By Yossi Schwartz, ISL the section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 22.11.2021
“This decision will make it more difficult for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to form a Palestinian national unity government, Palestinian sources said on Saturday. In recent weeks, reports have surfaced in a number of Arab and Western media outlets claiming the US administration, Egypt and other parties were working toward persuading the Palestinians to end their differences and form a unity government” [i]
That this decision was taken in collaboration with the Zionist government, the Zionist lobby in Britain, and most likely the US is obvious. Among the pro-Zionist apartheid state is the right-wing leadership of the British “Labor” Party. Sir Keir Starmer, denounced last week what he called the “anti-Zionist anti-Semitism” that he alleged still exists in this party which means another witch hunt of the labor youth. In September at a party conference, pro-Palestinian members of the party were barred.
“Jess Bernard, chair of the party’s youth wing Young Labor, announced on Twitter, “The most concrete information I have been given is that anyone from Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be refused as a speaker, as will Jeremy Corbyn,” the Middle East Monitor reported” [ii]
Starmer was speaking at an annual event held by the Labor Friends of Israel lobby group that has assisting in the removal of pro Palestinians from this party claiming that support for the Palestinians amounts to Anti-Semitism.
He said in that event: “Anti-Zionist anti-Semitism is the antithesis of the Labor tradition. It denies the Jewish people alone a right to self-determination. It equates Zionism with racism, focuses obsessively on the world’s sole Jewish state, and holds it to standards to which no other country is subjected” [iii]
How many Zionist states does he want to see and support?
Another anti-Palestinian member of the Zionist Lobby is the British Home Secretary Priti Patel who is considered even in the Tory party a Thatcherite. In 2015 she was involved with the British American Tobacco (BAT) where she managed the company’s public image during the scandal around the Myanmar factory that was used as a source of funds by its military dictatorship and poor payment to factory workers. Later on, she was a public relations expert for the alcoholic beverages company, Diageo, the world’s largest producer of spirits. In 2011, “Diageo Plc, the British spirits maker, which produces Johnnie Walker scotch and Smirnoff vodka, reported that it will pay more than $16 million to settle charges from U.S. regulators that it bribed officials in South Korea, India, and Thailand to win sales and tax benefits”. [iv]
“Israel Foreign Minister Yair Lapid thanked UK Home Secretary Priti Patel after she announced Friday that the British government intends to eliminate the distinction between the group’s political and military wings”. [v]
In 2017 she secretly visited Israel: “the International Development Secretary (as was her title) held undisclosed meetings in Israel without telling the Foreign Office while accompanied by an influential pro-Israeli Conservative campaigner, the BBC has learned” [vi]
Thus, the scams of the earth are behind the Zionist racist state.
“The British move targeting Hamas may even increase the group’s popularity, depicting it as a victim of an international conspiracy against the Palestinian people in general and the Palestinian “resistance” groups in particular. “When countries such as the US, Israel, and Britain go after Hamas, that boosts Hamas’s standing among Palestinians and many Arabs and Muslims,” said a Ramallah-based Palestinian political analyst.” [vii]
No doubt British imperialism knows a lot about terrorism after all it has a long history of terrorism using it against many nations in Europe (Ireland for example), Africa, Asia, the Russian revolution, and the Arabs. In this article, we cannot list all the terrorist actions of British imperialism and we only list a few major cases of terrorism of this empire.
