18.03.26

Editorial Note

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement scheduled this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) for March 21 to 28, 2026, continuing a global campaign active for over two decades.

As stated by the BDS movement, the IAW “is a tool for mobilizing grassroots support on the global level for the Palestinian liberation struggle against Israel’s decades-long regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.” And that IAW “is a grassroots solidarity mechanism to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and to mobilize support for strategic BDS campaigns to end international complicity in this system of oppression as a meaningful contribution to dismantling it.”

The BDS movement is planning an IAW intersectional grassroots campaign “to dismantle Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.” The group intends “to escalate boycott and divestment campaigns and push harder for lawful sanctions against apartheid Israel, primarily a comprehensive military embargo and expulsion from the UNGA and international forums.”

In the United Kingdom, during the upcoming IAW, a Palestinian organization named Makan, dedicated to “Situating Palestine within the context of other human rights, social justice and global liberation movements,” is hosting an online workshop titled “Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy.”  It is scheduled for Tuesday, March 24, 2026, offering a “comprehensive understanding of apartheid, illustrating how Israel’s policies meet the legal definition of apartheid under international law. This workshop also aims to help activists develop a critical understanding of some of the limitations of the apartheid framework, and how to utilize it strategically alongside frameworks of settler colonialism and occupation in advocacy. ‘Framing Israeli Apartheid’ prioritizes lecturing, with opportunities for light interactivity and questions to the facilitators interspersed… This workshop is suitable for people who would like to build their core, foundational knowledge about Palestinian history and the Palestinian struggle, and to learn how to utilize this foundational knowledge to communicate effectively about Palestine to others.” Makan invites “student activists, trade unionists, social justice campaigners and journalists based in Britain & Ireland,” and supports advocates who are “passionately committed to cultivating a future for Palestinians built on freedom, justice, and dignity.”

So far, several events have already taken place. For example, at Canada’s Carleton University, the group Carleton SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) invited students to join a teach-in with Dr. Nahla Abdo on the “so-called ‘ceasefire,’ and its impact on the momentum of the movement. While media coverage has slowed, the violence and displacement have not. This teach-in will break down what’s really happening beyond the news cycle, and reflect on how global momentum for justice has shifted.” The event took place on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Richcraft RM 1200 at Carleton University.

Carleton SJP will soon host a book club: “Books Against Apartheid!” on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, inviting students to “Join us in taking a deep dive into the Palestinian struggle so that we can be better equipped in the actions we take for Palestinian liberation.” They will be reading chapters 1-3 of the book, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez A. Sayegh, published by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1965. The book presents Zionism within the framework of Western imperial expansion. 

As noted by the BDS movement, the IAW began operating in Canada in February 2005, by the Arab Students’ Collective at the University of Toronto. One month earlier, on January 21, 2005, Jewish media reported that the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD), a group advocating support for Israel, India, and minority rights within the Muslim world, protested plans by a coalition of Arab groups to hold Israeli Apartheid Week on the University of Toronto campus for a week starting on January 31, 2004. The CCD urged university donors and others to file complaints with the school’s governing council, albeit without success.

Interestingly, the first IAW was organized by the Institute for Women’s Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, which hosted speakers from the Arab Students Collective, the International Solidarity Movement, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, etc.

It is no coincidence that the IAW was initiated in Canada in February 2005. On February 1, 2005, an article titled “Abu Ammar: The Palestinian National Movement Personified,” written by Rafeef Ziadah and Ahmed Nimer, was published in the activist journal Leftturn: Notes from the Global Intifada. As stated in the article, the co-author Ziadah, together with Adam Hanieh and Hazem Jamjoum were active in a variety of groups in Toronto, Canada, including Al Awda (Toronto), Sumoud Political Prisoners Group, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, and the Arab Students Collective (University of Toronto) – the group behind the IAW. 

