As part of the Great March of Return activities in besieged Gaza, a group of human rights and right of return activists have released a video, titled “Bella Ciao,” using the famous anti-fascist Italian song set against images from the current March of Return in Gaza against Israel’s long reign of colonialism and apartheid. Ahmed Abu Rtema, one the organizers of the March, stated that “art has always played a major role in enhancing the spirit of resistance in countries suffering from apartheid and colonialism. Palestine is no exception.”

Haidar Eid writes from Gaza: “We have reached the conclusion that our fight on the ground through a series of marches culminating on May 15, the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, can pose a serious challenge to Israel’s system of occupation, colonization and apartheid if it is accompanied by a global campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.”

The statistics show higher levels of Palestinian deaths, disabilities, home demolitions and poverty than at any other time since the dispossession of Palestinians in 1948. At the same time, there is an internal crisis of political leadership and Palestinian civil society is divided at a time when it is imperative that Palestinians show unity against the Israeli occupation. Haidar Eid writes, “the example of South Africa has a role to play in Palestine today. Not only can we learn about Israel by examining apartheid in South Africa, but we can also help to take the Palestinian cause forward by learning from the South African anti-apartheid struggle.”

We must translate all this anger worldwide over Trump’s Jerusalem announcement into a plan of action, writes Haidar Eid. It is time to get rid of the racist two state solution, renounce the Oslo Accords, and come up with a democratic alternative. We must use BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions as the leading torch towards peace with justice in Palestine.

Haidar Eid writes: The way I look at it is that by allowing Israel to impose this unprecedented blockade on 2 million civilians and launching three massive wars on them in 2008, 2012, and 2014, the post-WWII International Community has failed to uphold principles of justice and peace. It is therefore incumbent on civil society to take the lead. Hence the hope created amongst Palestinians by the huge successes achieved the BDS movement. It is, as I keep repeating, the only window of hope we victims of occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism have in the era of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Haidar Eid writes from Gaza that Palestinians there fully understand that the deliberate withholding of food or the means to grow food or the access to food is yet another strategy of Israel’s occupation, colonization, and apartheid in Palestine. But, he writes, “what we in Gaza cannot fathom is: Why it is allowed to happen?”

Haider Eid writes, “A meaningful, just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian question must include all Palestinians, including those in the West Bank and Gaza, those who remained in Israel, and the 1948 Palestinian refugees. This is what Omar has been calling for – and what he continues to call for in his latest statement. This steadfastness of the BDS movement and its unwavering commitment to justice for all Palestinians is the real reason behind the false campaign against Omar; and this is why the BDS movement must, as Omar has called for – intensify its work, so that Israel is forced to comply with international law. More BDS is the way to end apartheid in Israel as apartheid was ended in South Africa.”

Normalizing oppression has always been one of the tools used by the colonizer against the resistance of the oppressed and colonized. Britain, France, America, and Apartheid South Africa are just a few of the colonizers who privileged one sector of the colonized population to make them willing propagandists for the colonizer’s ‘mission civilisatrice.’ Apartheid Israel does exactly the same. Haider Eid outlines the symptoms of normalization to be on the lookout for.

Haidar Eid writes from Gaza, “The entire world is against Israel, but how are we, Palestinians, going to build on that? The answer comes loud and clear from the Palestinian-lead BDS Campaign: a total boycott against Israel and divestment from it and from foreign companies benefitting from its multi-tiered system of oppression, namely occupation, colonization and apartheid, and the imposition of sanctions against it until it complies with international law. In a nutshell, what we, Palestinians, need right now is a diplomacy of resistance.”

Haidar Eid writes an open letter to South African President Jacob Zuma criticizing South African Ambassador to Israel, Sisa Ngombane, for his response to the Woman’s Boat to Gaza where South African activist Leigh-Anne Naidoo was among a group of women trying to break the siege of Gaza.