16-10-2025 - Leo Speech

Hey everyone, I want to talk about the current ceasefire. Within our movement there has been a lot of critical analysis that centred on how Trumps plan is a plan to recolonize Palestine by inserting figures like Tony Blair into its rule and a plan to carry out the 10th and 11th phase of genocide: denial and triumphalism. While this analysis is correct and necessary, I want to offer in addition to that, the perspective that the current ceasefire is also a victory for our movement.

So, why do I say that? Because the terms that the occupation agreed to are similar if not identical to the terms of a deal that the resistance had previously agreed to or proposed themselves. Exchanging "Israeli" hostages for Palestinian hostages and the withdrawal of the IOF from Gaza were always considered beneficial, even on October 8th and 9th in 2023 Hamas offered to release the hostages if it meant that the occupation would not start the aggression, would not start what ended up being the genocide. But the occupation never agreed to those terms, they never cared about freeing the hostages, they wanted the hostages to remain in Gaza so that they had a pretext for genocide. The zionists wanted to kill or displace every single Palestinian living in Gaza, so that they could take over, that was always their goal, and as long as that goal wasn't met they would never agree to a ceasefire deal like they have now. 

And they have now, because their hands were forced. And to understand this, you truly have to understand that at its core the zionist entity is a colonial outpost of the West and especially the United States. These settlers are exceedingly outnumbered relative to the indigenous inhabitants of the region, so they need, really /need/ colonial backing, they need support from the imperial core. Financial, military, political, academic, diplomatic, cultural support. Without it, they would be crushed by the resistance. So what we saw in the past two years is two things: 1) the Palestinian resistance, and the Palestinian people broadly, remained steadfast. Gaza never surrendered, Gaza never fell. So it remained evidently true that without colonial backing, the resistance would crush the occupation. 2) Colonial backing was faltering. Of course, we haven't and shouldn't accept symbolic sanctions as being sufficient, but we should recognise them as an indication that colonial backing is faltering. The international recognition of Palestine, for example, it enraged the occupation, why? Because if the countries that always protected them from the resistance are starting to say, well Palestine is a sovereign state, and if you're occupying a sovereign state, its people have the right to resist that occupation under international law, they have a right to armed resistance even. So, actually those "terrorists" you're talking about, their fight seems pretty justified. How about you stop occupying them, because we're not gonna send you money or weapons to fight them. Obviously, we're a long way from that reality, but the first step in that reasoning is the recognition of Palestine and that's why it scared the zionists so much that half their allies now recognise Palestine. And in similar ways, the global consensus that the occupation initiated a genocide, half the UN walking out on Netanyahu, increasingly effective and far-reaching boycotts, all of these things signal to the occupation: your colonial backing is faltering. And remember, without it, the resistance will crush them. 

So that's what brings me to the current ceasefire. The United States and the president personally forced the occupation to agree to those terms: prisoner exchange and withdrawal. Those terms that the occupation would never have agreed to out of their own accord, because it means a failure of their objective to take over Gaza, to commit a genocide of the full magnitude they intended to. They agreed, not out of their own accord, but because the US made it clear that if they didn't: their colonial backing would be rescinded. And why did the US get to this point? There's more reasons of course, the zionist agression on Qatar for example, but at its core it's because of the international solidarity movement with Palestine. There was huge domestic pressure on the US government, and internationally it's becoming a pariah for its zionist support. And that should make it clear what our role should be going forward. We need to keep putting pressure on our governments to rescind their colonial backing to the occupation, to encourage other governments - especially the US - to do the same. We need to keep combating the influence of the arms industry, the zionist lobby, and the racist far-right. We need to keep boycotting as consumers as well as pressuring our employers, educational institutions, governments, banks, insurers, companies to boycott. We need to keep informing the public about the history of the occupation, and about the Palestinians' right to self-determination and right to resist occupation. And true, we have a long ways to go, but this moment is one of temporary relief for the Palestinians in Gaza, and one of encouragement for the international solidarity movement that our efforts are beginning to pay off, that if we keep the pressure up, keep growing our movement, keep employing a diversity of tactics, that we can get our leaders to rescind their colonial backing to the zionist project, and that in turn, Palestinians will free themselves, free the land, from the river to the sea.