The article provides the background information on the days when the IAW was formed. It discussed the death, three months earlier, of Yasser Arafat, also known as Abu Ammar, on November 11, 2004. The article provides background and perspective on the Palestinian war against Israel. It states, “The PLO under his leadership became the symbol of Palestinian defiance and established that Palestinians were one people with a unified struggle. Arafat would often refer to the 1968 Battle of Karameh as an example of the Palestinian will to fight against superior odds. Though suffering enormous casualties, Palestinian fedayeen (fighters) managed to repel an Israeli invasion of their base in Jordan. Palestinians emerged from the battle as no longer solely victims of Israeli aggression, but as fighters engaged in resistance. Politically it galvanized the population, establishing the centrality of armed struggle in the Palestinian movement. Prior to Arafat’s leadership, the PLO was a moribund organization of self-serving Arab elites who preferred words to action. The Battle of Karameh and other fedayeen actions turned a displaced and dispersed nation of refugees into resistance fighters. Arafat’s contribution was to take Palestinian liberation out of the hands of Arab regimes and put Palestinians in charge of their own struggle.”

As the authors stressed, “During the years of guerrilla warfare the PLO had a strong and diverse leadership, which Israel (and the Arab regimes) worked consistently to destroy. The names of those assassinated in this period are still commemorated by Palestinians today: Ghassan Kanafani, Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad, Dalal Al Mughrabi amongst many others. Moreover, tens of thousands of martyrs gave their lives to the struggle during this time.”

The article states, “The actions of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon and elsewhere during the 1970s and 80s resisted this Zionist strategy.” 

According to the authors, “The central demand of the Palestinian national struggle – the demand that unifies the struggle and goes to the heart of Zionist colonization of Palestine – has always been the right of return of Palestinian refugees who were forced from their homes and lands in 1948 and onwards. While some of those currently manoeuvring for power in the Palestinian Authority – in particular Abu Mazen – have indicated that they may be willing to concede or negotiate the right of return, others have made it clear that this right will never be relinquished.”

They ended by stating, “Abu Ammar was not simply a leader of the Palestinian revolution he was also very much a product of that same revolutionary struggle. In many ways he was the last of the leaders born of the Arab nationalist upsurge of the 1960s. We should be proud that he died a captive enemy of the Israeli state. The greatest testimony that we can give to his memory is to continue the struggle to which he dedicated his life.”

The Israeli Apartheid Weeks are symbolic of the modus operandi of the Palestinian activists and their supporters. What we see is a repetitive listing of Israeli “sins” that is resurrected year after year, detached from the actual developments on the ground.  That this discourse is the preferred tactic is not surprising. It absolves the activists for contextualizing their narrative, pointing out the numerous and continuous policy failures of their leaders and the dependence of the Islamists, among them – Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – on the Iranians. Unless Palestinian activists and their supporters adopt a reality-based approach, they will continue to recycle the same fallacies without regard to changing conditions on the ground. Instead of focusing on Palestinian developments, they seek Israel’s destruction.

Israel Academia Monitor will continue to follow and report on these developments.

REFERENCES:

https://bdsmovement.net/iaw

OVERVIEW

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is a tool for mobilizing grassroots support on the global level for the Palestinian liberation struggle against Israel’s decades-long regime of settler colonialism and apartheid. It is a grassroots solidarity mechanism to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and to mobilize support for strategic BDS campaigns to end international complicity in this system of oppression as a meaningful contribution to dismantling it. 

INTRO 

With effective, intersectional grassroots campaigning, we can build people power to dismantle Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid. This year, pick your IAW starting March 21st to escalate boycott and divestment campaigns and push harder for lawful sanctions against apartheid Israel, primarily a comprehensive military embargo and expulsion from the UNGA and international forums. 

This IAW, let’s not just educate about Israeli apartheid! Let’s take meaningful steps towards supporting the ongoing Palestinian struggle to dismantle it. This March is a march for justice, freedom, and equality, a march for ending genocide and apartheid.

Fill out this form to register your IAW event with the International Coordinating Committee of IAW. Stay tuned for IAW program updates. 

All Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) activities must adhere to the BDS movement’s anti-racist principles and respect its affiliation guidelines.

ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK (IAW) 2026: IAW BACK ON CAMPUSES WORLDWIDE

March 21 – 28 and beyond | Palestine Frees Us All

This year, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is returning to its roots on campuses around the world, 21 years after the first IAW event at the University of Toronto, Canada. IAW’s original goals were to expose Israel’s apartheid, connect the Palestinian liberation struggle with other struggles against oppression, and build support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement. These goals are now more important than ever in the face of Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. 

