Kole's blog

It's not everyday we talk about Afghanistan. When we do, it's often in passing, it's mentioned as part of a laundry list of occupations we're fighting against and then we usually move on. At least that's been my experience.

I was suprised to read in the French daily Liberation this morning that the Spanish government is set to regularize some 600,000 non-status people in that country. The number falls short of the 800,000 initially promised by the Zapatero government – or the demand by immigrant/refugee rights movements to grant ‘Status for All’ - but it is still something to consider in the Canadian context. The numbers themselves tell a pretty convincing story as to the feasibility of such an initiative in Canada.

Signs are increasing that attempts to legitimate an orderly transfer of power in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />West Bank and Gaza Strip to Mahmoud Abbas’ collaborationist regime are failing.

CNN and other mainstream news agencies like the BBC are reporting a truce between the occupation forces and the Islamist wing of the Palestinian resistance, who's ascent to the cease-fire came a little later than those of other armed factions. Interestingly, not all of the Brigades seem to share the same understandings of what a truce entails and it will be interesting to see for how long Abbas can play both the game the Americans and Israelis are expecting him to play while at the same time staving off the popular demands of his domestic constituency.

What follows is an interview with Nasser Aweis, one of the leaders of the Al-Aqsa Brigades who is currently being held in isolation in the Beer Saba' prison. Aweis is originally from the Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, and is one of the camps best known political prisoners (arguably more popular than Hussam Khader, another well known and respected political prisoner in the camp). Nasser's brother Mohamed Aweis was killed almost one year ago, at the end of February 2004, during clashes with the Israeli military. Most of Balata showed up for his funeral, illustrating the degree of respect the family enjoys in the camp. As a result of Nasser's grassroots support, the family home is frequently made the object of Israeli military reprisals - raids that are part of the nearly daily attacks on Nablus and its surrounding camps. Nasser has also undergone considerable hardships in prison. Some recent articles on conditions at Beer Saba' can be found here and here.

Anyway, in the interview he outlines pretty much the current position of the Al-Aqsa brigades on the ceasefire and the way they would like the coming months to play themselves out. Interestingly, he calls for a rejuvination of Fatah's grassroots, a revival of the PLO, the inclusion of voices from the Diaspora during this critical juncture in the Palestinian struggle, and sticking to the 'redlines' of the national liberation movement - which in his formulation, echoing the thoughts of many, includes things like the right of return. He also advocates a closer dialogue with Hamas, while paying lipservice to Abu Mazen's program (as formulated by the Brigades).

The document is interesting from a number of perspectives and I'm putting it out for commentary. The position of groups like the Al-Aqsa Brigades, Hamas, the PFLP, Hezbollah, and Moqtada Sadr's militia in Iraq are interesting at the moment. They all seem to have gone quiet and are apparently reassessing their strategies in the coming period. It seems that key players in the region are furiously undertaking new calculations and trying to find a place for themselves in the 'new' Middle East being shaped by the recent elections in Palestine, Iraq, and of course in the United States.

An important measure of whether or not the resistance factions will get anything from the current bartering over Palestine will be the nature of the political prisoners released and to what extent they'll be able to resist attempts by the PA, the Israelis and the USA to co-opt their leadership cadres (i.e. to what extent will the resistance factions insist on achieving the national goals they've set for themselves). It may be that many groups will be using this period as a means of rebuilding their movements - shifting the focus of the struggle to other arenas. As international solidarity activists we need to be prepared for the implications of such a shift. The interview with Nasser Aweis that follows touches on some of these issues, highlights some of the contradictions evident in the 'mainstream' of the resistance movement and points to potential areas of contention in the future that are worth taking into consideration.

I just wanted to quickly draw peoples attention to the first original production of the Balata Film Collective - part of BalataCamp.net (an exciting new initiative started by people from the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank/Palestine) - called Elections Under Occupation. The film gives voice to community members from Balata concerning the upcoming Palestinian elections (scheduled for this Sunday).

The Ukrainian crisis falls neatly into a long-standing mythology that a fraction of the left and a large majority of liberals in the West buy into each time the media decides to engage in a foreign policy morality tale. It is the same old story of the good – be it 'democracy', ‘human rights’ or ‘self-determination’ - that 'we' bring to others. In fact this mythology is the dangerous product of a deep-seated racism in Western societies that still hasn't come to terms with the legacy of colonialism, exploitation and genocide that 'we' have in reality imposed on 'them.'

Ukrainian opposition poster shows a PORA jackboot stomping on an insect representing the current government and its supporters. Such racist dehumanization of opponents is a critical precursor to conflicts and is a hallmark of fascist movements.

US-backing for opposition forces in the Ukraine - which has already been exposed in some progressive and main-stream publications (see links below) - has been well documented. What hasn’t been addressed, however, is the way in which the reality of the situation on the ground has been obscured in the main-stream press in order to confirm old Cold War stereotypes and perpetuate the current mythologies of Empire globally. The ‘fairy tale’ of the Ukrainian elections is designed to legitimate attempts to reorder to post-Soviet space – through the agency of NATO, the IMF/World Bank, and civil society promotion outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), USAID, the Open Society Institute, etc. - in ways that serve the geostrategic and economic interests of Empire.

I got a curious email yesterday from a friend studying at Cambridge University who’s been involved in Palestine solidarity activism on UK campuses. Yesterday he got yet another job offer in his mailbox through the ‘Career Service’ listserve run by Cambridge (see the end of this blog entry for the full text of the offer). The position caught his eye because it related to Palestine. It seems like Adam Smith International, the spin off consultancy of the conservative Adam Smith Institute in the UK, is looking for a Refugee Policy Advisor to consult the Palestinian Authority on aspects of refugee policy. While the link between neo-liberal economics – with a Thatcherite accent - and Palestinian refugee rights may seem abstract, it makes perfect sense if we consider the actual objectives of the international community’s intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.