Another step was taken on the road to Palestinian unity in its resistance to Israel's occupation, as the five year long struggle of the village of Bil'in in the Palestinian West bank territory gained unanimous support from the main Palestinian parties and factions as well as activist groups in Israel and around the world. As well as inspiring other villages that are in similar situations (and sadly there are many).
Why is this significant? well as the video above makes clear this is case is one of only a few where the notoriously biased Israeli High court has actually sided against the settlers. And because as previously stated by me the video and the title this five year long protest has remained staunchly peaceful at least on the Palestinian side of things. If this style of protest grows to become the norm then this may be the biggest setback the Zionist lobby worldwide will face yet.
I know its quite galling to see atrocities like operation Cast lead and the invasion of southern Lebanon in 2006 go unpunished but we have to face reality here. The Intifada's and the bombings and resistance failed in all but one of their aims, they succeeded in getting world attention for their plight but ultimately Israel and the IDF remained dominant and much of the attention as far as the mainstream press was concerned was pretty negative.
Many people didn't look at the news and see a struggle for basic human rights from a down trodden and victimised population like say the Blacks in the southern states of America, or even the Africans under Apartheid South Africa. They would often see more of those "Islamic jihadi nutters, who can't wait to blow themselves up". You see the Arab states and especially the Palestinians will never be the Israelis equal in terms of military capabilities as long as they have strong Western backing and the Political and Military leadership clearly have a very lax attitude to the rules regarding warfare and human rights rendering Guerilla style warfare quite untenable as whats the point of blending in with your surroundings when the enemy will just blow them up too.
But theres still hope. The other bastion of Apartheid South Africa was also defeated eventually through peaceful means. South Africa was successfully isolated from the world community despite the fact that the US found it to be a vital ally in a region dominated by ideologically hostile nations just like Israel. In southern Africa almost every nation was a Soviet leaning ally hell Mozambique and Angola where out right Marxists. This forced South Africa to effectively go it alone and although the likes P.W.Botha continued there policies for many years it made much more susceptible to the indigenous opposition movement and ultimately war it down. THe same could be done with Israel.
Hell in Britain the establishment in the 80's used to really kick up a fuss about Mandela's terrorist army for blowing up a pub in Durban for bloody sake, completely overlooking the fact that more South African prisoners died "falling down the stairs" as the ending of Cry Freedom can attest.
In my last post on the subject of Palestine I talked about how it was surprising though very welcome to see prominent members of both Fatah and Hamas sitting round a table and publicly debating each other with both claiming some sort of peace deal was not far off. The rally in Bil'in not only strengthens the tentative peace between the two but also includes the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)another fairly prominent secular resistance faction that has a following in the Palestinian Authority. This is another positive step the Palestinians have a lot more on there plate dealing with the Israelis without finding enemies amongst themselves.
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