CPNN

As they suffered attacks from Israel which, according to the United Nations experts and Amnesty International, may end up being condemned as crimes of war, there was a global movement of solidarity with the people of Palestine.

It was as if the Israeli government and military wanted to prove the allegations, as described in last month’s CPNN bulletin, that they are imitating the apartheid policies of South Africa half a century ago.

The Israeli attacks began against Palestinians who protested forced evictions of their countrymen living in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Amnesty International condemned the evictions and what they called “repeated, unwarranted and excessive force against Palestinian protesters in occupied East Jerusalem.” After that the Israeli attacks were broadened into a war against Gaza, where, according to the UN, “222 people, including 63 children, were killed . . . More than 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip were completely destroyed or damaged by missiles, the statement continued. Among them were six hospitals, nine healthcare centres and a water desalination plant, supplying around 250,000 Palestinians with clean drinking water, as well as a tower which housed media outlets including the Al Jazeera network, and Associated Press (AP).” The war was almost completely one-sided, as the UN said that only “12 people died in Israel as a result of the fighting.”

The list of solidarity events with the people of Palestine was global in scope, including events listed from almost all of the 50 states of the USA and 27 cities of the UK. Also in Europe: Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canary Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, Also in the Americas: Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala. In Asia/Pacific there were events in Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Pakistan, while in Africa: Morocco and South Africa.

Photos showed huge mobilizations in London, New York City, Washington, D.C., Beirut and Pakistan.

In addition to the international solidarity movement, there were mobilzations for peace in Palestine and Israel.

According to our source in Palestine, “Today [May 18] will go down in history as one of the most powerful days of Palestinian non-violence resistance against the Israeli aggressions. Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and inside Israel took part in “GENERAL STRIKE” to protest against the Israeli occupation, aggressions in Jerusalem, and the bombardment in Gaza!!”

In Israel, thousands of Jews and Arabs rallied in Tel-Aviv in a mass march and rally for peace and coexistence, organized by the movements “Standing Together” and “Breaking the Silence”.

The solidarity movements made use of social media, despite attempts by facebook to censor them, according to a letter to facebook signed by many well-established progressive movements in the United States. They wrote that “Facebook executives’ decision at this moment to directly collaborate with Israeli Defense and Justice Minister Gantz on content moderation, without appropriate parity of government engagement until prompted by civil society, is beyond outrageous. . . . Facebook must take . . . urgent and crucial steps to repair this mistrust with our communities and ensure that we can count on Facebook and Instagram as free civic spaces and tools for holding governments accountable:”

In response to the question as to what people can do to support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality, the BDS movement has listed five kinds of actions, including the kinds of international moral, economic and political pressure that contributed to the end of South African Apartheid.

Can we imagine that freedom, justice and equality will eventually be achieved as was the case in South Africa? The answer is “Yes,” according to this month’s blog for the culture of peace.