- Shifting Focus: Pro-Palestinian activists urge movement to shift from ceasefire demands to decolonizing Palestine
- Limitations of Protests: Antiwar marches often limit scope and include specific agendas, diminishing broader goals
- Decolonization Framework: Advocates for viewing the Palestinian struggle as part of a global fight against colonialism, racism, and oppression
It has been more than ten months since Israel launched its horrific war on Gaza. Throughout this time, mobilization in support of the Palestinian people has ebbed and flowed, but it has not stopped. Large crowds have gathered around the world to protest global leaders’ silence on Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As we approach a year of homicidal warfare, fundamental issues regarding the Palestinian solidarity movement’s future arose. One common theme in my interactions with pro-Palestinian activists is the urgent need to alter the movement’s purpose from ending the war to decolonizing Palestine. This is because a ceasefire will not eliminate the genocidal bloodshed against Palestinians.
Limitations of Antiwar Marches
Mobilization against the war began virtually as soon as Israel commenced its attack on Gaza. As a broad antiwar movement coalesced, “Ceasefire Now!” was one of the most often used slogans.
Given the immediacy of the situation, the ceasefire goal was the very minimum required to bring various parties together, Huwaida Arraf, a cofounder of the International Solidarity Movement, told me. She emphasized that this did not imply that the pro-Palestinian movement should limit itself to this goal.
However, the call for a ceasefire has remained the dominating theme of public rallies for the past ten months, drastically limiting the scope of the protest movement. It appears to imply that protests will cease once a truce is established. However, we all know that the Palestinian people’s suffering under Israeli occupation and oppression will not end when Israel stops bombing Gaza indiscriminately.
Another issue with antiwar marches is that they frequently favor specific agendas. Some activists I spoke with noted that such events frequently include representatives from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and reflect its viewpoint. The Palestinian Authority wants a negotiated peace settlement and engagement with Israel, which does not address Palestinian aspirations for justice, the right to return to their country, and so on.
Another difficulty with these protests is that, while they demonstrate the magnitude and strength of the pro-Palestinian movement, they frequently reduce most participants to passive bystanders. While participants march, listen to speeches, and express their enthusiasm, the organizers often control the movement’s message and direction.
Ali, a British political observer who requested that I not use his surname, emphasized the implications of this approach, saying, “You can notice that individuals with close ties to organizers are sometimes given a platform to introduce themselves as candidates during antiwar demonstrations, while others equally committed to ending the war are not afforded the same opportunity.” Such techniques create an unequal playing field for legitimately dedicated individuals, weakening the movement’s inclusion and efficacy.
While protests are important for expressing public opposition, their ability to influence international or external political concerns is limited. In some circumstances, protests serve as a pressure valve, releasing popular rage without influencing policy.
Moving past the request for a ceasefire
Instead of focussing on a cease-fire, the pro-Palestinian protest movement should support demands for decolonization. It must reframe the Palestinian question in an anti-colonial context and reaffirm its role in the history of the decolonization movement. This entails dismantling the illusion of the peace process fostered by the United States.
This decades-long process has not only failed to deliver true peace and preserve Palestinian rights, but it has also given the misleading idea that this is a fight between equals rather than a colonizer and the colonized. It detracts from the realities of Palestinians living under occupation and apartheid.
It is also critical to connect the rhetoric of decolonization to the rights to self-determination and liberation provided by the UN Charter and international law. This strategy is critical in countering Israeli propaganda that the conflict is between Muslim fanatics and a civilized Israel and that Palestinian supporters are anti-Semitic.
Recently, similar propaganda has been used to portray pro-Palestinian marches as hazardous to Jewish neighborhoods, equating them with racist, anti-immigrant riots, prompting calls to shut them down. That is why it is critical to emphasize that efforts for decolonization are lawful and have legal support under international law.
The decolonization framework also contributes to elevating the Palestinian issue to a broader level of justice. It helps people see the links between their economic difficulties political marginalization and the suffering of Palestinians under colonial authority.
As a result, the Palestinian struggle for justice and peace gains visibility and power. This dynamic is notably obvious in immigrant-descendant groups in the United Kingdom and France, as well as Black and Hispanic communities in the United States.
The Jewish community’s involvement can also help to shift the pro-Palestinian movement from a focus on ending the war to a larger decolonization endeavor. This shift extends beyond demonstrating that the anticolonial movement is not anti-Semitic and allowing Jews a platform to tell Israel, “You cannot commit crimes in our name.”
The decolonization movement will provide a platform for the Jewish community to argue for coexistence between Jews and Palestinians in a single democratic state with equal citizenship. This position will help to dismantle the colonial ideology of the Zionist enterprise, paving the door for a more equitable settlement.
