A pivotal moment for the Palestinian national struggle

The events of the past months have killed efforts to bury the Question of Palestine and reinvigorated Palestinian unity.

As the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian organisations in the Gaza Strip entered into force in the early hours of May 21, celebrations erupted throughout the Palestinian world. From their towns in Israel and the occupied territories to refugee camps in the surrounding Arab states, Palestinians took to the streets not to express relief at the end of Israel’s latest rampage, but to affirm the recovered unity with which they had sabotaged Israel’s war machine. It is a remarkable transformation that in the space of mere weeks has given their struggle for self-determination a new lease on life and resonated powerfully throughout – and well beyond – the Arab world. As recently as March, the Trump administration’s Metternich-in-residence, Prince Jared of Kushner, triumphantly announced that “We are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict.” Casually dismissing the Question of Palestine as “nothing more than a real-estate dispute”, he ridiculed its centrality to the region as a “myth” that he had effortlessly punctured with a fistful of F-35s.