Originally published in the November 2015 issue of Liberation Newspaper.
What has been the role of the United States in the expanding Israeli occupation of Palestine?
The U.S. has supported the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine as the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, receiving more than $2 billion annually since 1992. This support has enabled Israel to continue to colonize Palestine. A quarter of the 2 million people living in Gaza dwell in emergency shelters due to relentless Israeli bombing. The ongoing occupation, daily abuse and periodic sieges have fueled intense Palestinian resistance generation after generation.
Is the U.S. government really interested in peace talks?
The U.S. government uses the rhetoric of peace to mask its support for the brutal oppression of the Palestinians. As happens so often, the ruling class portrays the victim as the aggressor—Palestinian resistance is branded terrorism while the brutal Israeli bombings and apartheid policies are deemed “self-defense.” The massive concessions demanded of the Palestinians in recent U.S.-brokered negotiations show that if the government does desire a peace deal, it is the “peace of the graveyard,” where Palestine is given a few rights but permanently denied real self-determination.
What are the Oslo Accords?
The Oslo Accords were agreements in 1993 and 1995 between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They were signed after the First Intifada, which lasted from 1987 to 1991. After the 1993 Accord, the Israelis withdrew from parts of Gaza and the West Bank. In 1995, Israel was supposed to withdraw forces from eight cities in the West Bank, release female Palestinian prisoners, allow a Palestinian airport and seaport, and ease travel restrictions in and out of Palestinian territory. The Israeli government never followed through.
The Oslo Accords created the Palestinian Authority, a governing body that exists today, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. The PA is dependent on support from Western donor countries and is obligated to collaborate with the Israeli military in an arrangement called “security coordination.” The Oslo agreements are now basically a dead letter—a fact that even the PA now recognizes.
What are the different Palestinian organizations?
The Palestinian Liberation Organization—formed in 1964 with the stated purpose of liberating Palestine—is an umbrella organization with representatives from multiple political parties, resistance groups and mass organizations. PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah is the largest organization in the PLO. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an organization dedicated to resistance, is the largest left-wing grouping.
Founded during the First Intifada, Hamas is an Islamic-based resistance group with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas opposed the Oslo Accords. In 2006, the group won the parliamentary elections in Gaza, becoming the democratically elected government. Like all the main Palestinian factions, Hamas has political, military, and social service bodies.
Why is Gaza blockaded?
In 2005, Israel was forced to withdraw troops and to dismantle settlements in Gaza. The next year, after Hamas won the Palestinian election, Israel, the European Union and the United States—unhappy with the outcome—imposed a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza that remains in effect.
The blockade has been widely denounced across the globe. It gives Israel almost total control over what and who goes in and out of Gaza. The Israeli government prevents building materials, medicines, energy supplies and a host of other vital necessities from being imported. The blockade of Gaza, the most densely populated place in the world, has caused a massive humanitarian crisis, and the United Nations has warned that it may be uninhabitable as soon as 2020.
What are settlements?
While all of Israel is built on occupied land, Israeli settlements refer to Israeli communities built on land that has been occupied since the 1967 war, in which Israel illegally seized parts of Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Such settlements are illegal under international law and have been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations. Settling is a violent process that dispossesses -Palestinians of land, housing, infrastructure and natural resources. It is enforced by the Israeli military and by armed settlers themselves, who terrorize residents of the area to be settled and surrounding areas.
What is the right of return?
In an event referred to as “Al-Nakba”—“The Catastrophe”—nearly 800,000 Palestinians were violently displaced from their homes and communities in 1947 and 1948 by Zionists and their colonial backers. As a result of Israel’s ongoing encroachment into Palestinian territory, there are currently over 7 million Palestinian refugees worldwide. The right of the displaced Palestinians and their descendants to return to the lands they were unjustly evicted from has been ratified by the UN and Is a central demand of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
