South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) welcomes the news of the ceasefire in Gaza and the respite it offers to the people of Gaza, who have endured a genocide compounded by and compounding of a man-made famine for almost two years, and have been under siege for nearly two decades. But while the cessation of hostilities allows us to hope and fight for a better future, the fight for Palestinian freedom is far from over.
As we mourn the thousands of martyrs of genocidal Zionist aggression, standing with the bereaved of Palestine and the world, we recognise that we must now escalate our action to bring about a complete end to the 77 years of suffering Palestinians have endured under the control of Zionism. Israel is a settler colonial apartheid state, and its existence is a violation of international law, including the inalienable right to self-determination. While Israel’s ‘right to exist’ is often invoked to justify its actions, no state has a right to exist. Countries do not have rights, only people have rights. All vestiges of Zionism must, therefore, be abolished.
The ceasefire comes over a century after the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain offered Palestinian land to Jewish settlers. This paved the way for the ongoing Nakba, meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic. Its first phase, taking place from 1947 to 1948, saw Israel and Zionist militias carry out ‘Plan Dalet’, which resulted in the displacement and dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians. These refugees have been denied the right of return ever since. The painful history of Palestine under Zionist rule is one of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, injustice and violence, culminating in the past two years of relentless genocide, bombardment, dispossession, starvation, and decimation of homes and infrastructure in the course of the genocide in Gaza.
The current ceasefire, at last, gives us an opportunity to celebrate with our Palestinian siblings. It is a reprieve from the relentless drums of aggression of genocidal Zionist militarism, that remains a scar on the conscience of humanity. We hear and rejoice in the words of Palestinians like Hanaa Abu Ismail in Al-Mawasi, Gaza, who says, ‘we’ll enjoy ourselves despite the wounds. If we’re still alive then we’ve already won’.
We join hands with our comrades all over the world who have taken to the streets and seas in an unprecedented groundswell of popular rebellion against authoritarianism, tyranny and genocide. We know that a people united will never be defeated. We stand with the Palestinian resistance and the spirit of sumud (steadfastness) of all those engaged in forms of struggle against a fascist nuclear power armed and funded by the West and others. We are acutely aware that there is no peace without justice, and that the ongoing work is holding Israel and its accomplices to genocide accountable.
We recognise that the ceasefire is but one step in the journey towards a free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The ceasefire, while integral, is flawed, and in no way guarantees an end to the genocide and settler colonialism that have plagued Palestine since the earliest days of Zionism. Trump’s Plan risks escalating belligerent Zionist violence and entrenching the theft and fragmentation of Palestinian land that has defined the ongoing Nakba.
It is also important to note that Israel has a long history of violating ceasefire agreements, and we hope that the US and its allies, who have shown themselves only too willing to become implicated in Israeli aggression, will understand the importance of ensuring the Zionist state adheres to the agreement.
As South Africans we know too well what apartheid and colonial domination look like. For this reason, we cannot accept the installing of war criminals like Tony Blair as ‘administrators’ of Gaza, which can only be governed by the Palestinian people.
As Jews, we are also painfully aware of what a concentration camp looks like, and we will continue to call for and work towards the immediate lifting of the blockade and siege on Gaza, an end to the genocide as well as accountability for all those complicit in it, an end to the aggressive settler expansionism seen both in Gaza and the West Bank, and the total abolition of the scourge of Zionism, which has led to not only the oppression and slaughter of the Palestinian people, but to the subversion of the Jewish religion in service of a fascist political ideology.
We remain steadfast in our struggle for a free Palestine and we commit ourselves to redoubling our efforts towards our goal of freedom from the river to the sea. Palestinian liberation cannot come on the terms of others, and certainly not those who have armed and funded a genocide, but must come from Palestinians. There can be no justice without the right of return of all refugees, no freedom without the liberation of all 11,000 prisoners who live and die in Israel’s jails, no Palestinian state without the return of stolen land, and no genuine long term cessation of genocidal hostilities as long as the charade of a two state solution, that merely facilitates the further fragmentation of Palestinian land, is allowed to continue.
Now is not the time for complacency. This is the moment to intensify our efforts towards a free Palestine. In this spirit, we collectively commit ourselves to the following:
- To redouble our efforts in upholding the consumer boycott of Israeli goods in alignment with the demands of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
- To work fastidiously towards making our institutions, universities, places of work, families, minds, and homes apartheid-free zones, and to work against tainted consumption, racism and imperialism in Palestine, South Africa, and beyond.
- To work towards the dismantling of Zionist institutions and institutionalism in South Africa. While we fight to counter the supremacy of Jewish Zionism in our own community, we will continue to support our comrades in the struggle against Christian Zionism.
- To escalate pressure on the South African government and all parties to impose full sanctions and cut all diplomatic ties with Israel.
- To work in ever more resolute and creative ways towards a total arms and energy embargo against Israel, recognising that the exploitation of Black working class mining labourers in South Africa and beyond, in full awareness of how mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and elsewhere is powering Israel’s genocide grid in Palestine and escalating genocidal violenceacross the globe.
- To remain steadfast in our opposition to racist sexist fascism that is intensifying, both globally and in South Africa, and to remain acutely aware of the fact that all struggles against oppression are connected and focus our activism accordingly.
We will continue fighting until Palestine is free.
And for now, we grieve, we breathe, and we hope.