No Peace with Apartheid – Mass Resistance, International Solidarity and Popular Struggle Will Free Palestine!
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 13.10.2015, www.thecommunists.net
In recent days we have witnessed an impressive upsurge of resistance by the Palestinian masses against the Zionist occupiers. Until now, more than 20 Palestinians have been killed brutally by the Israeli occupation forces, including a pregnant women and her three year old daughter as well as two youths in Gaza one 13 and the other 15 years old.
The Trigger for the Uprising
The trigger for the recent clashes between the Palestinian masses and the Israeli occupation forces was and is the fear of many Palestinians that Zionist hardliners will take control of the Al-Aqsa compound. But as revolutionary Marxists we know that the root causes of the coming Intifada lie much deeper. During the last year, Israel has brutally repressed the masses of the Palestinian people, while at the same time Fatah and the Palestinian National Authority have lost most of their credibility with the masses. Today, the majority of the Palestinian people favor (once again) a one-state solution, simply because the Zionist settlers have created a situation on the ground where there is no realistic option for a separate Palestinian mini-state (even one which is absolutely depended as a colony of Israel). Although it is not yet certain that the clashes and mass-resistance will develop into a new Intifada, this is a very realistic possibility and revolutionaries must help expand the struggle to make the 3rd Intifada a fact!
What We Are Fighting For
The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT,بيان التيار الشيوعي الثوري الدولي in Arabic language) which has sections and supporters in Occupied Palestine (Israel), Pakistan, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Brazil, Austria, Britain, and the US confirms our unconditional support for the Palestinian liberation struggle. Marwan Barbakh and Omar Othman, the two young martyrs from Gaza who were murdered by the occupation army are a symbol of the unbroken resistance of the Palestinian masses. Generation after generation will continue to struggle until the occupation ends in all of Palestine – from the Jordan River to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, from Gaza to Al Quds to Jaffa, Haifa and Ramallah. We call upon the Palestinian workers, youth and fellahin to continue the fight for one Palestinian, multinational state in which the workers and fellahin will take power. The RCIT sends its warmest greeting to the heroic Palestinian youth who are struggling so bravely, but we also send our condolences to the comrades, friends and families of murdered Palestinians – the Intifada will avenge them!
The Leadership of the Palestinians
It is clear now that Abbas is nothing more than a lackey of the occupation. In this critical hour, after more than twenty Palestinians have been killed, he joined the war criminal Netanyahu in calling upon the Palestinian masses to be calm. In Occupied Palestine, revolutionaries also have to fight politically against the leadership of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. These forces are unable to liberate Palestine because they are not capable of or willing to organize the struggle not only against the Apartheid regime but against capitalism and the roots of the occupation and imperialism as well. We in the RCIT are also against the policy of the various Palestinian Stalinist originations of which Al Jabha (the PFLP) and the DFLP are the largest. Without casting any doubts on the true heroism of their struggle, the leaders of these organizations are not genuine revolutionary-socialists but rather petty-bourgeois left Arab nationalists. Regardless of our political criticism of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, Al-Fatah or Al-Jabha (PFLP), we condemn every attack by Israel upon them. The fighters of these organizations are not terrorists but freedom-fighters; our criticism of them is not meant to somehow defend Israel but rather to really win the struggle!
What are the Tasks?
In parallel to the recent upsurge of resistance, while the Israeli police and army are preparing to suppress an even more extensive uprising, the masses of the Palestinians and the anti-Zionist Jews must also prepare for this uprising. They need to expand the struggle to new layers of the masses and build resistance and self-defense committees in the districts, villages, factories and harbors. For revolutionaries, it is vital to fight from within the new Intifada for a revolutionary-internationalist working-class perspective! We oppose nationalist and religious hatred – but since the Israelis are the oppressor-nation it is an urgent task for Jewish workers in Israel and anti-Zionist Jews in general to make it clear that they have nothing in common with “their” oppressive government. Palestinian revolutionaries, while constituting the bravest and most courageous fighters on the barricades and wielding arms against the Israeli occupation forces, must oppose any manifestations of reactionary Anti-Semitism. Taking this internationalist position could very well result in the Palestinian masses’ breaking away sections of the Israeli-Jewish working class from the chauvinist-Zionist camp. We call upon Jewish revolutionaries to use every means possible to weaken the Israeli occupation army. This means practically: striking out against the Netanyahu government; go down to the streets to protest against racism; organize soldier resistance committees; and soldiers, don’t follow orders and sabotage the military!
The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency calls for revolutionaries to:
* Found resistance committees in the districts, the factories and in the villages, to organize the fighting masses!
* Build self-defense committees to defend the poor Palestinian masses against the terrorism of Israel. Actions against the Israeli state apparatus – if they are to be successful – must be organized and carried out by the masses!
* Arm the masses! The international workers’ movement and the movement of the oppressed should organize a solidarity campaign with Palestine and provide weapons for the resistance. The workers’ movement and the movement of the oppressed masses around the world should form international brigades to struggle alongside the Palestinians for their liberation!
* Defend all Palestinian factions against the state-terrorism of Israel, regardless of whether they are Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, Fatah, DFLP, etc.
* No to attacks on Jews civilians! The IDF, the police and the Israeli state apparatus, as well as openly racist armed settlers are all legitimate targets as occupiers (according to the international law) – but don’t attack innocent civilians; true Internationalism is against all religious hatred!
* Israeli anti-Zionist Jews, workers and oppressed of Israel – support the Intifada! Strike against the government, sabotage its weapons, industry and the military, and organize resistance in the army against the racist occupation and the war-mongering Generals!
* Down with the direct or indirect allies of Israel. Throw all imperialists out of the Middle East, whether Israel, the US, the EU, Russia or China! Overthrow the brutal dictatorships in the Arab world, whether that of General al-Sisi in Egypt who is helping Israel in the Sinai and is participating in the blockade of Gaza; the Al-Saud Gang who is murdering the rebellious masses of Yemen; the brutal dog Assad in Syria who didn’t lift a finger to help the Palestinians, or the Jordanian monarchy. Down with the reactionary takfiri-salafist Daesh/IS which openly states that Muslims must first fight against the Palestinian factions and only then against Israel.
* Victory to the 3rd Intifada! Long live the martyrs – the Intifada will avenge them! For a multinational, democratic Palestinian workers’ and fellahin state from the River to the Sea – For a Free, Red Palestine!
* Fight along with the RCIT to serve the oppressed and liberate Palestine once and for all!
International Secretariat