The US imperialist aggression in Venezuela and across the Global South, even its threat to “capture” territory controlled by its NATO allies, shows that the ongoing US-Israeli livestreamed genocide in Gaza is only the first “experiment” to introduce a new might-makes-right era globally. Building a global, intersectional wave of resistance to all forms of oppression, racism, colonialism, and apartheid has therefore become an existential need, not just a moral duty. 

For this IAW, we are counting on the campus movement, which has played a vital role in our struggle, as the global campus mobilizations calling for boycotting and divesting from Israel have shown. In the face of unprecedented repression on many campuses, particularly in the West, we support calls by students, academics and staff to take back the campus and stand on the right side of history. Anti-war campus actions were instrumental in the struggles against the US genocidal wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as against the apartheid regime in South Africa, among others.

For 21 years, IAW has grown to be crucial for building grassroots BDS campaigning  thanks to efforts on campuses and beyond. Intersectional mobilizations with students, racial, Indigenous, climate, socio-economic, and gender justice movements, faith communities, trade unions, and others around the world have enriched and empowered our movement. We salute the commitment of all people of conscience globally, especially in the deeply complicit colonial West, to standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to end the US-Israeli genocide and dismantle Israel’s underlying, 77-year-old regime of settler-colonial apartheid. We encourage you all to organize IAW activities to amplify the call for Palestinian liberation in your communities.

IAW will launch on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21st, 2026 and will include Palestinian Land Day on March 30th going into April in different parts of the world. This year’s theme is “Palestine Frees Us All.”

ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK (IAW) ORGANIZING GUIDE

Organizing guide, resources, and impact.

A. Background

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) began in Toronto, Canada, in February 2005. Organized by the Arab Students’ Collective at the University of Toronto, it was a great success, with capacity-filled events that attracted media attention around the world. IAW spread to other Canadian cities in 2006, and by 2013, it had grown to more than 200 cities worldwide.

Initially just taking place on university campuses, IAW events are now organized globally by racial, Indigenous, social, economic, and gender justice movements, faith communities, trade unions, and solidarity networks, among others. IAW is a key part of the international BDS movement for Palestinian rights.

Israeli Apartheid Week has two main goals:

• Raising awareness about Israel’s ongoing regime of occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid over the Palestinian people. Israel’s regime meets the definition of apartheid under international law, as now recognized by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and UN experts, not to mention Palestinian human rights organizations, among others. The BDS movement has always recognized apartheid as an integral manifestation and tool of Israeli settler colonialism, highlighting the role of Zionism at the core of this regime. IAW uses this framework to make historical and concrete connections with other struggles against racism, discrimination, colonialism, and oppression. There are more resources about this framework in Section F.
• Building support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement. 19 years since its launch, the BDS movement is now widely recognized by Palestinians, the solidarity movement, and even by Israel and its anti-Palestinian lobby as a key form of pressure to hold Israel to account and end international state, corporate, and institutional complicity with its regime of apartheid and settler-colonialism.

B. How to Participate

To be listed on the global calendar, all IAW activities must conform to the BDS movement’s anti-racist principles and respect its affiliation guidelines. To register your events for IAW 2026, please fill out this form!

NOTE: Registering through the form does not automatically list your event/activity on the website; it will be vetted according to the BDS guidelines above.

• Listing your events at bdsmovement.net/iaw
  One of our essential shared resources is the IAW webpage, where events worldwide are listed. Once you have registered, your event will be vetted by the IAW International Coordinating Committee (IAW ICC) and then uploaded to the global calendar forthcoming on the website. This means people in your local community will be able to find your event easily.
• Share your events and actions online! #IsraeliApartheidWeek
  Please share your organizing with the wider movement worldwide. Take photos and videos, write short reports, and share them all using the hashtags #IsraeliApartheidWeek, #DismantleApartheid, #GazaGenocide and #UnitedAgainstRacism. We’ll be sharing on social media on the accounts:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsraeliApartheidWeek.IAW
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/apartheidweek
  • Instagram: https://instagram.com/israeli_apartheid_week 

C. IAW Call 2026

This year, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is returning to its roots on campuses around the world, 21 years after the first IAW event at the University of Toronto, Canada. IAW’s original goals were to expose Israel’s apartheid, connect the Palestinian liberation struggle with other struggles against oppression, and build support for the Palestinian-led BDS movement. These goals are now more important than ever in the face of Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. 

