By Reihana Mohideen
Notes of a presentation at the PLM Webinar, November 18, 2023
- It’s clear that the Israeli state and government aim to drive out the Palestinian people from Gaza – a second Al Nakba.
We are witnessing a program of ethnic cleansing – mass murder and driving Palestinians out of Gaza.
Babies and women are the symbols, martyrs of the genocide.
The hospitals and healthworkers were a target right from the beginning. …..
And in the last couple of days hospitals have been surrounded by tanks and occupied by Israeli troops. Israel falsely claims that the hospitals (and ambulances) are Hamas military bases, with weapons, etc.
The US has supported these claims.
The hospitals have time and again declared that this is not the case.
No evidence.
Al-Shifa hospital, healthworkers and patients, now under the direct occupation by Israeli forces, suffer death and persecution.
The hospitals are also symbols of resistance, in the frontline.
Media release 17 November 2023
Official Statement from Director of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza
“The conditions are tragic, and those in the hospital are screaming from thirst. We cannot take out the garbage from the hospital. Sniping operations continue, no one can move from one building to another, and we have lost communication with our colleagues.
Israeli drones do not stop flying over the hospital. There are Israeli recruits roaming the departments, especially the emergency department, and they pulled out the bodies. We buried about 80 bodies, and the rest of the bodies that were in the streets or in refrigerators were removed by the occupation.
There are bodies still inside the departments and we want to remove them to avoid a health disaster occurring inside the hospital.
There are 4 dialysis patients in the final crisis now due to the lack of services. The hospital has completely run out of oxygen, and conditions are disastrous.
The Israeli occupation’s stories about weapons in the MRI department are false.”
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The West Bank is becoming a second front as Israel pushes on in their stated objective to access and control Palestinian territory.
Violence surged in the occupied West Bank to unprecedented levels. More than 2,000 Palestinians have been arrested and almost 200 have been killed in the last month alone. Scores more have been arrested, beaten and tortured.
West Bank Hospitals are now being attacked. At least 4 hospitals surrounded by Israeli troops.
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A leaked 10-page document from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence dated Oct. 13, 2023 recommends the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli Intelligence Ministry Policy Paper On Gaza’s Civilian Population, October 2023
- To fully comprehend the ethnic cleansing and genocide taking place in Gaza we need to be clear about the character of the Netanyahu Government.
Neo-fascist: A key feature is an ideology or political program based on the superiority of a racial or ethnic group.
There has always been a strain of Jewish fascist within the Zionist project. Now it has taken control of the Israeli state.
Zeev Sternhell, a Holocaust survivor and Israel’s foremost authority on fascism, referred to this and warned in 2018 ….
.. that this fascist character is “the kind whose European strain almost wiped out a majority of the Jewish people.” Sternhell added, “[W]e see … a growing Israeli fascism [and] racism akin to Nazism in its early stages.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, who first became prime minister in 1996, has spent his political career nurturing Jewish extremists. His major financiers are the US Zionist establishment associated with the far-right in the US. The recent marches against anti-semitism and in support of Israel was based on an alliance between these two political forces.
Netanyahu’s father, Benzion — worked as an assistant to the Zionist pioneer Vladimir Jabotinsky, who Benito Mussolini referred to as “a good fascist”. He was a leader in the Herut Party that called on the Jewish state to seize all the land of historic Palestine. Many of those who formed the Herut Party carried out terrorist attacks during the 1948 war that established the state of Israel.
Albert Einstein and other Jewish intellectuals, described the Herut Party in a statement published in The New York Times as a “political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to Nazi and Fascist parties.”
The decision to obliterate Gaza has long been the dream of Israel’s neo-fascists.
These extremists, which make up the ruling coalition government, are orchestrating the genocide in Gaza. They have begun their version of the final solution to the Palestinian problem.
However, without the support of imperialist governments, they cannot ‘execute’ their program of the final solution.
The backing of the US government is crucial. They can’t do this without US backing. .
[Comrades Malik and Barry will discuss all this further.]
- The Palestine solidarity mass movement
Soon after October 7, within a matter of days, we have witnessed the rise of a mass movement, the Palestine Solidarity movement.
Demands: Stop the bombing of Gaza! Ceasefire! Free Palestine! End the Occupation!
Condemned US complicity, especially providing military support for Israel.
“Hey, hey, USA! How many kids have you killed today!”
Millions and millions have rallied and protested around these demands.
They have organized different sectors of society around a range of tactics – mass mobilisations, direct action, blockades especially against ships taking military and other cargo to Israel, occupations and sit-ins, and even the courts.
Putting pressure on their own governments and especially the imperialist governments.
These movements are the only genuine opposition to the Israel-US-imperialist powers.
Middle East: Millions of people have mobilized.
