The Dream Of Independent Palestine Can't Be Destroyed
October 7, 2023 to June 28, 2024 (the date of the article) ? a total of 266 days; as on today's update at Al Jazeera, "At least 37,765 people (a large section among them are women & children) have been killed and 86,429 wounded in Israel's war on Gaza. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza."1. It is now apparent to the whole world (above dataalso confirms that fact) that a David vs Goliath war is continuing sincelast 266 days at Gaza border, where the small shepherd boy David,today's Palestinians, armed only with sling and stones (metaphorically)is continuing an absolutely uneven hard battle against the heavilyarmored giant Goliath, the Israeli ruling class. During these 266 days,the whole Gaza Strip has almost been destroyed to its brink. Above all,just two million people living in an area of 365 sq km is beingoppressed-bombarded-murdered-destroyed every day for last 266 days onlyfor the sake of evicting themselves from their homeland.
However, this war is not actually only about the humanitariandisaster faced by Palestinian people. This is a question of freedom fromoccupation of Palestine by Israeli ruling class, question of democracy,question of self-determination of Palestinian people. Not only Gaza andWest Bank, also the land on which now stands Israel was once thehomeland of Palestinian Arabs. With the help of imperialist forces, theJews began to forcible occupy the land of Palestinians. After theunilateral establishment of Israel in 1948, the Israeli ruling classcontinuously encroached even that portion of the land which wasdemarcated as Palestine state by the UN. And now, after long 75 years, asection of Palestinians remain in two small portions of land, Gaza andWest Bank, situated far away from each other, and the rest as refugeesin neighbouring states, generations after generations. Even the Gaza andWest Bank, is actually under Israeli occupation. So, this is on one handa struggle of Palestinians for their independence, for freedom and onthe other, war of the Israeli ruling class to occupy whole of erstwhilePalestine. The aim of Israeli ruling class in the present war isto crush and end the resistance of the Palestinian people once and forall and completely occupy even these small two parcels of land.The proletariat of all countries, as the frontline soldier of democracyshould support the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom andoppose the aggression and occupation of Israeli ruling class.
But, the Israeli ruling class is not only responsible for the presentsituation Western imperialism, particularly US imperialism is alsoequally, if not more, responsible for this situation. In an articledated Sept 30, 1951, after three years of birth of Israel, the Israelinewspaper HAARETZ made an interesting statement with some explanation.To make the article shorter, we are simply referring that statementwithout any explanation. It stated: "?. Therefore, strengtheningIsrael helps the Western powers maintain equilibrium and stability inthe Middle East. Israel is to become thewatchdog.''2 How much the above statement made by anewspaper 73 years ago has overcome the boundaries of time and hasremained relevant still today! Obviously, there is a difference. It wasstated at a time when USSR was also a superpower in opposition to USimperialism. However, USSR may not exist now, but Israel is stilloperating as a lackey of US imperialism who is acting as a watchdog toprotect the interest of imperialism in the West Asia. Israel is not onlyan important passage for them to transfer huge amount of rich mineralresources usurped from West Asia, it is one among the topmost procurerof their huge arms industry. Even in the current war against Hamas wefind that, "By Dec. 25 (2023), Israel received morethan 10,000 tons of weapons in 244 cargo planes and 20 ships from theU.S. These transfers includedmore than 15,000 bombs and 50,000 artillery shells within just the firstmonth and a half. ? Between October and the beginning of March, the U.S.approvedmore than 100 military sales to Israel, but publicly disclosed only twosales. ? Despite massive public protests, the Biden administration hasbeen working to give Israel over $14 billion to buy more weapons. ?Israel is required to use this money to buy U.S.-made weapons. This is aform of corporate welfare not only for the largest weaponsmanufacturers, like Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, and General Dynamics,whichhave seen their stock prices skyrocket, but also for companies thatare not typically seen as part of the weapons industry, such asCaterpillar, Ford, and Toyota."3 Now, US President Biden istrying to play the role of a mediator ? the same Biden who, in theseeight months of nonstop funding, arming, and diplomatically shieldingthe Israeli genocide in Gaza ? has openly, gleefully, proudly, and atevery opportunity proven his true nature that earned him the nickname,"Genocide Joe". European imperialism is also not lagging far behindBiden. Even India has sent drones from Adani's company under thecollaboration of an Israeli company.
