Class Struggle Anarchist Statement on Gaza

international | imperialism / war | opinion / analysis Friday January 16, 2009 14:20 by W.S.A. - Workers Solidarity Alliance wsany at hotmail dot com

Workers Solidarity Alliance statement on situation in Gaza

Workers Solidarity Alliance statement on situation in Gaza

Gaza is in flames. Its population terrorized by the incessant bombing of Israeli warplanes against its public and residential districts and even its schools (3). Countless of the Gaza Strip's mostly impoverished residents are dead, many of these children, women and the elderly. Many more Palestinians have lost loved ones, have maimed, both physically and psychologically, and all are living without access to basic necessities, water, food, medical care, etc. All of this as the consequence of the largest military assault (codename: "Operation Cast Lead") waged by Israeli armed forces since 1967 War against the Gaza Strip and its approximately 1.5 million residents.

The leaders of the Israel and the Western nations, of whom the United States is the largest and most vocally supportive, erroneously claim that it is the Palestinians who are the aggressors in this conflict, this despite the fact that for more then half a century the state of Israel, and its Western-equipped military, has steadily squeezed the Palestinian population into smaller and smaller enclaves. Within these enclaves Palestinians are forced to live surrounded by fortified concrete barriers under the occupation of heavily-armed Israeli troops.

It has been stated that Israel is but responding to the rocket attacks on Israeli cities by Hamas, that these rocket attacks legitimize what amounts to the collective punishment of Gaza and the murder of Palestinian civilians on the part of the Israeli state. To which we respond that one must consider not only the foregone conclusion that the Israeli state has treated the basic humanity of the Palestinian population with a near total disregard for over 60 years, but also that within days of the initial assault by Israeli forces the death toll among the Palestinian population climbed well into the hundreds, in fact, as noted by Aljazeera news (2), approximately 350 Palestinian lives as of December 30th, 2008, a figure that has climbed significantly after more than ten days of near constant bombardment by Israeli forces against a region with a population density of over 10 thousand inhabitants per sq MI. While on the other hand, over the past 8 years the number of Israelis killed due to Hamas rocket attacks has been recorded as being 28 as of January, 4th 2009.(1)

Considering the vast discrepancy in casualties between the relatively small number of Israeli citizens killed over a period of eight years by Hamas rockets, and the huge number of Palestinians killed in less than a week, it is difficult to see how anyone could consider the latest Israeli military response as being anything even approximating a proportional response.

Yes, this is a very disproportioned struggle, with the Palestinian population of Gaza suffering the greatest misery and outrages by far. But from accounts given by the capitalist controlled media in the West, including that of the United States, one could scarcely be aware of this vast discrepancy. One might in fact be misled into supporting the notion that the Israelis are the main victims of the latest conflict when the statistical data and the history behind the conflict betray any such notion.

Through word and deed, not only the U.S. media establishment, but also U.S. statesmen have taken the stance that the lives of impoverished Palestinians is a virtual non-consideration when it comes to supporting the expansionist policies of its most valuable geopolitical ally in the region, the Israeli state. Thus the Israeli state is used as pro-western bulwark for the expansion of U.S. hegemony in the oil rich lands of the Middle East. The so-called "War on terror" serves as useful pretext for continuing support of the Israeli state and other pro-western Middle Eastern governments. Thus the United States Government will be giving an unprecedented $30 billion in military aid to Israel between the years 2008 and 2017.

Jumping aboard, right beside U.S. leaders in both media and politics, in aiding and supporting the aggression of the Israeli state has been the U.S.-based arms dealers who have consistently supplied the Israeli armed forces with some of the most modern and destructive high-tech weaponry in existence. For example, the Chicago-based Boeing corporation has recently delivered a hundreds of the most modern and deadly jet aircraft and assault helicopters, bunker busting munitions and sophisticated rocket systems to Israeli armed forces. At one point during the Israeli offensive against Gaza, shares in Boeing were reported to have climbed 1.6% within 24 hours!(4) Thus even as Gaza smolders and its civilian population lives in constant terror of aerial bombardment, U.S. arms dealers make fortunes.

Not only the United States but also the nations of Europe have supplied Israel with sophisticated armament. As the statement by the Italian Federation of Anarchist-Communists (FdCA) "The Gaza slaughter: Europe's hand is bloodied too"(5) notes, a variety of modern weaponry supplied to Israel by European arms dealers is currently being used by Israeli troops in Gaza. As with the United States, the various nations of Europe hope to influence this global imperialistic struggle in a direction favorable to their own Geopolitical interests. This in the hopes of gaining some control of the regions valuable marketable resources, namely petroleum and natural gas, both for the economic benefit of their own capitalist class and to enhance the hegemony of their own nation-state within the international sphere.

Geopolitical and economic profits aside, seemingly the only other possible reasons for such duality of opinion when it comes to a greater outrage for the lost lives of a few dozen Israelis over that of the lost lives of many hundreds of Palestinians must be attributed to either a virulent racism, nationalistic and ethnic chauvinism, or, as in the case of certain right-wing Christian fundamentalists in the U.S., religious dogmatism of a type befitting the religious traditions of the Middle Ages. These Fundamentalists, hoping that Armageddon is right around the corner, believe that the necessary prerequisite of such is the existence of a Zionist state.

For all sincere class-struggle anarchists, the death or suffering of any member of the working class, of whatever nationality or ethnicity, is a cause for great and equal concern. Unlike the politicians, the capitalists, the armed forces, and the religious hierarchy that play some role in upholding the global system of viciously competing nation-states, there is no acceptable idea of national or religious exceptionalism, chauvinism, or competition for land and other vital resources among class-struggle anarchists. We are internationalists in the fullest sense of the word. We recognize that all of humanity has the same basic biological needs and that the earth is the natural habitat which we share in common. We recognize the reality of the class war that the economic and political elite are constantly waging against the world's working masses as means to serve their own narrow aspirations. We recognize the primacy of the struggle between the ruling class and the working class of every land, that an understanding of the nature of this struggle, and its successful persecution by the world's working-class, is vital to securing the liberation, freedom, and well-being of all humanity.

One point that must be made clear is that class-struggle anarchists do not support any form of antisemitism. Instead, what we are opposed to is the displacement of one population from their homelands in order to make room for another population, a form of displacement that has long been the hallmark of Israeli settler expansion in Palestine. We oppose all forms of settler colonialism, be it that perpetrated by the Israeli state, or that perpetrated by others.

Instead of settler colonialism, instead of global system of nation-states, in which the hateful sentiments of chauvinism, racism, and religious bigotry are constantly aroused among the working-class, this in order to get them to support whatever atrocity the leaders deem vital to national interests, what we class-struggle anarchists aspire to instead is the creation of an international federation of self-managed working class organizations and autonomous communities that transcends all national borders and all walls of separation.

If you agree with this statement, we encourage you to sign on.

Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA)
wsany@hotmail.com.
http://www.workersolidarity.org.

1.Lunch Exposes pro-Zionist Media Lies over Israeli Atrocities
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/27683&Itemid=1

2. In the US, Gaza is a different war
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/war_ ... 04690.html

3. Israel kills dozens at Gaza school
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middl ... 08851.html

4. Bristol To Gaza
http://raytheonout.wordpress.com/2008/1 ... l-to-gaza/

5. The Gaza slaughter: Europe's hand is bloodied too
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11133