Israel & Palestine

Dear Comrades,

First I want to thank you for putting up my article. What you say in the forward about bringing the atomised individuals like myself together and transforming them into a genuine socialist opposition within Israel, is my dream, but alas we are far and few between.

The assassination of Hamas' Gaza leader Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi by Israel on Saturday, April 22, is the second such act of state terror against the leadership of the Islamist movement in less than a month. This is unlikely to weaken Hamas's popularity among the Palestinian people. Moreover, the open support of the Bush administration for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's expansionistic designs in the West Bank will make the powder keg not only in Gaza but in the entire region even more volatile

Yossi Schwartz looks at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan and why George W. Bush, and now Tony Blair, as well as many inside Israel support it. The unilateral plan is presented as a means to solve the endless crisis and bring about peace and stability in the region. But beneath the road to the implementation of the Sharon Plan there lie two big landmines - the settlers and the Palestinian masses.

Abnaa elBalad Political Activists, Mohammed Kannaneh and Majed Kannaneh, Detained for 54 Days under Inhuman Conditions in GSS Wing of Israeli Police Detention Center - District Court Refused to Grant an Immediate Remedy - Detainees on Hunger Strike

 

We have just received this appeal from the Abna elBalad movement. In spite of appealing - and going on hunger strike - the imprisoned leaders of this movement are still being held in terrible conditions.

A letter sent to the Israeli Finance Ministry, pleading for help for the poor and disabled who attend a help centre in Israel. It highlights the plight of an ever growing layer of poor in Israeli society.

Yesterday, March 29, we received this statement from the Abnaa elBalad movement in Israel. Their leaders are still in prison “awaiting trial” and have now started a hunger strike to protest at the terrible conditions they are having to suffer.

More than 20,000 people participated today in the central Land Day Demonstration - 'Yowm al Ard' in Arabic - (marching from the Palestinian village of Sakhnin to Arabeh), protesting against the land confiscations, house demolitions, the arrest of the leadership of the Islamic movement and of the Abnaa elBalad movement, the Occupation, the Apartheid wall and the assassinations of Palestinian leaders.

This morning's criminal killing of Shaikh Ahmad Yassin, leader of Hamas, in Gaza, on the partb of the Israeli military will only serve to provoke more terrorist attacks on Israel. It will make the hellish spiral of tit-for-tat suicide bombings followed by state repression even worse. The Palestinian and Israel workers will be the ones to suffer. Only the working class on boths sides can offer a way out of this nightmare.

Sharon’s proposal to “withdraw” from Gaza do not represent a step towards a solution to the conflict in the Middle East, but rather hide manoeuvres on the part of the Israeli government. It is a cynical game played out at the expense of both the Israeli and Arab masses.

The idea of a bi-national state solution has become fashionable among some circles in Israel/Palestine. Our Israel correspondent in Jerusalem explains that on the basis of capitalism, with unemployment, bad housing, low wages and discrimination, neither the two-state nor the single bi-national state proposals can work. The only solution can be found within an overall Socialist Federation of the Middle East.