Recently, leaders of the Palestinian resistance factions – the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) – met in Beirut to discuss ways to confront the increasing Zionist aggression against Palestine.
In an interview with Al Mayadeen, Deputy General Secretary of the PFLP said that they “must escalate the resistance to confront the occupation” and that there is “a grave danger threatening the Palestinian national cause”.
The leaders have issued a statement stating that all parties agreed to strengthen all forms of coordination on all issues, marking a decisive moment in Palestinian unity against its oppressor.
The now-regular expansion of Zionist settlements and the daily resistance against them comes in the wake of the Israeli government issuing threats to resume targeted assassinations against leaders of the Palestinian resistance.
As well as that, on 1 October over 90 political prisoners, including the PFLP’s General Secretary Ahmed Sa’adat, were transferred between prisons after a raid by occupation forces.
This is clearly an attempt to break the spirits of the prisoners, who have yet to give up fighting. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club the prisoners are escalating their protests and may soon take up a hunger strike.
As republicans we are far too conscious of these kinds of tactics being used in Ireland. The British state routinely subjects republican political prisoners to inhumane conditions. Many of these prisoners were interned without trial. This is without mentioning the hunger strikers in 1981, of which ten died before it was brought to an end.
Even prior to ‘81, the hunger strike has been a common method of republican resistance, such as in 1920 and 1923 with thousands on a simultaneous strike. These strikers hoped to reach out to the humanity of their oppressors (of which there obviously is never much) in hopes that some of the suffering would be alleviated.
More importantly, they hoped to appeal to those abroad and in the oppressor nation, to show that their cause meant so much that some would starve or even die for it. The hope was to encourage people worldwide to protest against the injustices that were being faced, hopefully bringing an end to them.
We extend our full solidarity to the Palestinian people and acknowledge their plight as one similar to the one we have faced in Ireland, and still continue to face to this day.
The occupation by British forces and colonial police in the occupied six counties in the north, as well as the southern state police that serve as not much more than enforcers of the same imperialist rule, cause the same injustice towards republicans on their side of the island as in the north.
Whether the current situation will lead to a full-scale Intifada is yet unknown, but we do know for sure that, as the Palestinian youth continues to rise up in ever great numbers to fight for freedom, the Zionist government is in for something big if it does not give up its occupation of all Palestinian land.