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Nakba 77 demonstration open letter to Palestine activists

An open letter to Palestine activists: Organise against the warmongers at home!

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After 19 months of backing Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, Starmer and Lammy have begun to shed crocodile tears about the latest horrors being inflicted on the Palestine people. The Labour leaders cannot be trusted. Down with the war criminals!

“We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous…

“The world is judging. History will judge them [the Israeli government]. Blocking aid, expanding the war…This is indefensible and it must stop.”

David Lammy shocked the British public last week in a speech attacking the Israeli government. In his address to the UK Parliament on 20 May, Lammy condemned the Israeli states’ “egregious actions and rhetoric”, telling MPs that the massacre in Gaza had entered a “dark new phase”.

What, we should ask, was the ‘phase’ before this one? Did it not involve starvation as a weapon of war? Did it not see the dropping of more bombs on the besieged Strip than were used to blitz Dresden, Hamburg, and London during the Second World War? Were hospitals, schools, community kitchens not demolished, deemed ‘legitimate’ military targets?

Israel’s genocide has, if anything, been continuous and dogged.

Where is your shame?

Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza, which has only now begun to create moral panic in the pages of the capitalist press, is not the rough edges of an otherwise just cause. It is an intensification of the Zionist regime’s murderous spree.

The Labour leaders may have recently changed their tune. But from the very beginning, Netanyahu and his settler friends could not have been clearer about their genocidal intentions.

In the aftermath of 7 October, Israeli officials boasted that they would “eliminate everything”. There was to be “no electricity, no food, no fuel”. ‘No Gazan is innocent’ was their battlecry.

It was against this backdrop that the West’s political leaders handed over a blank cheque to Netanyahu. Ever since, the entire British establishment has been working for the Zionist regime pro bono.

The ‘free’ press have spun story after story about Israel’s one-sided massacre being somehow related to the ‘security’ and ‘safety’ of its citizens. The police have been called upon to repress our movement. Capitalist politicians of all stripes have provided the necessary diplomatic and political cover for Israel’s crimes.

Keir Starmer infamously commented that it was “proportionate” for Gaza to be put under siege, including the cutting off of aid, power, and water. David Lammy argued that Israel’s bombings of refugee camps could be “legally justified”.

These words will never be forgotten or forgiven.

Nineteen months on, Lammy may feign shock and disgust at the Israeli government’s goal of “cleansing” Gaza; of “destroying what’s left”. But we are not fooled.

The Zionists’ intentions are to push the Gazans out; resettle the refugee population elsewhere; and tighten the Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

Netanyahu is carrying out exactly what he claimed he would do. And this would not have been possible without the financial support and facilitation of western imperialism and its representatives – including the current Labour government.

Where is your shame, Mr Lammy? Where was your concern when the mass graves under the Nasser and Al Shifa hospital were dug up? Where was your condemnation when Palestinian children at the Al-Mawasi camp – a designated humanitarian ‘safe zone’, were burnt alive?

The UK Foreign Secretary is certainly right that the world is judging. But it is not just to Netanyahu’s door that that trail of blood leads. This sanguinary stain continues all the way to the corridors of power in London, Berlin, Paris, and Washington.

Zionism on trial

It is plain as day that Netanyahu and his kingmakers are hellbent on carrying out a second Nakba.

This modern-day catastrophe is taking place in real time: televised for all to witness, every second of the waking day; etched into the minds of millions of people, who cannot unsee the unspeakable suffering the Palestinians have endured.

The latest mood music from British politicians reflects this very fact. The old script of Israel ‘defending itself’ has become unworkable. As a result, it has been swapped out – replaced with reprimands against Netanyahu for going ‘too far’.

But this new narrative does not wash. Netanyahu is indeed a reprehensible politician. He is extending the war for his own cynical, criminal reasons. But the Israeli PM is just one man. Behind him lies the eliminationist logic of the Zionist project.

The root of the problem is not just this extreme right-wing settler administration, but the expansionist state of Israel that is propped up by western imperialism.

