Marking the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, 2018 was a terrible year for Palestinians as they faced the Trump-Netanyahu duo. The blockade and live ammunition used against protesters in the Great Return Marches in Gaza; the repression, unrelenting settlement expansion, and settler violence; all of these were endured by Palestinians on a daily basis, while Washington moved its embassy to Jerusalem and the egregious “Nation-State” law passed in the Knesset.
But the Palestinians swung into action, and even Trump himself, with his “Deal of the Century”, was thwarted. Khan Al-Ahmar resisted, in unity, and stood firm against Israel’s bulldozers.
To all our Palestinian friends: we wish to express our admiration for your resistance and your courage, our commitment to your upcoming victories in 2019 in the fight for your rights, and our hope for a return to unity.
With the Israeli elections looming, rife with potential for one-upmanship and the threats that may follow, we must defend the voices of those who defend justice.
To all our Israeli friends, those who are sincerely fighting the occupation and colonization, to those who defend all the rights of the Palestinian people, we send our best wishes for success on the promising path that you represent.
Under these circumstances, clear signals, however long overdue, are what France must send to the Israeli government: recognition of the entirety of the State of Palestine as defined by its pre-1967 borders; banning of settlement products; reaffirmation of the right of return of Palestinian refugees; and sanctions to enforce international law.
This is what we expect from the French authorities; we wish them the political courage necessary to face those forces that tolerate fait accompli and those who give way to ‘might makes right’.
In 2019, we will be on the offensive, along with our partners, and we are determined to score points. We will be on the ground with all our campaigns, including BDS, and we will never miss a chance to challenge our elected officials, our government, and the President of the French Republic.
We send our best wishes to all our activists and supporters, to our partners in the French National Collective, the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, invested elected officials, and all those who take action for Palestine: let’s stay mobilized, together.
We will also be on the offensive to protect freedom of speech, following yet another attempt to impose the adoption of the "IHRA definition" of anti-Semitism, whose sole purpose is to silence criticism of Israeli policy. We will not allow the State of Israel to threaten our freedoms in order to mask the crimes it commits against the Palestinian people.
To the press, we send our best wishes and the strength to refuse the censoring powers of fear and smear campaigns. We reach out to all people of conscience, who know that there is no alternative, anywhere on this planet, to recognizing "the Other". Let’s defeat the dark forces of fear and intimidation; it starts in 2019, and it starts now.
The AFPS Executive Board
2 January 2019
Photo : Active Stills