The US imperialist aggression in Venezuela and across the Global South, even its threat to “capture” territory controlled by its NATO allies, shows that the ongoing US-Israeli livestreamed genocide in Gaza is only the first “experiment” to introduce a new might-makes-right era globally. Building a global, intersectional wave of resistance to all forms of oppression, racism, colonialism, and apartheid has therefore become an existential need, not just a moral duty. 

For this IAW, we are counting on the campus movement, which has played a vital role in our struggle, as the global campus mobilizations calling for boycotting and divesting from Israel have shown. In the face of unprecedented repression on many campuses, particularly in the West, we support calls by students, academics and staff to take back the campus and stand on the right side of history. Anti-war campus actions were instrumental in the struggles against the US genocidal wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as against the apartheid regime in South Africa, among others.

For 21 years, IAW has grown to be crucial for building grassroots BDS campaigning  thanks to efforts on campuses and beyond. Intersectional mobilizations with students, racial, Indigenous, climate, socio-economic, and gender justice movements, faith communities, trade unions, and others around the world have enriched and empowered our movement. We salute the commitment of all people of conscience globally, especially in the deeply complicit colonial West, to standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to end the US-Israeli genocide and dismantle Israel’s underlying, 77-year-old regime of settler-colonial apartheid. We encourage you all to organize IAW activities to amplify the call for Palestinian liberation in your communities.

IAW will launch on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21st, 2026 and will include Palestinian Land Day on March 30th going into April in different parts of the world. This year’s theme is “Palestine Frees Us All.”

D. Organizing Ideas and Inspiration

Amid Israel’s unfolding genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, let’s not just educate about apartheid, let’s also take meaningful steps toward supporting the ongoing Palestinian struggle to end Israel’s #GazaGenocide and dismantle its regime of settler colonial apartheid. 

This year’s IAW will be the most important since IAW was launched 19 years ago.

• Let’s peacefully and responsibly disrupt* the system of military relations, funding, propaganda, diplomatic shielding, repression, and whitewashing that enables Israel to continue exterminating Palestinians and wiping our cities, villages, and refugee camps off the map. 

– People with precarious residency status should be encouraged not to participate.

Below are some concrete examples of targets that your group could organize its peaceful disruption (sit-ins, occupations, etc.) against:

1. Highways, airports, train stations, iconic sites, etc. 
2. Factories, outlets, or branches of companies complicit with Israeli apartheid, especially those arming its genocide or otherwise complicit in its regime of apartheid. 
3. Parliaments, government buildings, universities, and other complicit institutions.
4. Ports where ships involved in arming and enabling Israeli apartheid and genocide dock.
5. Media corporations that amplify anti-Palestinian racism and dehumanizing propaganda.

Some points to consider when planning your peaceful disruptive actions: 

1. Choose the most complicit targets against which such action may be effective in your context.
2. Set points of unity and clear, strategic objectives that your action can help achieve. 
3. Carry out a risk assessment prior to your action and ensure activists are well prepared for every likely scenario. Consulting movement lawyers beforehand is always advised!
4. Create a safe space for people joining your actions. Share the information with trusted people only. 
5. Make sure your demands and messages are clearly formulated and designed to reach the widest audience possible:  a creative communication strategy that includes both social media and traditional media is a must. 
6. Stay principled and strategic: know when to stop the action and be clear about the lines you don’t want to cross collectively.
7. Build connections with other justice movements, especially trade unions.
    

• Let’s build campaign milestones and mobilize for new BDS campaigns. 

The BDS movement uses the historically successful method of targeted boycotts inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the US Civil Rights movement, and the Indian anti-colonial struggle, among others worldwide. 

