It is a new era in Palestine. This new era is taking shape before our very eyes, through the blood, tears and sacrifices of a brave generation that is fighting on two fronts against the Israeli military occupation, on the one hand, and collaborating Palestinians masquerading as a leadership, on the other.

But how do we, in Palestine solidarity communities around the world, respond to the changes underway, to the new language and to the actual unity wihdat al-Sahat which are reanimating the Palestinian body politic?

First, I believe that we must insist on the centrality of the Palestinian voice to any solidarity action pertaining to Palestinian freedom anywhere.

Not any Palestinian voice suffices, however; only voices that truly epitomize and capture the aspiration of the Palestinian people, voices that do not speak factional language or represent powerful classes with financial and other interests.

Second, solidarity groups, especially in the West, must know how and when, if at all, to engage with smear campaigns and fraudulent dialogues on multi-faithism, racism and anti-Semitism.

This cannot be the centerpiece of conversations on Palestine or the solidarity movement. Numerous experiences in the past have taught us that allocating most of our energies to fight smear campaigns is a losing battle, which will ultimately have little impact on raising awareness of the struggle for justice in Palestine itself or the championing of the Palestinian cause.

Indeed, the main task of solidarity is just that solidarity, as in adopting and advocating moral positions with the hope of achieving future political shifts in support of oppressed and/or freedom-seeking peoples in Palestine and anywhere injustices may be found.

Third, we must remember that solidarity is not speaking on behalf of anyone; rather, it is the creation of spaces and platforms and the navigation of margins that would allow others to represent their own struggles while rendering and advocating these positions in ones own local and national settings.

In other words, it is the localization of international struggles. It is doing our part to ensure our local representatives, regional/state parliaments and, ultimately, national governments shift their position from supporting Israeli apartheid in...