August
8th, 2014
Since the Nakba (the “Day of the Catastrophe”) in 1948, the Palestinian
people have been the target of violent colonial policy—a policy that never
stopped, despite various condemnations from the UN. Settlers stole crops and
destroyed olive plantations; millions were expelled from their land and were
forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries in conditions of misery, with
the help of Arab countries more concerned about the health of their monarchy
(Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Jordan) or their military regimes (Egypt, Turkey,
Syria) than the life of the Palestinian people.
The Zionist racist and colonial policy that led to the creation of the State of Israel on “a land without a people for a people without a land” was supported by imperialist powers such as France and Britain, and eventually the United States, regardless of the type of party in power in those countries. Israel is the foremost country to benefit from the U.S. financial and military aid, receiving more than even Afghanistan and Egypt. At the height of the current Israeli aggression, the United States agreed to Israel’s request to refloat its stock of weapons at the cost of a billion dollars. Each year, three billion dollars of public funds are allocated for the Israeli army to buy U.S. weapons, improve their equipment and then experiment with them on the Palestinian people.
Some of the most recent weapon innovations include shells filled with darts and the stink bombs sprayed upon people attending demonstrations in East Jerusalem in solidarity with Gaza. Canada is part of this weapons manufacturing, along with the Anglo-Danish security company G4S that produces the motion detectors used along the apartheid wall and checkpoints.
The Israeli terrorist army has been bombing and assaulting Gaza since July 8, violating Palestinian sovereignty by occupying and destroying its territory and inhabitants. Not satisfied with merely stifling this densely populated land by a blockade that prevents free circulation of people, as well as preventing basic subsistence activities such as fishing and agriculture, the apartheid regime decided to raise the terror up a notch. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed and 10,000 injured, the entire Palestinian population a target without any possibility of finding shelter as the so-called “only island of democracy and civilization” in the Middle East barbarically bombarded schools, hospitals and even UN shelters.
Parroted by Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that Israel only wants to defend itself against rocket attacks from the Palestinian resistance and that “Hamas terrorists” are responsible for Israeli aggression. The real objective, however, is to liquidate any movement that could hinder the continuation of the Zionist colonial appropriation. In this respect, it is not Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah that could stop this process, given its grovelling and collaboration with Israel amongst the crushing protests in the West Bank.
After the kidnapping of three young Israelis in late June and the murder of a young Palestinian who was later burned alive, Israeli police conducted hundreds of raids and arrests of people suspected of being part of the resistance—whether Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) or Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Since Hamas won the last elections held in Gaza, the entire people there are now the target of criminal and cowardly Israeli aggression.
Where there is oppression, however, there is resistance. According to the few independent journalists who went to Gaza, if the people there do not necessarily endorse the whole obscurantist ideology of Hamas, they certainly know that this is not what is currently at stake. The people support the resistance and are ready to endure terrible suffering rather than adhering to “peace negotiations” that have proved to be nothing but a series of betrayals since the 1990s. Many of these people think that the only people who are defending them in front of the occupants are Hamas fighters; in this sense, they support their demands before agreeing to a cease-fire. In fact, nearly 100 Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 400 injured since the beginning of the ground invasion of Gaza. For those who defend the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian masses—and in contrast to the pacifist junk of the NDP and Québec Solidaire that both condemned the “violence of both sides” while calling for a ceasefire—siding with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza is necessary.
Wishful thinking won’t stop the terrorist apartheid regime of Israel: it needs a strong solidarity movement based on proletarian internationalism. In this sense, in addition to the Palestinian resistance, we celebrate the rare but courageous people who refused to serve in the Israeli army and have been jailed, and also those who are vigorously protesting in Israeli cities under the threat of increasingly violent, ultranationalist Zionism that has become stronger in this climate of military madness.
We also commend the numerous protests happening throughout the world, especially in Arab countries and in the “socialist” France, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations were banned in Paris while those supporting Israel took place without any problem. In Canada, we call proletarian and progressive people to continue to take part in the various demos and other actions in support of Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions and the Palestinian resistance, while also recognizing the need to organize for socialist revolution so that Harper, Trudeau and Mulcair will never again speak on our behalf at the international level.
