Palestine post-election solidarity demonstration London 6 July 2024 – photo (C) Steve Eason

Report | Workers in Palestine day school

rs21 members report on a successful day school for Palestine solidarity activists

Workers in Palestine recently held a well-attended day of talks and workshops on Palestinian politics, history and activism today. The event brought together people organising in different parts of the solidarity movement and provided a space for discussion and political education.

As academic and author Adam Hanieh noted in the first panel, although this is the biggest internationalist political movement since the 1960s, there is a general lack of understanding of Palestine itself. Much of the day sought to ground the struggle for Palestinian liberation in the concrete reality of Palestinian history and the present situation. The connections we have with Palestine are more than symbolic ideals for freedom – they are material. This day school provided education on these connections, for example the deep ties between the British and Israeli military industries.

Palestine – while obviously to a different extreme – is concretely subject to the same profit imperatives that shape our own lives in Britain. Despite bombing, landlords in Palestine continue to extract rents; neoliberal austerity was a factor in unemployment long before October 2023 and its swathe of job losses; free trade plans seek to reshape and financialise Gaza. The speakers emphasised that the Palestinian working class is a section of the international working class, and understanding this means we are joined in struggle.

The significance of a settler colony in the Middle East

One of the key emphases of the day was that the decisive root of imperial interests in the Middle East is oil. In the early 20th century, the transition to oil and the US’ rise to global power occurred at the same time, and the Middle East was pivotal to both. The US built its power through its relationships with the Gulf States and Israel. Researcher Mohammed Elnaiem spoke on how normalisation with the state of Israel functions as part of the counter-revolution in Sudan, following the military coup against the civilian leadership.

However, the Gulf’s oil goes primarily to China and East Asia – since 2006, mostly to China. The biggest oil company in the world is not an American multinational, but Saudi Aramco. The US is not seeking to control the Middle East’s oil directly, but to keep it in friendly hands. China and the US have competing economic agendas in the Middle East which will eventually lead to a clash, and if a conflict were to break out, the US would want the ability to embargo gas and oil to China. This perspective also clearly points to how Palestine is a climate issue; breaking these oil-based US alliances is vital.

Author and academic Abdel Razzaq Takriti said that Americanisation in the Middle East amounts in practice to Israelisation – that is, to strengthen diplomatic ties with America is to strengthen ties to the Zionist government. Several speakers highlighted the importance of the Abraham Accords – a 2019 agreement under Donald Trump, which saw normalisation between Israel and the Gulf States.

Settler colonies tend to rely on external powers for viability in the region. This is why they make more dependable allies to Western states. The US supports Israel not despite its settler colonial status, but because of it. The Zionist entity is dependable because of its interest in dispossessing Palestinians.

Nimer Sultany, a scholar in law, gave a useful explanation of the class composition of Palestine ‘48, or Israel. Currently, 17% of the population in Israel is Palestinian, amounting to 1.5 million people. This is another reason why a so-called ‘two-state solution’ doesn’t reckon with practical reality – nearly a fifth of Israel’s population would retain unequal status.

Gaza

Gaza’s significance in the history of Palestinian resistance was explained by researcher and translator Hazem Jamjoum. Gaza is situated between Cairo and Baghdad to the West and East, and Europe and Yemen to the North and South. For centuries it has been a site of imperial conquests and resistance, especially so since the Balfour Declaration and the beginning of the Zionist occupation.

In his overview of the history of Gaza, Hazem emphasised how Gaza has been at the centre of Palestinian resistance, and the political role of Palestinians from Gaza in the wider region. He explained how Israel has identified Gaza as a ‘security threat’ since the 1950s, how the role of Palestinian labour in the Israeli economy has changed over time, and how resistance has often been structured around the aim to return to dispossessed land. In recent decades, there has been a power shift from communist groups to Islamist groups, but the Great March of Return in 2018-19 was a deep-rooted social movement that did not depend on any faction.

How the neoliberal system tries to reshape Palestine

An important theme was the economic warfare the Israeli government has been waging. Nimer Sultany argued that Netanyahu’s neoliberal policies have undermined the social base that would support a two-state agenda.

Palestinian land and waters are a repository of gas and oil, and thus part of the Israeli occupation is about grabbing these resources. Emirati and Israeli capital, along with British Petroleum (BP), came together for a $2 billion deal to develop gas fields in Palestine. This deal was paused due to the ‘uncertainty’ of the genocide. However, BP remains ‘optimistic’ about it and has been granted an offshore gas exploration licence by the Israeli government.

Rafeef Ziadah drew attention to Netanyahu’s ‘Gaza 2035’ plan, which the Likud Party revealed on 3 May. The plan involves a coalition of Arab states supervising the construction of skyscrapers, solar fields, electric car manufacturing, water desalination plants, gas fields and free ports in Gaza, along with oil rigs off of Gaza’s shoreline. It would create a 132-mile railway between Rafah and NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s linear desert megacity which is yet to be built. As The Architect’s Newspaper reported: ‘The Gaza-Arish-Sderot Free Trade Zone would encompass the 141 square miles that make up the Gaza Strip.’ The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said that once successful, the scheme could be ‘rolled out across Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.’ The other Arab states involved have yet to agree to the plan, but it is another stark reminder of Netanyahu’s wish to control Palestinian futures.

Resistance and our role in Britain

There was much reference to the weakness of the British left, and the need for stronger organisation to challenge the British ruling class’s alliance with Israel. Mary Robertson, former Head of Economic Policy for the Labour Party under Corbyn, argued that the key strategic priorities are building a political commitment to internationalism, embedding Palestine solidarity in the trade unions, and creating long-term infrastructure that can mount a political challenge.

The day school also included workshops around different points of struggle in Britain (workplace, abolition, energy embargo, arms industry), as well as on Palestinian history and political prisoners. Overall, there was a recognition that education is a key pillar of building resistance here and everywhere. Research on the concrete connections with Palestine, as well as education on the history, can inform more strategic solidarity work. Riya Al’Sanah, one of the organisers, stressed the importance of being strategic in our interventions.

The day school communicated a brilliantly clear politics of solidarity and anti-imperialism that situates Palestine as an anti-racist cause, as a climate issue, and as central to global revolutionary processes. Speakers argued against normalisation, against liberal framings, and against the politics of the elite that whitewash oppression. It gave attendees space to meet, talk and plan strategies of resistance. This is exactly what we need to take the movement forward.