Netanyahu is in an alliance with the Zionist far right. Their goal is to provoke a second Nakba – that is to say, to physically uproot the Palestinians from the land they are inhabiting now, starting in Jerusalem and the West Bank. This policy is not new, but it has escalated in the recent months. All the pious resolutions passed by the UN in a meaningless ritual have done nothing to stop the criminal acts of Israel. Under these conditions, it is absolutely inevitable that the Palestinians are fighting back. The violence of the occupier Israel cannot be equated with the counter violence of the Palestinians. There is absolutely no equivalence between the two sides.
Opinion Piece | Harsh Thakor
The Israeli operation to completely annihilate Hamas and obliterate Gaza has resulted in the merciless killing of innocent civilians and destruction of the Palestinian homes, reduced to sheer rabble. The genocide in Gaza is a virtual conspiracy of imperialism, to shatter any respite of resistance.
The massive attack on Gaza is meant to break the backbone of any resistance of the Palestinian people to win their right to survive or homeland. We are getting echoes of the Vietnam war, 50 years ago. Few actions, have more, manifested the fascist policies of the bloodthirsty state of Israel.
In a drastic attempt to crush the resistance or as a sequel of the genocidal attempt to extinguish the physical existence of the Palestinian people, Israel has cut off all water, food, fuel and electricity supply to Gaza. On the 11th of October the sole power plant in Gaza stopped running in the absence of fuel. Collective punishment and murder by starvation of a whole population of civilians is internationally acclaimed as a war-crime and a crime against “humanity”.
Israel is bombing hospitals, which are running out of medical supplies and fuel, and targeting ambulances and medics, which counts as a war crime. Whole residential areas of Gaza have been turned into rubble. There is evidence of Israel again using white phosphor, which explodes and burns on impact, and is banned by international agreements.
Additionally, Israel is undertaking bombing operations near the border crossing of Rafah to Egypt, killing mostly women and children who travelled there to take refuge, and blocking any possible aid being routed through the crossing.
Last Thursday, Israel gave 1.1 million Palestinians notice to evacuate from the enclave’s north and “relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours”, before an expected ground offensive. Following this, tens of thousands in Gaza are estimated to have fled to the south. Thousands of Israeli troops have amassed outside the border of the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers, their tanks, armored vehicles and other artillery and munitions have been deployed near the Gaza border as they prepare for a full ground offensive against Hamas. Israel is planning the eradication of the Palestinian people with the support of US imperialism as well as other imperialist powers, such as Germany, which along with the US has promised arm supplies to Israel. The imperialists grossly violated their own international agreements. Moreover they all cooperate to shed blood. So is France, which like Germany now labels people with “terror”-categorisation to prevent them from supporting the just cause of the Palestinian people.
According to the latest numbers from the U.N., at least 338,000 Gaza residents have been displaced since Israel began its so-called retaliatory bombardment on Gaza after the Hamas operation on 7th October. At least 1,537 Gaza residents have been killed in Israel’s airstrikes, including 500 children, and another 6,600 wounded.
On the 12th of October Israel bombed the airports of Aleppo and Damascus, Syria. Israeli media asserted that this was in retaliation to artillery fire from Syria and a warning to the Assad-regime. Still, bombing a non-aggressive country is an unlawful activity just as the unlawful occupation of the Golan-heights.
Palestinian Resistance
In retaliation to the atrocities inflicted by Israel, the Palestinian Resistance with death defying courage is combating the genocide. The Palestinian national resistance has struck Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and the settlement of Sderot with missiles. There are still clashes in the settlements around Gaza, such as in Kissufim and clashes between the IDF and youth in the occupied West Bank. On the 11th of October resistance fighters penetrated Ashkelon from the sea, with the Israeli military failing to stop them. In addition, Hezbollah struck a blow to Israel from Lebanon.
The Palestinian people fully back the counteroffensive against Israel, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where multiple protests have erupted. Unfortunately some in imperialist countries are critical to the methods and leadership of the resistance. The Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist published a statement : “The “reactionism” and “support” debate, carried out on the ideological-political line of HAMAS, leads to erroneous and dangerous discussions about the essence of the national question and the nature of national movements. The international proletariat stands by the liberation struggle of the nations and peoples oppressed under the domination of imperialist finance capital. This attitude is a line of shaping their own people with a true internationalist spirit, orientation and a consistent line against imperialism. When our approach is based on this, it will become clear that solidarity with the just and legitimate nature of the Palestinian National Liberation struggle is a revolutionary responsibility. The issue of the quality of national movements is quite relative.”
