Zionist Israel Slaughters Nearly 400
Palestinians, with U.S. Backing
End all U.S. Aid to Apartheid Israel!
A Socialist Action Statement
December 30, 2008
[Note: We are posting this statement for our readers’
information. It has been edited somewhat for Labor Standard (edited
passages in red). And of course, as of Jan. 7, 2009, a week later, the death
toll for Palestinians was reported at nearly 700 (mostly civilians, mostly women
and children), with nearly 3,000 wounded, many maimed for life. The death toll
for Israel was reported to be 10. — The Editors, Labor
Standard]
Since withdrawing from direct occupation of Gaza in 2005, the
Israeli government has maintained indirect control over this small strip of
land with its population of about 1.5 million, treating it as an open-air
prison and most of the time as a shooting gallery. Now Israel’s Zionist rulers
are making Gaza an extermination camp. The December 27-30 premeditated
slaughter of nearly 400 Palestinians, with more than 1,000 wounded, has
horrified the world, and especially the Arab masses, who sympathize with the
Palestinians.
As of December 30, there is no end in sight. The slaughter
continues.
The Palestinian people have been relegated to the status of vermin
in their own land by the Zionist colonizers and their U.S. imperialist backers.
In the Zionist treatment of the Palestinians the Arab masses
recognize the contempt that the imperialists have for them, and the sight of it
rubs salt in their wounds. They have suffered this bitterness and have harbored
a justifiable hatred for their oppressors for decades
without finding an effective outlet. Today their outrage can only become
deeper; in time it will eventually overwhelm the neocolonialist rulers of their
own countries, who connive with the Zionists and the imperialists.
The hopelessness to which the Zionist colonization condemns the
Palestinians mirrors the hopelessness of all the Arab and Muslim peoples and
all Third-World peoples suffering under the economic dominance and exploitation
of the imperialists. Egypt, by far the largest Arab state, in particular
seethes with such frustration, both because of the collaboration of its brutal
dictatorial rulers with imperialism and the failure of the promises that the
road out of poverty would be opened by cooperation with world capitalism’s
economic overlords in the so-called Infitah (open
door policy), which paralleled the peace with Israel. The Camp David Accords
with Israel were a political capitulation; the Infitah,
which opened up Egypt to imperialist economic exploitation, was a corresponding
economic capitulation.
Egypt, the only Arab state to border on Gaza, is openly
collaborating with the ongoing Zionist massacre. The international press has
reported that Egyptian border guards are firing on Palestinians trying to flee.
That is a violation of a fundamental human right, the right of flight, the
right of refugees to international protection. Paradoxically, the Zionists’
real objective is to drive out the Palestinians, but they want to crush them
first. Palestinians will fight to stay in their country, to hold on to their
land, to resist the Zionist colonizers. But some may want to flee to save their
lives or the lives of their children. If they want to, they have that right,
and it is protected by international law and humane tradition. It is an outrage
that Israel and Egypt are denying them this basic human right.
Egypt could also end the Zionist economic siege of Gaza. It need
only open the border. Palestinian forces were able to force their way through
at one point and keep the border open for a few days. But Egypt closed it again
and reinforced it. That is another outrage. It goes beyond capitulation to
Zionism; it is active collaboration with it.
Even the capitalist press has pointed out that Israel’s present
campaign is the greatest slaughter of Palestinians since the 1982 massacre in
the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps by Lebanese fascists with the open complicity of the Israeli
army. That is the measure of the challenge today. Can world public opinion
allow such a massacre to go on in the full view of the world’s peoples? If it
does, that will be a grave setback for the advance of civilization in general. Alleged
provocations by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups are no excuse for
indifference. Futile acts of resistance can be expected from any human beings
subjected to intolerable conditions. Similar acts can be seen every day even in
American prisons. And the imprisonment of the Palestinians is far worse. The
futility of individual acts of resistance is an indication of desperation. It
should arouse sympathy and not censure.
Humanity is one. If one section of humanity is subjected to
torture, all of humanity suffers, all humanity is endangered. It is time for
all people of good will and reasonable sense to rise to the defense of the
beleaguered people of Gaza. They can force their governments to pressure Israel
to end its siege.
Israeli is and has always been a racist Zionist colonial settler
state. It was established in 1948 with imperialist agreement by the physical
removal of a large part of the Palestinian people from historic
Palestine. Shortly after the original “partition,” which divided Palestine in
roughly two parts, the imperialist-armed Zionist army organized a war to
destroy hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages in order to occupy
additional portions of Palestine. What remains of Palestine today is less than
20 percent of the original homeland to millions, the majority of whom today
live in exile and constitute the largest refugee population in the world.
Socialist Action has never recognized the legitimacy of the
Zionist State of Israel, just as we reject extending any legitimacy to nations conquered and
occupied by imperialist colonizers anywhere in the world, past and present.
We unconditionally support the right of the Palestinian people to
self-determination, that is, to a democratic secular Palestine to be
reconstituted on the original Palestine lands and with the right of all
Palestinians to return. Socialist Action simultaneously struggles for a
socialist federation of the Middle East and for a socialist Palestine, where
Arabs, Muslims, Jews and all others can live at peace in an egalitarian society
free from capitalist profit and exploitation.
We demand:
·An immediate end to all
U.S. military, economic and political aid to Israel!
·Immediate withdrawal of
all U.S. military installations and equipment from Israel!
·Sever all relations with Israel!