Smash Zionist Genocide and Apartheid
by Socialist Action Canada
After 17 months of genocidal bombardment and invasion of Gaza, the Zionist state has killed nearly 50,000 people, 2/3 of whom are women and children. Many more are injured, or still buried beneath rubble. Respected medical journal The Lancet estimates 200,000+ fatalities due to disease, unsanitary conditions and malnutrition. Zionist pogroms in the West Bank, supplemented by Israeli tanks, have slaughtered hundreds, a prelude to total ethnic cleansing. Outrageously, U.S. President Trump insists that the U.S. will “own” Gaza, turn it into a Riviera for the rich, and force the Palestinian people out to Egypt and Jordan. The “ceasefire” hangs by a thread, while Israel threatens to bomb Iran's nuclear energy facilities.
Zionist forces attacked both Lebanon and Syria. In Lebanon, over 4,000 people have been killed, with over 16,000 injured. Israel still occupies and leveled parts of southern Lebanon. Israeli fighter jets flew low over Beirut to intimidate over 1 million mourners at the funeral for slain leader Hassan Nasrallah. During the uprising against Assad in Syria, the Zionist military seized additional Syrian territory (in violation of international law) beyond the Golan Heights which it first occupied in 1967. Yemenis continue to face bombardment by the USA of essential civilian infrastructure, including water reservoirs and hospitals.
This horror did not begin with the October 7 Gaza prison break. The current slaughter and famine were preceded by 77 years of brutal Occupation and mass incarceration of Palestinians. The corporate obsession with Palestine arises from the vast reserves of oil in the Middle East. Capitalist energy giants seek to control the resources of the world. They try to crush any nation that stands in their way. Washington has tried to overthrow elected governments the world over. It moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, proclaiming that the Zionist Occupation is permanent. To that we emphatically say NO! Free, Free Palestine!
Student encampments at universities across Canada and the USA bravely decried academic and corporate complicity with genocide. The Yemini Houthis show how Arab and Muslim states, indeed all governments, can and should block commerce with the Zionist state and its economy. Hezbollah and Houthi projectiles are penetrating the Israeli Iron Dome. The ICC issued arrest warrants for war criminals Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The Palestinian people are in the forefront of resistance to world imperialism. They did not choose this role. It was thrust upon them. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the Western powers carved up the Middle East, just as they did Africa and Asia earlier. In the face of rebellion by the Arab masses, they sponsored a military fortress in the region. They exploited the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust for their ends. But the fact remains: Israel is a colonial settler state. It is an outpost of imperialism in the Arab East. Zionism began as an extreme bourgeois nationalist minority movement. It ran counter to the strong socialist and internationalist traditions of Jews in the Diaspora. Theodore Herzl, a non-religious Jew, and founder of Zionism, gained sponsors in France, Britain, even Czarist Russia. Later, Canada, the USA, and Christian Zionists embraced the colonial project. The Stalinist-ruled USSR voted at the United Nations in 1947 for the partition of Palestine that led to the establishment of Israel. The Zionist state was founded on a big lie: that Palestine was a land without people for a people without land. Today the Palestinian people visibly refute that lie.
Socialist Action, as part of the world Trotskyist movement, opposed the creation of the Zionist state over 77 years ago. We oppose the so-called two-state solution – a cruel cover-up for permanent racist occupation and ethnic cleansing. Likewise, the fanciful notion of a ‘socialist federation’ of Middle Eastern states, including an exclusivist Jewish fortress occupying Palestinian land, is utterly reactionary. The truth is: freedom for Palestine is impossible if it is occupied and divided.
As for the Jewish Question, the only solution is world socialist revolution. The precondition is support for national liberation struggles, which only the working class can lead all the way to victory. The ruling class in Canada is covered in blood, allowing weapons and technology manufactured here to flow to Israel, investing in Israeli Apartheid, severely limiting the immigration of Palestinian refugees. Most Canadians recognize Israel is guilty of systematic oppression and war crimes, and call for sanctions. But party leaders and major media obscure this. Shamefully, Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh equated the waving of a Palestinian flag in front of a Toronto hospital with anti-Semitism. Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles shamefully expelled Sarah Jama from the NDP caucus of Ontario MPPs for demanding a ceasefire without denouncing the Palestinian resistance. Will they continue so cowardly to deny the International Court of Justice ruling that delegitimizes the illegal Israeli occupation?
We demand: Zionist Ceasefire Now! Increase the funding of the UNRWA. End the Occupation! Smash the Zionist Apartheid state! For Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. For the right of all refugees to return to their homes. Lift the Siege of Gaza!For a Democratic and Secular Palestine for all its residents: Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists! Disarm the nuclear powers starting with the USA and Israel. Abolish NATO.From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!
Contact Socialist Action www.socialistaction.ca
Call: 647-986-1917
E-mail: socialistactioncanada@gmail.com