An effective protest movement
Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian and activist, recently claimed that Israel’s radicalism reflects the fact that Zionism’s final chapter is unfolding. While I share his viewpoint, I feel that optimism should not be founded exclusively on Israel’s internal problems.
Our priority should be to establish effective ways for decolonizing Palestine. True emancipation will not result from Israel’s internal collapse but from a victorious Palestinian decolonization fight. So, what would it look like?
Student activism is a great example. As a grassroots movement, it enables members to participate democratically in decision-making processes, eliminating the risk of gatekeepers establishing and controlling narratives and activities.
At the same time, given the size of any country’s student population, student protests can mobilize enormous numbers of people, giving them significant clout with educational institutions and municipal governments.
The student protests in the United States earlier this year demonstrated how successful such action can be. They did not only demand a cease-fire and a halt to military aid to Israel. Instead, they made local and real demands within the anticolonial framework: divesting their universities from firms that support Israeli imperialism and ceasing partnerships with Israeli institutions.
Students were able to motivate their own teachers and local communities to act. A considerable number of professors felt obligated to announce their anticolonial stance and participate in the student movement. At the same time, many student protests, particularly in metropolitan areas, drew community support thanks to successful outreach efforts.
The university demonstrations were successful because they targeted elite schools that generate future technocrats, corporate leaders, and political decision-makers. This immediately contradicted the Israeli government’s “commanding heights” strategy, which aims to persuade leaders to support Israel.
The proliferation of student protests and their mass appeal propelled the student movement beyond the establishment’s ability to control it. It now has the potential to grow into a widespread movement that can affect popular culture and lives.
Mobilization and grassroots work
The student movement can pave the path for future mobilizations. One place to look is the labor movement.
Although many workers’ unions in Western Europe have declared solidarity with Palestine and called for a ceasefire, this has not resulted in actual actions putting pressure on their governments to stop equipping Israel and withdraw their support.
Stewart, a UK activist I spoke with who did not want to give his last name, underlined the importance of workers’ unions in ending the war and beginning Palestine’s decolonization. Their strength consists in orchestrating boycott measures, such as workers refusing to load ships or planes carrying weaponry to Israel, which can rival the “disruptive” impact of student demonstrations.
Other campaigns that can benefit from student mobilization include initiatives to apply political pressure on governments and parties through conditional voting in local and national elections.
In the United States, the “Uncommitted” and “Abandon Biden” groups are urging the Democratic Party to change its position on Israel in exchange for support from specific communities in the approaching November elections. The problem with this approach is that not voting could result in a second Trump administration, which would be extremely harmful to the Palestinian cause.
To handle this circumstance, the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States should prioritize lobbying for clear, attainable goals both before and after the election. This is especially critical because Kamala Harris, the new Democratic presidential contender, appears to be responding to demonstrators’ demands.
Furthermore, promoting specific politicians in any election solely because they support Palestine is myopic. When it comes to voting, most people prefer daily problems over international policy. This was demonstrated in the recent UK election, in which voters were largely concerned with internal socioeconomic issues.
That is why it is critical that these initiatives, like the student movement, create broad networks of support by emphasizing the connections between the struggle of Palestinians and the oppression of different other populations – the working class, immigrants, and so on. Support for the Palestinian cause should be linked to other progressive measures that address poverty, racism, insufficient social assistance, the critical need for a green transition, and so on.
The role of Palestinians
In all of this, Palestinian civil society, which includes social groups, trade unions, popular committees, and public figures from Palestine and the diaspora, can play an important role.
Palestinian civil society could promote the anticolonial narrative and strategic alliances with global civil society initiatives, such as the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement that gained traction during the second Intifada. Salah al-Khawaja, co-founder and leader of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, informed me.
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This narrative and these partnerships are critical for guiding the global solidarity movement within the context of decolonization. Efforts are already underway to combine various Palestinian civil society actors. The author of this essay coordinates worldwide efforts.
This proposed partnership seeks to fulfill two primary goals. First, it aims to reinforce the notion that the Palestinian struggle is part of a larger fight for world freedom and justice against all forms of colonialism, racism, warmongering, and discrimination. Second, it seeks to enable Palestinian civil society to take the lead in shaping the movement’s political narrative.
A united Palestinian civil society can more successfully promote the decolonization narrative and highlight a proposed conflict resolution with Israel in which one democratic state is founded with equal citizenship for Israelis and Palestinians. By taking on this leadership role, Palestinian civil society may help guide the global pro-Palestinian movement and provide Palestinians with a voice that is not coopted or serving a specific purpose.
The massacre in Gaza, as well as the global mobilization against it, has brought the Palestinian cause to a critical moment. Palestinians and their allies must take this opportunity to advocate for a solution that dismantles colonial systems and establishes a single, democratic state in which all people, regardless of ethnicity or religion, are equal.