But for the sake of maintaining a peace-keeping image to the externalworld, in the 3rd week of May, 2024, the declawed UnitedNations' International Court of Justice (the top court of UN) had votedby a majority of 13 votes to two to halt immediately all militaryoffensive and any other action of Israel in the Rafah governorate; butthe ridiculous feature of this order is that it is not enforceable, andIsraeli ministers indicated that they would not comply with it. Not onlythat, Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir,accused the court of being "anti-Semitic", and added that the court'sruling "should have only one answer ? the occupation of Rafah, theincrease of military pressure and the crushing of Hamas, until thecomplete victory in the war is achieved".4So, it is apparentthat Netanyahu led Israeli government cares little about all theseso-called international diplomatic pressure.
Subsequently, a process of mediation between Israel & Hamas hasbeen initiated under the leadership of US President Biden on May 31,2024 ? both Egypt & Qatar have been the party of the process. Bidennamed it as "a three-phase Israeli Plan", where during the1st phase, there would be a six-weeks cease-fire, when"Israeli army would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza, Some Israelicaptives would also be exchanged in return for hundreds of Palestinianprisoners. ..."5However, according to the latest reports,Netanyahu and his ministers are not yet ready to proceed with thisproposal and is still dreaming about complete destruction of Hamas.
On the other hand, the June 3, 2024 edition of the Times of Israelhas referred to the Wall Street Journal and reported that, "The papersays Hamas wants a deal that is unambiguous and will not allow Israel toresume the war after the release of hostages ? which Jerusalem has saidit will indeed do. ?"6And both US & UK are not uttering asingle word about the position of Israel on this issue and accusing onlyHamas for not accepting the cease-fire deal.
However, even after a strong support from today's imperialism, all isnot well in the Goliath front. A section of top echelons of Israelimilitary has started to ponder whether the target of eliminating Hamasis at all viable. On Jun 26, in an interview with the Channel 13 News,IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari categorically stated that,"This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear ? it's simplythrowing sand in the eyes of the public. ? Hamas is an idea, ? It'srooted in the hearts of the people ? anyone who thinks we can eliminateHamas is wrong."7 In another source, it has been reportedthat, Similar type of observation has also been reflected by the head ofIsrael's National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi.8Inanother report published in the Times of Israel, June 20, 2024 edition,"?There have been other recent signs of friction between the militaryand Netanyahu, including over "tactical pauses" in fighting along a roadin southern Gaza that Netanyahu criticized, ?"7 Similarinformation have been corroborated by the June 17, 2024 edition of therenowned Israeli Newspaper HAARETZ.9
It took USA almost 20 years (1955-1975) to realize that Vietnamesecould not be defeated, 9 years (2003-2011) that Iraqi people did notpossess WMD, again nearly 20 years (2001-2021) to face a humiliatingdefeat in Afghanistan; however, Israel, US's most trusted ally, appearsto be wiser that during the current phase, at least a small minority ofthe top echelon of Israeli army, has started to realise that the dreamof an independent Palestine cannot be wiped out from the earth till thelast Palestinian is killed.
