XPost: alt.global-warming, edm.general, soc.culture.usa   
   XPost: or.politics   
   From: doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
      
   In article ,   
   NefeshBarYochai   wrote:   
   >By Fathi Nemer  September 12, 2024   
   >   
   >The Zionist end game in the West Bank is upon us. The last eleven   
   >months leave little room for doubt as settlers continue to actively   
   >depopulate Palestinian communities, kidnapping and torturing young men   
   >and establishing new colonies. Israeli National Security Minister   
   >Itamar Ben-Gvir openly boasts about seeking to build a synagogue on   
   >top of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.   
   >   
   >None of this should be understood as a new phase of Zionist settler   
   >colonialism; rather it is its sharpening, its coming out into the open   
   >in a more brazen way. What is happening in Gaza can and will happen   
   >elsewhere in Palestine. Not because the contexts or conditions are   
   >identical, but because they stem from the same supremacist logic and   
   >system of colonial domination.   
   >   
   >It is a mistake to believe that a ceasefire, regardless of its form,   
   >will put the genie back into its bottle. We will not go back to the   
   >pre-October 7 status quo and move on with our lives until the next   
   >time Gaza is bombed. If anything, October 7 showed how completely   
   >unprepared the West Bank is for what is coming, partly due to stubborn   
   >self-deception nurtured over the last three decades: the idea that   
   >there can be any semblance of normal life under occupation in return   
   >for obedience.   
   >   
   >How else can we explain building fragile glass commercial towers in   
   >cities under occupation? This is not the infrastructure of a society   
   >in confrontation or that plans to fight. Meanwhile, barely a few   
   >kilometers away, settlements are designed like fortresses, even though   
   >they are not under military occupation. They are designed in a way   
   >that aids in their function, which is the colonization of Palestinian   
   >land. This invites the question: what function do various Palestinian   
   >communities in the West Bank perform today?   
   >   
   >This is not to say that the West Bank has been sitting idly by. The   
   >last few years have witnessed the rise of different resistance groups,   
   >especially in refugee camps, and hundreds of Palestinians have been   
   >martyred. These groups have developed their capabilities and   
   >challenged Zionist colonialism to the point where the Israeli regime   
   >reinstated aerial bombardment in the West Bank, something it hasn’t   
   >resorted to since the Second Intifada.   
   >   
   >While not everyone can actively resist in the same way, everyone is   
   >responsible for creating the conditions that allow for resistance. In   
   >this way, there is still more that the West Bank could be doing,   
   >especially on the popular level. Perhaps one of the most urgent arenas   
   >of struggle where more mainstream participation is possible is the   
   >economic one, as this is a primary way through which Israel maintains   
   >its control over Palestinians and hampers all kinds of resistance.   
   >   
   >The de-development of the Palestinian economy and reducing the rural   
   >Palestinian population into a proletarianized captive workforce inside   
   >the colonial economy have been key tools for the demobilization and   
   >domestication of Palestinians. Palestinian livelihood is held hostage   
   >by the Israeli regime, which imposes a very high price for resistance.   
   >To paraphrase Ismat Quzmar at a lecture on the occupation’s economic   
   >policies since October 7, Palestinians are always stuck between their   
   >immediate material interest and their long-term nationalist interest.   
   >This is why the battle to weaken and dismantle this system of   
   >domination is key to reinforcing Palestinian steadfastness on the   
   >ground and establishing a more contentious political and economic   
   >order.   
   >   
   >Simply put, if we cannot feed ourselves, we cannot free ourselves. If   
   >we cannot independently sustain the infrastructure of life, then this   
   >same infrastructure will be used to cage us. Upon the occupation of   
   >the West Bank, Moshe Dayan said that if Israel could “pull the plug”   
   >and cut off Palestinian cities from resources, then it would be a more   
   >effective control mechanism “than a thousand curfews and   
   >riot-dispersals.”   
   >   
   >These are not foreign or novel ideas. Self-reliance formed the basis   
   >for an economy of resistance preceding and during the First Intifada.   
   >Projects such as “Victory Gardens” saw land plots and house yards   
   >turned into productive vegetable gardens to promote self-reliance and   
   >independence. This meant that Palestinian cities and villages could   
   >withstand closures and sieges for prolonged periods, ensuring that no   
   >matter how much conditions deteriorated, Palestinians would not   
   >starve.   
   >   
   >After the signing of the Oslo Accords, these self-reliance efforts   
   >would be gradually undone under the guise of “state-building.”   
   >Instead, disenfranchised Palestinian farmers would be encouraged to   
   >shift to cash crops, such as growing flowers to export to European   
   >markets and integrate into the world economy. Coupled with land   
   >annexations and working in the colonial economy, these transformations   
   >have left Palestinian farmers in dire straits, with barely 26% of them   
   >reporting agriculture as their primary source of income. This falls in   
   >line with the concept of food security, where food is procured through   
   >trade or aid. What this approach neglects, however, is how food is   
   >produced and marketed, the monopolies on seeds, and other power   
   >relations determining who gets to eat. It also neglects that   
   >Palestinians are suffering under settler colonialism and that they   
   >could be cut off from the outside world according to the whims of   
   >petulant Israeli politicians.   
   >   
   >The concept of food sovereignty arose to challenge the shortcomings in   
   >the food security paradigm. It centers on small-scale farmers and   
   >seeks to build sustainable local food production. It also focuses on   
   >reclaiming land and resources, creating communally organized   
   >production, and building the infrastructure needed to support   
   >resistance. Adopting such a paradigm will help create alternatives to   
   >extricating Palestinian labor from the colonial economy, supporting   
   >the steadfastness of farmers on their land, and repulsing settler   
   >encroachment.   
   >   
   >Our economic resistance strategy should be decoupled from pure profit   
   >motivations and place heavier emphasis on the strategic value of   
   >controlling our production of critical resources, such as wheat. Even   
   >if this is more costly in the short run, it should be viewed as a   
   >communal investment in a different future where resistance does not   
   >automatically mean destitution. This goes beyond merely changing   
   >consumption habits and will need to be accompanied by a social and   
   >political movement that seeks to transform Palestinian communities   
   >into resilient hubs of resistance.   
   >   
      
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