The US has innumerable times unflinchingly supported Israel and refused to condemn the war crimes against the Palestinian people. The US minister of foreign affairs Anthony Blinken met leaders of Israel and neighboring countries. While the people there are revolting, burning Israeli and US flags, the regimes refuse to condemn US imperialism. One example of this is the president of the “Palestinian Authority” Mahmoud Abbas, who has condemned “both sides”.
If Israel steps into Gaza, blood will pour on both sides. There are over 2 million people living in Gaza, who nurture a deep hatred against the occupier. The people of Gaza are acclimatized with the territory, with various underground tunnels which only they are aware of. Despite being one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world, Israel will face the stiffest resistance as and when its troops enter Gaza.
Background
The imperialists promised the Palestinians justice – if only they would wait a little longer. But, in spite of waiting for dog years it has only resulted in further destruction of their homeland and further loss of rights.
In the weeks preceding the Hamas attack, constant provocations were instigated by Jewish religious fanatics. They stormed the compound of the Al-Aqsa mosque – one of the holiest places in the Islamic world, acting under police and military patronage.
Netanyahu is in an alliance with the Zionist far right. Their goal is to provoke a second Nakba – that is to say, to physically uproot the Palestinians from the land they are inhabiting now, starting in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
This policy is not new, but it has escalated in the recent months. Settlers, imported mainly from the US and recruited from among the most extreme of religious fundamentalists, have built settlements in the West Bank. Armed gangs of religious zealot settlers have been conducting propaganda against Palestinians with the open backing of the Israeli army and police. These land grabs are supposed to be illegal under “international law”. But all the pious resolutions passed by the UN in a meaningless ritual have done nothing to stop these criminal acts.
Under these conditions, it is absolutely inevitable that the Palestinians are fighting back. The violence of the occupier Israel cannot be equated with the counter violence of the Palestinians. There is absolutely no equivalence between the two sides.
Question of Violence
Most in the “left” camp (as usual) confine themselves to denouncing violence in general, calling for “a peaceful settlement” through “negotiations” and the intervention of “international institutions”.
For 75 years, in spite of endless negotiations and talks there have been no strides in the cause of Palestinian freedom one inch. For decades the United Nations have passed resolutions condemning the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, but to no avail.
The current escalation of the conflict is a product of the complete failure of the Oslo Accords. The idea of establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel in a capitalist format was never workable. The aim of Israel was to outsource the policing of the Palestinians to the Palestinian National Authority, led by Fatah bourgeois nationalists who were completely demoralised and organically incapable of taking the Palestinian national liberation struggle forward.
The last 30 years have illustrated the gross failure of the two-state solution imposed by US imperialism and Israeli capitalism on the Palestinians.
It is no wonder that in a recent opinion poll, 61 percent of Palestinians said that they were worse off than before Oslo, and 71 percent said that it had been a mistake to sign the agreement.
Still alarmingly the left pacifists argue that Palestinians should only resort to peaceful means of struggle.
The 2018 March of Return protest was undertaken by unarmed civilians. The Israeli army used live ammunition annihilating hundreds and injuring over ten thousand, including children, women, journalists and medics.
This has convinced the Palestinians that the only road is to retaliate with violence. One may regret this fact, but it is the only possible conclusion the Palestinians can be expected to contrive. And that is 100 percent the responsibility of the Israeli state and its imperialist backers.
According to the same poll 71 percent believe a two-state solution is no longer practical due to settlement expansion, 52 percent support dissolving the Peace Agreement and 53 percent think armed struggle is the only way to break the deadlock.
Dangerous Road of Israel
Regretfully as long as the Israeli state can rely upon the backing of the majority of the Jewish population, it will be very difficult to achieve its overthrow. Only by polarising the state of Israel along class lines can such a situation precipitate.
Sadly, the recent annihilation of civilians has convinced many Israelis that the only solution is to stand by the government. This has been endorsed by the scandalous behaviour of the so-called opposition, which has thrown its towels with the reactionary policies of the Netanyahu government and reconciled to form a government of national unity.
The people of Israel must ask themselves that after decades of conflict, so many wars, and so many military victories they are now more insecure than at any time since the founding of the State of Israel.
No doubt, Israel, with its colossal military strength and superior firepower, can easily overpower Hamas in military terms. However, a ground invasion of Gaza, with its narrow streets, myriad of tunnels, and a hostile and embittered population, will be achieved with untold loss of lives on both sides. After Gaza has been reduced to adjust there will not be sufficient forces to occupy and control a hostile population of 2.3 million people for an indefinite period of time. Sooner or later, the situation will aggravate, rekindling explosions and bloodshed.
