Contacts between Israel and Hamas are tense and fragile. Netanyahu has begun an attack on Rafah that worsens the humanitarian crisis. The US represses student protests. International mobilization against genocide must not cease on the road to a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
By Ruben Tzanoff
Tense and fragile contacts
Israel’s contacts with Hamas for a cease-fire agreement and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners have been taking place with opposing positions, tension and fragility. In this framework, Hamas announced the acceptance of a proposal from Egypt and Qatar which included: three phases of 42 days each, in the first phase 50 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage released, the return of internally displaced persons and an increase in the entry of humanitarian aid and fuel; in the second phase the men would be released. The Zionist government rejected the proposal arguing that “it is far from Israel’s necessary demands”, notwithstanding which they announced that they will send a delegation to Cairo “to exhaust the possibilities of reaching an agreement, in conditions acceptable to Israel”, the fact is that they continue to maintain their decision to continue the war.
Actions on Rafah have begun
After warning of an “imminent” ground attack on Rafah and ordering the withdrawal of the Palestinian population to what they cynically call the “humanitarian” zone of Muwasi and areas near the city of Khan Younis, the bombing and occupation of the border crossing to Egypt began. With this, a new wave of massacres and the forced transfer of thousands and thousands of Palestinians already displaced several times in the past has begun. Netanyahu justifies genocide as the only way to destroy four Hamas battalions, even against the families of hostages who are demanding that he accept an agreement for the release of the hostages. The far-right Prime Minister continues to flee forward in the quest for his political survival.
Al-Jazeera in Jerusalem was shut down in the run-up to the attack
Prior to the offensive, Israel closed down Al-Jazeera in Jerusalem, the Arab world’s leading news channel. The Qatari channel had already denounced systematic attacks to silence it and the deliberate assassinations of several of its journalists such as Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza al Dahdooh. Al-Jazeera’s Arabic and English channels stopped broadcasting from Jerusalem but continue to do so from the West Bank, Ramallah and Gaza.
Protests, repression and arrests in the US
This past weekend American college students have kept the pulse of solidarity protests with Palestine on the graduation ceremonies. They have done so with varying intensity and consequences at universities in Michigan, Virginia, Vermont, Indiana, Connecticut, Colorado and, with particular intensity, in New York. With the false excuse that the protests are “anti-Semitic” when in reality they condemn the genocide carried out by the Zionist state, the imperialist power intends to dismantle the encampments and put an end to the protests. American “democracy”, which claims to be an exemplary model for the world, is a farce that shows its true face when strong democratic and social protests develop. In this case it has done so with stun grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas and the detention, so far, of around 2,500 students. It is necessary to demand an end to the repression, the release without charge of the detainees and to follow the example of the American students in all the universities of the world.
More and more solidarity with Palestine
Following the example of the American students, there were actions in Paris, Mexico and Spain. In the latter country there are protests in universities and institutes in Valencia, Euskadi, Navarra, Madrid, Seville, Zaragoza, Granada, Galicia and Barcelona that are planned to be coordinated in the coming days. Students, workers and mobilized peoples around the world are pointing the way of struggle to stop the genocide, demanding that governments break relations with Israel, cut off economic aid and the supply of weapons. Revolutionary socialists will continue to promote actions in support of the Palestinian people, against Israel, the U.S. and the European Union. Out of Gaza, Rafah and the Middle East! The fundamental solution is a unique, secular, democratic, non-racist and socialist Palestine.