The first Opium War (1839–42) was fought between China and Britain, and as a result Britain forced China to buy opium. British traders were exporting opium mainly from India to China since the 18th century. The resulting widespread addiction in China was causing serious social and economic disruption. In spring 1839 the Chinese government confiscated and destroyed more than 1,400 tons of the drug – that were warehoused at Canton (Guangzhou). In July 1839 some drunken British sailors murdered a Chinese villager. The British government refused to turn the accused men over to the Chinese courts. British warships destroyed a Chinese blockade of the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) in Hong Kong. In early 1840 the British sent an expeditionary force to China, attacked and occupied the city in May 1841, and then bombed and captured Nanjing (Nanking) in late August 1841. [viii]
British imperialists love to speak about Britain’s fight against slave traders. However:
“Portugal and Britain were the two most ‘successful’ slave-trading countries accounting for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas. Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 when the British slave trade was abolished. It is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and other countries” [ix]
In Amritsar, India’s holy city of the Sikh religion, British troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh, a city park. The Indians were murdered because they protested the British government’s forced conscription of Indian soldiers and the heavy war tax imposed against the Indian people. [x]
“The Bengal (Today Bangladesh) famine of 1943 estimated to have killed up to three million people was not caused by drought but instead was a result of a “complete policy failure” of the then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a recent study has said. The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, provided scientific backing for arguments that Churchill’s policies played a significant role in contributing to the 1943 catastrophe” [xi]
After the Russian revolution, British imperialism attacked the young workers’ state assisting the white terror of the monarchist counter-revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks turned to the working class in Britain and other imperialist states. The following is a document written by Lenin Trotsky and Chicherin that can be found in the archives.
Appeal of the Russian Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet Government:
“Your entire Capitalist Press is howling like a vicious, unleashed dog, for your governments to intervene in Russian affairs. The hireling newspapers of your exploiters, shouting “Now or Never” have dropped their masks and are openly clamoring for an advance against the workers and peasants of Russia. But even at this moment, they lie unscrupulously [unscrupulous], and shamelessly attempt to deceive you, for whilst they threaten intervention in Russian affairs, they are already conducting military operations against the Russia of the workers and peasants.
Anglo-French bandits, who have seized the Murman railways, are already executing Soviet railway workers. In the Ural mountains, the Allied governments are using Czecho-Slovak troops, maintained at the expense of the French people and commanded by French officers, to break up the workers’ Soviets and shoot their elected representatives.
By order of your Governments, Allied troops are cutting off the bread supplies of the Russian people, in order that the workers and peasants may be compelled to put their necks once more under the yoke of the Paris and London Stock Exchanges. The open attack which the Franco-British capital is now making on the workers of Russia is only the completion of an eight-month-long underground struggle against the Soviet power.
From the day of the October Revolution, from that moment when the workers and peasants of Russia declared that they would no longer shed either their own blood or that of other peoples, in the interests, either of Russian or foreign Capital, international capital declared war on us. From the day when we threw to the ground our exploiters and appealed to you to follow our example, to join us in putting an end to international slaughter and exploitation, from that moment the capitalists of your countries have sworn that they would demolish Russia, because the workers had dared, as workers had never done in the history of humanity, to overthrow the yoke of capitalism, and to free their necks from the noose of war” [xii]
The defenders of British imperialism are likely to say but this happened long ago, now the UK is a model for democracy and human rights.
Following the last imperialist war on Iraq in 2003 in an article from 2016, we find: “Nearly 300 British veterans of the Iraq war have been warned they are named by official investigators, amid claims of murder, torture, and abuse The documents have been sent by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), a unit led by Mark Warwick, a former senior police detective, and set up after claims of systemic brutal treatment of Iraqi detainees Now, Leigh Day, the law firm representing hundreds of Iraqis claiming abuse and unlawful detention by British troops, has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. 10 Downing Street has entered the fray, saying David Cameron feared that people were being “solicited by lawyers” enticing them into making accusations. Cameron was “deeply concerned” that Iraq war veterans could face threats of prosecution due to “fabricated” or “unjustified” claims of misconduct, it said.” [xiii]
How typical of hypocritical British imperialism.
