Against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine
Western hypocrisy these days has reached levels and tones of genuine war propaganda. With the word given by Zionism and Israel, the Western “democratic world” is collaborating in the erasure of the very existence of the Palestinians. It feigns concern about the consequences for “civilians” of the Israeli army’s entry into Gaza, when in reality it is alarmed at the not inconsiderable possibility of the conflict spreading beyond Gaza and Palestine, becoming a further disruptive factor in the “new world disorder”.
The call to arms against Hamas, launched by both the “left” and the right (1), would like to conceal 75 years of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians by Zionism and the Israeli State.
It would like to hide 75 years of apartheid, repression, expulsion from the territory, theft and/or destruction of land and homes, imprisonment and detention often without trial, checkpoints, walls, double legislation (one for the Israelis, one for the Palestinians, the latter under the military boot), murders and executions at home, in the street, regardless of gender, age, armed or unarmed; armed settlers who, in violation of the same Israeli laws, occupy Palestinian areas by force, immediately supported by the army; international agreements signed and immediately trampled on and ignored; systematic violation of UN resolutions, etc.
But today, all Palestinians must also pay because Hamas, through its attack, has defied the Israeli oppressor and demonstrated that it is not invincible; it has reminded us that the Palestinians are there, that they exist, and that there is no solution without them other than their genocide.
The exclusion and denial of the Palestinians is the fundamental characteristic of international diplomatic initiatives for peace in the Middle East in recent years, including those led by Arab countries “friendly” of the Palestinian cause.
To the “beautiful souls” who defend democratic values only for some, who are indignant at the barbarity of others, but above all to those who care about the cause of Palestine and the exploited, we say that we make no secret of the fact that Hamas, with the attack of October 7, is also responsible for the same, complementary barbarity as that of the Israelis, for example in the assault on the “Nova Festival” rave.
Hamas is a reactionary political organization, opposed to social emancipation, but which represents and organizes Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere against Israeli colonial oppression. It would be foolish to ask Hamas to be communist and internationalist, to fight to establish a very difficult link between Palestinian proletarians and oppressed and Israeli proletarians, for a common liberation, which is the Gordian knot of the Palestinian question.
Islamic nationalists, like Zionist nationalists, are the bitter enemies of this revolutionary, solidarity-based and internationalist perspective. And it is in this class perspective that the choices and strategies of those fighting to promote a more advanced front for all the oppressed must be assessed and addressed.
What matters to us today is to reaffirm the need to stand resolutely and unconditionally by the side of the Palestinian masses, in the full knowledge that Zionism and the capitalist State of Israel are leading Israelis and Palestinians to ruin, in a spiral of death and bloodshed. It’s time to put an end to it.
Announcing the preparation of a public initiative on Palestine (2023-11-15), both face-to-face and online, and the publication of a number of positions taken by Israelis and Jews against Israel and its policies, which go in the same direction as what we advocate, we end by quoting the post of an Israeli, commenting on an article by Gideon Levy published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The October 14 post is by an Israeli called Hirsch. We can’t know if its author has actually been where he says he has, but the meaning is nevertheless deeply acceptable, if a different perspective isn’t established in Israel and an end is not put to colonialism, Zionism, the oppression of the Palestinians.
“The unfolding flattening of the Gaza Ghetto calls to mind the flattening of the Warsaw Ghetto 80 years ago. It happened while I was a sitting duck with a yellow star in the Dachau KZ. I survived only to to come to the same conclusion as Gideon Levy in this article: “We haven’t learned a thing”. And I’d add: “And we never will”. It looks like we’ll have to resign from the human race. That’s it, that’s all.” (2)
Capitalism, its States, its leaders (of all colors) are leading humanity to catastrophe, if the international proletariat doesn’t stop them, by rebelling against them. Let’s not forget that if bombs are falling on Gaza today, they are directed against all the oppressed.
Notes:
(1) Even the heirs of the anti-Semitic and fascist magazine La Difesa della razza (“The Defense of the Race”), a racist magazine published from 1938 to 1943, of which Giorgio Almirante, founder of the MSI, was editorial secretary, are involved in the campaign; among them, anti-Arabism and anti-Islamism are today far more deeply rooted than anti-Judaism.
Thanks to The Friends of the Class War & We Start From Here for the translation