Ever since 1948, successive Israeli governments have spoken of ‘purifying’ the land, wiping it ‘clean’ of all Palestinian blemishes. Under the cover of war, the hardline Zionists have sought to expand their grip over the whole of historic Palestine, whilst the ‘democratic’ West looks the other way.

In fact, the goal of a ‘Greater Israel’ was enshrined in the Likud Party’s platform in 1977, long before Netanyahu had even entered the world of politics: “The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable…between the Sea and Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

Though the pace and tempo has varied over the last several decades, the overall Zionist strategy has remained the same: to dispossess the Palestinians of their land and livelihoods.

There are strong echoes of the past. Just like in 1948, when the Zionists were granted the ‘right’ to seize land that they had no legitimate claim to by way of terror, Netanyahu has been exercising his ‘right’ to conduct a campaign of annexation and genocide for the last nineteen months.

The Labour leaders have not ‘woken up’ to the “extremism” of the Zionist project; they and their masters in Washington are simply frustrated with Netanyahu for destabilising the entire world in pursuit of his messianic mission.

Conscientious or cynical?

Buried within Lammy’s speech, we find why he coolly condemned Netanyahu: for “damaging the image of the state of Israel in the eyes of the world.”

British imperialism’s carefully crafted profile of Israel as an ‘outpost’ of western civilisation, fending for itself against a backdrop of terrorism, has indeed been shattered.

No longer can Israel be sold to us as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’, with the ‘most moral’ army on the planet. To be sure, this has always been an ideological fiction. But it has nevertheless been an essential part of the imperialist status quo in the region.

Now, however, Netanyahu is breaking free from the strings attached by his sponsors in the West, pursuing his own war path with Iran, and threatening an all-out conflagration in the region.

The despotic rulers of the Arab world are even warning of revolutionary consequences if Netanyahu gets the green light to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

This is what worries the imperialists in the West. It is not that ‘moral pressure’ has all of a sudden changed the hearts and minds of the British ruling class. It is the fact that their Israeli counterparts have become a strategic liability.

The Labour leaders’ are certainly concerned about their plummeting public support. But the primary reason for Starmer and Lammy’s volte face in relation to Israel-Palestine is not the pressure coming from the streets, but the recent move to sideline Netanyahu by Donald Trump.

Simply put, the Trump administration is sick and tired of the Israeli tail wagging the dog of US imperialism. The American President is seeking to reestablish the real relationship between the two countries, where it is the White House that dictates to Israel, and not vice-versa.

Netanyahu and Trump’s relationship has broken down. The US President has gone on a diplomatic offensive, carrying out a series of rebuffs against Israel in an attempt to cut it back down to size.

Reading the tea leaves, the ‘enlightened’ leaders of Canada, France, and Britain have stepped forward, issuing a joint statement that threatens “concrete action” against Israel.

In other words, the leaders of the ‘free’ world only found their voice and spoke up once Trump had given them go ahead by scolding Netanyahu. Their cynicism is enough to make you choke.

No trust in Starmer’s Labour

Many Palestine activists have called out the British government for last week’s parliamentary pantomime. For millions of people, the Labour leaders’ latest theatrics are a case of too little, too late.

In any case, Netanyahu certainly does not give a damn about what UK politicians think of him – as he made clear with his very own snub of two British parliamentarians last month.

In reality, the “concrete action” proposed by the British government amounts to little more than stern words: a few targeted sanctions on Israeli settlers; the suspension of future trade talks; and calling forth the Israeli ambassador to present the bad news. She must have been quaking in her boots.

Palestine activists have pointed out that this changes no facts on the ground. That is absolutely right.

Just hours after this bit of stagecraft by the Labour government, for example, British spy planes continued their reconnaissance missions over Gaza, gathering intelligence for the Israeli Air Force.

This perfectly encapsulates the hypocrisy of Starmer’s despised government. Whilst they cry crocodile tears for their audience back home, raising their ‘criticisms’ and ‘begging’ Israel to stop its blockade, they continue to aid and abet the horror playing out in the Middle East.

