Moroccan activist Sion Assidon responds to the Alternative Information Center's recent series on normalization, calling for an end to Israel's project of ethnic cleansing and a right of return for Palestinian refugees that would also include compensation for stolen property. 

Sion Assidon (photo: TelQuel online)

The three demands noted by Michael Warschawski for Palestinian liberation are indeed the current expression for fulfilling the right to self determination of the Palestinian people on its land. The Israeli activists must recognize the leadership role of their Palestinian partners in struggle, and this indeed does appear to be the conclusion of the author.

I wish to make several comments on the wording of the three demands:

1. End of the colonial occupation: This is a general definition – the end of the last colonialism remaining in the 21^st century. This definition, apparently intentionally, does not mark borders, neither temporal nor spatial. Colonialism has a past and a future, however, and it of course appears in the present. Perhaps here we have a difficulty in translation - perhaps the author wrote “an end to the colonial occupation” referring to the dispossession of lands (istitan) and not an end to colonialism (istimar) itself.

If this is so, I would choose “an end to the project of ethnic cleansing” beyond the Green Line, in all of its manifestations. The intention here is not solely to the open warfare against the civilian population (Jenin, Gaza), but also to the covert daily war which transforms the lives of Palestinians into hell: Spatial occupation, the theft of land and water, home demolitions, the uprooting of trees and the endless obstacles to proper conduct of life: access to education, health, freedom of movement, torture, detentions and the murder of leaders and activists.

2. The rights of the Palestinian minority in Israel: Here I would add – an end to the apartheid regime in its Zionist form and the fulfillment of rights.

3. Right of return for Palestinian refugees, including of course compensation for stolen properties. This refers to those who have nothing, whose right to live in their homeland was even taken.

The power and connection amongst these three demands lie in the fact that they unite the entire Palestinian people whom the Zionist colonial project dispersed and separated through various forms of oppression, which at times explains internal Palestinian divisions. It should be added that this division is rather simplistic and that reality is inherently more complex than these three points.

Indeed, on the fundamental elements we have no disagreement. In this analysis, Warschawski appeals to both Israeli activists who require a compass in their solidarity actions, and also to Palestinian activists who, in their Arab nationalism, fear cooperation with anti-Zionist activists could be interpreted as a normalisation of the colonial status quo. In building this bridge, which has nothing to do with the nefarious “dialogue”, programmes, tomorrow’s spring is thus promoted.

I trust that the article by my friend Michael will arouse the debate of which it’s worthy, and will contribute to the guidance of solidarity onto principled tracks grounded in historical perspective and founded on the life history of my friend Michael.

Sion Assidon is a Moroccan left-wing activist who spent numerous years as a political prisoner in Morocco. Today Assidon is amongst the organizers of the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people in Morocco, active in the Moroccan left and amongst the initiators of the Maghreb Social Forum.

Translated by the Alternative Information Center (AIC).