US imperialism is spearheading the genocide of the Palestinians, using the Zionist regime as their battering ram
Before 1948 there was no Israel. There was Palestine. It was British imperialism that began a policy of forced immigration of Jews to Palestine, long before the Holocaust. A united mass in the Middle East posed an existential threat to the oil industry that imperialism divided up among themselves. Candidates for a homeland for Zionists was in the USA, or here in Africa or South America. It suited imperialism to use Palestine due to the militancy of the masses and the need to subdue them. 1948 marked a turning point when gangs of Zionists, armed by imperialism, set about expelling 700 000 Palestinians from their homes. After the second imperialist war was when US imperialism started to supplant British imperialism all over the world. Thus, while British imperialism initiated the Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians, it is centrally US imperialism that sustains it. Israel acts as the regional policeman, with an armed population, most of whom are militarised. US imperialism gives $3bn every year to Israel just for arms. All of imperialism subsidize Israel. Anglo American, for example, exports most of its uncut diamonds to Israel. These diamonds directly contribute an additional $1bn to the Israeli arms industry every year. Imperialism thus controls every act and decision of Israel, irrespective of it having so-called democratic institutions. The biggest refugee population in the world today are the 7 million Palestinians outside of ‘Israel’. There are about 2million Palestinians integrated as semi-citizens in Israel.
Every war that Israel has ever conducted was directed by US imperialism and supported by the other imperialisms.
Parallels with the crushing of the Paris Commune in 1871
When the workers took over Paris in 1871 German imperialism feared that its example would spread into Germany and beyond. Bismarck released the captive French army to march on Paris and supplied their own troops in support. Thus the international factors were decisive in the crushing of the first workers takeover of a city in history. When the Versailles army entered Paris they drowned it in blood and killed thousands of the Communards.
Imperialism could not allow the Palestinians to have a functioning democracy as it threatens their rule in the entire Middle East. Imperialism depends on brutal dictatorships throughout the Middle East to control the masses. That is why they placed Gaza under siege since 2007. On October 7th 2023 when resistance fighters launched attacks on 11 military bases outside Gaza and captured a lot of weapons and took many hostages, imperialism had a problem. By the 10th October US imperialism took the decision to wipe out the resistance militants AND the hostages they had in the areas outside of Gaza. The political implications were too much, namely that a ragtag group of guerilla could not only defeat the 4th largest army in the world but also conquer some areas in designated “Israel’. The mass killing of the Israeli hostages by the Israeli state is confirmed by a number of reports from the Israeli media itself. [See the reports by Max Blumenthal for example]. Such a call to kill the resistance fighters and the hostages must have been given by US imperialism, without a doubt as it is the real power in the region.
The hunting and mass killing of Palestinians and their resistance fighters in Gaza by imperialism is a coldly calculated decision by all the respective imperialist powers to teach the masses of the world a lesson, namely that armed rebellion against imperialism and its surrogates will not be tolerated. Imperialism will only stop their mass killings when they feel that they have broken the spirit of the Palestinian mass and taught the masses a severe enough lesson. However imperialism has the world working class to contend with. There are a number of workers and mass revolts breaking out across the world in response to the genocide. This is not the same as when imperialism launched its so called war of terror (in reality a war to terrorise the masses of the world). The PA (Palestinian Authority) and other puppets have been discredited. The resistance today is unifying all forces in the masses irrespective of religious belief. The indiscriminate bombing of refugee camps, of churches , of schools, is uniting the masses in a way as never before. It is clear that this is not a clash of cultures but a fight of the broad democratic forces in Palestine and around the world against genocidal maniacs that imperialism is daily shown to be.
There have been significant mass protests in the USA and elsewhere by Jews against the genocide of Palestinians- they loudly proclaim, ‘Not in my name’. Most Jews in the world do not stay in Israel and for good reason too.
Parallels with the 1st genocide in the 20th century- The genocide of the Hereros at the hands of German imperialism
The Hereros were resisting the appropriation of land and cattle by the German settlers. General Leutwein was unable to stop the resistance. This was when they brought in General Lothar van Trotha. In Mahmoud Mamdani’s book on the Rwanda genocide (When victims become killers), he quotes van Trotha:
‘ The first (Governor) wanted to negotiate for some time already and regard the Hereo nation as necessary labour material for the future development of the country. I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated, or, if this was not possible by tactical measures, have to be expelled from the country by operative means and further detailed treatment. This will be possible if the water holes from Grootfontein to Gababis are occupied. The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find small groups of the nation who have moved back westwards and destroy them gradually.’
Mamdani explains further:
‘ To begin with the army exterminated as many Herero as possible. For those who fled, all escape routes except the one southeast to the Omaheke, a waterless sandveld in the Kalahari desert, were blocked. The fleeing Herero were forcibly separated from their cattle and denied access to water holes, leaving them with but one option, to cross the desert into Botswana, in reality a march to their death. This is indeed how the majority of the Herero perished…….”no efforts , no hardships were spared in order to deprive the enemy of his last reserves of resistance; like a half dead animal he was hunted from water-hole to water-hole until he became a lethargic victim of the nature of his own country. The waterless Omaheke was to complete the work of German arms: the annihilation of the Herero people.’’
Van Trotha was chosen because of his experience in colonisation. Van Trotha again: ‘ The exercise of violence with crass terrorism and even gruesomeness was and is my policy. I destroy the African tribes with streams of blood and streams of money. Only following this cleansing can something new emerge, which will remain.’
The remaining 15 000 were placed in concentration camps. The women were turned into sex slaves and the men used as slave labour. Eugene Fischer performed experiments on them. He was later to train Josef Mengele, who performed experiments on Jews in the Nazi concentration camps. [The Israeli state have been known to experiment on Palestinian prisoners].
