Stop the Genocide of the Palestinian People!; Stop Arming Israel

IN THIS SPECIAL PALESTINE ISSUE

• Stop the Genocide of the Palestinian People!; Stop Arming Israel – by the Editors

• House’s Ukraine, Israel Aid Package Gains Biden’s Support

• PGFTU-Gaza Calls for United Mass Actions on May Day – excerpts from statement posted at laborforpalestine.net

• “It’s Impossible to Quantify the Suffering in Gaza” – by Israeli journalist Amira Hass

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Stop the Genocide of the Palestinian People! Stop Arming Israel!

After Iranian missiles were fired at Israel on the night of April 13-14, President Biden affirmed that his administration “unconditionally supports” Netanyahu in Israel’s unfolding war against Iran. His rationale? It was the Iranians who attacked Israel.

Yet the facts compel us to state that, for the past six months, it is Netanyahu who has been multiplying armed provocations against Iran and its allies. The latest of these was the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 16 people, including senior Iranian military officials.

This bombing of a diplomatic representation was not condemned by Biden and his international cronies. All are more than willing to invoke “international law” … but only when it suits them.

The aim of Netanyahu’s provocations against Iran is well known. It is twofold. On the one hand, to tip the region into a full-scale war, forcing the United States to go even further than its “unconditional support” by openly going to war alongside Israel. On the other, to save Netanyahu’s skin, who is guilty of genocide and threatened with imprisonment for corruption.

It is Israel with its genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza — bankrolled by Biden and the U.S. Congress — that is fully responsible for the current war escalation.

As Israeli journalist Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz:

“If a war with Iran were to be launched this week, or if Iran were to launch a serious attack against Israel, the responsibility would lie with those who approved the assassinations in Damascus” (April 14).

Socialist Organizer affirms that all organizations and individuals in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and the struggle of peoples throughout the Middle East must break with Biden and the twin parties of war and exploitation. They must condemn Biden’s policies, raise the banner to demand “Stop Arming Israel”, and prepare massive labor and community antiwar actions on May 1, International Workers’ Day.

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Update from the Associated Press: House’s Ukraine, Israel Aid Package Gains Biden’s Support

[Note: The following article in the Associated Press is yet another proof that both the Democrats and Republicans are the parties of war, the military-industrial complex, and imperialism. A complete report on the U.S.-backed war buildup in Ukraine will be published in our next issue of The Organizer – The Editors]

WASHINGTON, April 17 — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he strongly supports a proposal from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending crucial bipartisan support to the effort this week to approve $95 billion in funding for the U.S. allies.

Shortly after Johnson released the funding proposals, Democrat Biden offered his emphatic support for the package.

“The House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,” the Democratic president said. “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends, and we won’t let Iran or Russia succeed.”

The votes on the package, Johnson said, are expected Saturday evening [April 20], … if Johnson is able to secure the votes of key Republican members of Congress.

Johnson’s proposal calls for about $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, and $8 billion to allies in the Indo-Pacific.

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PGFTU-Gaza Calls for United Mass Actions on May Day Across the U.S.; Call Relayed by Labor for Palestine

(Full statement is posted at laborforpalestine.net)

On March 23, 2024, “in the midst of pain and blood, in the displacement camps, amidst the rubble, and the ruins of our homes, workshops, factories, stores, and institutions destroyed by the ‘Israeli’ occupation, using U.S.-made weapons,” the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions-Gaza (PGFTU-Gaza) sent U.S. workers, unions, and other labor organizations an urgent May Day appeal.

The PGFTU-Gaza’s appeal salutes “some exceptional examples of unions, clearly demonstrated in leading protests denouncing the Zionist war of genocide being waged on the Gaza Strip.”

However, it also decries the “shocking silence and neglect by the international labor movement,” citing those who have “retreated to verbal positions without taking measures on the ground or pressuring the decision-makers to stop this war of extermination, limiting union activities to conferences and statements …”

In response to the PGFTU-Gaza May Day appeal, and the Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions: End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel (October 16, 2023), the Labor for Palestine National Network reaffirms that labor must go beyond words and escalate pressure to stop the genocide in Gaza.” Examples of action include:

• Demanding an immediate end to the siege on Gaza and to all U.S. military aid for Israel;

• Following the examples of Block the Boat, ILWU West Coast dockers, and workers around the world who refuse to build or transport weapons destined for Israel; and …

• Withholding our labor and rallying with a labor contingent for Palestine or amplifying demands within your local May Day contingent to stop this genocide.

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“It’s Impossible to Quantify the Suffering in Gaza” 

By Israeli journalist Amira Hass

Israeli journalist Amira Hass writes in Haaretz (April 10):

Due to the limits of the human imagination (as opposed to the imagination of warmongers and arms manufacturers), and in the absence of any other dictionary at all, there is no real way to describe the destruction and losses suffered in Gaza after six months of war.

In theory, it would suffice to view the hundreds, if not thousands, of videos showing trembling children – unable to control their shaking – after Israeli bombardments: in hospitals, in the street, some of them sobbing, others unable to utter a word. They are covered in dust and blood. It’s a detail that’s enough to describe the disaster. …

According to UNICEF, at the end of January, 17,000 children were “wandering” in the Gaza Strip unaccompanied by an adult. Their parents had been killed; they could not be pulled out of the ruins. Or the children got lost during the mass displacement to the south.

And that’s not counting the 14,000 children (out of a total of around 33,000 recorded dead) who have so far been killed by Israeli bombardments. Added to this are thousands of children who have lost limbs, suffer burns, walk around with wounds that have become infected in the absence of bandages and medication, and will suffer from post-traumatic disorders for the rest of their lives. What does the future hold for them?

It’s impossible to quantify the suffering. …

Here’s another figure: “Palestinians in Gaza now represent 80% of all people facing famine or severe hunger in the world”, according to the joint interim report – published last week – of the World Bank (WB), the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN).

At the end of January 2024, material destruction in the Gaza Strip was estimated at around $18.5 billion. That’s the cost of 50 fighter jets that the Biden administration wants to sell to Israel, subject to Congressional approval, as reported by CNN.

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