The Israeli armed forces’ attack on the international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip exposed once again the real character of the State of Israel. Because the murder of at least 9 activists was, when all is said and done, nothing but the continuation of the everyday genocidal policy applied against the Palestinian people, especially against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
And we are not only talking about the constant military raids suffered by Gaza, but also about the fatal effects of the blockade that Israel has been carrying out for several years now in order to crush the resistance of its inhabitants through sheer famine.
According to the reports of the UN (United Nations) and the WHO (World Health Organisation), “children in Gaza suffer from increases in illnesses that will affect them dramatically in the future and in many cases will shorten their life expectation”. Displaying total cynicism, many Israeli leaders make jokes saying that it is all about “putting the Palestinians on a diet” (quoted in the article by Henry Siegman, director of US/Middle East Project, for the newspaper Haaretz, published in Rebellion, 16/06/2010).
It was against this systematic and permanent massacre of the Palestinian population in Gaza that a number of human rights activists and organizations joined the Free Gaza Movement and launched an international campaign fighting for the end of the blockade of the Gaza Strip and, in August 2008, sent the first international flotilla to that region. The flotilla now attacked by Israel is part of that campaign and, because their aim to break through the blockade, it was brutally attacked. The message was: anybody who wishes to help Gaza is an enemy that will be annihilated by Israel.
Israel’s International Isolation Grows
Israel is not quite getting away with it. As the charade of a “democratic country” surrounded by “dictatorial Arab countries”, with which Israel concealed its real character, falls down quickly, international repudiation and isolation are beginning to increase.
After the attack on the flotilla, there were great demonstrations in Turkey, in the Muslim countries and all across Europe. In the whole world, there has been an increase in the demonstrations of repudiation as well as an increase of the awareness of what the State of Israel really is.
The increased estrangement between the Turkish government and Israel, its main ally in the Muslim world, is a direct consequence of the attack on the flotilla. This outcome was practically unavoidable since several ships of the flotilla sailed under the Turkish flag and many activists of that country participated in the expedition (most of the fatal casualties were Turkish).
The fact that the administration of the Egyptian dictator Mubarak, another traditional ally of Israel, was compelled to loosen temporarily the blockade of goods to the Gaza Strip that they maintained in collaboration with Israel. That even Israel has reduced the list of prohibited products is another effect of the flotilla attack.
Even in the Jewish community in the USA – the largest one outside Israel and a strong supporter of the Zionist State – some sectors are emerging that question the Israeli actions. In the above quoted article, Henry Siegman (an American Jew himself) has stated that “the effusion of the condemnation of Israel in the world is a reminiscence of the darkest period of the Hitler era”. Siegman makes it clear that in this case it is the Zionist State who plays the Nazi role and the Gaza Palestinians are the victims. “A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open air jail in infrahuman conditions for over three years”.
Imperialist Complicity
And yet, neither the genocidal policy of Israel against the Palestinians nor the massacre of the international activists has managed to change the complicity of the governments of the imperial countries (USA and Europe) and of the UN with Israel. Those governments, as well as the international organization, refuse to condemn Israel and its genocidal policy.
The reasons are very deeply rooted: in 1948, Israel was created by a UN vote, to be an imperialist enclave so as to act like a “gendarme” against the Palestinian people and the struggle of the Arab people. From this point of view, Israel is the only sure and unconditional USA ally in the region (a concept that was clearly confirmed by Obama). That is why imperialism will defend its existence to the bitter end.
The Israeli Population Supports The Genocide
Neither have the latest events modified the support of an ample majority of the Israeli population. According to a survey carried out by the magazine Israel Hayom, 92% of the Israelis supported the attack on the Flotilla Liberty and about 78% backed the siege of the Gaza Strip.
This is absolutely logical: as inhabitants of a colonial-military enclave, most of the Jewish inhabitants of Israel know that, in order to defend their privileges and their standard of living (sustained on a military budget and production of weapons), they must defend the existence of that state, because these privileges depend on its existence. That is why they will support any policy – even the cruelest and most inhuman – as long as it helps towards that target.
Some minority sectors of Israelis, like some survivors of the Nazi persecution, or the few pacifists who are overtly harassed at their rallies by the fascists, may have their contradictions about these measures. But, as quoted by Siegman, the absolute majority shares the feeling that “for all practical purposes, they are Arabs,” as an Israeli friend of his said.
What is increasingly clear is that there will be no real solution until the State of Israel is destroyed (its existence and nature constitute the true cause of the conflict) and a sole Palestinian State, secular, democratic and non-racist, in which Palestinians who have been banished from their land can return home and where those Jewish residents who will accept their rights can coexist in peace if they wish to do so.
The Boycott Campaign Against Israel Is Growing
As for now, there is an increase in the isolation and rejection of Israel in the trade unions, and among the intellectuals and peoples of the whole world. Artists from all over the world are beginning to join in. For example, the American musician, Carlos Santana, the English singer Elvis Costello and the US rock band the Pixies have cancelled their shows in Israel.
More important still, the international campaign is swelling rapidly. The campaign was launched in 2005 by the PACBI (Palestinian campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). One of its founding members is Haidar Eid, a lecturer at the University of Al-Aqsa, in Gaza. (For an interview, see http://www.litci.org/declaraciones/94/mediooriente/808-artigos808).
