In October 2025, with the “mediation” of imaginary Nobel Peace Prize candidate Donald Trump, a cease-fire was ordered in Gaza. By the ceasefire we essentially mean the end of the daily bombardments and the possible total extermination of the Palestinian population. For Palestinians, this means a return to their inhumane, degrading and dangerous daily lives, with new challenges to face and new wounds to care for. For the solidarity movement, it rather means a return to the tepid engagement with the Palestinian issue that prevailed for several years prior to the 7/10/23 attack by the Palestinian resistance.
But Zionism will continue to exist and oppress the lives of thousands of Palestinians. First, we must describe Zionism in the right words, as a purely nationalist ideology. An ideology which over time was increasingly based on the myth of the “chosen people”, the people who, based on biblical claims, have every right to “claim” their promised land. Zionism, like any other nationalist ideology, places a certain population in a position of superiority over the rest, this time using not naturalized superiority but religious identity. Judaism is nationalized, secularized and creates a new settler colonialist entity. Israel, to ensure its existence, turns security into a priority, into a religion. A theology which combined with the biblical claim presents the violence it inflicts on the Palestinians as a necessity, normalizing their extermination and the de-Arabization of the region.
Israel’s settler colonialism is characterized, in contrast to the exploitation of the African population in South Africa by the Europeans, by continuous efforts to displace the local population and expropriate their land in order to establish and expand a settler-dominated society. The realization of this goal presupposes the securitization of Israeli society with the proliferation of occupying forces, violence, militarized surveillance. The politics of fear and security is used as an excuse to dehumanize the Palestinians. The dehumanization of the Palestinian as a subject stretches the limits and the means of extermination. Everything is possible and tolerable when it happens in the bodies of colonized – non-humans. Control, dominance over emotions and actions, pain, structural violence, oppression, humiliation.
Beyond the physical extermination, Israel has succeeded in taking away from the Palestinians the right to narrative. With the myth of democracy, the development of one of the most powerful lobbies in the world and the abuse of the Holocaust, for many years criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinian resistance was equated with anti-Semitism. Without “licensing” the Palestinian narrative, Zionism was not treated as a form of racism, a continuation of British colonialism in the region and a bridgehead, a military base of the West in the Middle East.
The condition that prevailed in recent years around the Palestinian is a result of the failure of the radical movements, the ineffectiveness of the international solidarity movements and the challenges of the Palestinian organizations that are the result of many factors. With self-criticism as a priority, we must understand the wrong tactic/thinking of ideological identification with internationalist solidarity. With the collapse of the USSR, the Palestinian resistance lost a military and ideological ally. This gap was covered by religious and/or secular initiatives in the national liberation struggle of the Palestinians – which until then had left-wing ideological bases. The parties or formations that stood in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle were so betrayed by the Soviet Union that when it collapsed they were dramatically affected. Losing the common point of reference, internationalist movements showed an inability to deal with religious societies and analyze the prevailing condition. Secondly, the fact that Israel managed to “talk” with the PLO by setting the conditions, combined with the integration of the PLO into the Palestinian Authority and the latter’s compromise with Israel, divided not only the solidarity movement but mainly the Palestinian resistance itself. And the prevalence of Islamophobia and anti-Arabism combined with the general prevalence of capitalism and neoliberalism (in the Western imperialist centers) turned the once radical movements of international solidarity into campaigns of charity and compassion (with few exceptions). Unfortunately, we failed to set the right goals, to promote the radical agendas of the Palestinians themselves, to speak openly about the Manichean aspect of the colonial world, the only two ways to complete settler colonialism (ethnic cleansing or victory) and the return of the Palestinian population to their lands.
Today’s reality appears more ominous. After three years of continuous attacks, genocide and famine, the Western movements failed to rise to the occasion. Of course, there were moments of climax and strong instant reactions, but we lost the big bet. Since we failed to exert pressure, capable of making support for Israel from each Western state costly (apart from a few exceptions where they recognized Palestine as a state), nor to create the necessary political cost to the government so that it is forced to fold its strategy, cutting off economic agreements and strategic support for Israel. The general retreat of the mass movements, the abortion of the sharpness of the aggressive initiatives, the penetration and internalization of the dominant ideology about a different value of human life, prevented the synthesis of an international dangerous solidarity movement. A typical example is the treatment of the persecution of European citizens members of the humanitarian aid that tried to reach Gaza. Within a few days, a massive solidarity movement was mobilized and created, a generalized outcry against the Israeli strategy due to the imprisonment of European citizens, while the physical extermination of the Palestinians three (and not only) years ago managed to make the same tension possible very few times.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire was somehow achieved. The Palestinians have every reason to celebrate the fact that after three years they will be able to sleep peacefully (as long as they can) – even in the rubble of their homes. They have every right to feel victorious since they have proven that belief in emancipation and self-determination is capable of revealing cracks even in the most seemingly barren regime. They have every right to believe that – once again – they carried the dignity of all humanity on their backs.
For us, on the other hand, it is not (yet) time for celebrations. For us the war is not over, we have no rubble to build, dead to bury, trees to plant. We in the Western Hemisphere must carry on for those who gave their all, giving them a chance to catch their breath while we do the long haul. Because we, from here, must create such pressure on the Western power centers that the ceasefire will be only the beginning. The Palestinians showed us the way. Our task now is to open it moving forward. And now it is us and our responsibilities. Responsibilities to a world born doomed to die. Responsibilities towards a world that experienced decades of racism and oppression on its body. Responsibilities towards a community that chose a lifestyle synonymous with struggle. Responsibilities to a community that has proven that resistance is not only a matter of ability but of will.
Palestine does not fit into average solutions. Palestine bore the weight of centuries of colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy. Palestine chose – again – the death of struggle over the death of extermination. And we, from our own destiny, must not leave them alone, continue the war for her and with her. Because revolutionary consciousnesses “resemble rebellion and hope”.
So let’s meet at the nationwide two-day solidarity actions with Palestine against the Souda base on 17 & 18/10, next to all the Palestinian men and women who fell fighting for the right to life. Next to our dead Lambros, Christos, Michalis, Kyriakos who fell fighting for the right to resistance. Next to those who were left behind, from an apartment in Ampelokipi to bloody Gaza to continue the fight on the one and only right side of history.
FREEDOM IN PALESTINE
VICTORY IN THE WEAPONS OF THE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
KYRIAKOS XYMITIRIS PRESENT
Marianna Manoura