Viva Palestina - some uncomfortable truths

Harry's Place has two excellent pieces regarding the hateful Viva Palestina and their quest to break the 'siege of Gaza'. The first article explores the recent visit to Syria by Viva Palestina trustee Kevin Ovenden who

'addressed the welcoming party while standing underneath flags of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

Once you take a closer look at the SSNP it becomes very clear that no self-respecting socialist or humanitarian would go anywhere near them, let alone let themselves be photographed standing under their emblems.

Even if we ignore their suspiciously familiar imagery of lightning bolts and eagles (compare and contrast) or their flags, there is no mistaking:

–Their antisemitic ideology (from the SSNP’s exhibition at the Damascus College of Fine Art: “Our struggle with the Jew [collective noun] is a struggle of existence not a struggle of borders,” i.e., it’s an existential struggle, not a geographical one).'

This Harry's Place article also reminds us of where the SSNP stood in the war between the Lebanese Army and others and the PLO in 1985:

'Jubin M. Goodarzi wrote in “Syria and Iran” (p. 152) that by the the summer of 1985, “the ceasefire could not have come sooner for the Palestinians, since they had almost run out of ammunition and had suffered enormously. More than 600 refugees were killed and 2500 wounded during the blockade.”

Oh dear. Participating in a war against Palestinians? Against Palestinian self-determination? Blockading Palestinian refugee camps? Sieges? No leftwinger with any sense of self-worth would go near a group such as that, let alone get photographed standing underneath their flags.

So much for Palestinian solidarity.'

The second Harry's Place article about Viva Palestina explains the links between Viva Palestina and Jordan (the Country not Katie Price) and especially the Jordanian Maysara Malas. Mr Malas seems a lovely chap:

'

“There will not be any normalisation with the Jewish state unless a Palestinian state is established from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

...

Malas called on the government to release Daqamseh, who is serving a life sentence and has 5 years left, “especially after all the threats the Zionist entity is constituting to the security and stability of Jordan.”

Ahmed Daqamseh is the Jordanian soldier who murdered seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.

What a fine partner Malas is for Viva Palestina.'

The other uncomfortable truth about Jordan is that it is the Palestinian State. It was set-up in 1929 on part of the land promised by the 1917 Balfour declaration for the 'establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people'. Here's a map of the Palestinian Mandate, can you see how it divides between what is now Israel and what is now Jordan?


Do remember that back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Remember also that on the same day Yasser Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn in 1993, he explained his actions on Jordan TV thus

"Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel."