Occupied Palestine: The Lie of Coexistence

On the reality behind the Zionist propaganda

By Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 19 May 2021, http://the-isleague.com

Israel has always used lies and myths in its propaganda based on the technique that if they repeat the myths and the lies again and again, people will believe it. They are able to do it because of the support they received from other imperialist states like the USA and Europe.

The first myth of the Zionists is that Palestine was an empty land waiting for the Jews to return. For this reason, the aim of the Zionist archeology is to prove that Jews lived in Palestine. That Jews lived in Palestine is a fact, however the claim that the European Jews, the backbone of the Zionist movement, are the same people as the ancient Jews is nonsense. The ancient Judea and Samaria were societies based on slavery while the European Jews in Israel are colonialists of a capitalist society. In order to argue that the ancient Jews and the European colonialists are the same people, the Zionists use pseudo-racist science to prove that it is the same genes of the chosen people. The Jews who remained in Judea after the Romans had exiled the Jewish elite, converted to Islam in the seventh century (so the modern day Palestinians in Al-Halil are much closer to the ancient Jews than Ashkenazi Jews).

The second big lie is that Palestine was an empty land waiting for its children to return. In the real-world Palestine was settled with the native Arabs. According to Zionist source Jewish Virtual Library, during the Ottoman rule of Palestine the population of Palestine only had a small minority of Jews. (See Table 1)

Table 1: Share of Jews in Total Population in Palestine, 1517-1882 (1)

Year                       Jews; (core population)      Non-Jews                               Total Population                 % Jewish

1517                      5,000                                     295,000                                ~300,000                              1.7%

1533-39                 5,000                                     151,000                                 157,000                                3.2%

1882                      24,000                                   276,000                                300,000                                8.0%

This is unreliable information based on the Zionist narrative aiming at showing that Palestine was an empty land. The Ottoman census of 1878 indicated the following demographics for the Jerusalem, Nablus, and Acre districts. (See Table 2)

Table 2: Share of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Total Population, 1878 (2)

Census Group                                      Population            Percentage

Muslim                                                 403,795                 85.5

Christian                                             43,659                   9.2

Jewish                                                   15,001                   3.2

Jewish (Foreign-born)                     Est. 10,000          2.1

Total                                                     472,455                 100.0

Naturally, figures for the first half of the 20th century are more detailed. They confirm that Muslim and Christians (who were Arabs) constituted a majority albeit there shares declined with the advance of Zionist settlement project. (See Table 3)

Table 3: Share of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Total Population, 1922-42 (3)

Year    Total                      Muslims                                Jews                                        Christians                             Others

                                           Total       Percent                 Total      Percent                 Total      Percent                   Total      Percent

1922   752,048                 589,177 78.34                     83,790   11.14                     71,464   9.50                        7,617     1.01

1931   1,033,314             759,700 73.52                     174,606 16.90                     88,907   8.60                        10,101   0.98

1931   1,036,339             761,922 73.52                     175,138 16.90                     89,134   8 60                        10,145   0.98

1932   1,073,827             778,803 72.52                     192,137 17.90                     92,520   8.61                        10,367   0.97

1933   1,140,941             798,506 69.99                     234,967 20.59                     96,791   8.48                        10,677   0.94

1934   1,210,554             814,379 67.27                     282,975 23.38                     102,407 8.46                        10,793   0.89

1935   1,308,112             836,688 63.96                     355,157 27.15                     105,236 8.04                        11,031   0.85

1936   1,366,692             862,730 63.13                     384,078 28.10                     108,506 7.94                        11,378   0.83

1937   1,401,794             883,446 63.02                     395,836 28.24                     110,869 7.91                        11,643   0.83

1938   1,435,285             900,250 62.72                     411,222 28.65                     111,974 7.80                        11,839   0.83

1939   1,501,698             927,133 61.74                     445,457 29.66                     116,958 7.79                        12,150   0.81

1940   1,544,530             947,846 61.37                     463,535 30.01                     120,587 7.81                        12,562   0.81

1941   1,585,500             973,104 61.38                     474,102 29.90                     125,413 7.91                        12,881   0.81

1942   1,620,005             995,292 61.44                     484,408 29.90                     127,184 7.85                        13,121   0.81

Thus, in 1942, the number of the Palestinians was 1.100,000 while the Jews were 484,408 including Non-Zionist Jews. On the eve of 1948, the UN commission gives the following figures. (See Table 4)

Table 4: Settled Population of Palestine by Town and Sub-District, Estimated as at 31st December, 1946 (4)

Locality                                Total                     Moslems             Jews                      Christian             Others

Total                                     1,845,560             1,076,780             608,230                 145,060                15,490

Urban                                   894,570                328,810                447,840                 115,980                1,940

Rural                                     950,990                 747,970                 160,390                 29,080                   13,550

Galilee-Acre District

Safad Sub-district                56,970                   47,310                   7,170                      1,630                     860

                Safad                     12,610                   9,780                     2,400                     430                        –

                Villages                44,360                   37,530                   4,770                      1,200                     860

Acre Sub-district                 73,600                   51,130                   3,030                      11,800                   7,640

                Acre                       13,560                   10,930                   50                           2,490                     90

                Villages                60,040                   40,200                   2,980                      9,310                     7,550

Tiberias Sub-district           41,470                   23,940                   13,640                   2,470                     1,420

                Tiberias                11,810                   4,990                     6,030                     780                        10

                Villages                29,660                   18,950                   7,610                      1,690                     1,410

Beisan Sub-district              24,950                   16,660                   7,590                      680                         20

                Beisan                   5,540                     5,080                     –                             440                        20

                Villages                19,410                   11,580                   7,590                      240                         –

Nazareth Sub-district         49,910                   30,160                   7,980                      11,770                   –

                Nazareth             15,540                   6,290                     –                             9,250                     –

                Afula                     2,470                     10                           2,460                     –                             –

                Villages                31,900                   23,860                   5,520                      2,520                     –

Haifa District

Haifa Sub-district                253,450                 95,970                   119,020                 33,710                   4,760

                Haifa                     145,430                41,000                   74,230                   29,910                   290

                Hadera                 7,590                     –                             7,570                     20                           –

                Shafa ‘Amr          3,740                     1,380                     10                           1,590                     760

                Villages                96,690                   53,590                   37,210                   2,190                     3,700

Samaria District

Jenin Sub-district                61,210                   60,000                   –                              1,210                     –

                Jenin                      4,310                     4,150                     –                             160                        –

                Villages                56,900                   55,850                   –                              1,050                     –

Nablus Sub-district             94,600                   92,810                   –                              1,560                     230

                Nablus                 24,660                   23,740                   –                             690                        230

                Villages                69,940                   69,070                   –                              870                         –

Tulkarm Sub-district          93,220                   76,640                   16,180                   380                         20

                Tulkarm               8,860                     8,560                     –                             280                        20

                Natanya               5,290                     –                             5,290                     –                             –

                Villages                79,070                   68,080                   10,890                   100                         –

Jerusalem District

Ramallah Sub-district        48,930                   40,520                   –                              8,410                     –

                Ramallah            5,180                     660                        –                             4,520                     –

                Villages                43,750                   39,860                   –                              3,890                     –

Jerusalem Sub-district        253,270                 104,460                 102,520                 46,130                   160

                Jerusalem            164,440                33,680                   99,320                   31,330                   110

                Bethlehem           9,140                     2,630                     –                             6,490                     20

                Beit Jala                3,740                     200                        –                             3,540                     –

                Villages                75,950                   67,950                   3,200                      4,770                     30

Hebron Sub-district            93,120                   92,640                   300                         170                         10

                Hebron                 26,390                   26,220                   –                             160                        10

                Villages                66,730                   66,420                   300                         10                           –

Lydda District

Jaffa Sub-district                  409,290                 95,980                   295,160                 17,790                   360

                Jaffa                       101,580                53,930                   30,820                   16,800                   30

                Tel Aviv               183,200                130                        182,510                 230                        330

                Petah Tiqva        18,160                   140                        18,010                   10                           –

                Villages                106,350                 41,780                   63,820                   750                         –

Ramle Sub-district              134,030                 96,590                   31,590                   5,840                     10

                Ramle                   16,380                   12,910                   –                             3,470                     –

                Lydda                   18,250                   16,250                   20                           1,970                     10

                Rehovot                10,350                   –                             10,330                   20                           –

                Rishon le Zion   8,790                     –                             8,790                     –                             –

                Villages                80,260                   67,430                   12,450                   380                         –

Gaza District

Gaza Sub-district                150,540                 145,700                 3,540                      1,300                     –

                Gaza                     37,820                   36,760                   –                             1,060                     –

                Majdal                  10,900                   10,810                   –                             90                           –

                Khan Yunis        12,350                   12,310                   –                             40                           –

                Villages                89,470                   85,820                   3,540                      110                         –

Beersheba Sub-district        7,000                     6,270                     510                         210                         10

                Beersheba            6,490                     6,270                     –                             210                        10

                Villages                510                         –                             510                         –                             –

This means that before 1948 while the Palestinian population was at least 1,200,000 the number of the Jews was 650,000.

Ethnic Cleansing

The third big lie is that the Palestinians left Palestine because their leadership called on them to leave the country and return after the Arab armies would occupy the country. For example: “The Palestinians left their homes in 1947-49 for a variety of reasons. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war, thousands more responded to Arab leaders’ calls to get out of the way of the advancing armies, a handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the crossfire of a battle” (5)

This lie does not hold water: “A general theme running through the Zionist account of the events between November 1947 and May 1948 is that orders were broadcast to the Arabs to leave the country in order to pave the way for entry of the regular Arab armies”… To return to this order: Surely an order of such importance must be traceable somewhere? You do not ask the entire population of a country to leave without somebody debating the matter, without a decision somewhere being taken, without an impression somewhere being made. I have gone through the files of the press releases of the Arab League. These releases include every important pronouncement made by the League at the time. There is no trace of an order. The minutes of the meetings of the Arab League General Assembly—minutes which are limited to official circulation—have been unofficially examined. There is no trace in them of an order.” (6)

At the end of the 1948 According to the American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers): “Approximately 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and became refugees as a result of the 1948 war which led to the founding of Israel. None of these displaced persons were ever allowed to return to the homes or communities from which they were displaced and the Palestinian refugee population has continued to grow in the time that has passed since 1948. Today there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees scattered around the world.” (7)

According to Britannica: 1,400,000 Palestinians lived in the country in 1947 and by 1949 150,000 remained in Israel. They were not expelled because Israel needed super-exploited labor. (8) “Approximately 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel when the Israeli state was founded. This group represented about one-eighth of all Palestinians and by 1952 roughly the same proportion of the Israeli population. The majority of them lived in villages in western Galilee. Because much of their land was confiscated, Arabs were forced to abandon agriculture and become unskilled wage laborers, working in Jewish industries and construction companies.” (9)

Table 5: Refugee Statistics, 1948 and 2000 (10)

District                        Number of depopulated villages      Number of refugees in 1948             Number of refugees in 2000

Beersheba                  88                                                          90,507                                                   590,231

Beisan                         31                                                           19,602                                                   127,832

Jenin                            6                                                             4,005                                                     26,118

Haifa                           59                                                          121,196                                                790,365

Hebron                       16                                                          22,991                                                  149,933

Ramle                         64                                                           97,405                                                   635,215

Safad                           78                                                           52,248                                                   340,729

Tiberias                      26                                                           28,872                                                   188,285

Tulkarm                     18                                                           11,032                                                   71,944

Acre                             30                                                           47,038                                                  306,753

Gaza                           46                                                           79,947                                                   521,360

Jerusalem                  39                                                           97,950                                                  638,769

Nazareth                   5                                                             8,746                                                     57,036

Jaffa                             25                                                           123,227                                                803,610

Total                            531                                                        804,766                                                5,248,185

The ethnic cleansing did not stop in 1948; it continued between 1949 and 1956. According to the Zionist historian Benny Morris, Israel had displaced and expelled between 30,000 and 40,000 Palestinians and Bedouin. Many villages along the ceasefire lines and the Lebanon border area were also leveled, many emptied villages were resettled by new Jewish immigrants and demobilized Israeli military forces. (11)

For example, on 17 August 1950 the remaining Palestinian Arab population of Majdal (Ashkelon that is in the news for the falling rockets) were expelled and the city was populated with Jewish immigrants living in the houses of the Palestinians. Many of them became refugees living in Gaza. So was the case of the people of Wadi Fukin. In 1954, Israel expelled the Palestinian villages of Baqqara and Ghannama in the Syrian demilitarized zone. The Chief of Staff of the UNTSO made a report in January 1955 to the United Nations where it was decided that:

“(a) Decides that Arab civilians who have been removed from the demilitarized zone by the Government of Israel should be permitted to return forthwith to their homes and that the Mixed Armistice Commission should supervise their return and rehabilitation in a manner to be determined by the Commission; and

“(b) Holds that no action involving the transfer of persons across international frontiers, armistice lines or within the demilitarized zone should be under-taken without prior decision of the Chairman of the Mixed Armistice Commission…” (12)

The reason the Palestinians left Palestine was more than 60 massacres committed by the Zionists armed forces and the psychological warfare that included threats of further massacres. “Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres.” (13)

The oppression of the Palestinians who remained in Israel

The Palestinians remaining in Israel lived under military rule systematically oppressed while the Zionist state stole their lands to build for example a new Jewish city by the name of Karmiel. In 1956 the Zionist special police-military force “Magav” (Border police) committed a new massacre of 49 poor peasants from Kafr Qassam as part of a new ethnic cleansing plan of Ben Gurion. The general who gave the order Shadmi was found guilty and had to pay less than one cent.

The reason the Israeli state ended the military regime was its need to divide the Palestinians citizens of Israel from the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians citizens of Israel were called since then the “Israeli Arabs” and not Palestinians.

The policy of stealing the Palestinians lands led to the protest of the Land Day. In 1976, in response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for state purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev. The Zionist army murdered in cold blood 4 unarmed demonstrators.

The policy of divide and rule of the Palestinians has been successful to a large degree as many Palestinians from the West-Bank and Gaza saw the “Israeli Arabs” as agents of Israel. Meanwhile, the racist parliament of Israel passed dozens of laws that discriminate against the Palestinians citizens of Israel in every aspect and sphere of life.

The new line of Zionist propaganda

The new Zionist war against the people of Gaza has put an end to this policy. The Palestinians citizens of Israel are supporting the struggle of the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and of Gaza as their struggle. This is a great step forward.

The Zionist new line of propaganda is that the majority of the Palestinians want to be loyal supporters of Israel and only a small part of criminal elements confronts the police and Jews and this element must be crashed.

Speaking in Lod, Netanyahu said the Israel Defense Forces were trained in containing such unrest and should be called in “to prevent these riots, this calamity and violence.” Citing the response to the 1976 “Land Day” mass protests in which IDF troops were deployed to several Arab Israeli cities (and four Arab Israeli civilians were killed by the IDF), Netanyahu said there was precedent for such a move and that Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai “has the approval and permission to use IDF forces in the way that is already permitted by law today. (…) There are nationalist elements here who are breaking the law, in fact, disturbing the framework of the State of Israel, so in the face of such a threat, it is possible to use administrative detentions,” Netanyahu said. In a video posted online on Wednesday, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin came down hard on the Arab rioters.” (14)

Rivlin, the Zionist right-wing president, said: “The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob, injuring people, damaging property and even attacking sacred Jewish spaces is unforgivable,” he declared. “Tearing down the Israeli flag by Arab rioters and replacing it with the Palestinian flag is a brutal assault on shared existence in the State of Israel,” he added.” (15)

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned the violence, which he described as a “complete loss of control“. “Jewish and Arab rioters declared war on Israel,” he said in a series of tweets. “The rioters in Lod and Acre do not represent Israeli Arabs, the rioters in Bat Yam… do not represent Israeli Jews,” he wrote. “The extremists will not ruin our lives.” (16)

Meanwhile, the traitor Mansour Abbas, Chairman of the Ra’am Party and a potential kingmaker in government coalition negotiations, took a tour of Lod Sunday amid the clashes in the mixed Arab-Jewish city between Palestinians and the fascists, where he called for calm and security for all residents.

There is nothing new in these statements, these were always the statements of the imperialists and the colonialists and their servants in reaction to the uprising of the oppressed. Just read the stories of Kipling in India like Gunga Din.

Al Jazeera reflecting reality writes: “But an extraordinary phenomenon has also taken root inside Israel, where thousands of Palestinian citizens in towns, villages and so-called “mixed” cities have taken to the streets to assert their identity while living in a self-defined Jewish state. What is remarkable is that within ’48 [modern-day Israel, with reference to the 1948 declaration of the state], Palestinians who have long been ignored or deemed as ‘Israeli Arabs’ are once again restating powerfully that they are Palestinians,” said Layla Hallaq, a Palestinian activist based in Haifa. Hallaq told Al Jazeera that the current demonstrations are “unprecedented” and characterised by a popular solidarity movement among Palestinians within Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in the diaspora.” (17)

Despite holding Israeli citizenship, rights groups have documented several dozen Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens across a wide spectrum of issues, including education, housing, political participation and due process. They are treated as second- and third-class citizens. During the past week, Palestinian protests have taken place in towns and cities across Israel, from the Naqab (Negev) Desert in the south to Ramla, Yafa and Lydd (Lod in Hebrew) in the centre of the country, to the “Triangle” region and to Haifa and Nazareth in the north. The demonstrators rallied in solidarity with Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, who are facing imminent forced expulsion from their homes, and against the Israeli storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which left hundreds of Palestinians wounded.” (18)

While the Palestinians are fighting against oppression the Israeli government and police back the mobilization of the fascists led by Ben Gevir and the other fascists in the Zionist parliament. “Police chief Kobi Shabtai tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that extreme-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir is responsible for ongoing Arab-Jewish riots, Channel 12 reports. During a morning briefing, Shabtai says that every time police appear to be getting an area under control, Ben Gvir, the Kahanist member of the Religious Zionist party, shows up to fan the flames. The person who is responsible for this Intifada is Itamar Ben Gvir. It started with the Lehava protest at Damascus Gate,” Shabtai says. “It continued with provocations in Sheikh Jarrah, and now he is moving around with Lehava activists.” (19)

Very nice but empty words. On May 12 dozens of right-wing Jewish extremists were rioting in Bat Yam, attacking and vandalizing businesses owned by Arabs. Posts calling for participation in the violence were distributed on social media earlier. Yet 116, all of them are only Palestinians, were charged for attacking police, yet no similar charge has been issued against the fascists!

The reformists and the centrists who pretend to be the friends of the Palestinians

Hadash, the front of the Stalinist party that recommended Lapid at the head of the anti- Bibi right-wing block to be the prime minister, says about itself: “To be a pacifist in a country which maintains an occupation since 1967; to be supporters of democracy in a regime which advances eviction from lands and laws that trample on human rights; to implement a Jewish Arab partnership in a system which institutionalizes racism and discrimination in all spheres; to be the leaders of a struggle against a regime of privatization, and for the right of workers to unionize – this is a lifelong project.” (20)

Lenin wrote on pacifism: “In order not to embellish the imperialist war and help the bourgeoisie falsely represent it as a national war, as a war for the liberation of nations, in order to avoid sliding into the position of bourgeois reformism, one must speak not in the language of Kautsky and Turati, hut in the language of Karl Liebknecht: tell one’s own bourgeoisie that they are hypocrites when they talk about national liberation, that this war cannot result in a democratic peace unless the proletariat “turns its gulls” against its own governments. That is the only possible position of a genuine Marxist, of a genuine socialist and not a bourgeois reformist. Those who repeat the general, meaningless, non-committal, goody-goody desires of pacifism are not really working for a democratic peace. Only he is working for such a peace who exposes the imperialist nature of the present war and of the imperialist peace that is being prepared and calls upon the peoples to rise in revolt against the criminal governments.” (21)

Trotsky wrote on pacifism in a very similar way: “Only very slight injury can be done to the machinery of war of the ruling class by pacifism. This is best proved by the courageous but rather futile efforts of Russell himself during the war. The whole affair ended in a few thousand young people being thrown into prison on account of their conscientious objections…. In the old Tsarist army, the sectarians, and especially the Tolstoians, were often exposed to persecution because of their passive resistance to militarism; it was not they, however, who solved the problem of the overthrow of Tsarism.” (22)

While the ISL, the section of the RCIT in Israel (Occupied Palestine) has stood with the Palestinians from the very beginning, the reaction of the centrists around the world shows their rotten politics. (23)

It took the IMT, led by Alan Woods, more than a week to come with a statement. This statement came after the large pro-Palestinians masses took to the streets. In this statement the IMT wrote: “The launching of these rockets is completely counterproductive for the Palestinian struggle and only serves to strengthen Netanyahu, pushing Israeli workers into the arms of the Israeli state. As Marxists and internationalists, we are not neutral or above sides in such a conflict. We defend the right of the Palestinians to a homeland and their right to resist against oppression and defend their livelihoods by any means necessary. The violence of the oppressed can never be equated to that of the oppressors.“ (24)

The IMT does not explain what is a Palestinian homeland and how this formulation is different from the imperialist hypocritical line of two states which is a pie in the sky and used by Israel to steal more lands. Nor they call for a military victory for Hamas in a war of the oppressed against the Zionist imperialist apartheid state. As a matter of fact, they denounce Hamas! No wonder that at the end of their statement they express their support for a self -determination for the Zionists in their slogan: “For the right of both the Palestinians and Jews to a homeland within a Socialist Federation of the Middle East!

Lenin never called for the right of self-determination for imperialist nations which Israel apartheid state is one of them. Trotsky on the South Africa situation called for a black workers republic.

Socialist Struggle in Israel (the section of the ISA, which split from the CWI in 2019 and whose most prominent section is Socialist Alternative in the U.S. led by Kshama Sawant) is not much better: “Stop the war! End the missile strikes and military attacks on Gaza. End the siege Stop the police and military repression of protest. Stop the arbitrary arrests. Mobilize for demonstrations against the military attacks and against the occupation.” (25)

What does it mean to stop the war? Who will stop the war and how? This is a bourgeois pacifist line, not a revolutionary line. It is an appeal to the imperialists to put pressure on Israel. They equate Israel the imperialist settler colonialist state with Hamas, an organization of the oppressed nation. They do not raise the slogan for a military victory for Hamas without giving them political support. Nor do they call for one democratic Palestinian socialist state from the river to the sea. It is against the occupation of only the lands occupied by Israel in 1967. In other words, Socialist Struggle/ISA stands for two-states solution which means, among other things, opposition to the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland. In summary, they stand for a semi-Zionist line.

The British SWP has a better line of one Palestinian state. (26) Yet, what they cannot deal with is the theory and strategy of the Permanent Revolution of the struggle to win. It is necessary for the working class, led by a revolutionary party, in the Arab countries and in Iran – together with the Palestinians – to participate in the democratic struggle but also to lead it to a socialist revolution. Such a theory and strategy is expressed by the RCIT in the demand for a red democratic Palestinian state from the river to the sea. (27) Thus, the SWP holds on to the two stages of Menshevik theory. They have the same politics of the RS in Egypt that contributed to the failure of the revolution by tailing the liberal bourgeoisie and by initially supporting the military coup of General Sisi in July 2013. (28)

Military victory for Gaza’s resistance!

Forward to the full Intifada and the Arab revolution!

For a revolutionary working-class leadership of the Arab revolution!

Crash the fascists!

Free all political Palestinian prisoners!

Break the siege on Gaza!

For a red democratic Palestine from the river to the sea as part of the socialist federation of the Middle East!

Long live the Palestinian unity in the struggle against the Zionist oppression!

Footnotes

1) https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-and-non-jewish-population-of-israel-palestine-1517-present

2) Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East: Demographics of Historic Palestine prior to 1948, 2004, https://www.cjpme.org/fs_007

3) Ibid

4) United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine: Palestine population estimates for 1946 – UNCCP – Working paper, https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-210930/

5) https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-and-facts-the-refugees

6) Walid Khalidi: Why did the Palestinians leave, revisited

7) https://www.afsc.org/resource/palestinian-refugees-and-right-return

8) https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/Palestine-and-the-Palestinians-1948-67

9) Ibid

10) Wikipedia: Palestinian refugees, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_refugees

11) Wikipedia 1949–1956 Palestinian exodus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949%E2%80%931956_Palestinian_exodus

12) UN Doc S/3343 of 11 January 1955 Report dated 6 January 1955 by the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine to the Secretary-General on complaints concerning the observance of the General Armistice Agreement between Israel and Syria

13) https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948

14) https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-calls-for-administrative-detentions-to-quell-arab-jewish-violence/

15) https://www.jns.org/bloodthirsty-arab-mobs-wreak-havoc-across-israel-but-experts-believe-they-are-a-minority/

16) BBC News Israel: Jewish and Arab mobs spread violence

17) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/16/palestinian-protests-in-israel-showcase-unprecedented-unity

18) Ibid

19) https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/police-chief-said-to-blame-extreme-right-mk-ben-gvir-for-fanning-violence/

20) http://hadash.org.il/english/

21) V. I. Lenin: Bourgeois Pacifism and Socialist Pacifism (1917), https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jan/01.htm

22) Leon Trotsky: ‘On Pacifism and Revolution’, 1926 (written in reply to a review by Bertrand Russell of Trotsky’s book Where Is Britain Going?); quoted in https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/pearce/1961/xx/defeatism.html

23) We refer reader to a special sub-page on the RCIT website where we have compiled all our documents on the Fourth Gaza War: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/collection-of-articles-on-fourth-gaza-war/

24) IMT: Stop the bombing of Gaza! End the occupation! – International mobilization in support of the Palestinian struggle! 14 May 2021, https://www.marxist.com/stop-the-bombing-of-gaza-imt-statement.htm

25) ISA: Israel and Palestine: Stop the War: No Peace Without Struggle Against Occupation, Poverty and Capital — Updated, 13 May 2021, https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2021/05/israel-and-palestine

26) SWP: It’s right to resist – Israel’s bloody assault is not ‘self-defense’, 16 May 2021, https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/51799/Its+right+to+resist+Israels+bloody+assault+is+not+self+defence

27) For our theoretical analysis and programmatic perspective for the Palestinian liberation struggle, we refer reader to the following documents: The ISL’s program which can be read here: http://www.the-isleague.com/our-platform/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/summary-of-isl-program/; Yossi Schwartz: Israel’s War of 1948 and the Degeneration of the Fourth International, http://the-isleague.com/1948-war-5-2013/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/israel-s-war-of-1948/; Michael Pröbsting: On some Questions of the Zionist Oppression and the Permanent Revolution in Palestine, http://the-isleague.com/zionist-oppression-and-permanent-revolution/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/permanent-revolution-in-palestine/

28) The RCIT has published an number of documents on the military coup in Egypt. See e.g. Michael Pröbsting: The Coup d’État in Egypt and the Bankruptcy of the Left’s “Army Socialism”, August 2013, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/egypt-and-left-army-socialism/; Yossi Schwartz: Egypt: The U.S. Support for the Military Coup and the Left’s ignorance, 11.7.2013, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/egypt-us-support-for-military-coup/

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