Down With the Israeli Attacks on Gaza!

End the Blockade on Gaza! For One Democratic Red State from the River to the Sea!

A Statement of the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 22.10.2018, http://www.the-isleague.com

A rocket launched by a small organization that opposes the attempts of Egypt to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel hit a house in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva during the early morning hours of 17 October, damaging it heavily.

The Israeli family was not hurt physically but was treated for shock. It was one of the first rockets fired in months from the Palestinian territory under Israel's devastating blockade and comes at a time of renewed tensions between Israel and Gaza. In response Israel launched an attack on Gaza from the air. Gaza's Health Ministry reportedly announced that a 25-year-old man, Naji Jamal a-Za'anin, was killed, and three were wounded in an airstrike on Beit Lahiya.

It comes a day after Avigdor Liberman Israel's defense minister said the time has come to deliver a "heavy blow" to Hamas after the Israeli army killed seven Palestinians on Friday, including two teenage boys, during demonstrations along Israel's separation fence. The demonstrators are the children of the Palestinians refugees, who were expelled by Israel in the ethnic cleansing of 1948, demanding to return to their stolen lands.

Israel is holding Hamas responsible for anything that happens in Gaza. According to this distorted logic, Hamas should attack and kill Israeli civilians every time a Palestinian is attacked by right wing Zionists.

Israel has blockaded Gaza for the last 11 years hoping that the economic sanctions it has imposed would lead to a popular revolt against Hamas. Instead, those measures coupled with the sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, have led to a Hamas-led popular uprising along the Fence in Gaza since March 30th.

Israel has responded by killing 200 people so far and injuring many thousands. The Palestinians reacted by burning tires and sending balloons that ignite the fields of the Israelis living near Gaza.

Hamas is willing to have a long term ceasefire with Israel in exchange for lifting the blockade, and it is in the interest of the Palestinians and the Israelis who live near Gaza to have such a ceasefire. Nevertheless, the Israeli government, indifferent even to the suffering of its own people, is not ready to accept even minimal conditions.

The Israeli army is strong enough to reoccupy Gaza, but the price resulting from the loss of Israeli soldiers’ lives is too high and risky for Netanyahu. The Israeli government is not ready to rescind all its border restrictions on Gaza – including the naval and air blockade that causes semi-starvation on a mass scale, lack of electricity and poor health care.

Israel demands that Hamas will disarmed itself and of course Hamas is not ready to commit suicide. Thus it is most likely that the same situation will continue with many more Palestinians murdered by Israel and more arsons in retaliation by the Palestinians, until a real solution will be imposed. This solution can be as result of successful Arab revolutions or a serious military defeat for Israel.

It is difficult to predict whether in the near future a new military round between Israel and Hamas will start again, Netanyahu wants to have new elections and a war will delay them, but if it will take place, our position is clear: the interest of the International working class is to see the defeat of Israel. The blockade that turned Gaza into the largest Ghetto in history should be broken and the refugees have the right of return.

The Zionist parties of the opposition to the government denounced the government from the right for failing to smash Hamas. This is typical of a settler colonialist society, where the only difference between the government and the opposition is merely tactical. They are united in their ambition to break the will of the Palestinians to free themselves for the horrors inflicted upon them by the Zionist state.

The only solution is a one democratic red state where the Palestinian refugees will be welcomed and the Israelis will be free from their role as oppressors of the Palestinians.