I
was surprised to read Professor
Todd May's article in the Blanket on
the subject of Palestine, because given his credentials,
I would have thought that he would be aware that
advocacy of a single, secular state of Palestine
has been consistently advanced by what is perhaps
the third largest organisation (after Hamas and
Fatah) of the Palestinian people.
I
am referring to the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, perhaps the most revolutionary of
the main Palestinian organisations, especially since
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
retreated from its past positions and opened up
dialogue with the Zionists. The PFLP has long opposed
the two-nation approach embraced by Fatah and most
of the other component groups within the Palestine
Liberation Organisation and instead advocated a
single state of Palestine; secular, democratic and
socialist for both the Palestinians and the Jews.
Were
the traditional territories of Palestine re-assembled
immediately and the Palestinians in the diaspora
to return to their nation, the democratic will of
the people would easily keep in check the racism
and religious sectarianism of the Zionists and provide
the basis for the harmony that marked relations
between the Arab and Jewish peoples prior to the
Zionist aggression and the resulting establishment
of a Zionist state in Palestine.
It
is too often forgotten (and Zionist propaganda claiming
that the two peoples have always been bitter enemies
aims at assisting this forgetting) that when the
Europeans drove both the Moslems and the Jews from
the Iberian peninsula, it was the Ottoman Empire
that provided them with sanctuary. In fact, the
history of Islam is filled with important contributions
from the Jews, who not uncommonly rose to leading
positions within the state, as well as being widely
respected for their contributions in many other
fields.
The
Irish Republican Socialist Party has long voiced
its support for the position of the PFLP, recognising
that the continued partition of Palestine can no
more provide a way forward for the peoples of that
region than the continued partition of Ireland can
provide a way forward for both the Irish and British
communities resident on the island of Ireland. As
the IRSP seek for Ireland, the PFLP advocate a future
for Palestine built on ending partition, separation
of church and state, increased democracy, including
the wielding of political power by the working class
who represent the vast majority of the people, and
the overturning of capitalism which, in the era
of imperialism, undermines national sovereignty.
The
acceptance of a two-nation resolution to the conflict
between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine by Fatah
should be seen for what it was and is, an unworkable
attempt to compromise with Zionism, which is unsupportable
for its acquiescence to the reactionary agenda of
the Zionists and surrender of the rights of the
Palestinian people, which would permanently impede
their ability to genuinely exercise national sovereignty.
