Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 07.03.2024
While Israel still receives institutional backing from American imperialism, the sympathy of the American people is disappearing, and eventually this will also change in the corridors of Congress and the White House. We saw it in South Africa during the apartheid regime
On November 15, 2023, a little over a month after the outbreak of the war on Gaza, the Reuters website published a survey on American support for Israel’s war on the people of Gaza. Only 31% of the respondents supported sending weapons to Israel, and only 32% answered that the US should support Israel (a month ago, the rate of support for Israel was 41%). 39% claimed that the US should act as a “neutral mediator”, and 15% claimed that the US should not be involved. In terms of the political distribution: about three-quarters of the Democrats and half of the Republicans who participated in the survey supported a ceasefire.
The same is true in Australia. Dr. Moshe Farchi was scheduled to speak at the Gold Coast Frontline Mental Health Conference at the JW Marriott. AST Management, the company organizing the event on behalf of the Australia New Zealand Mental Health Association (ANZMHA), said that starting Friday and continuing throughout the weekend, it had received a “high volume of online abuse and telephone calls” from activists against Farchi’s attendance.
“Our security experts advised us that, based on the volume and nature of the abuse, there was insufficient time to conduct a thorough risk assessment at the hotel to ensure the safety of the 280-plus conference attendees,” AST general manager Samantha Collingridge said in a statement. “As the conference organizers our priority is the safety of all participants, including Dr. Farchi. We have a legal duty of care to provide a safe and secure conference. Based on this duty of care, and in the interests of safety only, we decided to cancel Dr. Farchi’s registration.” [1]
The same is true in England. George Galloway, a former leader of the SWP was elected in the northern town of Rochdale after an election campaign that underscored how the crisis in the Middle East is affecting British politics.
“In subsequent interviews, Galloway refused to say whether he believed that Israel had a right to exist. Chris Williamson, the deputy leader of the SWP who was suspended from the Labor Party in 2019 for alleged antisemitism, reacted to the win by telling a broadcaster that Israel was “killing more children every day than actually were being killed in Auschwitz” [2]
Feeling the pressure and the animosity of the delegations to the UN, and the growing crisis of the Israeli government, Israel has called back its ambassador to the UN. The Zionist Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Monday “that he will exceptionally return Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan to Israel following the fact that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres did not respond to the report of sexual violence by Hamas terrorists on October 7. A few hours later it became clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu had been informed by Minister Katz of the unusual step.
The recall of an Israeli ambassador from the UN headquarters in New York is no small thing. In fact, I do not recall a precedent of returning an ambassador serving at the UN even in much more difficult situations, such as the adoption of the resolution at the UN in 1975 according to which “Zionism is racism”. But as mentioned, even though this is a particularly unusual step, Minister Katz preferred not to share the secret of affairs with Netanyahu” [3]
Down with the Zionist apartheid from the river to the sea!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-790185
[2] Ibid
[3] https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/politics/article/15367255