DEMONSTRATION:
Sunday, August 10 at noon
Gathering at Place Émilie-Gamelin (metro Berri-UQAM)
Montréal
The Zionist racist and colonial policy that led to the creation of the State of Israel on “a land without a people for a people without a land” was supported by imperialist powers such as France and Britain, and eventually the United States, regardless of the type of party in power in those countries. Israel is the foremost country to benefit from the U.S. financial and military aid, receiving more than even Afghanistan and Egypt. At the height of the current Israeli aggression, the United States agreed to Israel’s request to refloat its stock of weapons at the cost of a billion dollars. Each year, three billion dollars of public funds are allocated for the Israeli army to buy U.S. weapons, improve their equipment and then experiment with them on the Palestinian people.
Some of the most recent weapon innovations include shells filled with darts and the stink bombs sprayed upon people attending demonstrations in East Jerusalem in solidarity with Gaza. Canada is part of this weapons manufacturing, along with the Anglo-Danish security company G4S that produces the motion detectors used along the apartheid wall and checkpoints.
The Israeli terrorist army has been bombing and assaulting Gaza since July 8, violating Palestinian sovereignty by occupying and destroying its territory and inhabitants. Not satisfied with merely stifling this densely populated land by a blockade that prevents free circulation of people, as well as preventing basic subsistence activities such as fishing and agriculture, the apartheid regime decided to raise the terror up a notch. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed and 10,000 injured, the entire Palestinian population a target without any possibility of finding shelter as the so-called “only island of democracy and civilization” in the Middle East barbarically bombarded schools, hospitals and even UN shelters.
Parroted by Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that Israel only wants to defend itself against rocket attacks from the Palestinian resistance and that “Hamas terrorists” are responsible for Israeli aggression. The real objective, however, is to liquidate any movement that could hinder the continuation of the Zionist colonial appropriation. In this respect, it is not Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah that could stop this process, given its grovelling and collaboration with Israel amongst the crushing protests in the West Bank.
After the kidnapping of three young Israelis in late June and the murder of a young Palestinian who was later burned alive, Israeli police conducted hundreds of raids and arrests of people suspected of being part of the resistance—whether Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) or Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Since Hamas won the last elections held in Gaza, the entire people there are now the target of criminal and cowardly Israeli aggression.
Where there is oppression, however, there is resistance. According to the few independent journalists who went to Gaza, if the people there do not necessarily endorse the whole obscurantist ideology of Hamas, they certainly know that this is not what is currently at stake. The people support the resistance and are ready to endure terrible suffering rather than adhering to “peace negotiations” that have proved to be nothing but a series of betrayals since the 1990s. Many of these people think that the only people who are defending them in front of the occupants are Hamas fighters; in this sense, they support their demands before agreeing to a cease-fire. In fact, nearly 100 Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 400 injured since the beginning of the ground invasion of Gaza. For those who defend the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian masses—and in contrast to the pacifist junk of the NDP and Québec Solidaire that both condemned the “violence of both sides” while calling for a ceasefire—siding with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza is necessary.
Wishful thinking won’t stop the terrorist apartheid regime of Israel: it needs a strong solidarity movement based on proletarian internationalism. In this sense, in addition to the Palestinian resistance, we celebrate the rare but courageous people who refused to serve in the Israeli army and have been jailed, and also those who are vigorously protesting in Israeli cities under the threat of increasingly violent, ultranationalist Zionism that has become stronger in this climate of military madness.
We also commend the numerous protests happening throughout the world, especially in Arab countries and in the “socialist” France, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations were banned in Paris while those supporting Israel took place without any problem. In Canada, we call proletarian and progressive people to continue to take part in the various demos and other actions in support of Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions and the Palestinian resistance, while also recognizing the need to organize for socialist revolution so that Harper, Trudeau and Mulcair will never again speak on our behalf at the international level.
From Gaza to Ramallah, Intifada, Intifada!
* * *
DEMONSTRATION:
QUÉBEC-GAZA, SOLIDARITY!
Sunday, August 10 at noon Gathering at Place Émilie-Gamelin (metro Berri-UQAM)
Montréal
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