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
Mar 3, 2025
The following is excerpted and translated from the January 29 issue, #2948 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.
After the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel’s war waged on the Palestinians in the West Bank has escalated.
As soon as the truce was signed on January 19, far-right Israeli settlers multiplied their attacks against Palestinian villages in the north of the territory and became increasingly violent.
These armed gangs exercised terror to drive out the villagers; they have been reinforced by the exactions of the Israeli army itself. Bombings and drone attacks are now systematically accompanied by ground operations, using tanks and bulldozers. The war in the West Bank is being intensified by the “Iron Wall,” the name given by Netanyahu to the warlike attack launched on January 22.
A large proportion of the 18,000 inhabitants of the refugee camp near Jenin, home since 1948 to families driven off their land, have fled the camp. It is now almost uninhabitable, according to an UNRWA official.
While it continues in Jenin, Netanyahu’s military operation extends to other areas, in Tulkarm, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem and Dura. The Israeli state thus gives support to the far right, whether or not it is still officially in government. The pretext is to “eradicate terrorist groups” and in fact consists of murdering Palestinian fighters and, beyond that, attempting to terrorize the entire population to the utmost. Since October 7, 2023, attacks by Israeli soldiers or settler groups have killed 853 West Bank Palestinians.
The attackers can only feel strengthened by a bill recently passed by the Knesset’s Law Committee which could facilitate the purchase of real estate and land in the West Bank by Jewish settlers. Settler activists have stepped up their attacks and sniper fire, stealing livestock and poisoning wells, destroying fruit trees and crops, homes, roads and infrastructure.
Actively aided on the spot by Israeli soldiers, these extreme right-wing militants are encouraged not only by Netanyahu’s government, but also by the major powers, who continue to support them politically and financially when necessary. As soon as he was sworn in, Trump showed this by announcing the lifting of sanctions that Biden had levied on violent settlers.
Yet, in the face of this imperialist war machine, the Palestinian population, in Gaza as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, continues to give the lie to the odious declaration of Trump’s newly-appointed American ambassador, who presumptuously advanced a few years ago: “Palestinian, there’s no such thing!”