By MARCOS HONORIO*

From the Araguaia River to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestine will be free

In April 1972, Brazilian Army soldiers entered the Araguaia region after discovering that preparations were underway in the territory for a guerrilla war aimed at overthrowing the military-business dictatorship and sparking a revolutionary movement that would seize power. The repression could not determine the guerrilla force, its precise location or the extent of its influence among local residents.

By this time, guerrilla detachments had infiltrated the entire banks of the Araguaia River. Among the cities involved in the guerrilla preparations, there is one that stands out due to the possible and, currently, inevitable historical parallels. Palestina, a municipality located on the left bank of the Araguaia River, was one of the locations involved in the confrontation between communists and the reactionaries who, at the end of 1974, launched three military campaigns to dismantle the resistance organization that fought against the dictatorship and capitalism.

There are only two approaches available to those who resist. The first consists of “passive resistance,” where the oppressed simply reaffirms their existence – even if partial and restricted – in the face of the oppressor, trying to maintain their customs, traditions, territory and the entire set of meanings that constitute their collective ideology, without seeking to destroy the person responsible for their situation of oppression.

The other tactic that can be used in the fight against oppression is that of “active resistance,” where the oppressed unleashes the violence ripened in their anger upon the oppressor, counterattacking and actively striving to abolish domination. The Araguaia guerrillas chose the path of active resistance when they attempted to overthrow the fascist regime by means of weapons.

Since the beginning of the criminal Israeli occupation of Palestine, which lies on the banks of the Jordan River, the Arab resistance movement that emerged has used a combination of tactics to either try to prevent Israel from carrying out its “final solution”, martyring every last Palestinian, or to try to impose military defeats on its tormentors in retaliation for the brutalities they suffered.

I refer to Palestinian resistance in a diffuse way because I do not understand the act of resistance only as the formation of paramilitary groups that intend to fight against Israel by force of arms. The passive resistance of a Palestinian mother or grandmother who bequeaths the culture of her people to her children or grandchildren is also important in the fight against the attempt at ethnic cleansing currently underway in Gaza. It is admissible that we have some preference regarding the tactics chosen by the Palestinians in the fight against Zionism – however, we should not despise the means that the afflicted Palestinian people find to continue existing, whatever they may be.

However, there was a tactical shift among Palestinian resistance groups following Operation Al-Aqsa Deluge, launched a year ago, when Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israeli territory. Since then, Israel has been carrying out genocide against the Palestinian population squeezed into Gaza and the West Bank, in addition to violating the sovereignty of other countries in the region.

During the Brazilian Army's third campaign in Araguaia, the military began to use terror as a tool of coercion. The suffering population of the region was harassed by the fascists who came to the conclusion that anything was permitted to exterminate the guerrillas. Over the dense forests of the region, planes dropped napalm in an attempt to reach the guerrillas.

In the final stages of the military incursion that annihilated the guerrillas, Osvaldão, one of the most prominent fighters in Araguaia, to whom the local population attributed the ability to transform into animals when spotted by Army troops, was assassinated by a thug recruited by the military, hung from a helicopter and displayed to the population as a symbol of the defeat of the insurgent movement. Later, the brave guerrilla was beheaded by a sergeant and his body was left in the forest. Osvaldão is a martyr among so many others who fought in Araguaia.

The cynical stance of a significant portion of the Brazilian left in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza is shocking to anyone who sympathizes with the struggles of oppressed peoples around the world. In the name of supposed pragmatism (which camouflages the ideological inertia of the progressive camp), it is considered acceptable to have vacillating positions on the Palestinian issue. With the distance that time will bring us, it will be possible to measure how harmful was the reticence of those who remained silent in the face of the issue that I have chosen as the most important for the panel of struggles against colonialism in our time.

Besides hoping that the Palestinians acquire the ability to transform themselves into birds – as Osvaldão was able to – to dodge the bombs, what solution remains? There are two: never condemn the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people, who after decades of torment without a solution being reached through diplomatic channels and international law, bravely decided to confront their tormentors, not shying away from the use of violence in an attempt to free themselves, and not stop spreading the word about what is happening in Gaza, given that the ideological curtain of the bourgeoisie prevents the Palestinian genocide from being fully disclosed.

From the Araguaia River to the Mediterranean Sea, Palestine will be free.

*Marcos Honorio is a student and political activist.

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