David Lammy’s ‘criticism’ of Israel is just that: mere rhetoric. But in politics, it is deeds and deeds alone that matter.

Look no further than the so-called ‘arms embargo’ that Labour brought in back in September last year. As we pointed out at the time, this did not affect the export of essential components of F-35 fighter jet components; nor did it prevent Britain’s military base in Cyprus being used in Israel’s service.

By the Labour government’s own admission, the UK’s suspension of arms exports to the Israeli regime was ‘limited’ and ‘partial’. In fact, it was a case of political smoke and mirrors.

The National recently revealed that Labour licensed the export of more military equipment to Israel in the three months that followed their ‘arms embargo’ than the Tories did in the three year period of 2020-2023.

So save us your sermons, Mr Lammy. We see your trickery.

The last nineteen months have conclusively proven that we cannot make appeals to the warmongers in Westminster. As lackeys of British imperialism, they have an entirely different set of class interests at heart.

Their hand-wringing about the fate of Gazan children is accompanied by the continued arming of the Zionist state. Their condemnation of Netanyahu is motivated by concerns about the reputational damage to Israel’s image, and theirs by association. When they talk about ‘peace’, it is the pacification of the Palestinians that they seek.

Those in Westminster who are complicit in war crimes abroad are the same people waging a war against the working class at home.

Yet these agents of imperialism and big business are also weak. Starmer is on the backfoot, and Lammy is backtracking. A powerful working-class movement, armed with a programme of socialist internationalism, could bring them to their knees.

 

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Une publication partagée par @fiona_lali

What has changed…

Over the last nineteen months, workers and youth have become tired of simply denouncing the horrors of the war and the oppression of the Palestinian people.

Feeling like not enough was being achieved by A-to-B marches, students began occupying their campuses in the Gaza encampments; Palestine Action activists smashed up arms factories; and most recently, Youth Demand aimed to shut down the streets of London.

Young people engaged with the Palestine solidarity movement have come to understand this question in the broader context of imperialist meddling. The issue of Gaza has genuinely woken up a large layer of youth to the horrors of capitalism and the sham of the ‘rules-based order’.

This was on clear display at the Nakba demonstration in London this month, where over half a million came out. As RCP members reported:

“Saturday’s demonstration was clearly still constrained within the restrictive framework of one more A-to-B march by its organisers. But the slogans taken up by ordinary people coming to these protests have clearly matured.

“Loud, defiant calls for intifada, explicit chants for revolution, and venomous condemnation of Starmer and Lammy resounded through the streets. The slogan of ‘ceasefire now’ – which has been invalidated by the ceasefire’s collapse – was virtually absent from the march.”

Palestine remains a lightning rod for all the accumulated anger in society. And as more people connect the dots between the Starmer government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and their war on the poor here in Britain, no fine words will save the Labour leaders from the fury fermenting below.

What has stayed the same…

One unfortunate constant throughout this period, however, has been the continual appeals to capitalist politicians by the self-appointed leaders of the Palestine movement.

Flowing from their liberal, moralistic, pacifistic outlook, they continue to urge the ‘international community’ to come forth and isolate Israel.

In light of last week’s events, Palestine Solidarity Campaign released a statement with renewed calls on the UK government to implement sanctions on Israel. Stop the War’s statement, meanwhile, published in the Morning Star, urged Lammy to follow through with his words.

Both statements were correct in calling out Lammy’s hollow rhetoric. But both continue to sow illusions in our class enemies.

Bourgeois diplomacy, at best, will only lead to a rotten ‘peace’, brokered by the imperialists – and certainly not to any real or meaningful liberation for the Palestine people.

Lammy’s vacuous speech, rather than indicating any effectiveness of moralistic appeals to establishment politicians, proves the exact opposite.

What has hamstrung the movement for Palestine, just as with the anti-war movement in opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is the lack of a class-based perspective, programme, and strategy.

The workers of the world are the only true friends of the Palestinian cause.