Marx pointed out long ago that no nation can ever be free as long as it oppresses and subjugates another nation: “It is the special task of the Central Council in London to make the English workers realise that for them the national emancipation of Ireland is not a question of abstract justice or humanitarian sentiment but the first condition of their own social emancipation.” (Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt, 1870)
Actions in protest against attacks on Palestine
In recent days, the people engulfing many corners of the globe staged courageous actions in solidarity with the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. They denounced the role of the genocidal policies of the State of Israel and its repression together with the repression from the imperialists, against the Palestinian people since the operation “Al-Aqsa Flood”.
Protesters rallied in Sydney, Australia in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, protesters showed solidarity to the Palestinian people and demanded an end to the Israeli aggression.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, democratic organizations have held a protest in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, being present the Brazilian Center for Solidarity to the Peoples (Cebraspo), Popular Revolutionary Student Movement (MEPR) and the Brazilian Association of the People’s Advocates (Abrapo). They put up a banner with the slogan “Long live the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people!”
In Santiago, Chile on the 11th of October, several hundreds of people gathered outside of the offices of a regional UN organization to protest against the bombing of Gaza.
In Bogota, Colombia on the 11th of October, dozens of people demonstrated outside of the Israeli embassy against the occupation of Palestine.
In Copenhagen, Denmark there was a large demonstration in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people’s struggle. Also in Copenhagen, Denmark, several graffiti were made in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, in the proletarian neighborhood of Tingbjerg:
In Aarhus, Denmark, on the evening of the 9th of October, several hundreds of people took to the street in support of Palestine.
In Cairo, Egypt, university students organized a protest at the campus of American University of Cairo. Football fans are reported to have turned matches into solidarity protests, as Egypt officially bans unauthorised protests.
In Duisburg, Germany, the Red League participated in a demonstration conveyed by “Solidarity with Palestine Duisburg”, which generated a big scandal in the bourgeois press. Previously another event conveyed by Samidoun was canceled, due to the offensive which is being held in Germany against the Palestinian people. The demonstrators were strongly harassed by police. The German State strongly represses the freedom of speech for all those who are at the people’s camp by banning several demonstrations and threatening with “terror”-accusations.
In Baghdad, Iraq, protesters showed solidarity with the Palestinian people and burned US and Israeli flags.
In Dublin, Ireland, on the 10th of October, there was a march to the Israeli embassy.
In Bergen, Norway, activists from the Kamp Komiteen actively participated in a torchlight march, in which 400 people participated, and which gathered Norwegian and Palestinian families. Slogans were shouted for more than one hour, and some of them were: “Boycott Israel, free Palestine!”, “From the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “No peace without freedom, no freedom without struggle, free Palestine!”. Also there were slogans in Arabic.
In Lisbon, Portugal on the 9th of October, more than a hundred people demonstrated for the freedom of the Palestinian People and the end of the occupation.
In Seoul, South Korea on the 11th of October, there was a demonstration in support of Palestine.
In Chicago, Illinois, USA on the 8th of October, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of the Israeli consulate.
In Atlanta, Georgia, USA on the 8th of October, it is reported that more than 75 people demonstrated outside of the Israeli consulate.
In San Francisco, California, USA on the 7th of October, hundreds of people demonstrated in support of the Palestinian people.
In Dearborn, Detroit, USA on the 10th of October, 1,200 people gathered in a rally against the occupation of Palestine.
In Turkey, large protests gathered in Istanbul and Ankara.
In London, England, thousands gathered, marched in front of the Israeli embassy to demand an end to the occupation of Palestine.
Conclusion
Democrats worldwide should unconditionally condemn every action of the Zionist state of Israel with anger at its superlative height pledging that the spilled blood of the Palestinian people will never go unpunished. The genocidal attack of Israel is a manifestation of how the deep general crisis of imperialism is escalating its oppression and exploitation against the nations, peoples, and oppressed masses of the world.
The invincible armed struggle of Palestinian National Resistance is a mortal blow to the imperialists which inspires and calls the proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world to combat and resist. The sheer barbarity of the state of Israel will be unable to suppress its heroic resistance, but will intensify the wrath of the peoples of the world, who will bury them in the sea.
A very important need is the polarisation of the international working class in condemning the Israeli genocide and interpret and combat it as an integral part of world imperialism and how it empowers the international capitalists and neo-fascist militarisation as a whole.
(Harsh Thakor is a freelance journalist. Thanks to information from ‘Red Herald’, and ‘In Defence of Marxism’)
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