PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY HAS CREATED A CRISIS FOR THE STATE
The proscription of Palestine Action is an attempt, largely promoted by pro-Israel lobby groups, specifically to delegitimise Palestinian solidarity as a whole and to associate it with ‘terrorism’. It is intended to have a chilling effect on all Palestine solidarity activity. They will move by degrees, picking the next most effective or radical expression of Palestinian solidarity and then seeking to tar it by association with the already established ‘terrorists’ of Palestine Action. People blockading or trying to shut down arms factories will be accused of being the same as Palestine Action, sharing their ‘terrorist’ ideology and extreme tactics. Those backing proscription intend to drive a wedge in the movement, splitting the more moderate from the militant. They intend that mainstream support for the Palestinian cause should melt away, celebrities skulk off, money dry up, venues pull out, demos shrink, and people become shy of association with Palestine through fear of the label of ‘terrorism’. We must ensure that none of this happens.
Mass popular support for Palestine over the last 18 months has created a crisis of legitimacy for the state. The outpouring of solidarity has been an extraordinary mass movement that has revealed the massive gap between the rulers and the ruled. It been exposed for everyone to see that our overlords are fully committed to supporting a genocidal war machine that has no limits and that they are determined to drag us down with them. They are determined that no opposition, no protest, no demonstrations will sway them. There is no line they will not cross. There is no crime they will not tolerate. All their purported values are exposed as shams, lies, dust.
All this exists in an overall context of increasing authoritarianism and preparation for war. They are protecting the war machine of the Israeli state but also the British military and its continuing ability to mount murderous interventions across the world. We are being trained and conditioned to accept increasing militarism as part of everyday life, the normalising of genocide ‘over there’ and the increasing outlawing of dissent at home.
The state has laid its cards on the table. The landscape is increasingly stark. Try to stop a genocide? They’ll treat you as a terrorist. We are going to have to get ready to fight some harder fights in the months and years ahead.