We must strategically focus on a relatively smaller number of carefully selected companies and products for maximum impact. 

Below are concrete goals your group can organize for:

1. Start a new BDS campaign. Please consult the list of the BDS-targeted companies profiting from the genocide of the Palestinian people and Israeli apartheid, or select new targets that make sense in your context and meet the BDS movement’s selection criteria for new campaigns. 
2. Raise awareness around you about Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid and work with your community/center/workplace/trade union/organization to declare themselves an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ) or an Apartheid Free Community (US) during this month of March. A toolkit and a checklist are available. 
3. If not done yet, convince your city council/trade union/cultural or academic institution to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and lifting the siege and cut existing complicit ties with apartheid Israel during this month of March! 

The Origins of Israeli Apartheid Week

Where did it all start? Let’s take a look back and take inspiration from IAW’s origin story.

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https://www.makan.org.uk/event/framing-israeli-apartheid-uses-and-limitations-for-palestine-advocacy-online/

Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy (Online)

March 24 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

‘Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy’

This online workshop for Israeli Apartheid Week offers a comprehensive understanding of apartheid, illustrating how Israel’s policies meet the legal definition of apartheid under international law. This workshop also aims to help activists develop a critical understanding of some of the limitations of the apartheid framework, and how to utilise it strategically alongside frameworks of settler colonialism and occupation in advocacy.

• ‘Framing Israeli Apartheid’ prioritises lecturing, with opportunities for light interactivity and questions to the facilitators interspersed.

Who Is This Workshop For?

This workshop is suitable for people who would like to build their core, foundational knowledge about Palestinian history and the Palestinian struggle, and to learn how to utilise this foundational knowledge to communicate effectively about Palestine to others.

As an organisation our primary focus is to work with student activists, trade unionists, social justice campaigners and journalists based in Britain & Ireland. We do also encourage applications from other individuals who are:

• Active and engaged with Palestine outside Britain & Ireland
• Involved with other social justice struggles/human rights struggles looking to start/get more involved in Palestine
• Diaspora Palestinians and Palestinians based abroad or planning to study/work abroad

Apply here to secure your spot

Details

• Date: March 24
• Time: 6:30 pm-8:30 pm
• Website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVq71fcj78Y2Mojqw4_V6sZqTJyCvJPKpOx0hbblnHxBWAZQ/viewform

Makan – Online Workshop Application – ‘Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy’  for Israeli Apartheid Week  –  Tuesday 24 March 2026, 6.30pm to 8.30pm GMT 

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

• ‘Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy’ (Tuesday 24 March, 6.30 to 8.30pm GMT) – Deadline: Wednesday 18 March, 6pm (GMT)

About the workshop:

‘Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy’

This workshop for Israeli Apartheid Week offers a comprehensive understanding of apartheid, illustrating how Israel’s policies meet the legal definition of apartheid under international law. This workshop also aims to help activists develop a critical understanding of some of the limitations of the apartheid framework, and how to utilise it strategically alongside frameworks of settler colonialism and occupation in advocacy.

• ‘Framing Israeli Apartheid’ prioritises lecturing, with opportunities for light interactivity and questions to the facilitators interspersed. 

Who Is This Workshop For?

This workshop is suitable for people who would like to build their core, foundational knowledge about Palestinian history and the Palestinian struggle, and to learn how to utilise this foundational knowledge to communicate effectively about Palestine to others. 

As an organisation our primary focus is to work with student activists, trade unionists, social justice campaigners and journalists based in Britain & Ireland. We do also encourage applications from other individuals who are:

• Active and engaged with Palestine outside Britain & Ireland
• Involved with other social justice struggles/human rights struggles looking to start/get more involved in Palestine
• Diaspora Palestinians and Palestinians based abroad or planning to study/work abroad

About Makan:
Makan is an independent, non-partisan organisation dedicated to intersectional learning. Our approach is grounded in a belief that education is a liberatory act that can lay the ground for structural change. Situating Palestine within the context of other human rights, social justice and global liberation movements, we work towards transformation by adopting educational approaches that capture the history of the Palestinian struggle and the realities on the ground. We aim to support advocates as part of a community that is not only well-informed, interconnected, and empowered, but passionately committed to cultivating a future for Palestinians built on freedom, justice, and dignity.

