Amid the unrelenting, indiscriminate shootings and bombings that terrorise the people of Gaza, the Israeli State has created famine, making Gaza what the United Nations has called “the hungriest place on earth”, where “starvation is knocking on every door”. At least 113 people have starved to death, a number that will only shoot up in the coming weeks if the Zionist regime, backed by US imperialism, maintains its total blockade of the Strip.
A new ‘holocaust’ is perhaps the only term that accurately characterises the horror we’re now seeing in Gaza. From the very beginning of this genocide, the denial of food, fuel and water has been used as a weapon of war against two million Palestinians living in the world’s largest concentration camp. In Britain, even the right-wing Daily Express, a notorious racist rag, was forced to show a picture of a starving, emaciated child on its front page with the headline “For Pity’s Sake, Stop This Now”.
“Wasting away”
A statement signed by over 100 aid organisations, including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children, has stated in no uncertain terms that mass starvation now exists and that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”. Likewise, Palestinian Al Jazeera correspondent Dima Khalib described how:
“We are literally watching our Gaza correspondents starving live on TV, watching their bodies go thinner and thinner, their faces paler and paler, the look in their eyes sadder and sadder”.
The harrowing images of severely undernourished people, from the very young, including infant children, to the very old, have shocked and enraged millions across the globe. So too have the images of Palestinians banging pots at aid points, desperately seeking food and water.
All the while Israeli forces continue daily massacres of starving Gazans seeking food from the Orwellian “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF). The GHF is an Israeli / US-controlled organisation that, rather than provide aid, lures Palestinians to their deaths with the promise of it. And as the chaos of manufactured scarcity reigns, the terror of the daily bombardment of Gaza continues unabated – this week, the IDF began its assault on Deir-Al Baleh, in central Gaza, with residents being yet again forced to flee their homes.
Imperialist hypocrisy
Under massive pressure from below, various capitalist governments have been forced to come out and demand an end to “war” in Gaza (they still refuse to call it genocide). Their words are cheap and hollow – the flow of weaponry to the apartheid state of Israel continues. These craven world leaders will be judged by their complicity in this historic crime against the Palestinian people.
Despite winning some plaudits for its words and minimal actions, i.e. recognising the State of Palestine, the Irish government is also complicit in the genocide. The Irish Central Bank continues to sell Israeli “war” Bonds that are filling the coffers of this genocidal state, and weapons destined for Israel are allowed to travel through Irish airspace and airports. Under pressure from US big business, the government was only willing to countenance the passing of a watered-down version of the Occupied Territories Bill, which excluded the banning of trade in services.
In the face of the unspeakable barbarity of a genocide, it is action by working-class people from below that can deliver blows to the Israeli regime and its imperialist backers. We need to continue the protest and bring the message of “No business as usual” into our workplaces. Last week, dockworkers at Greece’s Piraeus Port were supported by Palestine solidarity activists and blocked a shipment of military-grade steel bound for Israel. We should take inspiration from actions like this, and those such as the young Israeli teens who have burned their draft orders and have stated they will not serve in the Israeli military.
Action from below is crucial
Workers, facilitated and backed by trade unions, must come together to discuss how they can take action, including the refusal to handle all Israeli goods and services and the products of any companies complicit in the genocide. We need:
- US military out of Shannon and Irish airspace. End the selling of genocide bonds to the Israeli State. Implement the Occupied Territories Bill in full with no delay. End the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a preferential trade deal with the apartheid state. Ban the export and import of all dual-use products used to assist the genocide.
- A total ban on the importation of all Israeli goods and services. Trade unions must stand 100% behind workers who refuse to handle these products.
- The trade union movement globally should coordinate action to stop the flow of weaponry to the Zionist regime.
- End all attacks on democratic rights by pro-Zionist capitalist states, such as the banning of ‘Palestine Action’ in Britain.
- Build a socialist alternative to the capitalist parties and politicians complicit in the genocide. Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s announcement of the establishment of a new left-wing party in Britain is a crucial step in this direction.
- No justice will ever come for the Palestinian people as long as the Zionist state remains in existence – ending apartheid, occupation and implementing the right of return means smashing its rule.
- Israeli apartheid is part of the system of capitalism and imperialism that is built on oppression and exploitation. We need a revolutionary socialist alternative, based on the rule of the working class and poor in the Middle East and globally, where society’s wealth is publicly owned and democratically controlled in the interests of all people and the planet.