spoke at the rally organised by Socialist Resistance at the opening of the ESF and held his audience spell-bound in a contribution which was powerful not only in delivery but in content. This is part of what he had to say: WHY is Palestine so important in the eyes of millions of activists in civil and political society? Why, -In every demonstration against neoliberalism or against the war, is the Palestinian flag omnipresent, much more than the Iraqi or any other flag?
Is it because the Israeli occupation is the most barbarous or murderous? No, unhappily, there are situations which are worse, like that in Chechnya where the Russian army is carrying out a veritable genocide.
Is it because the Palestinian national movement is a source of inspiration for the peoples of the world? No, there are movements of national liberation which are more efficacious and closer to victory than the Palestinian movement.
Some "friends of Israel" will claim that the centrality of the question of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict is the confirmation of the antiSemitism of the anti-war and anti-globalization militants.
I cannot subscribe to this quite defamatory accusation, knowing how our movements in Europe, Africa, America or Asia have always been in the vanguard of the struggles against racism including of course anti-Semitism, which is not the case with the "friends of Israel"
In my view, the centrality of the Palestihian question is explained by the fact that Warshawski speaking at the Resistance rally more than any other conflict on our planet, it concentrates the stakes of the global war launched by the Bush administration and its allies.
In reality, the Palestinian question was the laboratory of this war. All the methods, arguments and justifications, all the images and techniques were tried in Palestine before being put into practice elsewhere in the world.
If we look at the "check points" in Iraq, we have to note that they are carbon copies of the "control points" in Palestine. If we also look at the terrible images of torture in Iraqi prisons, most of these are old Israeli methods. The concept of unilateralism, the declaration that the Geneva conventions and more generally the post world War 2 political order are no longer pertinent.
The framework of Bush's new strategy was at the heart of the Israeli policy of the last ten years. Again, since 2000, Israel has waged a preventive, global and permanent war against the Palestinians, who Socialist
"In reality, the Palestinian question was the laboratory of
this war. All the methods, arguments and justifications, all
the images and
techniques were
tried in Palestine before being put into practice elsewhere
in the world"