Israel’s genocide after one year:
Countering the dominant racist narrative, building BDS
The Context
Before 7th October, Israel was deeply divided between supporters and opponents of the Judicial Reforms. The Zionist far-right sought to scrap the few constitutional laws which protected Israeli Jewish democracy. Of course, there never was a democratic regime under Israeli apartheid for Israeli Palestinians. Both 'left' and 'right' Zionists have always been united when it comes to the oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
In the West's dominant racist narrative, a new conflict began on 7th October. Hamas' attack provoked the 'Israel- Hamas' war and Israel defended itself against 'terrorism'. This narrative obscured the 75 years of Israeli state terrorism.
Ever since Theodor Herzl, Zionism modelled itself on European settler-colonialism which dispossessed, massacred and expelled indigenous peoples. The West's narrative on Israel-Palestine has protected, obscured and sanitised Zionist settler-colonialism. Western complicity has a century-long history beginning with the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate.
Since 7th October Israel has reduced Gaza to rubble. Israel's military has inflicted a civilian death toll which has no precedent in modern times. It has destroyed all civilian infrastructure including schools, homes, hospitals and water supply and purification systems.
Beyond the 40,000 already killed, thousands will die of starvation and lack of medical facilities and outbreaks of diseases like polio and typhoid.[1] Most of those hurt by bombing die from sepsis. Unless evacuated, most people will perish even if the fighting stopped now.
Israel has been trying to exile all Gazans, unsuccessfully until now. A new initiative by anti-Zionist Palestinians and anti-Zionist Israeli Jews has suggested a more practical, just solution: to evacuate them instead to historic Palestine.[2]
Before 7th October: decades-long attacks by the settler-colonial apartheid regime
What led to 7th October break-out? A few reminders will suffice:
1948 Nakba: Zionist forces inflicted massacres and terror to induce a large-scale flight of refugees.
1956 Suez War: Together with the former colonial powers, Britain and France, Israel attacked Egypt in a bid to
remove President Nasser. This led to the occupation of Gaza and the Sinai. Israel was forced to retreat by the US.
1967 War: Israel invaded the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights, followed by a permanent illegal Occupation and
annexation of both East Jerusalem and Syria's Golan Heights.
2007: Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian
elections and formed an administration.
2008: Israel committed massacres in Gaza, killing thousands; and repeated this in 2014 and 2021.
2022: Israel's new government included the openly fascist part, Otzma Yehudit.
Israel turned Gaza into the largest open-air prison in the world, making it a free-fire zone. Gaza has become the war lab of the Israeli army and Israel's military-industrial-complex.
Meanwhile Israel has been kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing thousands of political hostages, including in the West Bank, under indefinite 'administrative detention' with no judicial redress or means to gain their release. Western powers have colluded with those injustices and continued their arms trade with Israel.
7th October: breaking out of the Gaza prison
On 7th October Palestinian militias broke out of Gaza's open-air prison, and attacked Israeli military bases, killing many soldiers and capturing others as prisoners. The Palestinian militias had the legal right to carry out those actions. Colonised people have the right to use military force against colonial domination, according to the UN General Assembly (Resolution 3246).[3]
Palestinian militias killed some Israeli civilians and took many captive into Gaza. Although illegal, taking hostages was the only possible means to gain the release of Palestinian hostages whom Israel was holding.
On 7th October hundreds of Israelis were killed by the IDF under the Hannibal Directive, kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces". On 7th October that was extended to civilians; many were killed by Israeli gunships.[4]
Extending BDS, weakening Israel
Most Israeli Jews have supported Israel's genocide in Gaza and now the West Bank. Israel's slaughter was supported by the West. Most people around the world support the Palestinian struggle for liberation. This has expanded the world-wide Palestine solidarity movement and turned Palestine into a symbol of resistance against Western colonialism.
Palestinian resistance has shattered Israel's supremacist narrative of the invincible IDF. In the Global South, where people remember the anti-colonial struggles the justice of Palestine's struggle was easily understood.
The world-wide protests have given an extra impetus to the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. BDS has sought to end international support for Israel's apartheid regime. This may be Israel's South African moment.
Palestine Action has destroyed Elbit System's equipment. Elbit manufactures Israeli drones.[5] The campaign has deterred other companies from dealing with it. This precedent is spreading to other countries, especially the US.
Some countries have stopped or limited arms supplies to Israel. The UK government stopping just 8% of arms supplies is merely cosmetic. We demand a complete ban on arms supply to Israel.
Some governments have imposed sanctions by blocking or restricting trade with Israel. Turkey announced a total suspension of trade. Colombia has prohibited coal exports to Israel. Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea have pushed Eilat Port into bankruptcy. These actions have undermined investor confidence in Israel and stimulated mass emigration from Israel.[6]
Western countries have pretended to seek a ceasefire and urged restraint. They have renewed their calls for a 'two- state solution'. This 'solution' is a smokescreen for ongoing Zionist colonization.[7]
Undermine Western support for Israel's settler-colonial regime
In the global North, BDS has greater opportunities to undermine support for Israel's settler-colonial regime. We should intensify our BDS actions, contributing to Israel's economic decline. Israel's increased weakness can help open the way to the only just solution, namely: freedom and equal rights for all who live in historic Palestine from the River to the Sea (see JNP statement).[8]
Both as a Jewish and a UK organization, JNP has a special responsibility to promote BDS efforts. The BDS campaign also helps to liberate Jews worldwide from Zionism.[9]
[1] RashaKatib, Martin McKee and Salim Yusuf, "Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential", The Lancet, 10 July 2024, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext#
[2] Bring Gaza Home, https://bringgazahome.com/
[3] 'Reaffirms the legitimacy of the people's struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation by all available means, including armed struggle'. UN General Assembly Resolution 3246. The universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination, 1975, paragraph 3, https://digitallibrarv.un.org/record/190185
[4]https://www.aliazeera.com/news/2024/7/9/whv-did-israel-deplov-hannibal-directive-allowing-killing-of-own-citizens
[5]https://palestineaction.org/
[6]https://bdsmovement.net/news/
[7]https://www.aliazeera.com/opinions/2024/7/25/so-this-two-state-solution-is-code-for-neocolonialism-right
[8]JNP statement, November 2023, https://www.facebook.com/JewishNetworkforPalestine/posts/740206834813882
[9]Naomi Klein, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/zionism-seder-protest-new-vork-gaza-israel: Scott Prosterman, https://www.iuancole.com/2024/04/zionisms-expired-pharaoh.html