Palestine Tower in Gaza hit by an Israeli airstrike on October 7 -- still image from a video on Twitter
While the mainstream media in the west are promoting a propaganda line about the events unfolding in Palestine-Israel that is utterly one-sided and often completely lacking context, a number of left parties and organizations have issued statements that counter this.
In the United States -- centre of global imperialism and the most stalwart and important of Israel's allies -- the Party for Socialism and Liberation released a powerful statement that begins:
The unrelenting oppression, murder, torture and occupation carried out by the Israeli apartheid regime has precipitated a counter-offensive by Palestinian resistance forces. The Israeli war machine and its attendant systems of oppression are bought and paid for by U.S. imperialism. U.S. tax dollars fund the grinding oppression of the Palestinian people to the tune of $4 billion each year.
Resistance to apartheid and fascist-type oppression was labeled “terrorism” by U.S. politicians when the African National Congress took up arms against the racist, apartheid regime in South Africa. The same false “terrorism” label is being applied to the Palestinian people.
The PSL says: Resistance to apartheid and fascist-type oppression is not a crime! It is the inevitable outcome for all people who demand self-determination rather than living with the boot-heel of the oppressors on their necks.
The people of the United States are going into the streets right now to say “free Palestine!”, “cut all U.S. aid for the apartheid regime” and “free all Palestinian political prisoners!”
Full statement: PSL statement: Free Palestine, free all Palestinian political prisoners, end all U.S. aid to the Israeli apartheid regime! – Liberation News
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a press release that we have translated here:
The KKE condemns the long-term occupation of the Israeli state and the crimes it systematically commits against the Palestinian people – with the support of the US, the EU and their allies – that has led to thousands of dead Palestinians, thousands of wounded and imprisoned, ruined cities and villages, settlements in Palestinian territories.
Today's events are not a “bolt from the blue” and those who seek their causes should face the truth, which reveals that the attacks of the Israel army are escalating every day leading to dozens of dead Palestinians, including the elderly and small children. These are crimes that have recently intensified and have been repeatedly denounced by the KKE. Eventually, the aggression of the state of Israel is directed against the Israeli people themselves.
The ND [New Democracy] government and SYRIZA, which support the occupying forces with their unacceptable statements, are doubly exposed, because since 2015 they have looked the other way, refusing to recognize the Palestinian state, in accordance with the relevant, unanimous decision of the Greek Parliament.
The Palestinian people have the right to defend their rights and need greater popular support and solidarity, to continue their struggle for the end of the Israeli occupation, for an independent state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital city.
The World Federation of Trade Unions condemned the outrageous hypocrisy prevalent in the west:
– NO TO IMPERIALIST HYPOCRISY
– A JUST AND PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE
The whole world is watching with anxiety and concern the new bloodshed that is unfolding in Israel and Palestine and threatens to ignite the entire Middle East region.
For the WFTU there is no doubt that the root cause of this blood cycle is the ongoing occupation and illegal settlement of the occupied Palestinian territories by Israel and the continuous, daily crimes and the blockades of Gaza that have been committed against the Palestinian people for years. Crimes which are committed with the provocative tolerance and support that Israel receives from the big imperialist powers, that is, the USA, the European Union and the rest of their allies, and which in recent years have become even more brutal and unacceptable.
The attempt by those who over time turn a blind eye to the crimes and massacres against the Palestinian people and contribute to the maintenance of the occupation and colonization, to present Israel today as a victim of Palestinian aggression, is hypocritical and untruthful to say the least.
For the WFTU it is clear that the only way to secure and consolidate peace and security for the people in Palestine and Israel, but also in the wider Middle East, is to immediately end the Israeli occupation and settlement in the occupied Arab territories, as provided for in the UN resolutions, and to establish an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and guarantee the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
In this direction, the WFTU will continue to fight and express in all ways its solidarity with the suffering but struggling Palestinian people.