the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Oct 16, 2023
The mainstream media and politicians portray Israel’s bombings and invasion of Gaza as an understandable response to the horrific terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Israeli civilians. But these ignore the horrific daily situation of the Palestinians, enforced by the Israeli state.
Over two million Palestinians live crammed into the Gaza Strip, an area about the size of Detroit, walled in between the sea and Israel’s border by a high-security fence with surveillance towers.
More than half the inhabitants of Gaza live below the poverty line. Unemployment is over 50%. Water and electricity can be turned off by Israel. Health care and schools are in short supply. Farmers and fishermen have been deprived of their means of subsistence by the blockade, and only 17,000 inhabitants have obtained a work permit in Israel, which imposes painful and humiliating hours of waiting every day to pass through checkpoints.
The situation of the Gazans, like that of other Palestinians, has given rise to many revolts. The only perspective offered to these revolts, a nationalism aimed at creating a Palestinian state, has proved to be a dead end.
The failure of nationalism and the ongoing repression by the Israeli state has created the breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalists like Hamas. It won local Gaza elections after the Israeli state, under the tutelage of the U.S., accepted supposed “self-rule” by the Palestinians as a way to control the population. Afterwards, Israel removed its troops from Gaza and, along with Egypt, imposed a total land, air and sea blockade. And as that blockade has continued year after year, the population has grown more desperate.
Israelis are also the victims of failed nationalism—but it is the nationalism of the oppressor. So in the end, both Israelis and Palestinians find themselves trapped in the dead end of imperialism’s nationalist, divide-and-conquer strategies.