International – FightBack

Two states no solution for Palestine

January 22, 2009 by Admin

-Philip Ferguson

The current brutal invasion and occupation of Gaza have raised, yet again, the question of the nature of the Israeli state. For us in the Workers Party the horrors rained down on the people of Gaza are the logical result of an exclusivist-Zionist state set up at the expense, and through the dispossession, of the Palestinian people. Campaigning for an immediate Israeli withdrawal is the chief priority right now, but such a withdrawal does not even begin to address the wider denial of the rights of the Palestinians as a people – the very thing which ensures that actions like the attacks on Gaza will continue.

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Filed Under: Imperialism, Israel, Palestine

A look at the opposition inside Israel

January 22, 2009 by Admin

-Mike Kay

The carnage rained down on Gaza has had a profound effect on the activism of Arabs within Israel. Around 1.5 million Arabs remain living within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. They constitute about 20% of the population, but are treated as second-class citizens. The past few weeks have seen large anti-war demos by Palestinians and some Jews. Not surprisingly, these acts of defiance have been met with clamp-downs by the Israeli state. As Karl Marx put it, “a nation that enslaves another forges its own chains.”

At least 100,000 in people demonstrated in the northern Arab town of Sakhnin and in Tel Aviv against the assault on Gaza on 3 January. According to organisers, Sakhnin was the largest protest held by the Palestinians in Israel in many years. During the first two weeks of “Operation Cast Lead”, 471 protesters were arrested in Israel, including 149 minors. Almost all of those detained were Arabs.

The Tel Aviv protest took place in the face of opposition from far-right Zionists and the police. Among other things, the police demanded that the organisers undertake to prevent the hoisting of Palestinian flags. The organisers petitioned the High Court of Justice, which decided that the Palestinian flag is legal and ordered the police to protect the demonstration from rioters. However, according to Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, the police disappeared towards the end of the march, allowing the far right to attack and disperse the protesters, preventing a planned rally from going ahead.

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Filed Under: Israel, Palestine

Workers Party activist speaks at Dunedin Gaza protest

January 20, 2009 by Admin

John Moore from the Workers Party spoke at a Gaza protest in Dunedin last Saturday.

About 100 protesters were present, with representatives from the Alliance, International Socialists, Workers Party and the local Muslim community. The following speech was given by John at the rally:

This protest and many others that are being held throughout the world serve two purposes. We are here to express our condemnation of the Israeli state’s attacks on Gaza and to express our solidarity with the Palestinian people.

This protest should not just be about calling for peace. There is a side to choose in this conflict. We should welcome the defeat of Israeli forces that are currently at war with Hamas and the Palestinian people.

Overall we need to start thinking about what tactics we use to oppose Israeli state aggression. Who is the enemy in this conflict, who should we be campaigning against, and what forms of solidarity should we give? Seeing this conflict through the prism of the Palestinian/Jewish divide offers no hope for a resolution. Painting all Jews as the enemy and all Arabs as the victims is both counterproductive and pointless.

A small but growing number of Jewish Israelis and larger numbers of Arabs in Israel have recently taken to the streets to show their opposition to the attacks on Gaza. This small but significant example offers hope for joint Jewish/Palestinian action. Seeing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in ethnic terms leads to misguided tactics.

Campaigns against Israeli Jews, whether in Kebab shops or at Western universities, will only be counterproductive and distracts us from who is the real enemy. The enemy is the Israeli state, not Israeli Jews. All working class people in the Middle East are oppressed by despotic regimes, from Saudi Arabia, through to Iran and including the Zionist Israeli state. All Middle East workers have an interest in a fight for the destruction of these states.

Filed Under: Imperialism, Palestine Tagged With: Gaza

500 march in solidarity with Gaza in Christchurch

January 18, 2009 by Admin

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Yesterday around 500 people marched in central Christchurch protesting the Israeli invasion of Gaza which in the past few weeks has claimed the lives of over 1 200 Palestinians (but only 13 Israelis).

Chanting “Occupation is a Crime – Free Free Palestine” the protesters through the main tourist precinct Worcester Boulevard and past the yuppie sports bars on Oxford Terrrace to Cathedral Square in a colourful and energetic display of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

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Workers Party members marched behind a banner with the slogan “Resistance is not Terrorism” and also carried placards calling for victory to the Palestinian intfidada, an end to Israeli apartheid and the creation in its place of a single secular state in Palestine.

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The protest was organised by the group “Justice for Palestine”, which brings together a diverse coalition of groups and individuals including Muslims, Quakers, anarchists and revolutionary socialists.

A meeting to discuss plans for future action is being held on Tuesday, January 20 at 6.30pm in the WEA building (59 Gloucester St).

Filed Under: Palestine Tagged With: Gaza, Justice for Palestine

“Close down Rakon, open up Gaza”

January 17, 2009 by Admin

Around 200 people protested outside the Rakon factory in Mt Wellington, Auckland today.

Rakon produces crystal oscillators for targeted bombs used by the Israeli air force in their attacks on Gaza. The Rakon parts are supplied to the US which provides the bombs directly to the Israeli military.

As police tried to push the crowd off the Rakon carpark demonstrators pelted the building with red paint bombs shouting “Rakon: blood, blood, blood on your hands”. A fair bit of red splatter ended up all over the police.

(http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=9p47L9INLAw)

Police seized a demonstrator on the top of the building who had painted Rakon kills.

The demonstration finished with the crowd giving three cheers to the painter-protester.

Rakon was clearly rattled by the demonstration – which got coverage in all the main media – and within a matter of hours they had painted over the paint bombs. But the word “kills” could still be seen through the whitewash.