Speaking at a press conference from Camp David yesterday, Obama praised the Camp David Accords signed in 1978 between then Egyptian president Anwar Sadat & Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin & brokered by US president Jimmy Carter–that born-again champion of the oppressed (yeah right!). According to Obama, the great master of deceit, the Accords were intended to bring peace between Israel & Palestinians.
Sadat & Begin both won the Nobel Peace Prize that year for this monumental betrayal not just of the Palestinians but of the Egyptian people. As a result of the Camp David Accords, the Egyptian regime turned its back on the Palestinians & allied with Israel. In reward for that betrayal, Egypt was armed to the teeth by the US Pentagon to defend Israel & against any movement for democracy within Egypt. We see the continuing results of that relationship in the military dictatorship & the reversal of the Egyptian uprising.
On Nakba Day 2015, we should acknowledge that justice for Palestinians & a democratic secular state where Jews & Palestinians can live in harmony will not derive from negotiations with the US. When the Oslo Accords (again brokered by the US) were signed in 1993, those who opposed them as the terms of Palestinian surrender were excoriated as fools. The Oslo Accords were “the best the Palestinians could do,” we were told. And that is absolutely irrefutable if you rely for justice on negotiations with the neoliberal forces who see Palestinians as an obstacle to plundering & controlling the Middle East.
Intifada, Palestinian political power is the way forward–not negotiations with war criminals. Palestinians can speak for themselves. BDS is vital to the process of strengthening Intifada & discrediting the role of US & European negotiators who are there for no other reason than to undermine Palestinian self-determination & prevent a democratic secular state from bringing peace & justice for all.
Long live Intifada! Take it international by building the economic & cultural boycott of Israel!