- Palestinian activist Budour Hassan and member of the feminist movement Tal'at has been interviewed by Nacho Ibáñez in the Direct Environment. The questions have been answered by Jerusalem, which has denied any doubt. This city and all of Palestine are living in the last days "historic moments" when thousands of people have left the street in protests against the Israeli occupation. Beyond the conflict between the armed group HAMAS and Israel, whose prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu, there is a grass-roots struggle that is being organised to achieve freedom.
What is happening in recent days in Palestine?
Its main feature is that, beyond the bombing of Gaza, we now have fronts throughout the historic territory of Palestine. It all started with the popular mobilizations of the youth. These young people, considered so far to be unpoliticized, far from the Palestinian struggle, managed with their protests to paralyze the barriers they intended to put on the Damascus Gate in the early days of Ramadan. This showed them that their stones were able to withstand the repressive forces. This popular victory encouraged them to resist the eviction of eighteen families from the Seikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem, and they felt able to defeat Israel’s military technology with their voice. The families in this neighborhood currently live under the Police Site, and most of them come from other places in Palestine, after the Nakba, and are now at risk of being expelled.
From this neighborhood the struggle has spread to all the cities of Palestine, even to the territories occupied in 1948. Young people and activists have joined protests by the inhabitants of this Jerusalem neighbourhood against the occupying forces. This Monday, the Palestinian mobilizations were added to the day of the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, which the Zionists call the "Day of Unity", in which thousands of ultra-right Jews walk the streets of the Old City. The meeting on the street of the two movements was an excuse for the police to attack the Al-Aksa mosque with tear gas and rubber bullets, while the faithful remained on the retina.
What is the difference between this time and the previous ones?
The wars of the past have their origins in the killings of Hamas leaders, and on this occasion the organization declared that it sent missiles away from tactics and solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah ' s neighbours. In addition, major clashes are important in the cities where Jews and Arabs live. Future scenarios are not easy to foresee, but one must distinguish between the military war against the most powerful army in the world and the resistance of Gaza; and the popular struggle against the police and the extreme right in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. The Palestinian elite and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah want to control the movement they did not expect and want to maintain the demonstrations in which many of the participants are not politicised activists: it is an outrage at the reality that these protesters are experiencing. It has been a moral fault for years to be unable to do anything to get jobs, and they have now been convinced of what is the result of our situation.
It should be noted that this movement is not being led by traditional political parties and that it has made all Palestinians feel identified in the struggle, from those living in Israeli cities to those in Jerusalem or the West Bank. It is very important to build the unity of the movements and to create alliances between all Palestinians. This moment distinguishes the previous and the subsequent era, and we will have to say that a Palestinian movement has broken the barriers of colonialism and created something revolutionary that has strengthened the national and political conscience of the people to change the narrative with Palestine. The greatest challenge we have will be to continue when this mobilisation ends.
In recent days we have seen that the far-right has attacked any Arab citizen. Is society more polarized?
The polarisation between Israeli and Arab citizens is not today, as it has existed since the creation of Israel. The Palestinians who resisted in their territory have since suffered discrimination against the State in all areas of their lives, although officially Israeli citizens have not in practice had any Jewish rights. Despite the fact that Israel defines itself as a democratic Jewish state, it has shown that the Jewish side is more important than its democratic character and that this does not in any way involve the Palestinians. The Palestinians see again and again denied access to land or permission to build their homes.
The situation is even more complicated in the countries where Palestinians and Jews live, according to the NGO. In recent decades, settlers have come from the West Bank to cities like Lod or Jaffa, where they have created extremist religious groups that seek to turn the people of Israel into original Judea and make the Arab population disappear. In the city of Lod, these groups have created religious schools with state money and harassed the Palestinian population. This city also received a large number of settlers from the Gush Katif region and joined radical groups.
The protests of the last few days against the Palestinians were answered on the street by Zionist far-right groups. These groups have ties with the police and the government of Israel and one of their main objectives is to dismantle any relationship between Jewish and Arab citizens, and since April they cross the streets with slogans like "Muhammad has died."
What we are now seeing is a direct meeting point between the young Palestinians and these ultra-right groups that are supported by the police. This explosion reflects the discrimination and institutionalized violence suffered for decades. We can discuss the tactics used, but when a colonized and dehumanized people sees their voice completely silenced, their only option is the fight against the symbols of their oppression. The current conflict has its origin in the strengthening of these ultra-right groups and in the desire to ethnically cleanse Israel ' s mixed cities.
How do women’s movements unite in the struggle in Palestine?
The current movement is the fight against colonialism and patriarchy. If you look at the pictures of the demonstrations, you'll see dozens of women participating and facing the police fearlessly. This is no wonder, it has always been in the battle of Palestine. In recent years, the feminist struggle has left the offices of NGOs and other elitist organizations, and has gone out into the streets, to meet people. The feminist movement Tal'at was born a few years ago and its motto is "If we do not liberate women there is no national liberation." This is not a fool, but a reality that we live on our skin when the Israeli police abuse Palestinian women. The implicit alliance between colonization and patriarchy confronts us with both sides of the system, both in our homes and in public spaces. Women are part of the current popular uprising both in the organization and in the demonstrations, representing the family or exercising voluntary lawyers of the oppressed. That is, women not only participate in the movement, but they also lead it.