Hamas upholding Islam does not undermine its struggle but is a natural part of the overall historical development of Palestinian people and anti-colonial struggle they wage. Under the veil of religion, liberation struggle is waged in societies where democracy has not fully prevailed, writes Harsh Thakor.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas,is heroically resisting the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The Israeli army claimed that one of their soldiers was killed while three were injured by an anti-tank missile. The Palestinian National Resistance announced that they have destroyed two military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush in the Gaza territory, forcing the IDF (Israel Defence Force) to retreat from the Palestinian territory without their vehicles.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the death toll from the Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza is now 5087 people, about 40 percent of which are children. The Israeli army announced on the 23rd of October that they have carried out 300 new air attacks within 24 hours. During this period, 400 people are reported to have been killed, the highest casualties in a single day in Gaza since the 7th of October. Thousands of buildings are reported to have been razed and more than one million people have been displaced. Israel is escalating bombing the south of Gaza, and ordering people living in the north to vacate is like sending cattles to a slaughterhouse. In the guise of targeting tunnels and underground headquarters of the Palestinian Resistance, Israel is destroying civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces have killed two people and abducted hundreds in raids carried out. Clashes occurred between the Israeli forces and armed Palestinians, with Palestinian youth flinging stones at the Israeli forces.
Clashes continue along the border between Israel and Lebanon and in Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory. Israel carried out multiple air attacks on the 23rd of October, killing one Hezbollah fighter. At least 27 Hezbollah fighters and 11 fighters from Palestinian Resistance in Lebanon, as well as at least five Israeli soldiers have been killed in the border area. Israel has started evacuating 42 settlements along the Lebanese border.
The international airports in Damascus and Aleppo have been targeted by Israeli air attacks, according to Yeni Demokrasi. One worker was killed and one person was injured in the attacks. The attacks have caused major wreckage to the runways of both the airports, resulting in the airports being closed. In the last 15 days, the airport in Aleppo has been attacked by Israel three times and the airport in Damascus has been attacked two times.
Protests all around World
Support for the struggle of the Palestinian National Resistance and for the defense of the people of Gaza have encompassed many regions of the globe despite merciless terror.
In India several people have been arrested for backing the just struggle of the Palestinian people. In Mumbai four people were arrested, accused of insulting the Israeli flag. In Uttar Pradesh a Muslim religious leader was arrested for “spreading hatred” because of his alleged support for Palestine, and four students were arrested for organizing pro-Palestinian events. In Delhi 60 people were arrested at a rally by students, teachers and intellectuals in support of Palestine. March in solidarity with Palestine in Mumbai.
In Paris, around ten thousand people assembled in a solidarity rally for the Palestinian people. French and Palestinian immigrant organizations as well revolutionary and democratic organizations for Turkey, including Partizan, supported the rally. (Source: Yeni Demokrasi)
In Ireland, big demonstrations broke out in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people. Activists have distributed leaflets and raised the Palestinian flag. On the 11th of October demonstrators marched in Dublin, forming a blockade at the O’Connolly Street Bridge.
On 14th October a big demonstration with vociferous slogans thronged through the main street in Dublin, O’Connolly Street, to the embassy of Israel. Speeches were made for expelling the Israeli ambassador. On the 21st of October, tens of thousands marched in Dublin in solidarity with the struggle in Palestine. Demonstrations were also staged in other cities such as Ennis, Cork, Carlow, Limerick and Galway.
Polarisation of nations against Israel and West
The Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group is also integrating in the conflict. Hezbollah has reportedly fired rockets targeting the Zionist bases from Lebanon. Since these forces have won the war against Western aggression in Syria, in which they fought a proxy battle against the Zionist puppets, their morale is high.
Iraq’s Iran-backed Qata’ib Saeed al-Shuhada Brigades said in a statement that all US forces, bases and US-controlled regions in the entire Middle East would be legitimate targets of the Resistance Axis if the US military directly gets involved anywhere in the conflict.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas endorsed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in Ramallah. He said that the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves, especially against Israeli aggression in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and against the oppression of Zionist forces in the occupied territories.
On the other hand, the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLF) backed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in a statement and called on all Palestinian people to join the Palestinian resistance, break the backbone of the enemy and destroy its supply routes.
In general, all Palestinian organisations have welcomed the armed insurrection against Israeli occupation. Due to Iran’s growing influence over these incidents and the geopolitical mileage it has been gaining, the US ally Saudi Arabia is virtually compelled to oppose the Zionist forces.
Arab countries close to the US, like Saudi Arabia, have been forced to adopt a stand against the West, against the Zionist genocide, to evade warth of public at home. The warring Saudi Arabia and Iran are both voicing the concern over Palestinian lives, tickling the belly for the West in the Middle East.
Apart from Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE, Zionist Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations with any country in the Arab world. Despite establishing relations with Zionist Israel under US pressure, due to the Zionist Israeli attack on Palestine, even these states are currently raising their voice against the West’s patronising the genocidal regime in Israel.
Anti-Western sentiment has magnified in the Arab world, and the entire Global South, as the US and other Western powers continue supporting the Zionist Israeli attack on Palestine. The West has allied itself against Russia and China in the “Second Cold War” across the world. Most countries in the Global South refused to join the bandwagon of the West. They chose multilateralism over US hegemony. Most of the Global South countries defied the US’s diktats.,to protect their national interests, and continue to maintain good relations with Beijing. This created a reversal for the West.
The US and the West are currently facing severe marginalisation over their support for the Zionist Israeli attack on Palestine. By supporting and financing the Zionist Israeli attack on Palestine, they have not only infuriated people in the Middle East and Africa against their colonial orientation, but they have also invited the wrath of the progressive and democratic forces of their own country against themselves.
The manner in which China and Russia have proposed an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities in the United Nations and other platforms, to immediately suspend the massacre of innocent citizens of Gaza, has won them the support in the Arab world as well.
As a result, just as the US and Western powers carved their own downfall in this crucial region of the world by supporting the Zionist Israeli attack on Palestine, and offering Tel Aviv a leeway to continue this genocide, the countries of the Global South are also rising up to challenge them. The emergence of a multi-polar world order has come to the fore.
Nature of Hamas
In light of the situation of Palestine, the principal aspiration of the Palestine people is national liberation and Hamas valiantly upholds this struggle as its chief goal. Hamas upholding Islam does not undermine its struggle but is a natural part of the overall historical development of Palestinian people and anti-colonial struggle they wage. Under the veil of religion, liberation struggle is waged in societies where democracy has not fully prevailed.
However Hamas does not and cannot manifest the genuine objective of the Palestinian people for freedom and equality, having deep roots in Islamic fundamentalism. Hamas is dependent, financial and politically, on sections of the ruling classes in Iran, Turkey and other Muslim countries. While the people of Gaza die from war, occupation and poverty, leading members of Hamas and other Islamist parties are living in luxury in Beirut and Istanbul.
The demand for the liberation of Palestine must be integrated with the struggle for the overthrow of the rotten capitalist system, both in Israel and the Palestinian territories. This exploitative system is patronised by the political elite of Israel, as well as by the leading members of the Palestinian political leadership, primarily Hamas, but also Fatah.
(Harsh Thakor is a freelance journalist. Thanks to information from Peoples Review, Red Herald and In Defence of Communism.)
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