The death toll in Gaza is approaching 40,000, including more than 15,000 children killed. A further 10,000 are missing, buried in the rubble and unaccounted for. This brings the total number of Gazans killed close to 50,000. On top of this, over 85,000 have been injured.
While this butchery continues unabated, on the West Bank a further 549 Palestinians have been killed – 135 of which have been children – and over 5,000 have been injured.
According to figures published by Al Jazeera, every hour in Gaza: 15 people are killed – of which six are children; 35 people are injured; 42 bombs are dropped; and 12 buildings are destroyed.
And according to UN figures, the Israeli bombing campaign so far has destroyed or damaged more than half of Gaza’s homes, almost 90 percent of schools, and half the hospitals.
Not satisfied with this level of death and destruction, the Israeli military has continued shelling areas housing displaced people – not only in and around Rafah, but also in central and northern areas of the Gaza Strip.
One of the most brutal attacks was the 8 June Nuseirat massacre, when 274 Palestinians were killed and a further 500 injured, in order to free four Israeli hostages.
Imperialist hypocrisy
Joe Biden, during a news conference in Paris, heralded the release of the four hostages, stating that “we won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached”.
Here we see the sheer hypocrisy and total lack of concern on the part of Biden for the lives of thousands of Palestinians, whose only crime is to live on land that the Zionists want to take.
While Biden has occasionally expressed some concern that the killing of Palestinians may be excessive, partly owing to his worries about the upcoming elections, he has continued to provide massive military aid to Israel, so that it can continue in its relentless bloodbath.
In fact, all the western leaders – from Macron to Sunak; from Scholz to Meloni – have been backing Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people. That is because Israel is considered an outpost of their imperialist interests in the Middle East.
That is why all the western imperialists, with the United States in the frontline, always back Israel. They hide behind the fig leaf of Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’.
What they are really saying is that Israel has the right to keep taking more and more land from the Palestinians, as we are seeing as each day passes on the West Bank.
They are also saying that Israel has the right to wreak such levels of destruction on Gaza as to make it unliveable, in the hope that large numbers of Palestinians will leave.
This is all part of a long-term Zionist project that started over 80 years ago – a project that involved the expulsion of a whole people from their historical homeland.
This is the real crime that was committed in this region with the full backing of the major powers. And ever since then, all western governments have continued to cooperate in this crime.
Middle East in turmoil
The whole of the Middle East is in turmoil. The impact of the world crisis of capitalism is driving more and more people across the region into poverty. Instability is increasing as the anger of the masses grows.
What is striking is the huge contradiction between the genuine solidarity felt by millions of people in the Arab world, and the cynicism of the people at the top of the regimes that govern over these millions.
In Egypt and Jordan we see de facto collaboration between the ruling elites and the Zionist regime in Israel. In Jordan, many young people marching in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters have been arrested.
This is adding to the social contradictions across the whole region. In such conditions, a revolutionary movement in one of these countries could set the whole region alight.
The main enemy is at home
Here in Britain, the Tory government has continued to back Israel’s genocidal war, while at the same time attempting to criminalise any attempt at solidarity activities with the Palestinian people.
We have seen demonstrators arrested, accused of antisemitic activities. ‘Antisemitism’ has in fact become a catch-all accusation to tar people on the left, and anyone putting forward a pro-Palestinian position.
Now we have before us the general election. The Tories are facing a dramatic collapse in their vote, as people are fed up with all their anti-worker policies. Starmer seems set to win a massive majority in Parliament. But what will this bring for the Palestine solidarity movement?
The answer is evident to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear. It will make absolutely no difference. Starmer has the exact same position as Sunak on the question of Palestine. That is because Starmer is a representative of the very same ruling class as Sunak.
Starmer has succeeded in pushing out the left-wingers who joined the Labour Party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Now, in Starmer’s Labour, anyone who dares to express solidarity with the Palestinian people is charged with the crime of so-called ‘antisemitism’.
Sunak and Starmer have both proven to be solid friends of the Zionist regime in Israel. They have both backed Netanyahu’s genocidal war, and they have both attempted to criminalise the Palestine solidarity movement.
They are both enemies of the Palestinian people. And they are both enemies of the working class in Britain. Starmer will continue with the austerity that the Tories have imposed on British workers.
Millions of workers and youth instinctively understand this. A recent YouGov poll found that 73 percent of the population in Britain supports an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
It also revealed that 55 percent of people want the UK to end the sale of arms to Israel for the duration of the war in Gaza, while only 13 percent want to see arms sales continue.
The same poll also revealed very low approval ratings for the way both the Sunak government and Starmer’s Labour opposition have handled the Gaza crisis. Only 18 percent approve of the way Sunak has handled it, while just 12 percent approve of Starmer’s response.
The best thing we can do for the Palestinians in their hour of need is to fight the main enemy: the one we have here at home.
This means kicking out the Tories – but also building a genuine, revolutionary alternative to Starmer’s Labour Party.
