In the aftermath of the latest war of aggression by Israel, the instrument of the imperialists against Gaza and all of Palestine, and the Palestinian justified war of resistance against it, the current situation is a further sharpening of the contradictions. While the situation has become calm on the surface, it is still simmering underneath, ready to boil over again. Amidst increasing attacks by Israel, the Palestinian struggle of resistance and for unity continues.
The latest Israeli attacks have taken a high toll on the Palestine people, attempting to drown their justified struggle in blood. Nearly 260 (some sources even say 290) Palestinians, including 66 children, were murdered and tens of thousands forced to flee from their homes when the ceasefire was reached on May 21st. 13 Israelis were killed by then. Since then, Israel has continuously violated the ceasefire.
On the 16th of June. When during protests against an ultra-chauvinistic Zionist “flag march” through Jerusalem, inflammatory balloons were released against Israel from the West Bank, the Israeli army retaliated with a bombardment on Gaza, allegedly against Hamas facilities. Palestinian sources on the ground said Israeli missiles hit several sites in the northwest of Gaza and north of Beit Lahia, the northern city Jabaliya and the southern town of Khan Younis.
On the 2nd of July, several missiles hit a training site used by an armed Palestinian faction (alledgedly Hamas), south of Gaza City, and a site in the centre of the Strip was also targeted.
On the 4th of July, there was a missile strike against a site in Gaza belonging to the Hamas.
While the claims of Israel that only Hamas facilities were targeted by the attacks cannot be verified, no Palestinian will believe to be safe from such attacks just because he is not part of Hamas. Those are gruesome attacks on the safety of the Palestinian people as a whole and their ability for armed resistance, and an all-present threat of the next mass murder, that will be conducted with weapons paid for by their imperialist masters.
Similarly, the forced evictions in East-Jerusalem are continuing. While the postponing of the evictions were a success of the latest protests, these eviction cases have been taken up again since the protests have ceased. Now dozens of Palestinian families are under immediate threat to lose their homes again in the districts of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. In Silwan alone, 1500 Palestinian homes face demolition! This will continue even further. One example was seen on the 7th of July. Israeli authorities bulldozed land owned by Arabs near the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The evictions of the families in East Jerusalem, that came there before as refugees in their own country, is part of Israel driving out the Palestinians from all of their land in service of the imperialists. It was their miscalculation back in April, that they would be able to do this without resistance.
But now, different centers of resistance are appearing, and the struggle against settlements and deplacement in the Palestinian-controlled territory is increasing. Like in the village of Beita, where in the beginning of May, a new settlement was constructed. The settlement, which is illegal even by the international law dictated by the imperialists, even by Israeli law, has been officially endorsed by the Israeli rulers. This program that the reaction has called “Eviatar” is spanning dozens of acres of Palestinian land, but the settlers want to expand to control hundreds. The main purpose of the settlements are of military nature, as is the case with Eviatar where the infrastructure was built by the army and a regular outpost has already been established.
All the more heroic are the great protests against the settlement that have been going on for months now. While the Israelis did not manage to build it unnoticed (as was their plan, the reason why they started it during the protests for East Jerusalem), they tried to block the Palestinian popular masses from protesting. But the masses found ways to sneak around the blockade. From demonstration to demonstration the masses do not leave the site.
Severe repression with tear gas is common against the protests. A UN-Report on the settlement says: "Since the establishment of the settlement in early May, Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians, including two children, and injured at least 3,077 others, including 381 children, in similar incidents." On July 30th alone, 270 have been wounded, partly with live bullets, during a crackdown on a protest by Israeli forces.
One killed was the 15-year-old youth Mohammad Hamayel and 15-year-old Bani Shamsa. Reports say that the latter tried to attack the Israeli soldiers with an explosive. Reports on this vary. But the heroism of the resisting Palestinian popular masses has seen great examples of militant struggle like this before.
The protests are mainly directed against the deplacement of families, and also against the landgrab of the olive farmers, that would otherwise soon start the harvest. But they are mainly protests against the settlements as a whole. The purpose of Israeli settler-colonialism is a military one. It is imperialist settler-colonialism, different from that of pre-imperialist days, like the colonization of North America (although the genocidal nature of the bourgeoisie was proven back then, against the Native Americans as it is proven now against the Palestinians). Its purpose is to split up the Palestinian land by the Israeli lackey’s forces, therefore making it easier to control for the imperialists.
Israel is currently dramatically increasing it’s settler attacks, as can also be seen with the planned destruction of the village of Hamsa Al-Fawqa in the Jordan Valley, that was, like the whole Jordan valley an important target of the “deal of the century”. The current tactic chosen by the Israeli Lackeys and their imperialist masters, to not openly enforce this “deal”, that would have foreseen the annexation of around 40% of Palestinian territory, but instead had to conduct this annexation in silence with settlements, surely is a success of the latest protests and the international solidarity. It is also a success, that these new settlements are now facing new protests themselves. This is important. Active solidarity with these protests is necessary.
There are many reports of attacks on Palestinian organizations. The Palestinian Union of Health Workers Committee (UHWC) headquarters in Ramallah were closed down after a raid by the Israeli forces because of its alleged affiliation with the Popular Liberation Front for Palestine. As a result, Amnesty International has warned of "catastrophic consequences" for Palestinians in need of medical attention. As a spokesperson for amnesty international said, this was only a part of a wider attack by Israel against Palestinian “civil society organisations”. Like the closure of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees UAWC after a raid by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers. The union is one of the largest organisations providing assistance to Palestinian farmers. The soldiers involved in the raid apparently said that the closure was due to "security concerns". A military order was released, forcing the office to close for six months. This is clearly an attack on the Palestinian people’s organizations that are needed for resistance.
All these attacks aim to break the great unity which the Palestinian people showed in May in their common action together with the people worldwide. The aim in the struggle is therefore for this unity to become more stable and consolidate.
With the reactionary ideology of Zionism, the imperialists have driven a “European wedge” into the Arab land, as the Communist International described it. They have created a true outpost, a semi-colonial, semi-feudal bureaucratic expansionist state. The Palestinian people’s struggle is a struggle against Imperialism and it’s instrument Israel.
The ongoing protests and struggles are a re-confirmation of the struggles in May that the suppression of the popular resistance, the imperialists attempt to prepare their warmongering plans “in peace” have utterly failed. As their political crisis deepens with the general crisis of capitalism, the Palestinian people stand united in struggle.
For new democratic revolution, for a people’s democracy of Palestine and Israel!
Freedom for Palestine! Defend and support the people’s struggles!
Long live international solidarity!