The BDS National Committee in Ramallah, occupied Palestine has called on the Palestine solidarity movement to disavow armed resistance.
The aim of boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel is a very basic level of support for the Palestinian struggle against genocide. However, contrary to what some may believe, this has never been the decisive tactic to ending oppressive arrangements. It has at best been complementary to material struggle including armed struggle.
However, in the case of the Boycott National Committee in Mahmoud Abbas-governed Ramallah, we have an organisation which has begun to be viewed as if it is antagonising to the armed struggle. How so?
In May 2024, in the midst of the Gaza genocide, in which over 40,000 Palestinians had been slaughtered, the mini-Abbas regime of the BDS BNC issued directives from Ramallah for the rest of the movement. The message was titled as follows: "Protecting the Palestine solidarity movement worldwide from police repression, sabotage, and agents provocateurs"
It went on to state that:
"Palestinian coalitions and networks do not call on any solidarity group or coalition to advocate for, raise slogans for, or otherwise support Palestinian armed resistance. We recognise that advocating for armed resistance in the colonial West would likely harm the Palestine solidarity movement, especially as it is used by repressive, anti-Palestinian authorities and pro-apartheid media as ‘evidence’ of incitement to violence, hate speech, or support for ‘banned’ groups. This exacerbates the repression and inadvertently facilitates the attempted criminalization of the Palestine solidarity movement in all its diverse mobilisations, thereby alienating allies. Furthermore, it would divert attention from the consensus Palestinian demands of the solidarity movement stated above."
An excerpt from the leaked document
So, here we have, in essence, Omar Barghouti publishing a statement commanding impressionable young people in the west to disavow the right guaranteed in international law of Palestinians to armed resistance to occupation against their genocidal occupier.
The names of many prominent Palestinian groups were listed as supporting the document, including some directly involved in armed resistance to the entity. This led to significant backlash, with reports that groups demanded their names be removed. Soon after, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement pushing back against Barghouti and his westoxicated drivel.
The PFLP message read as follows:"The BDS National Committee's Statement on Armed Resistance Contradicts Our People's Legitimacy in Practicing Resistance and Ignores Consensus.”
The Front emphasised that the justifications of the BNC in Ramallah and its “call for silence on armed resistance in Western countries are inaccurate positions and far from reality."
It seems many are waking up to the sinister role played by the Barghouti and the BNC in their attempts to squash effective responses to Zionist genocide in Palestine.
The suspicious behaviour of the BNC has roots deeper than the recent statement discouraging people from supporting armed resistance.
A document obtained by Palestine Declassified, the biweekly programme of which I am the editor, titled "Notes from 6th BDS Europe meeting February 2021" shows a level of betrayal which may be shocking to many.
The document claims that participants from the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign also attended along with BDS branches from across Europe.
There is a point 4 in the document titled "On Security Issues". It reads: "We must protect the movement and that means being efficient, strategic and principled. There are groups in the movement who aren’t doing that. Let’s not give Israel any excuses to criminalise the movement.”
The documents states that “some of these groups are” and it goes on to name Palestine Action and Samidoun. On Palestine Action it says:
“Palestine Action who are openly calling for and engaging in wanton destruction of property as their main tactic, risking serious criminal prosecution. Direct action can be strategic as part of a well-thought-out campaign, however participants should always be informed of any risks and the goal should not simply be wanton property destruction.”
The use of the phrase “wanton destruction” is a stunning indication of the politics of this passage. There is also a smear against Palestine Action that by implication Actionists are not told of risks of their actions. On Samidoun the prisoner network it says:
“Samidoun are openly advocating for armed resistance. They have the right to do so, but without any association with BDS. We do not have any relationship with them accordingly, and we urge all BDS groups not to organize anything with them....we do not advocate armed resistance nor can BDS groups be remotely associated with groups that do."
It is obviously a matter for the BDS National Committee to decide on its relations with other groups, but this attempted policing of the whole movement is clearly unacceptable.
The document continues...
"Such actions cannot be associated with the BDS name. We understand people didn’t know that some groups were problematic. But from now on we are asking people to choose. If they are part of BDS groups, they cannot be part of groups conflicting with BDS principles. People can’t be a part of both."
So, there we have it. The mini-Abbas regime of the BNC alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign sought to blacklist both Samidoun and Palestine Action.
There is clearly a need for an explicitly anti-Zionist movement to emerge to bypass the effects of the collaborationist Vichy regime running the BNC.
Wow - “Let’s not give Israel any excuses to criminalise the movement” - sounds like the anxious partner of an abusive husband.
My how the worm turns:
1) Great blog piece, delving into what we in Ireland would call "Quisling Revisionism". I'm your new subscriber as a result of this great piece!
2) It's a classic case of radical organisations being infiltrated by f##### liberals. Liberals are by definition counterrevolutionary imho.
3) The demonising of armed struggle or what I called it at a UN conference in Canberra "Armed Self Defense". That observation flung the Australian Foreign Minister into a meltdown 🙂 with him accusing me of "International relations 101", whatever TF that means 🙂. All the black delegates from Africa swamped me when we came off the podium. The ambassador to Madascar said to me: "I've been waiting all my life to hear a white dude say that!
When I turned up in occupied West Belfast in the early 1980's I was unsure of my position on the "Armed Struggle". It was a grandmother who convinced me that armed struggle was a duty & an obligation we had to make, we didn't have a genuine choice, someone had to protect our community from the occupying forces!
I had my own run-in with the IDF, I know how brutal they can be!
https://kevinhester.live/2018/09/18/the-day-i-out-ran-the-israeli-defense-forces/