This campaign was launched by a broad coalition of Palestinian entities, gathering together practically all the trends of opinion that display any activity there. The BDS Platform (boycott, disinvestment and sanctions) was created on their motion and it is pushing forward the international trade union, academic, sporting, commercial and consumption boycott of Israel. This campaign has an international coordination of the national committees, which has just held a meeting in Sweden attended by 120 people from France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Spain (mainly from Catalonia and the Bask country), Portugal, Sweden, Norway and South Africa. The creation of a “Labor Pro-Palestinian Platform” has been put forward, which is very important for the world working class to support the campaign against Israel and its genocidal policy.
Workers’ Solidarity
Although the campaign as a whole is highly important if we wish to isolate and prepare the defeat of Israel, we must emphasize the importance of working class solidarity. Solidarity allows us to hit Israel at the point of international trade. It makes the support of the imperialists and of the companies who invest there and who maintain their support for the genocide being practiced by Zionists much more expensive for them. Further, because it gives a sense of solidarity of the working class that is so necessary for the reconstruction of proletarian internationalism. This was achieved in its time with the solidarity to the Spanish fighters against Francoism during the Spanish Civil War and then against South African apartheid. That is why we regard some achievements reached so far as extremely important, such as:
– The decision of the longshoremen in Sweden and Norway to adhere to the campaign. In Sweden, they did not unload any container with Israeli goods for one week (maximum allowed). Many of these wares were produced illegally (that is to say in colonies situated in territories occupied since 67). Bjôrn Borg, leader of the trade union is considering it a repetition of the protest his trade union carried out in the past against Chilean fascism and South African apartheid;
– The University and College Union, representing nearly 12,000 teachers and employees at schools and universities in Great Britain, voted their adhesion to BDS against Israel at their congress, held on 30th May in Manchester;
– The Central Executive Committee of the SAMWU (trade union of municipal workers of South Africa) voted to impede any academic, cultural or sporting event to be held with Israel and publicly declared their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Last February, in that same country, longshoremen refused to unload containers to and from Israeli ships;
– On 11th May, the CFMEU (Australian union of building workers, miners and energy) adhered to the BDS;
– In the USA, 800 activists of the community and of trade unions, summoned by the organization ANSWER, blocked the entrance of the Oakland Port (near San Francisco, California) to get the longshoremen not to load or unload ships coming from Israel. Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) supported the call and joined the picket.
We Support and Promote The Campaign
The IWL-FI (International Workers’ League – Fourth International) hereby joins the campaign. We call on all the trade unions, social, students’ and popular organizations to organize and carry out activities of boycott against Israel all over the world. In this moment, it is possible to carry out activities that will increase international isolation of Israel and will weaken the Zionist state. In this way, we shall also be supporting and strengthening the struggle of the Palestinian people. This means promoting the broadest unity in action of everybody who agrees with the objectives of the campaign.
For this purpose, it is fundamental to build the unity of the Arab and Palestinian communities of different countries and of all the trends that are willing to promote the campaign. We know that it is very important to make a strong campaign to break through the blockade round Gaza and to call for a boycott that can really affect Israel. But, within the framework of this joint campaign, we highlight the necessity to fight a much harder battle: for the definite defeat of Israel.
This demands massive activities in the entire Middle East and in the whole world, to destroy the racist and genocidal State and recover the entire Palestinian territory for a secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine. With this in mind, the boycott will allow us to mobilize and to create the awareness of that strategic need and provide a way for more radical action with this perspective.
It is necessary to mobilize the Arab and Muslim masses to demand that their governments break with Israel, to force Egypt to unconditionally end the blockade once and for all and, from all governments of Arab countries, to break relations with Israel.
In Europe it is necessary to break through the support the European Union and the imperialist governments lend to Israel. Those governments that talk so wisely about human rights but systematically support the State of Israel and pretend not to notice its genocidal practice; or those who request investigations that are never carried out and, when they are, their results are rejected by Israel, they are ignored. This was the case with the South African judge, Richard Goldstone, about the invasion of Gaza.
In South America, the media present Brazil as allegedly “independent”, even more after Lula’s trip to Israel to foster a so-called “peace” policy. But the truth is that Israel is the only country out of the area with which the countries of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) have signed a Free Trade Agreement. In this way, these governments (some of which are regarded as Leftist), while making speeches about peace, give Israel some political and commercial space and consequently weaken its international isolation, strengthening their aggressions against the Palestinian people.
We call for the development of a campaign in those countries to demand from the Lula, Kirchner, Lugo and Mujica administrations an immediate breach of diplomatic relations with Israel and of the Mercosur agreement with Israel.
Just as mentioned above, this is the right time when an international action may produce effective results where the weakening of the State of Israel is concerned. Let’s get going!
Full support and solidarity for the struggle of the Palestinian people!
Put an immediate end to the criminal blockade of Gaza!
We demand from our governments an immediate breach of diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel!
Push forward a great world-wide boycott campaign against Israel! Down with the State of Israel!
For a secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine!
