Ghassan Kanafani

The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine

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It is the colonized against the colonizer in its fullest and most rigorous definition, one that considers the full complexity of class exploitation and class relations, national oppression, and the geopolitical correlation of forces; the colonized against a colonizer that wields the might of imperialism's unconditional support. Only with this clarity of analysis can we correctly assess the true obstacles confronting the Palestinian cause, which along with the Zionist colonial project include the Arab landowning and ruling classes inside Palestine and across the region, the British, and, now more than ever, the United States and its imperialist project of global hegemony. And only with this clarity can we correctly assess the forces of resistance, which include the Palestinian peasant class, the landless, the workers, the intellectuals and artists who take the side of the proletariat, the Arab masses and their organizations, socialist and communist parties, and the international working class positioned against imperialism in all contexts and forms.

With this clarity, Kanafani guides us to resist the isolation of the Palestinian cause as simply an issue for the Palestinians alone, or for the Arab states alone. When Zionism is understood as an imperialist project in its origin and its agenda, it becomes an enemy of all of humanity, and the Palestinian cause a banner for all of humanity.

In fact, this was not a random, unexpected, or even unintended result of an otherwise meticulously drawn up plan. On the contrary, the Zionist leadership was fully aware of the consequences from the start.

Decades earlier, Theodor Herzl himself had stated that "we must seize the privately held lands in the areas allocated to us from the landowners. The poorer inhabitants must be quietly moved beyond the borders by securing work for them in the countries to which they will relocate; we will deny them employment in our country. As for the landlords, they will join our ranks." The Histadrut offers a clear formulation of the reality: "to allow the Arabs access to the Jewish labor market would mean that Jewish capital would be directed toward Arab development, and against Zionist objectives. Moreover, employment of Arabs in Jewish industry will lead to class divisions in Palestine along racial lines:

Jews as capitalists using Arabs as laborers. We would thereby recreate in Palestine the same unnatural conditions that lead to the emergence of anti-Semitism in the Diaspora."

A pamphlet distributed by the Communist Party's Executive Committee that same day stated that "Jewish workers live among you. They did not come here to oppress you but to live with you, and they are ready to fight alongside you against those moneyed enemies, be they Jewish, Arab or English... If the holders of wealth incite you against Jewish workers to secure themselves against your retaliations, will you allow yourself to continually take the bait? The Jewish worker, a soldier in the revolution, has come to join his arms with yours as a comrade in the resistance against the English, Jewish and Arab capitalists... we call on you to fight the rich who have sold the country and its people to the for-eigners. Down with the English and French lances, down with the Arabs and foreigners amassing fortunes...."35 What is astonishing in this long statement is not its abstract and fantastical analysis of the struggle, but also the fact that the word "Zionist" is completely absent in the text.

In other words, the pamphlet completely avoided mention of the very thing that posed the danger felt by the Arab worker and peasant on a daily basis, the same danger likely felt by the fifty-five "Jewish" communists beaten up by the Zionists of Tel Aviv that morning.

The small and middle peasants were battered by such policies. The resulting impoverishment and land loss were seriously aggravated by Zionist practices embodied in the slogans of "exclusively Jewish labor" and "buy only Jewish products." Further compounding this immiseration was not only that it led Jewish agricultural and industrial employers to hire exclusively Jewish laborers and pay them higher wages, those higher costs of production were born by lower and middle Palestinian classes in the form of higher prices on an array of essential goods. The campaign for the Hebraization of production encouraged Jewish inhabitants to choose Jewish-produced goods over lower priced Arab alternatives.

Abject poverty, crushing oppression, and centuries of class and national repression combined to establish the “perfect system” for defeatism, fatalism and political quieticism that was reflected in the most widespread, popular proverbs and sayings. It was up to the Palestinian intellectuals, and especially the popular poets in the countryside, to face the massive challenge of altering the culture of subservience while themselves still under the influence. In truth, a group of Palestinian intellectuals strove to do just that from the earliest stages of Palestinian struggle, playing an important role in forming a progressive consciousness. The resulting relationship between both the vernacular popular poetry and the struggle was not one of mere description and documentation, but a deeply dialectical one.

“If only a leader of ours would fast Like Ghandi, for his fast might do good

He won't abstain from food; in Palestine a leader dies if it weren't for his food

A spot he can save to rest his bones.” 

Yusuf al-Isa in a 1920 issue of al-Nafa'is stated: "Palestine is Arab, Arab through its Muslims, Arab through its Christians, Arab in its patriotic Jews. On what basis does the Zionist foreigner sell it off... the storms of Palestine will not quiet if it is severed from Syria and rendered a national home for Zionism...."

According to one well-known Qassamist, al-Qassam devised his strategy as one that would unfold in four stages: first, psychological preparation and spreading revolutionary spirit; second, the establishment of secret groups; third, the formation of committees, each with a particular task such as collecting donations, purchasing arms, military training, security and espionage, propaganda and infor-mation, and political communications; fourth, armed revolt.

It was turning back the clock that would prove impossible. Al-Qassam's movement was the expression of the natural form that would be able to decisively remedy the swelling contradiction. It did not take long before different committees and formations began to proliferate.

The traditional leaders now had to choose between standing in the way of the rising tide of the popular will to fight, or to try and somehow absorb the flood by positioning themselves as its ossified bowsprits.

At no point in the entire history of the Palestinian struggle was the armed popular revolution as close to victory as it was in those months stretching from the end of 1937 to the beginning of 1939. The British military's hold over Palestine was severely weakened, and the colonizer's prestige had plummeted to new depths of ignominy. The high esteem with which the masses held up the revolution became the primary force across the country. As a result, British decision makers hardened in their conviction that they had to depend on Zionist military force if Britain wanted long term control over the situation.

The Zionists had, after all, created conditions unique among Britain's colonies by offering itself as a local force sharing common cause with British colonial objectives, fully charged and mobilized against the indigenous population.

The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine quotes

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