Yossi Schwartz ISL the RCIT section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 13.10.2022
There cannot be a doubt that the oppressed Palestinians decided to raise their heads and fight back against the monstrous apartheid Zionist state. The Palestinians in the West-Bank on Wednesday observed a one-day general strike in protest of the closure of Shuafat Refugee Camp and its surrounding neighborhoods. Clashes erupt near the closed-off Shuafat checkpoint as Palestinians throw stones while the Zionist racist policemen used tear gas and rubber bullets that can injure and even kill.
The refugee camp, which is part of East Jerusalem, has been sealed off by the Israeli oppressive forces since last Saturday night’s attack, in which another soldier was seriously injured following the killing of two Zionist soldiers. According to Palestinian sources, some 130,000 Palestinians from families expelled from their homeland in the ethnic cleansing of 1948 live in Shuafat camp and the nearby neighborhoods of Ras Khamis and Dahiyet al-Salam, which are also located within the Jerusalem Municipality borders.
“Palestinians in the Shuafat refugee camp and surrounding neighbourhoods in occupied East Jerusalem have launched a general strike in protest against a days-long siege by Israeli forces that has affected severely access to basic services Stores and schools in the area remained shut on Wednesday, while labourers refused to go to work. Students at Birzeit University, in the Ramallah area, also boycotted classes in solidarity. The city of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, also observed a general strike, while confrontations broke out with Israeli forces at checkpoints near Ramallah and Bethlehem, with several injuries from live ammunition reported. Israeli forces also fired tear gas at Shuafat refugee camp residents marching against the siege” (1)
On Wednesday two Israeli police officers were injured in the Isawiya neighborhood and 23 Palestinians were arrested between Wednesday night and Thursday morning in the uprising across Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, Arab freedom fighters threw Molotov cocktails and rocks and fired fireworks towards Israeli forces throughout east Jerusalem starting early in the evening.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion’s car was also pelted with rocks on his way to a Sukkot event in east Jerusalem. Video published by Palestinian media showed Palestinian firing fireworks towards the Israeli brutal forces in multiple neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, including Ras al-Amud and Issawiya. On Wednesday Palestinians reached the Zionist settlements Holy Fire and set on fire their fields, that are on stolen Palestinian lands. This Anti-Imperialist united front military organization the Lion’s Den has more appeal to the Palestinian masses than the Palestinian authority the corrupted and servants of Israel and U.S imperialism that is a rotten obstacle for the fight for self-determination of the Palestinian nation in the West Bank, Gaza and as a second class citizens inside Israel. Last week even the Palestinian middle class lawyers organized a protest against the Palestinian Authority’s rule by decree and demanded normal parliamentary lawmaking. On Tuesday night, dozens of Palestinians living in the area, met in the camp and declared “civil disobedience” to protest against the restrictions and recurring police raids. Thousands of people living in the area have not been able to go to work or send their children to school because of the collective punishment.
To weaken the influence of the Lion’s Den in the West Bank, rumors are spread that the organization is founded by Hamas. It is not difficult to guess that this rumors originated in Ramallah and Jerusalem By the PA and the Zionist government. The Lion’s Den says that it is not controlled by any faction. It is not an accident that the Palestinian third Intifada and the revolutionary movement in Iran occured at the same time and most likely will contribute to the regional Arab revolution. Not only political oppression but the deep economic crisis and the historical crisis of the capitalist system are behind the uprisings. And while the Palestinians fight an heroic struggle against the Zionist Apartheid from the river to the sea, shamelessly, Hadash the Stalinist front supports the imperialist empty mantra of a two state solution Israel in 80% of Palestine and the Palestinians in Bantustans in 20% of Palestine.
The right centrist “Socialist struggle” also calls for two “socialist” states. Both positions are caricature of Marxism that supports only the self determination of oppressed nations. The support for the right of self-determination of the Zionists is one of the worst forms of social imperialism. Lenin wrote on this question:
“Imperialism means the progressively mounting oppression of the nations of the world by a handful of Great Powers; it means a period of wars between the latter to extend and consolidate the oppression of nations; it means a period in which the masses of the people are deceived by hypocritical social-patriots, i.e., individuals who, under the pretext of the “freedom of nations”, “the right of nations to self-determination”, and “defence of the fatherland”, justify and defend the oppression of the majority of the world’s nations by the Great Powers” (2)
Trotsky wrote on the South Africa’s apartheid:
“The example of our South African friends again confirms the fact that in the present epoch only the Bolshevik-Leninists, that is, the consistent proletarian revolutionaries, take a serious attitude to theory, analyze the realities, and are learning themselves before they teach others. The Stalinist bureaucracy has long ago substituted a combination of ignorance and impudence for Marxism… Under these conditions the South African Republic will emerge first of all as a “black” republic; this does not exclude, of course, either full equality for the whites, or brotherly relations between the two races – depending mainly on the conduct of the whites. But it is entirely obvious that the predominant majority of the population, liberated from slavish dependence, will put a certain imprint on the state” (3)
To win the Palestinian struggle it is necessary to build an action committee in every village and neighborhood!
To organize revolutionary constituent assembly!
To arm the Palestinian masses!
A workers and peasant government!
To organize a revolutionary workers party to lead to a socialist and free Palestine from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
(1) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/12/palestinians-strike-against-israeli-siege-jerusalem-camp
(2) V. I. Lenin The Revolutionary Proletariat and the Right of Nations to Self Determination https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/oct/16.html
(3) Leon Trotsky Letter to South African Revolutionaries
(April 1933) https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1933/04/safrica.html