Let us now take into consideration another significant aspect. InsideIsrael, protests of the masses against this war is increasing everyalternate day. Demands are now not limited only to the release of thehostages at Gaza, rather demands like resignation of Netanyahu, freshelection, declaration of complete cease-fire etc are strongly emergingin one after another street-protests going on since last two months,where thousands of Israeli masses are scuffling with police.10
Meanwhile, all across USA and Europe, thousands of students haveblocked their University campuses calling for universities to separatethemselves from companies advancing Israel's military efforts in Gazaand in some cases from Israel itself, condemning the role of theirgovernments in this war, demanding immediate complete cease-fire and insome cases, establishment of free Palestine. It started on April 18,2024 from Columbia University and police there had arrested hundreds ofstudents, university authorities had threatened to winding down theiracademic career, forced to leave University hostels ? but those couldnot tone down the anger of the students, rather it spread likewild-fire, initially across US and then in Europe.11 Insupport of the students, thousands of pro-Palestinians, on June 8, 2024,converged around the White House on Saturday, urging President Joe Bidento stop all military aid to Israel and calling for an immediatecease-fire in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. The protesters were"holding signs calling Biden a liar, mostly clad in red and bearingPalestinian flags and marched around the block of parkland where theWhite House sits".12
However, the moot question that haunts us all is that when and howthe Palestinian problem can be solved, which means when and how thePalestinian people will be able to have their independent state, wherethey can live without the domination and oppression of Israelis. At thismoment, this is not visible in near future. The Palestinians arefighting a hugely unequal battle. One the one hand there is Israeliruling class armed to teeth, with huge military power, backed by theimperialists, especially the US imperialism, and on other hand thePalestinians, who do not have any state, large number of its people arehelpless, defenseless refugees, scattered in adjoining Arab countries.It is also a stark reality that even the ruling classes of other Arabcountries are not supporting the Palestinians in any effective way,because they are attached with the imperialists by a thousand strings.Can there be any comparison between these two forces? No, So, liberationof Palestine is only possible as a result of struggle of internationalproletariat against the imperialists and their stooges towardssocialism. If the struggle of working classes of West Asia can be unitedwith the international working class against the imperialists and theruling classes of Israel and can uproot them from the West Asian region,the liberation of Palestine will be possible. It goes without sayingthat in this struggle, as a part and parcel of the internationalproletariat, the active and unified participation of the working classof Israel & that of the Arab countries including Palestine, isabsolutely necessary.
One may argue that Israeli working class is very much under theinfluence of Zionist ideology of their ruling class and so it isimpossible for them to build up a united struggle against Israeli rulingclass in support of Palestine. Yes, this argument is valid in theprevalently existing condition. In fact, the International working classis also going through a period of immense, huge defeat and theythemselves are disorganized, going through a defenseless condition.However, this condition cannot remain immutable forever. Thecontradiction between capital and labour will definitely rouse theworking class across the globe against the capitalists and imperialists.The Israeli working class will also rise in future against its rulingclasses and unite with their comrades of Palestine. Only that day aPalestine, liberated from the oppression and exploitation of Israeliruling classes and Imperialism, will emerge. The petty-bourgeoisleadership of Palestinian struggle is also an impediment of liberationof Palestine, because they are keeping the struggle in the narrowconfines of anti-Semitic ideology and exclusivity of Palestiniannationalism, which may help them to keep their influence on thePalestinians but cannot help the Palestinians to liberate themselves.Only in the condition, when the Israeli ruling class and imperialismwill be uprooted, liberated Palestine can see the light of the day andthen the people of Israel and Palestine will be able to decidedemocratically how, in what geographical structure, both the people maylive side by side peacefully.
We also should add here that liberation of Palestine from theoppression of Israeli ruling class will not liberate the Palestinianworking class from exploitation. They must also organize themselvesindependently as a class against the bourgeoisie and work for the goalof socialism as an integral part of international working classmovement. This is the path for real liberation of Palestine.
Source:
https://www.counterfire.org/article/israel-watchdog-for-us-imperialism/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/4/is-israel-going-to-back-the-biden-announced-gaza-peace-plan
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/26/israel-gaza-war-anti-government-protesters-clash-with-tel-aviv-police-and-demand-hostage-deal; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDnJu-dolO8&ab_channel=CNN-News18;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgbb95PPiio&ab_channel=Firstpost
https://apnews.com/article/gaza-war-campus-protests-966eb531279f8e4381883fc5d79d5466; https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/05/17/protests-against-gaza-war-take-hold-across-european-campuses_6671727_4.html.
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