The streets keep the pulse of solidarity with the people under attack. US and UK bombing of Yemen threatens to extend the war in the region. The repudiation of genocide is growing. The need to propose a revolutionary and socialist solution for the Middle East cannot be postponed.
By Ruben Tzanoff
Great pro-Palestine world day
On January 13, hundreds of thousands of people took part in “A global day of action for Palestine” in the main cities of more than 30 countries, among them: USA, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Jordan and Turkey. The mobilizations denounced the genocide carried out by Israel, whose bombardment of the Gaza Strip has destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, caused the death of at least 23,843 Palestinians, mostly women and children, more than 60,000 wounded and two million people who have nowhere to take refuge. The protests also demanded an immediate ceasefire, an end to arms exports and a boycott of Israeli economic interests. Solidarity overcame government bans, limitations and repression, enhancing support for the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.
The aggressions of the imperialist-Zionist axis began a new chapter on January 11, when the US and UK bombed Yemen, a country the Americans had already attacked in 2016 under the presidency of Barak Obama and the encouragement of Saudi Arabia. British Undersecretary of Defense James Heappey justified the attacks on the need to sustain capitalist merchant “free movement” in the Red Sea and saying, “Our actions have been in self-defense, to protect ourselves from future attacks on our warships that are fulfilling their lawful mission.” In response to the attacks and in support of Palestine, mass protests took to the streets in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, and in cities such as: Al Hudeidah, Hajjah, Sa’ada, Al Yauf, Amran, Dhamar and Al Dhalea, among others. In reality, the attacks are executed in support of Israel, in retaliation to the Houthi attacks and as a warning to the militias in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq that support Palestine under Iran. They are not actions of “self-defense” nor do they serve to “de-escalate tensions”, they are a new imperialist interference in the Middle East that threatens to extend the war in the region.
Zionists legally accused of genocide
On Thursday, January 11, South Africa filed an indictment against Israel for genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague (Netherlands). And, in view of the fact that a ruling on the merits of the case may take years to come out, it requested interim measures to stop the ongoing genocide. The Zionists, rejecting the charges, again presented themselves as victims and Benjamin Netanyahu warned that “the war will not stop, neither because of The Hague nor because of threats from the axis of evil.” Although the legal accusation of genocide represents a setback for the State of Israel, it is necessary to point out that expectations cannot be placed on a court dependent on the United Nations, which has shown itself to be condescending and/or sterile in the face of barbarities such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Serbia’s genocide of Bosnia.
Trusting only in the mobilization of the people
In the U.S., the European Union, South Africa and other countries there are leaders expressing “humanitarian” concerns for the Palestinians killed in Gaza. It is not that the bourgeois and pro-imperialist authorities have become real defenders of human rights. They are forced to make partial criticisms by the massive sympathy of the peoples expressed in the mobilizations and by the rejection generated by the massacres and the sufferings of the Palestinians transmitted in real time to the whole world. But, let us not be deceived, the requests for “respect for international laws” are partial, formal and do not imply the questioning of 75 years of Israel’s colonial actions under the protection of imperialism. Least of all, the return of the usurped lands and properties to their true Palestinian owners.
For a single, secular, democratic and socialist Palestine
From the International Socialist League (ISL) we continue the international campaign in support of the Palestinian people, we promote and participate in solidarity actions rejecting the repression and persecution of those who are falsely accused of being “anti-Semites” when in reality they are anti-Zionists. We demand an end to the bombings in Gaza and Yemen; to the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, we support the boycott of Israeli interests and the breaking of governments with diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel. There will be no peace as long as there is a State that intends to exterminate the Palestinian population, usurp territories and play the role of imperialism’s gendarme against the Arab peoples: Imperialism out of the Middle East! The two-state solution was a failure that will not be solved by the establishment of an Islamic State nor by a utopian Zionist State that respects Palestinian rights. The only just solution is for a single, secular, democratic and socialist Palestine, within the framework of the socialist revolution in the whole region.