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The government of Israel has justified another genocide attack to the Gaza Strip through the undeclared murder of three students from an ultra-Orthodox religious school in the West Bank last June.

Besides keeping a non-stop occupation regime in which the Palestinians lack any kind of rights and can be mistreated, locked away, tortured and murdered by will by the Zionists settlers, Israel has made the Gaza Strip the largest concentration camp ever created.

Along with the complicity of every Egyptian government –currently under the rule of new dictator, general al-Sisi- who has ever had the task of keeping an eye on this concentration camp back door and continues so, Israel successfully maintains prisoners 1.800.000 Palestinians.

This population is part of the descendants of the “Nakba” (which in arable means “catastrophe”), one of the greatest “ethnic cleansing” carried by the Zionists when the State of Israel was created in 1948. Using calculated massacres to frighten Palestinian population, the Zionists settlers (armed and supported by western imperialism and even by Stalin’s URSS) managed to make Palestinians run away in different directions. Those who went south through the Mediterranean Cost ended up trapped in the so called “Gaza Strip”.

Gaza is, therefore, a product of this “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinian people perpetrated by the Zionist settlers, since their landing under the British Empire Protectorate. This situation made a qualitative leap with the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948, and after 1967 war.

From then on, those Palestinians who hadn’t been massacred or driven out from their land have been kept away in ghettos, or Bantustans, surrounded by walls: Gaza is just the worst example of them. The other ghettos are located in the West Bank under the direct occupation of Zionist troops. (See map). A “Palestinian Authority” actually exists in the West Bank, but it pretty much acts like Washington´s puppet, which on the other hand is Israel’s protector number one.

Colonization’s logic 

Israel takes to the extreme the logic of colonial enclaves: displacement and/or extermination of the native population. This shapes Israel’s behavior towards those who live in the territories under its control: a racist system of “apartheid”, similar to the one used by the white residents in South Africa against the black community.

As it happened to black people in such African country, Palestinians are forced to move from their lands, their houses are demolished to build Zionist settlements, locked away without trial (there are thousands in prison), tortured and murdered untroubled.

But Israel’s behavior is qualitatively even worse than the White South Africa’s during the last century. In South Africa population proportion and economic need of exploiting black people, made the total displacement and extermination of natives absolutely impossible to be fully completed. On the other hand, such an objective was always implicit in Palestine and it’s currently openly defended by an increasing part of the settlers, represented in the Israeli government by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman. Back in 2009 Lieberman became world famous when he proposed the “final solution” for the Palestinian issue: to nuke the Gaza Strip and drive the Palestinian people living in the West Bank ghettos out to Jordan. (1)

But this endless horror story has also been the story of the Palestinian resistance. An unequal yet heroic struggle that gained the sympathy of brother people from the Middle East and from large sectors of the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, the racist state of Israel has prevailed for several reasons. On the first hand, this colonial enclave is the “beachhead” of North American imperialism (and its European OTAN partners) in the strategic Middle East. And on the second hand, the ignominious capitulations of Arab bourgeoisie and their governments (including those that pretended to pose as “nationalists” and “progressives” at the beginning), have been determinant in this process.

As long as the USA supports Israel as if it was its own territory (and this country is considered the 51th state of America), Washington also maintains close bonds with autocrats, little kings and dictators who could guarantee “the order” in the region; and whose first clause is the sacrosanct nature of the State of Israel and the Zionist colonization and its “license to kill” as many Palestinian and Arabs as it wishes.

The shameful hypocrisy of the “international community” pretends not to see this. And its voice is only heard when the people threatened by extermination – in this case the Palestinians- do something to resist, like they are now by launching some home-made missiles that barely scratch Israel’s skin; which on the other hand is the largest military power of the region and also possesses  nuclear weapons.

Due to all the above, one of the most outrageous aspects, both from the governments and “international organisms” as well as the word press, is to present facts as part of a war between equal parties, when we can already count hundreds of murdered Palestinians and just a few Israeli dead.

(1)- “Lieberman threatened to nuke Gaza”, Haaretz, October 26, 2009.

Justifying the slaughter of Palestinians.

As we have pointed out, Israel justifies its massacre in the Gaza Strip through the undeclared murder of three students from an Orthodox religious school in the West Bank, way far away from the Gaza Strip but incredibly convenient to launch the Zionist onslaught towards Palestine.

However, the beginning of the attack wasn’t easy. A group of Zionist settlers decided to act on their own. They kidnapped a Palestine boy in Jerusalem, Mohammed Abu Khadeir and burnt him alive.