In many of these mobilisations the protesters are demanding that governments do more and act to defend Palestine. … To end policies of appeasement (compromise and betrayal). To end recognition of Israel, expel Israeli diplomats, close down their own embassies, etc.
Some protests are organized by governments, such as in Egypt. These regimes are under pressure and they want to make sure that they are in control and not let the protests get ‘out of hand’. Nevertheless, it’s a double-edged tactic, that still pose a risk to these regimes.)
Imperialist countries:
Under pressure from these movements the imperialist countries from the US, Europe, to Australia are now calling for a ‘humanitarian pause’.
After having vetoed this at the UN security council.
We should reject this position and continue to call for a complete ceasefire.
In our region
Indonesia: November 5, the largest protest in the world to date, with around 2 million people in Jakarta’s Freedom Square.
Malaysia too. Mahathir standing by Hamas.
Character of Hamas: Hamas is a part of the liberation struggle against occupation and for a free Palestine. We may not like their Islamist ideology and their tactics, but it’s primarily a political movement for Palestinian self-determination.
They ran against Fatah in the 2006 legislative elections and won. And despite factional warfare and coup attempts, since 2007 it has functioned as the government in Gaza. It’s not just a military organization. It has carried out various government functions, providing services, etc.
It’s not simply an Islamic fundamentalist organization such as Al Qaeda or Daesh/ISIS.
Philippines
The Marcos regime abstained from voting for the UNGA for an “immediate humanitarian truce”. This is effectively voting against the resolution.
Predictably: President Marcos Jr. is ‘All the Way with the USA’ to secure his own assets plundered by the his father, the former dictator Marcos, and following the same pro-US policy.
Five new military bases to be used by the United States.
The biggest joint military exercises with the US in the history of the Philippines this year.
One of the top buyers of Israeli arms.
There is a massive US-backed upgrading and expansion of it’s military capabilities, including the use of nuclear resources.
At the recent APEC meeting held this week in San Francisco, US. the Philippines and US signed a deal on nuclear cooperation. “It allows for significant transfers of nuclear material or equipment from the US.” … related to the possible reopening of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant closed down by the Cory Aquino government after the dictator Marcos fled the country in 1986. The agreement also paved the way for the deployment of Micro-Modular Reactors (MMRs) in the Philippines, which are said to be untested and unsafe by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The ‘recolonization of the Philippines’ by the U.S. under the Marcos regime
And the past history…
- It was the only Asian country that voted for the UN resolution that supported the establishment of Israel (UN Resolution 181, November 29, 1947, aka the ‘Partition Resolution’)
This led to the establishment of the State of Israel in May, 1948.)
The BARMM Bangsamoro Parliament (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao)
“We are Palestine, and Palestine is us!”
Resolution “condemning acts of violence and collective punishment against Palestinians and calling for the immediate declaration of an unconditional cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.”
Bangsamoro rallies in Mindanao.
A few days ago Congressman Mujib Hataman made a priviledged speech in Congress calling for a ceasefire to stop the genocide in Gaza.
Rest of the country the problem of religious propaganda over the consciousness of the masa, especially in the evangelical/fundamentalist religious groups that Zionize the bible.
The Vatican has officially called for a ceasefire. CBCP ‘prayers for peace’.
Combined with prejudice against the Bangsamoro/Muslim communities.
The left has mobilized.
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We see Cracks in the imperialist consensus.
France: The French government of Emmanuel Macron now calling for a ‘ceasefire’.
The Character of these movements: Anti-war and anti-imperialist.
With the imperialist countries backing Israel it has exposed the nature of the global system.
- Imperialism as a global system is real. It still exists.
- There are oppressor and oppressed nations and peoples.
- Working class politics must take this into account. The working class must respond accordingly.
Example: The trade union blockades against Israeli ships and cargo. Health workers solidarity actions, etc.
The international Palestine solidarity movement in opposition to the Israel-US war has wider ramifications. It challenges imperialism in general and especially imperialism’s war plans.
The US and the AUKUS countries are exposed for supporting genocide.
What will be the reaction in the US if Biden opens up a second war against China, with potentially far greater global implications?
In our region, it can and I predict that it will, challenge the US-AUKUS led war plans against China.
For example, will Indonesia now turn around and support the US policy in our region? Given that China has opposed Israel’s war and consistently called for a ceasefire? Malaysia?
Not withstanding the obvious fact that the genocide is being undertaken against the predominantly Muslim population of Gaza.
Comrades Chok Kai and Leon will discuss this further.
This movement also poses difficulties for the Marcos regime’s ‘All the way with the USA’ policy.
Our Palestine solidarity campaign must now focus on US imperialism and it’s interests, drawing lessons from Gaza and the Middle East, exposing both US and the Marcos regime’s ‘all the way with the USA line’.
We now have an important ally in this movement that has emerged, with it’s anti-war and anti-imperialist character.
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Building the Philippine Socialist Movement Today 