The social
protest movement in Israel, after a hiatus, is now planning to gather
one million people in Tel Aviv on September 3. The ruling class is
certainly worried by this prospect and the Israeli railways have
announced that they will shut down train services between Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem, and between Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva, supposedly for "for
maintenance work". Clearly this is a manoeuvre to try and weaken the
mobilisations that are being prepared
The social
protest movement in Israel, after a hiatus, is now planning to gather
one million people in Tel Aviv on September 3. The ruling class is
certainly worried by this prospect and the Israeli railways have
announced that they will shut down train services between Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem, and between Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva, supposedly for "for
maintenance work". Clearly this is a manoeuvre to try and weaken the
mobilisations that are being prepared.
The
government of Israel is seeking all kinds of measures to weaken the
massive protest movement that erupted this summer. In this context a
spate of terrorist attacks, launched by fundamentalist groups in Gaza,
has also helped the Israeli ruling class to cut across the movement and
put “security” back at the top of the agenda. But how long can this
last?
Lack of leadership
The self-appointed “leaders” of
the movement have played a role in the sense that their lack of
programme and perspectives have helped to sow confusion. Firstly, they
called a halt to the massive demonstrations in Tel Aviv, in favour of
smaller, local demonstrations. The Tel Aviv demonstrations, the last of
which numbered close to 300,000, provided a focal point for the
movement, bringing people together, emboldening their demands and
helping spread radical ideas.
Secondly, in an attempt to divert
the movement along a “safe path”, the Students Union leaders, along with
the rest of this unelected leadership, moved to form “committee of
experts”, counterposed to the government’s own Trajtenberg Committee, to
try to solve Israel’s problems by tweaking the system here and there.
Naturally, this committee comprised economists, legal figures,
academics, and other bourgeois figures, and is incapable of getting to
the roots of the problem: the dependence of this tiny country on US
subsidies, rendering it an instrument of imperialist foreign policy; the
occupation of Palestine and the division of Jewish and Arab workers;
and, fundamentally, the world crisis of capitalism that forces the
capitalists to attack workers’ living standards in defence of profit.
Most
Israeli workers and youth can see that such a committee, limited to
haggling with the government over the crumbs on the table, can
fundamentally change nothing. With no genuine mass workers’ party
available to the workers and youth, and the Communist Party still a
small force, the movement can be pushed back temporarily for lack of
leadership. But the contradiction is this: the huge movement has opened a
Pandora’s Box, showing the masses their own strength and broadening
their horizons. Nothing has been solved. Sooner or later, as the masses
digest the lessons of this first wave of activity, the movement will
erupt again, but on a much higher political level, with new leadership
and a much more revolutionary programme.
Terrorism and the “security agenda”
A
recent spate of horrific terrorist attacks has drawn the predictable
violent response by the Israeli state. On August 18, gunmen opened fire
on a bus in southern Israel, killing eight Israelis. The IAF responded
by bombing targets in Gaza, killing a number of Palestinian civilians.
This
recent escalation is like manna from heaven for the Israeli ruling
class, keen to cut across the radical feeling in Israel and once more
fool Israel’s poor into uniting with its millionaires in the face of the
“external threat”. Marxists are not conspiracy theorists, and we do not
suggest that Israel somehow staged these terrorist acts to create an
excuse for military action; instead, we understand that the interests of
Hamas and the fundamentalists mirror those of the Israeli ruling class.
Hamas
and the Israeli state have one thing in common: they are opposed to any
movement that unites workers and youth across the ethnic divide. The
reason is very clear: a united movement of the workers and poor would be
a threat to both the Zionist ruling class in Israel and the corrupt
leaders of the Palestinians.
The kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan
Johnston in 2007, and his subsequent release, shone a light on the
nature of Hamas’ rule in Gaza. Hamas negotiated with, bribed and fought
rival gangs, securing the unfortunate man’s release as a means of
stamping their authority on their rivals.
The corrupt rule of
Hamas has nothing to offer the people of Gaza, except poverty and
violence. It can only retain a semblance of loyalty and respect in the
eyes of the Palestinians by posing as the “liberation army” standing up
to the occupier, fighting for freedom. Without the occupation of
Palestine and oppression by the Israeli state, Hamas would be finished.
The
same of course applies to the Israeli ruling class. As we have
explained previously, the serious crisis of Israeli capitalism has left
government, politicians and “tycoons” alike loathed by the masses. The
seemingly implacable enemies, the Israeli State and the Fundamentalists,
have the same interest – maintaining the divisions between Jewish and
Arab workers and poor. The fact that many Israeli Arabs were beginning
to participate in the movement in Israel, with obvious repercussions
amongst the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, made an escalation
of violence and division a temporary way out for both the Israeli ruling
class and Hamas.
Perspectives
But it is only a temporary
way out. Nothing has been solved, and neither Netanyahu nor Hamas can
hope to garner much loyal support for another round of violence. In
Israel, the mood has changed fundamentally, and this is bound to have an
effect within the labour movement. As we discussed previously, a number
of separate militant strike actions have occurred over the past few
years in Israel, but the protests have served to show workers their
strength, to embolden them, to make plain that they are not alone; the
union leadership will come under pressure to organise national action
and make political demands. We could well see extremely militant general
strikes over the next period, taking on a political character. The
mobilisation that is being prepared for this coming Saturday is part of
this process.
All this will have its effect on the political plane
as well, as workers’ militancy demands workers’ representation. The
union leaders will be forced to confront this question of genuine
political representation of the interests of the working class. The
growth and profile of the Israeli Communist Party indicates that a layer
of workers and youth is looking to the left for a way out of the
impasse they face.
Amongst the Palestinians too, the sight of
Israelis taking to the streets is bound to have an effect. The greed and
corruption of Israel’s millionaires is mirrored by the supposedly
“Islamic” leaders in Palestine. Under these conditions, a Third Intifada
would have a very different character to the previous two, linking up
with a radical mood within Israel.
What is needed is a party that
articulates the needs of the Israeli and Palestinian masses. Such a
party would unify Israeli and Palestinian workers and poor in a struggle
against the occupation, for adequate housing, and jobs for all. Such a
programme is impossible under capitalism, which must solve its crisis at
the expense of the working class, and keep workers divided by religion
and nationality in order to do this. The party of the Israeli and
Palestinian masses must therefore fight for a higher goal: for
socialism!