The Guardian wrote on this topic: “Britain’s empire was established, and maintained for more than two centuries, through bloodshed, violence, brutality, conquest, and war. Not a year went by without large numbers of its inhabitants being obliged to suffer for their involuntary participation in the colonial experience. Slavery, famine, prison, battle, murder, extermination – these were their various fates… Yet the subject peoples of the empire did not go quietly into history’s goodnight. Underneath the veneer of the official record exists a rather different story? Year in, year out, there was resistance to conquest, and rebellion against the occupation, often followed by mutiny and revolt – by individuals, groups, armies, and entire peoples. At one time or another, the British seizure of distant lands was hindered, halted and even derailed by the vehemence of local opposition.” [xiv]
Needless to say, whenever the local population rebelled against the Empire those brave fighters were declared terrorists. Those who dare to expose the crimes are punished. In the case of the Zionist colonialist settlers, British imperialism participated in the Zionist’s terrorist actions against the Palestinians. In another article dealing with the Mufti of Jerusalem, we referred to the special British terrorist unit the Special Night Squads (SNSs) in Palestine during the Arab Revolt, 1938–39 that was formed by the British army officer the Christian Zionist Wingate. The Zionists themselves have a long history of terrorism against the Palestinians before 1948, during 1948 with the 30-40 massacres and the ethnic cleansing of 700,000-900,000 Palestinians and after the establishment of the Zionist apartheid state against Palestinian citizens of Israel (Kfar Qasem, Land Day, 2000), and terror against the Palestinians in Jordan and the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza after 1967.
The special relations of British imperialism and the settler colonialist Zionists began even before the Balfour declaration that promised the Zionists to establish a national home in Palestine against the will of the native Palestinians. In 1903, the British offered the Zionists a national home in British East Africa, Kenya of today (Uganda plan) to terrorize the Kenyans opposed to British rule.
The decision of British imperialism to settle Zionist settlers in Palestine was a crime against the native Palestinians. The British imperialists wanted to kill two birds with the same stone. Not to let Jews suffering from persecution in the Russian empire come to Britain and to use the Jews to help Britain to oppress the Palestinians. For this aim, the British and the Zionists used terror against the Palestinians.
No doubt British imperialism will defend Israel in a possible case of a major attack of Israel on Iran. Today we read in Haaretz:
“Yossi Cohen, who recently stepped down as head of the Mossad espionage agency and led Israel’s covert war against Iran, said in an interview with Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn that Israel “should be able” to act alone against Iran’s nuclear program, as it did in the past against the nuclear programs of Syria and Iraq. “I assume it’s going to be complicated militarily, but not impossible” for Israel to take such action, he said. US Senator Robert Menendez stated that it was “deeply distressing” in May to see the magnitude of rocket fire launched at Israel from Gaza during the war that Israel fought with Hamas. But he drew optimism from Israel’s increasing security coordination with neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan. The United States can and should do more to encourage such cooperation between Israel and the Arab countries that have signed peace agreements over the years, he added.” [xv]
The fact that such a war will ignite the entire Middle East and sub-Sahara does not concern the Zionists and their supporters.
Imperialists, hands of Hamas!
Down with the imperialists!
Down with all the Arab reactionaries that collaborate with Israel and other imperialists!
Down with the Zionist settler colonialist state!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
For a socialist federation of the Middle East!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.jpost.com/international/british-move-against-hamas-threatens-unity-palestinians-say-685537
[ii] https://www.jpost.com/international/uk-labour-party-apologizes-after-banning-pro-palestinian-group-from-conference-678672
[iii] https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/uk-labour-leader-denounces-anti-zionist-antisemitism-685157
[iv] https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanielparishflannery/2011/08/05/scandals-at-total-and-diageo-highlight-the-importance-of-effective-risk-management/?sh=5748f05c3203
[v] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-41853561
[vi] https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cheers-expected-uk-designation-of-hamas-as-terror-group/
[vii]
https://www.jpost.com/international/british-move-against-hamas-threatens-unity-palestinians-say-685537
[viii] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Opium-Wars
[ix] https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/slavery/pdf/britain-and-the-trade.pdf
[x]https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-amritsar-massacre
[xi] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/4/1/churchills-policies-to-blame-for-1943-bengal-famine-study
[xii] https://cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/russian/id/1151
[xiii]
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/19/end-myths-britains-imperial-past
[xiv] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/19/end-myths-britains-imperial-past
[xv] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/this-sunday-former-mossad-chief-senior-officials-at-haaretz-ucla-conference-1.10399945