Opinion article by Alejandro Bodart, national leader of the MST in the FIT-Unidad and coordinator of the International Socialist League, published in the Argentine newspaper Pagina 12
The images of Gaza that circulate on the networks confirm a serious humanitarian crisis, with signs of barbarism. Thousands of civilians died, almost half of them children. Daily bombings, including hospitals and schools. Use of phosphorus prohibited. Nor water, electricity and food for the population cornered in the strip, whose three exits are blocked. It is an exodus to nowhere, while a military invasion by sea, land and air looms. The statements and orders of Israeli officials are not only directed against Hamas, but against the very existence of Gaza and the Palestinian population. We are facing a new genocide, which the world’s major media silence.
The root of the conflict is not the actions of Hamas, with whom we have irreconcilable differences. In 1948, Zionism, a political current, with the backing of the powers of the time, appropriated Palestine with blood and fire. Its objective: to create an enclave at the service of American and Western imperialism to guarantee keeping the region’s oil and subjecting the people who opposed its oppression. Their method: ethnic cleansing, anti-Palestinian apartheid, which continues. This is recognized by broad Jewish and academic sectors such as Ilan Pappé. Also, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the last two reports of the UN Human Rights Commission.
Thus was born that theocratic State, which put an end to the peaceful coexistence of centuries between the various peoples and religions. Zionism razed hundreds of Palestinian villages, murdered thousands, expelled hundreds of thousands and stole their land. Since then, it has applied a policy of constant expansionism, harassment and racism.
And there are no “two demons” comparable: there is terrorism from the State of Israel. It is enough to see how the map has changed since 1948 to confirm that there is an oppressor and an oppressed, who also live in open-air prisons. Gaza and the West Bank are tiny, surrounded by walls and military posts of Israel, which controls everything. There cannot be “two States” if one is genocidal. Furthermore, the far-right Netanyahu, whose internal policy is totalitarian, redoubled this anti-Palestinian offensive.
Today the attack on Gaza has an anti-democratic vector to curtail freedom of expression, of the press and of demonstration. Zionism and its allies seek to silence all criticism of Israel’s war crimes. They try to demonize and judicialize those of us who defend the rights of Palestine. They accuse those of us who are anti-Zionists of being anti-Semitic. In truth, the greatest anti-Semite is the State of Israel, since Semites are all the peoples of the region, including the Palestinians.
As a leader of the MST in the FIT-Unidad and the International Socialist League, I believe that there will only be peace with a single, secular, democratic, non-racist and socialist Palestine. Along this path, today, the urgency is to stop the massacre of the Zionist State in Gaza. That is why we call on those who defend human rights to join forces to surround the Palestinian people with solidarity.