Desperate Attempt to Declare Palestinian Right of Return, Right to Self-Defence and Nationhood Illegal

Sandra L. Smith

With the Annapolis Conference, all indications are that the U.S. is engaged in yet another desperate attempt to establish the framework to declare the Palestinian resistance unlawful and by virtue of that, declare the Zionist occupation and all the violations of Palestinian rights "lawful." This is the aim of the Anglo-American imperialist-Zionist discussions on a two-nation state. For the champions of Palestinian rights it is clear that so long as a Zionist state of Israel pursues its illegal aims to take over all of Palestine, neither a single two-nation state nor a two-state solution are possible. Both a modern two-nation state and two lawful modern states are possible if constituted for purposes of recognizing the rights of all on a modern basis. But this is not the raison d'être of the Zionist state of Israel nor the intention of its Anglo-American imperialist backers. The Zionist project is not premised on the recognition of Palestinian rights. Even though the creation of the state of Israel was conditional on their recognition it has since then lived an illegal existence due to its refusal to do so. No amount of processes or negotiations organized by the perpetrators of unlawful and criminal activities or those who conciliate with them will make the Zionists or the imperialists seek anything except to further their unlawful and criminal cause.

In this vein, the Annapolis conference is taking place after a string of repeated failures to crush the Palestinian resistance and insistence on their right of return and to determine their own institutions and representatives. It has nothing to do with kicking off a new peace process if the word peace is to have any meaning premised on recognizing all nations big or small as equal. Anything short of recognizing the Palestinian right to be will only further exacerbate the crisis in which the Israeli Zionists and U.S. imperialists are mired and prolong the suffering of the Palestinian people as well as that of the Israelis and other Arab peoples.

The Annapolis Conference has no intention of establishing a peace of the brave but a "peace" established in the worst Anglo-American imperialist tradition. In the name of upholding Anglo-American values called "peace, order and good government," the demand to establish democratic institutions based on them is anachronistic and the major ideological and social block to development in the region. These institutions were defined in the 19th century when the British empire-builders crushed through fire and sword the rebellions in their colonies, and this they called peace. They then "reasonably accommodated" those who agreed to be integrated into their institutions of "good government" and called it "self-rule." This included establishing police forces and a judiciary capable of suppressing any internal forces which rebelled against them, and this they called order.

The Annapolis Conference is the latest desperate attempt to extinguish the Palestinian nation on the basis of these imperialist values and institutions. No path to progress can be opened today on the basis of these imperialist values and the institutions based on them. Whatever is cooked up by this conference will only cause more suffering and further exacerbate the danger posed to world peace as a result of the U.S. imperialist striving to control the Middle East.

Sandra L. Smith is National Leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada.