Gaza Crossing - People's power in action
by Hameed Abdul Karim
In his book 'Hegemony or Survival', Noam Chomsky says at the height
of US military plans to attack Iraq, the press reported that 'there may
still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world
public opinion'.
At that point of time such a statement might have looked absurd
despite the fact that there were huge protests against American plans to
bomb Iraq - already devastated by UN sanctions sponsored by the 'civilised
world' with the US giving it the leadership.
Could world public opinion stand up to the US juggernaut? Or the
Palestinians the Israeli military might? To believe in such a thing was
embarrassing.
But the answer came in January 2008 when the Gazans bulldozed the
Berlin-type wall that separated them from Egypt and walked into their
neighbouring country to buy provisions that Israel had deprived them of,
in its bid to starve them into surrender.
And what could the mighty Jewish State do? Just stare in disbelief as
the Gazans stood up to their brutality and 'escaped' to Egypt from their
open-air prison. One observer described the demolition of the Gaza-Egypt
border fence as the biggest jail break of all time! People power was at
work. And how!
How could a force even as vicious as the Israeli one or even the
narcissus European Union prevent mothers from buying milk and other food
stuff to save their children from death by starvation? And 'civilisation'
thought it proper to stand by and let it happen? What a shame!
Not even the 20,000 strong truncheon-wielding riot police that
Mubarak sent to prevent the Gazans from entering Egypt could do a damn.
Maybe they didn't want to. Or maybe they couldn't summon the wickedness
to do the dirty on their starving brothers and sisters from Gaza.
After all they had borne Israel's inhuman collective punishment with
courage and fortitude never seen before. They needed help and
understanding not a thrashing. There was not a single country that
raised its voice against the continuing Israeli horror of collective
punishment against the Palestinians which is a war crime by all cannons
of justice.
It seemed like the whole world was against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Iran and Venezuela were the only two nations who protested and they are
supposed to be 'terrorist' States. Come on! Please give us a break.
Yes Egypt did try to stop the Palestinians from entering their
country. But by that time it was too late. It was too late from the
moment the Hamas led Gazans smashed the wall. Since that moment, history
has begun to take another course - a course that cannot be reversed.
Middle-Eastern politics will never be the same again.
The Jewish state and its western patrons imposed all kinds of
barbaric sanctions on the Gazans in the hope that they will abandon
Hamas and surrender to the tyranny of the 'civilised world'. But their
actions have had the opposite effect. The Gazans have got closer to
their elected leaders. This was something Israel had wanted to avoid at
all costs.
If the Israeli and American leaders thought the worst was over, then
they had another thought coming. Egypt invited both Fatah and Hamas for
talks in Cairo - thus recognising Hamas as a key player. One thing is
certain now - Hamas has to be included in the discussions if there is
going to be any sense in the 'Peace Talks' that are supposed to take
place.
The people's power has provided the Arab countries with a fantastic
opportunity to get their act together. They have no excuse to be divided
anymore - the Palestinians in Gaza have given them the raison-de-etre to
get together and stick like glue.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt should take the lead and if they don't, then
there might be a show of people's power in their respective countries as
well. Just like the one in the US right now where Barack Obama is making
vast inroads into the system that the neo-cons or the plutocrats ruling
the country had painstakingly built over the years to remain in power
forever.
Obama has left the WASPS (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) gasping for
breath. He's calling for a change that Americans can believe in. He
might not make it to the top but one thing he has shown already is the
ordinary decent American folk don't like the way their country is run.
Old America, you better watch out! There is a new dude on the block. And
he's 'connecting' with the people like mad.
The 'Gaza Crossing' was not the first one that had shaken the
Israeli's or their backers. There have been two Intifidas and though the
Palestinian struggle for freedom from oppression is far from over, they
can take heart from the success the 'Gaza Crossing' had given them.
No power on earth can crush the human spirit that is craving for a
life free from oppression. The only solution the Jewish State can think
of is to eliminate all the Palestinian Arabs. But that's just not
possible. The Jews know that better than anybody else.
And for sure there will be more uprisings, more Intifidas and, sadly,
more bloodshed before the Jewish State realises the Palestinians will
simply not roll over and die. History is on their side.
The 'Gaza Crossing' is similar to the Aquino's people power in the
Philippines, Ayatollah Khomeini's overthrow of the Shah - the king of
kings, the Nelson Mendela led ANC's victory over Apartheid and with
Martin Luther King the success of the civil rights movement in the US.
And yes, if the Jews need another example from history they can take
their own survival from the Nazis as living proof that you just cannot
finish off a people, nor suppress them for too long.
(The writer is Vice President of the Sri Lanka Committee for
Solidarity with Palestine)
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