The real danger for the Palestine movement is to continue placing demands at the door of Starmer’s government, without the necessary mass action and militant struggle to force these through.

Above all, what is needed is for the working class to enter the scene as an independent force.

This requires mobilisation by the trade union leaders. Up to now, however, these leaders have not lifted a finger to bring the immense power of the organised working class to bear.

Bridge to the working class

As we pointed out back in October 2023, following the call from Palestinian trade unions for international class solidarity:

“This conflict shows that the international ‘rules-based order’ is nothing but a pack of lies; a masquerade for imperialism to hide behind. Israel’s own engagement in war crimes is all happening in broad daylight, with western imperialism looking on in silence…

“What’s more, the actions of the working class internationally can actually have an impact on halting the death and destruction being rained down on Palestinians, far more than any international criminal court or UN condemnation.”

The history of the British labour movement is replete with examples of how the working class can halt the imperialist war machine. This is the missing element from the solidarity movement.

Thanks to their role in production, by producing all the wealth in society, workers hold a tremendous potential power. As we argued for at the time:

“Trade unionists should pass motions in solidarity with Palestinian workers and youth – calling on the TUC to do the same, and opposing the stinking hypocrisy of Starmer’s Labour. And unions should help organise and attend local solidarity rallies, calling on their members to attend.

“Workers can also mobilise and take militant action. Dockers can block arms shipments. Engineers can prevent the manufacture of weapons. Lorry drivers can stop weapons being transported. Media workers can prevent the publication of the capitalists’ lies.”

Nineteen months on, it is fair to say that any mass mobilisation in Britain has been in spite of the leading organisers of the Palestine movement, with their restrictive strategy and slogans; in spite of the trade union tops, who have been notable by their absence and deafening silence.

With Starmer and his government currently on the ropes, plunging in the polls and facing crises on multiple fronts, now is the time for workers and youth to go on the offensive.

This requires militant class-struggle methods – involving mass strikes, workplace shutdowns and occupations, and workers’ boycotts – to make the imperialist warmongers tremble, and to provide real material solidarity to our class brothers and sisters in the Middle East.

And it requires a class-based programme that draws the links between the British establishment’s support for genocide and barbarism abroad to its policies of social murder at home; and, in turn, to the need to overthrow the capitalism system that breeds war and austerity.

Join the communists!

As ever, the essence of the problem is the question of leadership. And that is what we – the Revolutionary Communist Party – are seeking to resolve.

Members of the RCP have been actively involved in the Palestine movement in Britain from day one. We have organised on campuses, in colleges, and in workplaces to fight for a revolutionary solution to stop imperialist bloodshed once and for all.

From the start, we have put forward the slogan of ‘intifada until victory’, drawing on the magnificent example of the First Intifada as a striking inspiration of the power the masses have when mobilised.

We have proudly called for a Socialist Federation of the Middle East as the only path for genuine Palestinian liberation. To end all the suffering and oppression in the region – and beyond – the forces of reaction must fall.

Across the country, we have put on educational events about the history of the Palestinian struggle and the rotten role of British imperialism, organising a new generation of communists in the fight against the main enemy at home.

We have battled against repression from the British state; against attempts to smear, silence, and censor us by the capitalist media and university authorities.

We have energetically participated in national demonstrations, and played a leading role in the encampment movement that spread across the country last summer.

We stood candidates on an openly pro-Palestine, communist programme in the 2024 general election, and later in a series of student elections this year.

In all of our activity in the Palestine movement, we have been unapologetic in our calls for a revolutionary way forward – linking the question of Gaza to the issues faced by workers and students in Britain, through initiatives like our ‘books not bombs’ campaign.

But we also have a sense of proportion. We are still too small to win the broader movement to these ideas. We must therefore redouble our efforts to build the forces of communism.

If you are appalled by the continual bloodletting in the Middle East, and believe that no amount of moralistic appeals will sway the conscience of Starmer and his cronies, then this is the party for you.

So join us today in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. We have a world to win!

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