Israeli Government is Afraid of Palestinian’s Resistance
By Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 1.9.2021, http://the-isleague.com
Following the military victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan that encourages the Palestinian's resistance the right-wing government of Bennett and the Palestinian Authority, that collaborates with the Zionist state, against the Palestinian people are afraid.
In the past, the Zionist apartheid state linked the passage of goods at the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Gaza fishing zone with the end of actions of resistance by Palestinians against Israel, including border demonstrations in which a Zionist Israeli soldier killer was killed last month.
Now following more demonstrations of the people of Gaza who are mostly refugees from the ethnic cleansing of 1947-8 and who demand the end of the siege on Gaza, the Zionist state has restored the Gaza fishing zone to 15 nautical miles and reopened the main commercial crossing at Kerem Shalom because of the continuing border uprising.
"Following a security assessment and approved by the political echelon, it has been decided to expand the fishing zone in the Gaza Strip to 15 nautical miles, as well as to completely open the Kerem Shalom Crossing for the passage of equipment and goods," the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Wednesday morning." [1]
"Dozens of truckloads of construction materials were allowed into the ravaged Gaza Strip, slightly easing a crippling 14-year-old blockade on the beleaguered enclave that was further tightened since an 11-day deadly assault ended last May. The imports came days after hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza protested along the border fence with Israel to pressure it into lifting its siege and allow the reconstruction of Gaza following its relentless offensive. It also came as Palestinians launched incendiary balloons that sparked multiple fires in Israel’s south." [2]
This fear sent Gantz, the minister of war, to Ramallah to find ways to support the oppressive and corrupted PA serving the Zionist state that only 14% of the people in the West Bank support while 53% support Hamas.
"A new poll released Tuesday finds a dramatic surge in Palestinian support for Hamas following last month’s Gaza war, with around three quarters viewing the Islamic militants as victors in a battle against Israel to defend Jerusalem and its holy sites. The scientific poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research also found plummeting support for President Mahmoud Abbas, who was sidelined by the war but is seen internationally as a partner for reviving the long-defunct peace process. The poll found that 53% of Palestinians believe Hamas is “most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people,” while only 14% prefer Abbas’ secular Fatah party." [3]
Some Israeli "experts" like Ksenia Svetlova ask themselves for good reasons if the West Bank will follow Afghanistan: "What are the chances that the Afghan scenario will repeat itself in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority government is increasingly unpopular, economic conditions are dire and public discontent is burgeoning?" [4]
Indeed the PA of Abbas is probably on its last legs: "Palestinian armed groups are increasingly becoming more visible as frustration with the Israeli military, violent settlers, and the Palestinian leadership – whose authority continues to wane – intensifies. Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday night in the first top-level meeting between the two sides in10 years... The PA has also struggled to subdue the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, with numerous clashes between PA security forces and members of the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades taking place in the camp." [5]
"Hundreds of Palestinians have gathered in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah to demonstrate against President Mahmoud Abbas, hoping to inject new momentum into a protest movement sparked by the death of an outspoken critic in the custody of security forces. Palestinian security forces and groups of men in plainclothes violently dispersed a similar protest a week ago, drawing expressions of concern from the United States and the United Nations human rights chief. There were no immediate reports of violence at Saturday’s demonstration." [6]
Can Israel save the PA when the Zionist apartheid state is where SA racist regime was in the 1980s?
Internationally the isolation of the Zionist apartheid is growing. According to a very interesting report by AUSPALESTINE: "On May 13, in response to the latest Zionist attack on Gaza, two Palestinian union federations appealed for solidarity, “calling on our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement internationally to stop handling goods imported from or exported to Israel.”
"On May 18, Palestinian unions helped organize a general strike observed by hundreds of thousands throughout historic Palestine. This act of mass resistance echoed the 1936 Palestinian general strike against Zionism and British colonialism that remains—at six months—the longest in world history. On May 14, Italian dockworkers refused to ship weapons to Israel, and soon after, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa refused to unload Israeli cargo. This echoed dockers in South Africa, India, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, and the U.S. who had in earlier years refused to handle Israeli cargo during Israel’s aerial bombardments that have killed and maimed thousands of Palestinians."
"On May 18, the International Dockworkers Council asked “all dockworkers to show the solidarity that has been demonstrated so many times in so many conflicts. We cannot allow ourselves to be complicit in this violence by working on ships that operate war merchandise destined to massacre civilians and children. Let us not allow this to stain our name or tarnish our consciences.”
This is a huge defeat for U.S. Labor Zionism that has been always supported by the American trade union bureaucracy. They have branded as “anti-Semitic” those who criticized Israel’s close alliance with apartheid South Africa; and have bought huge quantities of State of Israel Bonds, which paralleled overall U.S. economic and military support for the Israeli state. "This Labor Zionism has been coordinated by the Histadrut’s U.S. mouthpiece, the Jewish Labor Committee. While painting itself as progressive, the JLC has a long history of promoting Israel, U.S. wars of empire, and racism - including the 1968 New York City teachers strike against community control of the schools, and backlash against anti-affirmative action. Led today by Retail Workers (RWDSU) president Stuart Appelbaum, the JLC mobilized late-AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and virtually all top U.S. union officials to attack BDS." [7]
This report ends with the following: "Since all of Israel is occupied Palestine, Palestinians demand decolonization and equal rights for all its inhabitants, “from the river to the sea.”
We fully support this line what we have to add is that to win this struggle a working class led socialist revolution is necessary.
Down with the Zionist apartheid!
Down with the PA traitors!
For Red Free Palestine from the river to the sea!
Boycott the Zionist apartheid!
Footnotes
[1] https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/cogat-eases-fishing-trade-restrictions-in-gaza-678318
[3] https://apnews.com/article/hamas-middle-east-science-32095d8e1323fc1cad819c34da08fd87
[4] https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/will-the-west-bank-become-the-new-afghanistan-analysis-678300
[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/1/west-bank-anger-boils-as-jenin-becomes-hotbed-of-resistance
[7] Suzanne Adely and Michael Letwin: "USA: Bottom-Up Labour Solidarity for Palestine Is Growing"August 31, 2021. Suzanne Adely is co-founder of the Arab Workers Resource Center, a member of the U.S. Palestine Community Network, and President-Elect of the National Lawyers Guild. Michael Letwin is a former President of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325, on the Organizing Collective of USACBI: The U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, a co-founder of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, and a member of the DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group. Both are members of Labor for Palestine, Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and Block The Boat NY/NJ
Further materials from the RCIT:
Our documents on the Third Intifada and the latest Gaza War are compiled on another special sub-page on our website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/collection-of-articles-on-fourth-gaza-war/
RCIT articles on the imperialist defeat in Afghanistan are compiled on this special sub-page: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/collection-of-articles-on-us-defeat-in-afghanistan/