Mamdani points out that race branding of the Herero , the Nazi Holocaust and Rwandan genocide was the common link. We posit that the current extermination of Palestinians falls in the same category.
Mamdani points out that colonial powers greatest crime was to politicize indigeneity, firstly was a settler libel of the native. Then when the settler had taken on the guise of a native, as the current Israeli has done, is to regard the native (the Palestinian) as a foreigner, as an invader. It was imperialism that created these artificial divisions as a means to set up permanent conflict and permanent means of subjugation. The long term campaign to dehumanise the Palestinian lies as the root cause of the genocide, of how the Israeli can go about their genocidal actions without questioning its legitimacy. The Nakba in 1948 could be classed as a settler genocide while the current genocide falls in the category of a ‘native genocide’ due to millions of Israelis now feeling that they are the native and the Palestinian the ‘foreigner’. Long has imperialism used wars on the Palestinian masses as opportunities to test new weapons. Some new weapons are apparently being tested again.
The Rwandan genocide was carried out with machetes, the Holocaust with Zyklon B crystals in gas chambers. The Palestinian genocide is being carried with F15’s , F16s and 1 ton bombs on refugee camps, schools, hospitals, churches, mosques and residential buildings. In Rwanda 1 million people were killed in 100 days. The entire population had been mobilised to participate in the genocide. The political preparation had been done by imperialism and sustained post 1959 ‘independence’ by the colonial control of the media and indirect control of the public institutions of the state. They were ably supported by academics and the media on local and international scale.
In Gaza the dictates of van Thotha rear their head. The entire Israeli population, long fed on a diet of race purity and alienation of the Palestinian as alien, sub-human, has led to the majority supporting and lusting for the total extermination of the Palestinian masses. The decisive factor here is the unconditional support of US, UK, French, German and Japanese imperialism who, as in the case of the Paris Commune, have united to exterminate the Palestinian masses.
In Rwanda, imperialism imposed the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in government in 1994. By 1997 the RPF had invaded the Eastern DRC. From 1997 to 2007 more than 5 million Congolese perished in a war that cleared the land and opened the space for US imperialism in the main (and partnered with other imperialist powers) to grab the minerals of the vast riches of the country. The entire IT industry today is based on the Congolese genocide, a war on the masses that continues up until today.
The Palestinians are being punished because they dared to resist imperialism, they dared to take over a few square km. Imperialism has decided that they be taught a lesson and put down and out of historic Palestine. What remains of them will be dumped in the Sinai desert. Unless the world working class and broader masses stop them.
This is not limited to the Gaza strip but already armed gangs of settlers in the West Bank have started to attack Palestinians, under the slogan of ‘kill all the Arabs’ ( the same slogan used in 1948). This will gradually be extended to the 2 million Palestinians currently integrated in Israel as second class citizens- many have already been targeted at work.
Imperialism frets over the attacks on the masses in Ashkelon, conveniently glossing over the fact that it was once part of Gaza. This symbolises that imperialism was waiting for an opportunity to seize all of Gaza and exterminate the masses there.
On the 27th Oct 2023 when the ground invasion of Gaza began, the Institute of the Study of War started publishing live maps of areas cleared of Palestinians. Light blue areas are where all Palestinians have either been killed or driven out. It presents a daily picture of the genocide in progress. The map of 31st Oct 2023 shows a drive to cut off Gaza City to the south and a clear intention to carpet bomb everything north of Al Zahra. The Israeli flag has been raised in areas that have been ‘cleared’.
The current Israelis may be divided into 3 categories: those who are enthusiastic about the genocide; those who are reluctant participants ; those who have been coerced into participating. Lastly there are many who oppose the genocide but who are too scared to act. Very few are vocal at the moment against the genocide.
The way forward
The central point is that it is US imperialism, supported by all other imperialism that is responsible for the unfolding genocide. It is incumbent on the world working class to mobilise against the political elites in all countries, centrally in the USA and all imperialist centres. BDS is shown to be a hollow excuse, an empty phrase. [How can we ask the very ones who parasite off the continued exploitation of the masses and the extermination of the Palestinians, to act against Israel?] We need political and direct action of the masses. Every regime that refuses to act against the genocide should be regarded as complicit. The time for empty phrases is over.
The Belgian transport workers have given the lead by blocking arms shipments that come via their country. Many of the Palestine solidarity movements have started direct action of blocking railway stations and highways. Centrally, many of the movements are on a united front basis and not on a religious basis at all. This sets the platform for the unity of those across the Middle East too, to unite against the genocide and for a united secular state in historic Palestine that respects the right of people to freedom of belief as long as such belief is not exploitative nor oppressive of others. The heroic Palestinians have shown us the way. They are standing firm against the united might of world imperialism. Unity of the masses in the Middle East irrespective of religious belief; unity of the masses in the imperialist centres and colonies and semicolonies. Together we can defeat imperialism and their genocidal plans. The masses in the world are prepared to fight the imperialists. However the Socialists are divided. What is needed is to build on the growing united front mass action. The heroic Paris Commune was defeated because imperialism united while the workers of the world were divided. This is a new era. The masses are prepared to fight capitalism imperialism. We can build a new combat organisation of the working class, a new workers international. It is possible for the workers to take power in the imperialist centres and at the same time it is possible for the masses to unseat every brutal capitalist dictatorial regime, in the Middle East and across the world. We need a new workers party that unites the Socialists in struggle on a principled basis. The campaign against the genocide of the Palestinians at the hands of imperialism provides an important starting point.
Workers of the world unite, we have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a world to win. Forward to Socialism!
1 November 2023
WIVL (Workers International Vanguard League)
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