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Carleton SJP

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Starting Tuesday, March 24th at 6pm, SJP will be hosting its first ever book club: Books Against Apartheid!

Join us in taking a deep dive into the Palestinian struggle so that we can be better equipped in the actions we take for Palestinian liberation.

Register using the link in bio!

Download book using the link in bio!

 March 24, 2026

 6:00PM

RB 3228

 Chapters 1-3 of Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez A. Sayegh, download link in bio

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Carleton SJP

 ·

Join us on day  of IAW for Pali Expo!! a space to explore Palestinian culture, community initiatives, and ongoing advocacy. Come connect, learn, and engage with meaningful conversations and resources.

 Friday, March 6th

 12-4pm

Nideyinan Galleria

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Carleton SJP

 ·

Join us on day  of IAW for a teach-in with Ashton Starr on Linux, which is a free, open-source operating system. Learn about the reasons behind boycotting Microsoft and how easy it is to switch to the more ethical Linux.

Ashton is the Operations Manager at @the.leveller.ottawa and is currently in the bookkeeping and accounting program at Algonquin College.

Thursday, March 5th

 6:30 PM

Patterson Hall 115

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Carleton SJP

 ·

Join us on day  of IAW for a teach-in with Dr. Nahla on the so-called “ceasefire”, and its impact on the momentum of the movement. While media coverage has slowed, the violence and displacement have not.

This teach-in will break down what’s really happening beyond the news cycle, and reflect on how global momentum for justice has shifted. Our voices and organizing still matter now more than ever!

Wednesday, March 4th

 3PM

Richcraft RM1200

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https://leftturn.org/abu-ammar-palestinian-national-movement-personified/

Abu Ammar: The Palestinian National Movement Personified

By: 

 Rafeef Ziadah and Ahmed Nimer

Date Published: 

