From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free

And to no surprise, Israel has attacked Palestine once again with fears these attacks might bear grave implications. Analysts like in the past have been warning that this could escalate to a full-blown war. The question at hand isn't whether or not it will reach those heights. This question has no value in the face of reality. If Israel continues its expansionist policy of destroying Palestine, the war is coming sooner or later.  Instead, the eminent question facing us is how shall Palestinians achieve their liberation?  

Palestinian people's movement towards liberation is the movement of the working class of Nepal too. The flag of revolution flying there is ours too.          

The question for Palestinians liberation is not connected just to their freedom from the Israeli state. To imply that their fate is tied only to Israel would be turning a blind eye to the vast socio-economic dimensions at play. The Palestinians will face exploitation until they do away with the current Palestinian state and establish a socialist state.

People make the mistake of understanding all Palestinians as equal. Since all of them are the victims of colonialism they must face the same exploitations. This mistake in the dominant vulgate can't see that there is a class division within the Palestinians. Surely, not all Palestinian's face the same material conditions. Like any society since the slave societies, Palestine is divided into the exploited and the exploiters.

Since the Oslo accords the influx of neoliberal policy has further strengthened this division. As Adam Hanieh points out in 'Palestine in the Middle East: Opposing Neoliberalism and US Power (Part 1)', The Palestinian Reform and Development Plan (PRDP) of 2008 can be one such example. Brought into execution by the Palestinian Authority, which since its inception in 1994 has worked in favor of the neoliberals, the PRDP had the strategy of a private sector-driven economy intending to bring as much foreign investment as possible.

Besides, Article 21 of the Palestinian basic law stating, "The economic system in Palestine shall be based on the principles of a free-market economy" is pretty self-explanatory regarding capitalism in Palestine.  Furthermore, according to Tariq Dana in 'The Palestinian Capitalists That Have Gone Too Far', by creating a monopoly of the private sector in 25 major imports the Palestinian Authority has deepened inequality.

The facts speak for themselves. Palestine fits the description of class society to the tee. In this context, we simply cannot negate class war. Class war for some is an obsolete idea of times that has withered away and is no longer practical since liberalism has sounded the bell for the end of history. But in reality, if history has ever ended then it is that of our humanity. Samir Amin was correct when he said," Fukuyama was right: Liberalism truly announced the end of history. All of humanity perished in the holocaust.".

Class war shall survive the tests of time till the day classes continue to persist among us. There are no ifs and buts to this truth. Being a class society Palestine certainly is not an exception to this phenomenon.

But shouldn't the Palestinians focus more on national liberation than class war? To view national liberation and class war as two isolated events without any relation with each other is a mistake. While National Liberation is not the end, it is of utmost importance that the working class of a colonized country remove themselves from the grip of colonizers.

Only then can they can fight to establish a working-class state or in political lingo complete a socialist revolution. However, there is a prerequisite that the working class should be in the vanguard leading this movement. And with more than 53% of the total Palestinian people living in poverty, this isn't hard to imagine. 

Palestinian people's main enemy is world Imperialism. Through Israel, the imperialists legitimize the exploitation.

Naturally, to understand the class war in Palestine, we need to recognize both the revolutionary forces and the enemies of the war. Without the proper distinctions of friends and foes, a correct analysis of the revolution is impossible. Mao stresses this need when he says, "Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is a question of the first importance for the revolution." As mentioned above Israel isn't the sole enemy of the Palestinian people. Put in the perspective of the grander scheme of things Israel is only one part of it.

We can see clearly that the Palestinian people's main enemy is world Imperialism. The Arab world consists of many natural resources, oil being one the main. As is its nature, world Imperialism, still led by America wants to plunder the oil resources in the Arab world.  Be it its attack on Iraq on the pretext of it having weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or its extended stay in Syria, it is very clear that America wants to exploit as many resources in the Arab world as possible. This is where Israel comes into the play. Through Israel, the imperialists can legitimize that exploitation. They have a base that will work in their favor. 

Any resistance to their motives can simply be crushed using Israel. In 2020 alone the USA provided Israel with 3.3 billion dollars security assistance and an additional 500 million for US-Israel missile defense cooperation. This only goes on to show the importance of the existence of Israel for the Imperialists to continue their exploitation of the Arab world.

But the Imperialists don't come alone. They come with the support of the Arab Reactionaries. UAE is a new addition to the list of Arab countries that recognize Israel accompanying Egypt and Jordan in proving loyalty to the Imperialists. Other countries will soon follow suit because the riches that Imperialists offer are too good to be ignored.

The reactionaries that haven't supported the Imperialists yet will jump ship as soon as a genuine people's movement will appear in Palestine in fear that this movement might ignite the same in their own countries.   Therefore, we can determine Imperialism as the main enemy of the Palestinians accompanied by Arab reactionaries helping it grow and Israel surviving off of it.

Here we need to address the role of the Palestinian Bourgeoisie. This specific class is neither strong enough to be the primary enemy nor is it revolutionary enough to partake in the liberation movement. Its social position might change after the national liberation movement where there will be a viable ground for its flourishment.

The question of the liberation of the Palestinian people isn't a question to be left just to the Palestinian people. Though they have every right to determine their future, people like us belonging to an exploited nation need to constantly support and engage in any way possible with their movement.

But it is hard to imagine them as a priority-level enemy before it happens. However, this doesn't mean they should be ignored by any means. They might be used by the enemies of the working class Palestinians to subdue the movement. Thus, it is also necessary to keep them in check.

Now that the enemy has been classified, we need to understand the revolutionary forces too. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization committed to bringing a revolution in Palestine, recognized workers and the peasants as the primary revolutionary forces in 1969. They also recognized the petit-bourgeoisie as an ally but with a correct cautionary stance of not letting this class have any dominant role within the party.

However, PFLP in its declaration misses out on the working class of Israel. The question of the Israeli working class is important because according to its class character it should be aligned to the Palestinian working class but it is failing to do so. Why? According to Daphna Their, the constituency of the working class in Israel is different because of their country's settler colonialist nature. 

While they are constantly agitating against the Israeli state for their betterment, they are generally silent or work with the state for the exploitation of Palestinians. Thus, it is also important that the working class of Israel is radicalized and removed from the domination of the Zionist colonizers.

Only by uniting these revolutionary forces and applying class war to their material conditions shall the Palestinians be liberated. The establishment of a socialist state with both Jews and the Arabs living together will provide the freedom Palestine is searching for decades. In addition, this is the only feasible and practical option for the Israel-Palestine conflict to end.

The question of the liberation of the Palestinian people isn't a question to be left just to the Palestinian people. Though they have every right to determine their future, people like us belonging to an exploited nation need to constantly support and engage in any way possible with their movement. Their movement towards liberation is the movement of the working class of Nepal too. The flag of revolution flying there is ours too. 

In times such as these, we need to remember the words of George Habash, “In today’s world no one is innocent, no one a neutral. A man is either with the oppressed or he is with the oppressors. He who takes no interest in politics gives his blessing to the prevailing order, that of the ruling classes and exploiting forces.”

(Himanshu is a student whose interest lie in understanding and changing the socio-economic aspects of society through a Marxist perspective)