There is nothing new under the sun about this kind of incidents, especially in the colonist villages in the West Bank. Palestinian population is still living at this territory’s fringes, after being driven-out of their rightful lands and houses that were given to the Zionist settlers. That is the reason number one why a regime of terror is determinant to prevent Palestinians from rising against their oppressors. To spread fear among the West Bank civilians is a policy specially addressed to the youth and even the children by different means that vary from jails to plain murder. UNISEF itself –one of the “international community” organisms that would never dare to speak against the sacrosanct state of Israel- recognizes that it illegally apprehends hundreds of children every year, and has killed around 1500 of them during the last decade… and we aren’t even taking into account the endless pile of corpses they leave behind every time they drop their bombs on the Palestinian ghettos like the Gaza Strip.

Settlers and soldiers killing young people and children is an everyday incident that they get away with because the Israeli justice has no interest in punishing them. The unusual thing is that the government has arrested some of the murderers of Khadeir, and an Israeli Court has threatened to really trial them this time.

What’s the reason then, for this rare decision made by the Israeli government and court? Well, nothing less and nothing more than the outburst of violence against Mohammed Abu Khadeir, which rested legitimacy to the attack to the Gaza Strip. Moreover, it made clear to the public eye the context of barbaric oppression in which the Palestinian people are submerged, that tragically ended with the killing of these three Zionist students.

Likewise, the martyrdom of Khadeir had become a major scandal in world’s press, since an American cousin of him had witnessed the crime, only to be brutally beaten by the police afterwards.

The reaction to this appalling events were mass protests in the West Bank. Thousands of young Palestinians were at the forefront, heroically bearing the repression.

To cope with this situation, the government of Israel was forced to take unusual measures: to punish the Zionist group that acted on their own burning alive Mohammed Abu Khadeir.

The setbacks to the Arab rebellions and the deal between the Palestinian parties.

Nevertheless, we mustn’t get confused by this “details” but focus on the substantive circumstances and motifs.

The most important factor is that the sociopolitical context of the region has been marked by the setbacks and defeats suffered by the rebellions of the Arab Spring, though this general context is full of contrasts:

In Egypt, for instance, a new military dictatorship in charge of general al-Sisi, is trying to consolidate itself through sham elections. The legitimate democratic Syrian rebellion was drowned in blood through a war between the Assad family and several sectarian fractions, each one worse than the other. The situation in Iraq is no different, since ISIS Islamic barbarity and al Malik’s Chiita sectarian regime cannot provide progressive alternatives for the oppressed people.

In this difficult context to the proletarian and popular masses, and also to the politically independent forces, the Egyptian circumstances are particularly convenient to the Zionists. Al-Sisi demagogically presents himself as the “New Nasser”. But Nasser actually fought Israel, while al-Sisi is only another Palestinian jailer in Gaza, just like his antecessor Mubarak was.

An additional motivation for Israeli military offensive was the later agreement between the two Palestinian fractions: the “Palestinian Authority” ruling the West Bank and Gaza’s ruler, Hamas.

This Palestinian “unity” also emerged at a difficult moment for Israeli diplomacy. For the umpteenth time the “peace negotiations” charade between the Israel government and the complacent “National Palestinian Authority” to implement the “two state solution” was a total fiasco and got finally abandoned. The reason? Israel refuses to put an end to its policy of displacing the Palestinians at gunpoint by soldiers, in order to build new Zionists colonial villages on their lands.

How can anyone speak of “peace negotiations” and establishing “two separate states” if one of them -Israel- arrogates the right to relocate “manu military” the native population to place there its settlers? In addition, the only Palestinian State the Zionists would tolerate would be a simple Bantustan that wouldn’t border any other countries; just a concentration camp surrounded by the Zionist army. It wouldn’t even have its own clean water supply!

In conclusion, the so called “peace negotiations” that, besides a few short interruptions, have been going on for 30 years now are a shameful charade… the only thing going on here isn’t a peace process but an “ethnic cleansing”, coming in the form of a slow genocide. Palestinians are gradually moved and replaced by Israeli settlers.

In this context, a national unity agreement between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was way too annoying for Israel, both national and internationally speaking. Political and territorial division among Palestinians is a precious advantage for the Zionist State.

Now, bombing Gaza also means attacking the agreement between Hamas and the “Palestinian Authority” in the West Bank; because the west banker “government” headed by Mahmud Abbas -whose obsequiousness towards Washington and the Gulf States is staggering- would hardly follow Hamas into a military confrontation with Israel.