 February 01, 2005

The stunned disbelief and grief of Palestinians from around the world that greeted his death provide testament to his charismatic and iconic status. The modern Palestinian national movement is inextricably linked to his figure. The PLO under his leadership became the symbol of Palestinian defiance and established that Palestinians were one people with a unified struggle. Arafat would often refer to the 1968 Battle of Karameh as an example of the Palestinian will to fight against superior odds. Though suffering enormous casualties, Palestinian fedayeen (fighters) managed to repel an Israeli invasion of their base in Jordan. Palestinians emerged from the battle as no longer solely victims of Israeli aggression, but as fighters engaged in resistance. Politically it galvanized the population, establishing the centrality of armed struggle in the Palestinian movement. Prior to Arafat’s leadership, the PLO was a moribund organization of self-serving Arab elites who preferred words to action. The Battle of Karameh and other fedayeen actions turned a displaced and dispersed nation of refugees into resistance fighters. Arafat’s contribution was to take Palestinian liberation out of the hands of Arab regimes and put Palestinians in charge of their own struggle. Peasants to revolutionaries One of the key elements of Zionist strategy has always been the atomisation of the Palestinian nation into disparate groups, each facing different political situations and capacities to struggle. Like all colonialist projects, Zionism attempted not just to displace the indigenous Palestinian population, but also to destroy any sense of a cohesive Palestinian national identity. As one example, Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and threatened up to 10 years imprisonment for anyone displaying it. The actions of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon and elsewhere during the 1970s and 80s resisted this Zionist strategy. Illegal broadcasts from the Voice of Palestine radio station and other banned publications brought news of the struggle to those who remained inside historic Palestine. Palestinians turned from “peasants to revolutionaries” (as an excellent book by Rosemary Sayigh on the period describes it). Arafat led this movement for forty years. It was, however, much broader than him alone. During the years of guerrilla warfare the PLO had a strong and diverse leadership, which Israel (and the Arab regimes) worked consistently to destroy. The names of those assassinated in this period are still commemorated by Palestinians today: Ghassan Kanafani, Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad, Dalal Al Mughrabi amongst many others. Moreover, tens of thousands of martyrs gave their lives to the struggle during this time. The Oslo disaster After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the PLO’s exile to Tunis, faced with the weakening of support following the collapse of the USSR and the first US invasion of Iraq, Arafat committed to what many regard as his greatest mistake – the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. While initially greeted with optimism by many on the ground, it quickly became clear that this was the culmination of an Israeli strategy to set up a system of Palestinian bantustans governed by a Palestinian leadership beholden to Israeli political and economic largesse. Palestinians would be given the fig leaf of autonomy, but real control would lie with the Israeli government. Central to this process was the rampant corruption that spread throughout the Palestinian Authority. Contrary to the Zionist apologetics that feign concern for the “stolen billions of the Palestinian people”, Israel vigorously promoted the systemic corruption that accompanied the Oslo agreements. Israel deliberately fostered economic agreements where certain Palestinian businessman linked to the Palestinian Authority were granted privileged access to Israeli markets and goods. In addition, a permit system was established where Israel used a carrot-and-stick approach to ensure cooperation with the Israeli occupation. Man of peace It was during this period that Arafat was embraced by Israel and the imperialist powers as a man of “peace”. Under his leadership the Palestinian Authority arrested political opponents from the left and Islamic movements and signed a series of disastrous agreements with Israel. With the West Bank and Gaza Strip cut off from one another, movement restrictions enforced by Israeli checkpoints and permits, and no independent economic development, Palestinians became reliant upon the Palestinian Authority for livelihood and income. Ministries were characterized by rampant nepotism with loyalties guaranteed through preferential access to the minister or other people in power. Arafat was completely aware of this corruption and in many cases encouraged it to take place. In 1996, while meeting with Birzeit University students who were protesting corruption, he uttered a phrase that he was to repeat often to those who asked him about the matter, “When walking through mud it is better to wear dirty boots.” Arafat himself though, lived a frugal and modest life. He never displayed wealth or concerned himself with material possessions for self-gain. His life was completely absorbed with the Palestinian struggle and he worked tirelessly on every detail of that struggle. His leadership style was open in the sense that he was always meeting with delegations and individuals from around the country. He would personally address the concerns of individuals who came to see him. TV footage would often show a large pile of papers stacked next to him – authorizations awaiting his individual approval. Complicated political terrain While his methods of rule often provoked complaint and controversy within the PLO, Arafat’s leadership was, in many ways, itself a product of trying to forge national unity amongst a body of diverse forces. Navigating a complicated political terrain of different political factions, Arab governments, and the demands from within his own political movement, Fatah, Arafat was able to retain leadership and ensure loyalty. While this centralization of power was often criticized by Palestinians, it is not a simple question of ‘democracy’ as many foreign observers argued. Arafat held together a movement that was composed of a variety of wildly contradictory forces. An old saying in Palestine states that “Fatah can be any color you want,” meaning that any political persuasion could find a home in Fatah. In this environment, Arafat performed the Herculean task of keeping this movement together, broadly centred on the goal of a Palestinian state. The two sides of Fatah It is this contradictory character of Fatah that explains the wide variety of