For a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel
40 years of repression, death & destruction - End the Occupation!

Socialist Party leaflet (distributed on the 9th June 2007 "40 Years of Occupation" demonstration in Dublin) - Available as PDF here

In June 1967 the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) rolled into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank opening one of the most violent and repressive chapters of history since the Second World War. Since then the Palestinian people have known only repression, death and destruction.

Thousands have died and more than 4 million have been forced to flee their homes. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the initial invasion and occupation, but the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own are as far off as ever before. The socalled international community have been incapable of realising the aspirations of the Palestinian people. Instead, they have, at best been impotent to Israel’s military assaults (as in the case of the UN - Israel has breached over 66 UN resolutions) and at worst financed and armed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) as in the case of the US.

All the so-called international peace agreements such as the Oslo Accord and George Bush’s "Road Map for Peace", have failed. Today the situation facing the Palestinian people is as bleak as ever. After the election victory of Hamas in January 2006, the UN, US, EU and Russia imposed a financial blockade on the Palestinian Authority resulting in further impoverishment of the Palestinians. According to the World Bank, 67% of them live below the poverty line. The Israel/Lebanon war last year was used as another pretext for further incursions into the Palestinian territories alongside thousands of missile strikes further crippling infrastructure and vital services.

The last 40 years has been a gruesome tapestry of misery, oppression and betrayal. From all this it is clear there can be no peace, no solution on the basis of imperialism and capitalism which is only interested in protecting its profits and interests in the Middle East. US imperialism supports Israel to the hilt and uses it as a "stable" base for its interests in the Middle East. Capitalism cannot deliver a viable state for the Palestinians that would begin to tackle the poverty and misery that is daily life for millions of Palestinians, let alone deal with the future of Jerusalem or the refugees in the Palestinian diaspora.

Fatah & Hamas - no alternative

The Palestinian groups such as Fatah and Hamas have been shown to be incapable of addressing the brutal exploitation of the Palestinian masses or defending them against IDF attacks. Fatah was thrown out of office because of its corruption, nepotism and inability to resist Israeli aggression. Hamas have also proved incapable of waging an effective fight against the grinding poverty faced by the masses. When Palestinian workers went on strike late last year, angered at non-payment of wages for six months, Hamas attacked the strikers.
These groups are not prepared to challenge the capitalist profit system which forms the basis of Israeli and US actions.

The Socialist Party fully supports the right of the Palestinian people to an independent and sovereign state of their own. We also support the right of the Palestinian people to take up arms and defend themselves from IDF aggression. However, we believe real independence can only be achieved by a mass democratic struggle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and to link up with the Israeli working class to overthrow capitalism in the region.

Israeli Working Class

For working class Israelis, capitalism means permanent insecurity and declining living standards (1.3 million Israelis live below the poverty line). The last number of years have seen vicious attacks on living standards, workers’ wages and conditions as the Israeli ruling class move to increase their profits. Those who argue that all Israelis are reactionary and responsible for the oppression of the Palestinian people are wrong. Two thirds of Israelis support the removal of the Jewish settlements from the occupied territories and the creation of a Palestinian state. There are also a growing number of young Israelis who are refusing to serve in the military in the occupied territories the "refusniks".

Suicide Attacks

Indiscriminate suicide attacks do not further the goal of an independent Palestine. Instead they alienate Israeli workers and drive them into the arms of reactionaries like Sharon and Olmert who in turn use these attacks to justify even more brutal reprisals and to attack democratic rights. Instead the Socialist Party and our sister party in Israel/Palestine Ma’vaak Sozialisti, call for a mass movement to resist the occupation that is democratically controlled and answerable to the Palestinian working class themselves. This movement should make connections with Israeli workers and support their struggles against Olmert’s capitalist government. The Israeli working class must also support and recognise the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state. In this way, Israeli workers can be broken from the Israeli ruling class and the corrupt Palestinian Authority can be undermined.

A Socialist solution

To achieve a poverty free Palestinian state on the basis of capitalism is impossible. Likewise, even in Israel capitalism is unable to provide decent living conditions for the majority of the Jewish and the Israeli Palestinian people. The solution to the plight of the Palestinian people is to make a common cause with the working class of Israel in the struggle for socialism.

Socialist Party stands for:

- The immediate withdrawal of the Israeli army from all areas of the Occupied Territories – the Gaza and the West Bank.

- For a mass struggle of the Palestinians under their democratic control to fight for genuine national and social liberation.

- For the establishment of popular, grass-roots committees, that will provide the basis for a genuine workers leadership. The right of these committees to be armed for the purposes of defence organised under the democratic control of the masses.

- A struggle of Palestinian workers and youth (in Gaza and the West Bank) against their double political and economic oppression by Israeli and Palestinian capitalism, and for raising their standards of living.

- An end to the use of Israeli soldiers as cannon fodder by the Israeli ruling class and army generals. For the right of all conscript soldiers and reservists to refuse to serve in the territories.

- For a struggle by Israeli Palestinians against institutionalised racism and their treatment as second-class citizens.

- For an end to mass unemployment and poverty. For a massive increase in public spending in Israeli Palestinian towns and villages in infrastructure, job creation, health, housing and education and for the writing off of all local council debts.

- For a struggle of the Israeli working class - both Jewish and Palestinian - to overthrow capitalism. For a socialist Palestine alongside a socialist Israel as part of a voluntary socialist confederation of the Middle East with guaranteed democratic rights for all national minorities.