Against Massacres, Oppression and Misery, Class Solidarity with the Proletarians and the Masses in Gaza ! 

(«Proletarian»; Nr. 20; Autumn-Winter 2023)

Back Sumary

 

 

A week after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel and the massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip, while the casualties on both sides number in the thousands (1) and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are trying to flee the bombardment, the Israeli army has issued an ultimatum demanding that more than a million residents leave the north of the territory within 24 hours! Which is clearly impossible under current conditions…

Prime Minister Netanyahu railed: «Israel will take vengeance!». In order to justify the currently announced total blockade of the territories with a complete cut-off of water, electricity, fuel and food, the Israeli defence minister and head of the Israeli war cabinet declared: «We are fighting against human animals and we act accordingly».

Western imperialisms have given the green light to the Israeli response – starting with the United States, which immediately sent arms and ammunition and dispatched two air and naval groups (with aircraft carriers) to the eastern Mediterranean, followed by the UK, which also decided to send warships; the other European imperialisms are on the same line in the name of «Israel’s right to defence». Needless to say, there is no «Palestinian right to defence» for them! The same people who are outraged at the massacres of Israeli civilians, women and children and condemn Hamas terrorism have never been outraged at the massacres caused by the Israeli army and settlers and have never condemned Israeli terrorism. This is despite the fact that the Jewish State has been committing massacres and violence of all kinds for decades in order to establish its rule over the Palestinian population.

Since 2007, with the consent of its imperialist cronies and under the pretext of fighting Hamas, it has been subjecting the Gaza Strip in particular, apart from bloody attacks (1) accompanied by the destruction of many buildings and various installations, to a blockade; the consequences of these attacks have been catastrophic for the population: more than half of the workers are unemployed (and more than 80% of those who have jobs receive less than the minimum wage), poverty is omnipresent (according to some estimates it affects two thirds of the population), living conditions are deplorable. None of this, however, moves the political leaders of the European and American democracies who are eager to defend this pillar of Western imperialism in the Middle East, represented by the State of Israel. The massive Israeli bombing and other military actions are not so much to avenge the more than 1 200 dead and 2 700 wounded that the Hamas attack claimed, but rather, with imperialist approval, to bloodily avenge the terrible blow to the reputation for invulnerability of the region’s leading military power at a time when the dominance of the West is being challenged.

 

Only international communist revolution can put an end to the oppression, misery and perpetual massacres experienced by the Palestinian masses

 

Israel’s strength is largely due to the untiring military, economic and political support of the US and other Western imperialisms: they bear a fundamental responsibility for the suffering of the proletariat and the impoverished masses in Palestine. This strength also rests on the national unity which binds the Jewish proletarians to «their» bourgeoisie and «their» state, and which makes them ready to make sacrifices in their defence, because of their privileged position compared to the Arab proletarians and masses, including those who have Israeli nationality. The massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians by Hamas can only strengthen this national unity, which make possible, at least for a time, to overcome the political crisis in Israel and legitimise the current far-right government.

If Hamas can present itself after its attack as a much more effective opponent of Israel than the old secular guerrilla organisations ever were, it cannot however represent any solution for the emancipation of the proletarian masses. This attack cannot advance that emancipation (it entails terrible reprisals against civilian populations), nor can it endanger Israel, which on the contrary it strengthens. For 15 years, Hamas has been managing the status quo in Gaza, with the complex, implicit but undeniable consent of Israel, which maintains economic control over the territory: the Israeli government, for example, authorised the transfer of funds from Qatar to Hamas in order to weaken the «Palestinian Authority» in the West Bank; through its religious propaganda, it imposes a strict order on the population and the proletariat. In fact, its only real prospect is to be openly recognised as the prison guard of the proletarians in Gaza for the benefit of Israel, its Arab neighbours (starting with Egypt) and the imperialists.

Palestinian proletarians cannot count on Arab or Muslim states, which have largely given up even mere verbal support. If Iran seems to be an exception, it is only because it exploits their cause for its own national interests.

The only real support they will be able to find will be from the proletarians of other countries, and especially from the proletarians of the imperialist metropolises, once they get back on the path of class struggle against capitalism. By weakening imperialism, and therefore its support for Israel, they will create the conditions for the disruption of the national unity in this country and for the Jewish proletarians to understand the necessity to stand in solidarity with the Arab proletarians against the Jewish and Arab bourgeoisies.

This prospect of international revolution against capitalism and against all bourgeois states may undoubtedly seem utopian today; but it is the only one that will be able to break the eternal series of wars and massacres, of misery and oppression, which have for too long been bathing the region in blood.

 

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(1) The Israeli army has claimed to have killed more than a thousand assassins: apparently it takes no prisoners and the wounded are killed.

(2) In late 2008, Israel launched an air and ground offensive after a rocket attack: 1440 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. In late 2012, the Israeli army carried out a «targeted assassination» of Hamas military leader Ahmad Jabari. Eight days of airstrikes followed, killing 174 Palestinians. Six Israelis also died. In July 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to stop rocket fire and destroy tunnels dug in the enclave. The war resulted in 2,251 Palestinian deaths, including 65 children, mostly civilians, and 74 Israeli deaths, almost all soldiers. In May 2021, a new war in Gaza claimed at least 232 Palestinian and 12 Israeli deaths in 11 days. Two years later, in May 2023, 35 Palestinians, including Islamic Jihad leaders, were killed in five days of war.

 

14 October 2023