LONG LIVE FREE PALESTINE!
DOWN WITH IMPERIALIST-ZIONISM
Backed by the U.S. Israel Unleashes a Massacre in Gaza
by Larry Everest
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11578
Israel’s latest attack is the continuation of over 60 years of violent efforts to crush the Palestinian people and break any resistance to Israeli designs—going back to Israel’s founding in 1948 as a settler colonial state and an arm of Western imperialism in the Middle East.
This step-by-step campaign of ethnic cleansing began with violently driving some 750,000 Palestinians from their lands during the 1947-48 Arab-Israeli war; the destruction of hundreds of conquered Palestinian villages; the military conquest of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war; the illegal colonialization of these “occupied territories" afterward, coupled with a steady assault on Palestinian economy and society. Israel claimed each assault was simply a response to Palestinian “terror,” or refusal to make peace; while each Israeli assault furthered its strategic objectives of destroying Palestine.
Most of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians were forced from their homes in other parts of Palestine during the establishment of Israel. From 1967 until 2005, Israel militarily occupied Gaza. After ending the occupation, Israel kept complete control of this desert strip’s land, sea and air borders. Israel sent armored bulldozers to destroy Gaza’s fruit orchards, blockaded the fishing port, cut off supplies to factories and other businesses, and forbid most Gaza residents the right to work elsewhere or even leave. Gaza today is a humanitarian crisis, its population living in prison-like conditions.
Hamas—which governs Gaza—is not about liberating Palestine as a secular state free of imperialist domination; it represents forces that would restructure the oppressive relations that enslave the people of Palestine within an Islamic theocratic framework.
Hamas has repeatedly proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent truce in order to lift the siege of Gaza. A truce was finally agreed upon in June 2008, under which Hamas agreed to stop missile attacks, and Israel was supposed to end its blockade of Gaza. According to the pro-Israel New York Times, Hamas was "largely successful" in stopping the launches of the Qassam missiles, some of which are carried out by groups other than Hamas. But Israel refused to ease its blockade. Then, November 4, Israel launched an attack that killed six Palestinians. The next day, it sealed all Gaza’s borders, intensifying what had already been a horrific situation for the people.
Israel’s siege has turned Gaza into the world’s largest open-air concentration camp—its impoverished inhabitants are being starved and subject to indescribable suffering. 80% live below the poverty line. About 97% of factories and workshops cannot operate. Gaza’s industrial zone is completely closed. Unemployment is about 50%. In 2006 Israel bombed Gaza's only power plant, making Gaza dependent on power supplies from Israel and Egypt. Fresh drinking water is often not available for days at a time. Irregular power means that sewage treatment plants cannot function and that raw sewage gets dumped into the Mediterranean. Medicines are in short supply, and Israeli bans on travel mean that Palestinians seeking advanced medical care that is not available in Gaza are left to die. (For more on the state of Gaza under siege, see the article from A World to Win News Service, "Gaza: Tottering on the Brink," in Revolution #150, available online at revcom.us)
In light of all this, the claims by Israel and the U.S. that the current bloody invasion is a “response” to small-scale and largely ineffective rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza are obscene. They are like the method the U.S. used to justify the genocide of Native Americans by settlers and the military: according to the official narrative, that story “began” with claims of the first Native American scalping of some settler family or soldier—and then anything goes to “respond” to what is declared an atrocity. What came before—what provoked the scalping, the genocidal lies and brutality visited upon the indigenous peoples, and America’s actual agenda of forcible conquest and colonialization—all this is ignored and covered up.
Even by its own terms, Israel’s longstanding policies of near-starvation, and the current massive reign of death from the air are violations of international law—serving as “collective punishment” against the entire population of Gaza. This collective punishment of all Gaza residents is contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention and is illegal under international law. Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, states that "to the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."
Mass Opposition Needed Here, and Now!
Israel has served as U.S. imperialism’s unsinkable aircraft carrier and regional enforcer in the Middle East for decades, and the U.S. has been Israel’s staunchest backer, providing it with billions of dollars a year in aid. And, with the “war on terror”—in reality a war for empire—Israel’s strategic relationship with the U.S. has become even more pivotal.
According to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, in addition to supplying the F16 fighter jets and the missiles used in Israel’s recent attack, the U.S. transferred more than $200 million worth of spare parts for Israel’s fleet of F16's between 2001-2006. “In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and ‘bunker buster’ missiles.” And according to U.S. government officials, the U.S. was fully informed ahead of time of Israeli plans and apparently gave them a green light.
In short, Israel’s massacre and its ongoing crimes against the people of Gaza could not have happened without U.S. support—and people living in the U.S. have the responsibility to oppose the crimes of “our” government. Protests have erupted across the Middle East, and there have also been protests (with more planned) in the U.S. and Europe.
There needs to be massive, visible political opposition to the U.S.-sponsored assault on Gaza, here, and now. Silence and acquiescence to these crimes in any form is complicity. The world needs to see that within the U.S., there are people who are not going along with the crimes being sponsored by their government.
TOWARDS VICTORY!
From the battlefield under siege: A statement by the PFLP
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=50238&s2=02
Gaza is living under total siege from sea, land and air.... What must be clear is that these crimes are being committed by the Israeli occupier with the complicity of the Egyptian regime, the active participation of the United States, and that, in fact, these crimes would not be possible without that complicity and support. This assault on our people in Gaza is a continuation of the war that Israel waged against the Lebanese people and their resistance in 2006 and the ongoing war against the Iraqi resistance, and involves the participation and complicity of the same forces in their attempts to destroy the Arab people's resistance to colonialism, occupation, Zionism and imperialism. These crimes are taking place through collective targeting and punishment of the masses of the people who embrace the resistance and continue to provide the steadfast backbone of our revolution.
In light of this urgent and critical situation, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is calling the Palestinian people, the Arab masses and all progressive and revolutionary forces in the world to confront this aggression, expose its objectives, and provide support by all forms and means to the Palestinian cause, to participate in achieving victory out of this horrific massacre.
We call upon people to:
Demand the immediate end to the Israeli massacres and aggression against our people in Gaza.
Demand that the Egyptian government immediately, permanently and unconditionally open the Rafah crossing with Gaza. Pressure the Arab regimes and the Arab League to end their silence and complicity with the occupier's crimes against our people.
Demand that the U.S. immediately end its cover and support for this aggression and its participation in this aggression. It must be noted that the war machines by which Israel is carrying out its massacres, including F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters, were made by and paid for by the U.S. and are being used to target civilians in violation of international law, and even U.S. law itself.
Call upon the international community to end its silence and complicity with the Israeli massacre. Demand that the United Nations and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon end their acceptance and complicity with occupation crimes against our people and instead implement their own resolutions guaranteeing Palestinian rights and sovereignty. UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann has called upon the UN to live up to its responsibilities and we salute this call and call upon all people to turn this call into action.
Act to internationally isolate the illegitimate racist state of Israel. Israel's horrendous crimes have exceeded even those of apartheid South Africa and this regime should not be welcomed anywhere in the world, in international forums or institutions and it should be totally boycotted. All countries should expel Israeli ambassadors and the participation of Israeli representatives in any international gathering or forum should be completely rejected. There is no place for racist Zionism.
Towards victory!
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
