Support the Palestinian Resistance! Smash the Zionist State!
Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 25.08.2020, www.thecommunists.net
1. Since 6 August the Palestinian people in Gaza face almost daily bombings by the Zionist state. In addition, Israel has tightened the already draconic blockade against Gaza by not allowing fuel deliveries into the enclave. As a result, the people have been left with only four hours of electricity a day. In response, Palestinian resistance fighters have fired some rockets and sent some incendiary balloons which have been causing fires on farmland in southern Israel.
2. This is only the latest escalation in the ongoing terror campaign of the Zionist state against the Palestinian people. Israel has imposed a barbaric blockade against Gaza since 2007, transforming the enclave into a de-facto open-air prison. Unemployment exceeds 50 percent and people live in daily fear for their lives given the regular bombings by Israel. The Zionist state has waged three wars – in 2008/09, 2012 and 2014 – against Gaza. However, in all three wars the heroic Palestinian resistance managed to successfully defend the enclave.
3. Israel’s latest escalation has been triggered by several factors. On one hand, the Netanyahu government is emboldened by its diplomatic success in striking a deal with the autocratic rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On the other hand, it gets increasingly nervous – like its allied dictators in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt – about the possible defeat of Trump at the upcoming Presidential elections in the U.S. Add to this the increasing tensions between different powers in the Middle East which make a regional war a realistic possibility. Furthermore, the Netanyahu government faces increasing pressure in domestic politics – because of the corruption scandal, the regular mass demonstrations as well as the outrage of right-wing extremist settlers about the delay of the annexations of parts of the West Bank.
4. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and its comrades in Occupied Palestine fully support the resistance of the Palestinian people against the monstrous Zionist aggression! We demand the immediate and unconditional lifting of the blockade against Gaza. In all conflicts between the resistance resp. its various factions (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, Fatah, etc.) and the Zionist state we stand for the military victory of the Palestinian camp without lending political support to its leadership.
5. We strongly denounce the recent deal between Israel and the UAE. It demonstrates once more the ultra-reactionary nature of the Arab dictatorships which are servants of the imperialist Great Powers and enemies of the oppressed peoples. This deal is part of the strategic goal of Israel – and U.S. imperialism – to create a “Holy Alliance” with the forces of the Arab Counterrevolution, in particular with Saudi-Arabia, UAE and General Sisi’s dictatorship in Egypt.
6. Israel is a terror state and has been such from its very beginning. Since the 1920s the Zionists have systematically expelled the indigenous Arab population from their homelands in Palestine resulting in the traumatic “Nakba” (“Catastrophe“) in 1948. Hence, the RCIT calls the workers and popular organizations in the Arab world and globally to protest against all forms of “normalization” with the Zionist state. We denounce all forms of collaboration of the Palestinian Authority with Israeli institutions. Likewise we call for an end of the reactionary blockade of the Egypt dictatorship against Gaza. All Arab states must cut any political, economic or diplomatic relationship with Israel.
7. We support calls for a Third Intifada. Such an Intifada needs to be based on popular committees and self-defense committees composed of Palestinian workers, poor peasants, and youth in work places, towns, and villages.
8. Just like Israel could not survive without the aid of imperialist powers and collaborationist Arab rulers, the Palestinian liberation struggle can not win if it is isolated. It can only succeed as part of the Arab Revolution and with the support of the international workers and popular movement. This is why the RCIT calls to unite the liberation struggle in Palestine with the ongoing revolutionary process in Syria against the Assad tyranny, in Iraq and Lebanon against the reactionary regimes, in Yemen against the Saudi/UAE invasion, in Libya against General Haftar, in Egypt against the military dictatorship, etc. For a single Intifada in the entire Middle East – from Baghdad and Beirut, Idlib, Tripoli, Sanaʽa, Gaza, Cairo, Algiers, Khartoum to Teheran!
9. Such an international solidarity movement with the Palestinian resistance must go beyond the Arab world. The RCIT advocates energetic boycott campaigns against the Zionist state all over the world (e.g. workers actions against shipments to and from Israel, consumer boycott against Israeli commodities, academic and cultural boycott, etc.) We also support all forms of medical, financial and military aid for the Palestinian people.
10. The RCIT fights for the right of return of all the millions of Palestinian refugees who were expelled by Zionist state. The only solution is the destruction of the Zionist state and the creation of a Free and Red Palestine, i.e. a Democratic, Palestinian, Multinational and Socialist Workers and Fallahin Republic from the River to the Sea. Such a single state in the whole of historic Palestine – which will include all Jews who accept the end of the Zionist Apartheid privileges – shall be part of a Socialist Federation of the Middle East. The RCIT call activists who share our perspectives to join us in building a World Party of Socialist Revolution!
International Bureau of the RCIT
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We refer readers also to these articles and documents:
RCIT: Israel Starts Ground Offensive: Defend Gaza! Defeat Israel’s War! Support the Palestinian Resistance! For a Workers’ and Popular International Campaign to Boycott Israel! Down with the Regimes which Collaborate with Israel! For a Free, Red Palestine! 22.7.2014, https://rcitarchive.wordpress.com/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/joint-statement-defend-gaza/
RCIT: New Wave of Israeli terror against Gaza: Support the Palestinian Resistance! Defeat the Zionist killing machine! 15.11.2012, https://rcitarchive.wordpress.com/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-gaza/
The ISL’s program 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/