Saw this from David as a comment on the Socialist Unity site, I think it needs to be blogged and celebrated as a sound statement on the horrible situation, it is certainly a statement I agree with.
You don’t have to support the politics of Hamas (I don’t) to recognise that what is happening is an attack on the Palestinian people and their aspirations for survival, self-determination and equal rights.
The bitter political division among the Palestinians mainly into Hamas and Fatah blocs is a tragedy. I’ve no doubt there are clerical-fascists, fundamentalists and anti-left people esconced in the Hamas leadership, but that is not the platform on which significant numbers of Palestinians shifted away from traditional support for Fatah to support them. Hamas won support principally on the secular demands for freedom and self-determination, demands for freeing Palestinian prisoners and for return of refugees and for continued resistance to occupation, and also because the PA leadership was suspected of corruption and of making too many concessions to Israel.(In reality the PA has been in a no-win situation for many years)
But the Left should not be afraid to acknowledge that Hamas’s tactics of lobbing rockets against civilian targets in Israel directly threatens Israel’s poorer communities and has been a PR gift to the Israeli politiical-military leadership.
In the longer run all socialists should want to see a strong, unite, secular and progressive current as the leading political current on the Palestinian street. In the here and now - and on the streets of London and other towns tomorrow we must join the demonstrations to
demand a halt to Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
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