Israel intensifies occupation and seeks to wipe Palestine off the map

Ruben Tzanoff (Internationale Sozialistische Liga)

The new Zionist offensive, with attacks and evacuation orders on the West Bank and Gaza, aims to complete the ethnic cleansing and colonization of the whole of Palestine. The bombings in Qatar and other neighboring countries are evidence of an aggression without limits, which has even been expressed with drones in Tunisia, against the Global Sumud Flotilla. Popular pressure has forced timid reactions in the EU and Spain, but only international mobilization can stop the genocide and break the humanitarian blockade. The International Socialist League (ISL) calls to multiply actions against the occupation of Palestine and the defense of the Flotilla.

Attack in Qatar with imperialist endorsement

On September 9, several explosions hit Doha, capital of Qatar, during cease-fire talks. The Israeli attacks, carried out with the endorsement of US imperialism, killed at least six people and damaged residential buildings, violating Qatari sovereignty. Hamas negotiating leaders managed to survive.

The operation was presented as a “precision strike” against alleged “terrorists”, but in reality it was aimed at dynamiting the ongoing negotiations and terrorizing the Palestinian population in order to reinforce the siege against Gaza.

Colonization and expulsion: Israel’s strategy for Palestine

The Israeli Army ordered the evacuation of all of Gaza City – from the Old City and Tuffah to the coast – through leaflets dropped from planes, instructing the population to head towards a so-called “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, near Khan Yunis.

This shelter strip is already overflowing and does not guarantee the survival of the displaced.

The Israeli State is implementing a phase of its already announced “Operation Gideon”, with the mobilization of some 60,000 reservists, thus preparing for an expanded occupation.

The aggressions include the West Bank. There they carry out continuous “raids” in cities, towns and refugee camps such as Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus and Nur al-Shams. These operations destroy infrastructure, detain and kill civilians and cause forced displacement. For the first time in 20 years, they redeployed tanks in Jenin and multiplied checkpoints for a prolonged military presence.

The sum of ethnic cleansing, genocide, territorial control and occupation fuels the Zionist political project of “Greater Israel” and wiping Palestine and its population off the map.

You may also be interested in: “Israel after total control of Gaza and the West Bank”.

Break off relations with Israel!

On September 11, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, proposed suspending trade benefits to Israel, freezing bilateral payments and sanctioning violent settlers and extremist ministers. Although supported by the European Parliament, the proposal depends on political agreements that the European bourgeoisies usually block to protect their economic interests.

The decisions of imperialism and the European bourgeoisies show more fear of popular pressure in their countries than of a real commitment to Palestine.

Solidarity mobilization and fundraising

Mass protests have forced the powers to speak out. It is the streets full of Palestinian flags, student strikes and boycotts that are forcing timid sanctions from the capitalist governments.

But these measures are hypocritical because they do not break relations with Israel and are formulated in the service of the false “two-state” exit strategy, which for decades served to consolidate colonization.

The only option to achieve a just and lasting peace is to defeat the State of Israel and its accomplices and establish a single, secular, democratic, non-racist and socialist Palestine. It is a goal that can only be achieved with the socialist revolution of the peoples of the Middle East against the traitorous, bourgeois monarchist and Islamic fundamentalist leaders, so that the workers rule.

Denouncing the occupation and defending the Flotilla

In the face of the barbarity of the total occupation of Palestine and famine as a tool of war, the Global Sumud Flotilla symbolizes yet another demonstration of international solidarity: Israel is trying to criminalize it in order to justify a possible boarding of the ships and the subsequent imprisonment of its members for “prolonged periods”.

The recent drone attacks and the false accusations of “supporting terrorism” against those who show solidarity are evidence that the fascist-Zionist regime fears the visibility that the Flotilla gives to the crimes of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people.

LIS Appeal

From the International Socialist League we call to multiply the solidarity actions with the Palestinian people and the Flotilla. If Israel boards the ships, injures or imprisons its crew, the response must be immediate and forceful: with demonstrations and rallies in front of embassies and consulates. With strikes by workers and students and with boycotts of Zionist economic interests.

The massive diffusion in the networks is also very important since in them Zionism, the ultra-right and their accomplices act systematically with aggressions and lies against the Palestinian people and people in solidarity.

Only the international mobilization of workers and peoples can stop the Zionist criminals. The Global Sumud Flotilla is not alone: we are millions of people who defend it.