary leadership can fulfill the historic task of the liberation of the Palestinian people! Such a leadership must work towards uniting the revolutions in various Arab countries with a Third Intifada!