assessments that have been made of Arafat’s life. On the one hand, Fatah represents a genuine commitment to national liberation, a willingness to sacrifice and fight using all means available. It is this side of Fatah that the Palestinian people were mourning in the days following Arafat’s death. It holds an integral and proud position in Palestinian history, beginning with the early days of guerrilla struggle led by Arafat and other Palestinian leaders in the early 1960s. The other side of Fatah is the face of corruption and willingness to relinquish the long-held goals of the Palestinian struggle. Rumours abound in Palestine over those who are now jockeying for power in the Palestinian Authority and their personal and commercial connections with the Israeli government. Some of these rumours have even received official acknowledgement with the Palestinian Legislative Council calling for an official inquiry into Palestinian companies associated with figures in the Palestinian Authority that have sold cement to Israel that was then used to construct the Apartheid Wall. Even more pressing than the business connections between Israel and individuals in the Palestinian Authority is the question of political negotiations. The central demand of the Palestinian national struggle – the demand that unifies the struggle and goes to the heart of Zionist colonization of Palestine – has always been the right of return of Palestinian refugees who were forced from their homes and lands in 1948 and onwards. While some of those currently manoeuvring for power in the Palestinian Authority – in particular Abu Mazen – have indicated that they may be willing to concede or negotiate the right of return, others have made it clear that this right will never be relinquished. The armed wing of Fatah, Kataeb Shuhada Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) for example, has made it very clear that their support for the next leader of Fatah would depend centrally on this question. These are the issues that divide Fatah, very broadly speaking, into two camps. Arafat cleverly balanced these two sides of Fatah, as well as the countless individuals and other political factions. While many saw this tension as a preparedness to sign away Palestinian rights, Arafat – despite the many bad agreements that bore his consent – did not cross the ‘red lines’ of refugees and Jerusalem. During the Camp David negotiations in early 2000, many Palestinians feared that these lines would be crossed. Demonstrations and protests across the West Bank and Gaza Strip gave voice to this fear. Arafat, however, refused the Camp David agreement despite the fact that he was meeting under the auspices of the central imperialist power, the US government, which was fully expecting him to sign. The current Intifada It was this refusal that led directly to the current Intifada and Israel’s attempt to militarily impose what they were unable to achieve through negotiations. At many points during the Intifada, most notably the meeting at Taba in early 2001 and later the Mitchell Commission and Tenet Plan, it seemed that the Palestinian Authority might crack-down on its population and end the Intifada. In all of these cases, after a few cosmetic arrests, Arafat refused to play the role of Israel’s gendarme in the West Bank. It was this refusal that earned him isolation from the various imperialist powers and the appellation of “arch terrorist.” Just a few years earlier, after signing the Oslo agreements and appearing to accede to the cantonization plan, he was lauded with the Nobel Peace prize. Israel, the US and Arab regimes such as Egypt and Jordan tried desperately to entice Arafat into halting the Intifada. Jordan and Egypt both promised assistance in training a repressive internal security force. The CIA and Israel also guaranteed economic and technical support. At the end of the day Arafat chose to resist this pressure. Instead, he continued to give quiet support to those who were engaged in resistance activities. This choice had an enormous effect on the direction of the Intifada. It is the reason that Abu Ammar died under Israeli siege as a captive in his headquarters rather than being lauded on the world stage. Following Arafat’s death The situation following Arafat’s death indicates this legacy. Israel remains desperate to find a Palestinian leader willing and able to police the population. This is a much more difficult task today than it was just a few years ago because of the increased strength of the opposition factions and the strong resistance current within Fatah itself. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have all called for the formation of a national unity leadership that would steer the day-to-day tasks of the Intifada and formulate negotiation strategy. This option would vastly strengthen the Palestinian movement and take decision-making out of the hands of the Palestinian Authority. In all revolutions, individual personalities can embody contradictory historical forces. Particularly in cases of national liberation struggles of the south, simple cut-and-dry characterizations obscure the richness and complexity of historical detail. Abu Ammar was not simply a leader of the Palestinian revolution he was also very much a product of that same revolutionary struggle. In many ways he was the last of the leaders born of the Arab nationalist upsurge of the 1960s. We should be proud that he died a captive enemy of the Israeli state. The greatest testimony that we can give to his memory is to continue the struggle to which he dedicated his life. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Adam Hanieh, Hazem Jamjoum, and Rafeef Ziadah are active in a variety of groups in Toronto, Canada, including Al Awda (Toronto), Sumoud Political Prisoners Group, the Arab Students Collective (University of Toronto), and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. Ahmed Nimer is a Palestinian activist in Toronto, Canada. He is a member of Sumoud Political Prisoners Solidarity Group, http://sumoud.tao.ca

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News Brief

News Brief

January 21, 2005

See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date

Activists in Toronto are protesting plans by a coalition of Arab groups to hold Israeli Apartheid Week on the University of Toronto campus. The Canadian Coalition for Democracies is urging university donors and others to complain to the school’s governing council. Representatives from the Arab Students Collective, International Solidarity Movement, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and other groups are scheduled to speak during the week-long event, which has been promoted by the university’s Institute for Women’s Studies and Gender Studies and is slated to begin Jan. 31.