Israel’s rejection of the “leaders” agreement between Hamas and Abbas is the result of the Zionists’ fear of the consequences this deal may have on the basis of population. The combative and massive demos in the West Bank in response to the murder of young Mohammed Abu Khadeir in the hands of the Zionists, threatened Israel with a possible new Intifada; in other words, another general uprising from the Palestinian people  to stand up for their rights. Therefore Israel decided to attack as a way to prevent a potential insurgency in the West Bank.

Recent developments have revealed inner divisions and political crisis within the Zionist government itself. In any case, the differences only lie in how to implement the ethnic cleansing policy under which the Zionist State was build: Should it be done “step by step”, or is it better to make a leap forward in the massive killing and displace of Palestinians?

Making war against the Palestinians is used as a political means to close ranks among the Zionists themselves, since the Israeli society is not homogenous. There is an increasing social polarization between rich and poor, and even other divisions of importance –such as, the ones between the settlers from the annexed territories and the inhabitants of the original State of Israel, or the ones opposing the secular parts of the population with a strengthened religious fanaticism, etc.- . It’s obvious that the “classic” solution to this kind of dangerous contradictions –that expressed themselves in the mass protests in 2011, under the influence of the Arab Spring- is to exacerbate racism against Arabs, and if it comes along with a war even better! Racism + war (the nazi-fascist answer to social problems) works pretty well for Israel!

Global mobilization to stop the genocide in Palestine.

As we have pointed out, Israel’s genocidal plans are facilitated by the difficult times the Arab Spring is going through. However this does not mean that the Zionist onslaught cannot be stopped.

Under these circumstances, international solidarity towards the Palestinian resistance is decisive. Israel’s image has been more and more affected internationally, especially in Europe and in some Latin American countries as well. Even in the USA, its greatest protector, Israel is not getting the unanimous approval for its crimes it used to get just a couple years ago.

Strong global mobilization in order to prevent the Palestinians from suffering a new bloodbath is currently not only needed but also possible.

This is why we defend the largest unity of action to fight for: No more bombings!   Zionist troops out of Gaza now! We also demand the immediate rupture of relations of all countries with the Genocide State of Israel.

At the same time we propose a revolutionary socialist programme to provide a profound solution for Palestine. In January 2009, when the Gaza Strip was facing a similar attack, we stated:

This is not a conflict between equals in any way. At one end there are the Palestinian people, struggling against occupation, oppression and exploitation; on the other, the State of Israel which benefits not only of USA’s direct support, but also of the implicit support of the rest of the imperialist countries.

This is why it is most important that we make very clear on which side the worker class must be in this historic clash: on the side of the oppressed, fighting against the oppressors and their military attacks. The truth is imperialism demands not only absolute Palestinian submission but also their recognition of the theocratic and racist State of Israel, the acceptation of the Zionist occupation and colonization of their home land as well.

From our point of view, there cannot be any doubts left among the revolutionary socialists when it comes to the fact that, for as long as the Zionist State of Israel should exist, there is no possibility of a “pacific solution”. The reason is quite simple: Israel has built itself (since its origin) on the displacement, colonization and massacre of the native Palestinian population.

This massacre re-actualizes the polemic between the Marxists currents about which struggle methods and strategic programme should be implemented in Palestine.

On one hand, there is the proposal of the “pacific coexistence of two states in Palestine”. As we have pointed out, the very nature of the Israeli state as a racist and national oppression state has proven over the past decades this solution is absolutely inviable.

Although we defend the ultimate defeat of the State of Israel in the current conflict and the victory of the Palestinian forces; we are likewise aware that the destruction of the Zionist State and the construction of a unique, secular, democratic and socialist Palestinian State depends on grassroots organization and autonomous political and military struggle of the occupied territories and the rest of Arab countries masses of workers. An inspiring example it’s the forced open of the Egyptian- Gaza border made by the Palestinians.

This perspective differences us from both al-Fatah and Hamas, because neither of them struggles for a socialist issue for the oppressed and exploited peoples in the region.

There is only one true solution for this conflict: the destruction of the Israel State followed by the construction of a socialist State of Palestine and a Socialist Federation of countries the Middle East.

• Let’s stop the Palestinian genocide!
• Zionist troops out of Gaza now!
• For the destruction of the racist State of Israel!
• For a democratic, secular, non-racist and socialist State of Palestine!