On the morning of the 22 January thousands of Palestinians in Gaza assembled at the border with Egypt. They demanded to be let through in an attempt to bring relief to the imprisoned population.
Since Hamas won the elections in 2006, the Israeli state backed by the Bush regime have imposed a blockade on the people of Gaza – to inflict a collective punishment on the Palestinians who "dared" vote for Islamic fundamentalists.
Virtually all movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza has been prevented causing massive suffering. On top of this the Palestinians have had to endure relentless Israeli military attacks. In January alone, 45 Palestinian Gazans were killed by Israeli tanks and helicopters. When Israel stopped humanitarian aid and fuel supplies - plunging Gaza into darkness – an unbearable situation became a disaster, leaving people with no choice but to try to break the blockade.
Hamas engineers destroyed the border fence with Egypt and thousands of Palestinians poured through the breach forcing the Egyptian police to stand aside. Within days roughly 350,000 Palestinians - or more than 20 percent of Gaza's population of about 1.5 million- walked, drove or rode on donkey carts into Egypt. Five days later this figure had risen to 750,000, desperate to buy food and supplies and to see loved ones from whom they had been separated from for decades.
Egypt is seen as a key ally of the US in the region, and alarmed that the situation was getting "out of control", the US government moved to put pressure on Egypt to force it to get it’s house in order! The US undersecretary of state, Nicholas Burns called Mubarak and demanded that the border be re-sealed. Congress threatened to withdraw $100million in aid to Egypt if the border wasn't closed.
Egyptian riot police attempted to re-gain control of the border but were met with a hail of stones as militants bulldozed another section of the border fence. The Egyptian government has been forced to break the Israeli/US boycott and enter into negotiations with Hamas. The pressure of the situation has even forced the Israeli government to allow a limited supply of aid and fuel into Gaza.
The breaching of the border has only temporarily eased the suffering of Palestinian Gazans. The underlying conditions remain the same and none of the establishment forces in the region are capable of solving their plight. The Israeli ruling class as the force of occupation cannot and are unwilling to support the aspirations of the Palestinians for an independent state. Instead they have supported nothing more than the Palestinians being allowed to decide which set of guards will govern over them in their "independent" prison camp!
Likewise, no illusions should be sown in the US as an honest broker as they have demonstrated time and again that their main priority is backing the interests of the Israeli ruling class as their client state in the region.
Unfortunately for the Palestinian masses, both Fatah and now Hamas have failed to deliver any real change and in power have presided over their further impoverishment and subjucation.
Recent events on the Egyptian border have given us a glimpse of what can be achieved through mass action.
It will only be when the Palestinian masses, the Egyptian working class and similarly the Israeli working class take the future into their own hands and build the forces of socialism, that decent living conditions and a permanent end to the bloodshed will be achieved. Only on the basis of a socialist confederation of the Middle East will the present capitalist-upheld borders be in the hands of ordinary people.
