Highly dangerous development following Israel’s declaration of war – Criticism of fascist Hamas – Solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle

In unison, government politicians of the Western imperialist countries invoke the right of self-defense of Zionist Israel after the attack of the fascist Hamas from the Gaza Strip on Saturday night. First of all, it is necessary to speak about the right of self-defense of the Palestinian people against the decades of oppression, against the Zionist occupation and apartheid policy of the imperialist state of Israel! The proto-fascist Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to use the situation to suppress this criticism even more rigorously than before.

he MLPD defends Israel’s right to exist and resolutely opposes anti-Semitism. Just as resolutely, however, it opposes Israel's imperialist aggression, which has nothing to do with the right of self-determination. The anti-imperialist international solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle is especially challenged in view of the complexity of the issue.

Just a few days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu strutted around the UN General Assembly with a map that was supposed to represent the new “peaceful Middle East” after reaching an agreement with the Saudis on establishing relations. In the 1967 war, the Zionists conquered the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights and established a cruel occupation regime there with constant land theft for the construction of their settlements. The Palestinian population was locked away behind huge walls and fences in reservations (bantustans) and deprived of their rights. The Gaza Strip, measuring just 10 by 30 kilometers, became the “largest open-air prison in the world” (according to the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy) for two million people – a ghetto in which people have to eke out a miserable existence in poverty.

Israel has been increasingly intensifying its exploitation and oppression of the Palestinian masses in recent years. 2022 was the deadliest year in nearly two decades for Palestinians living under occupation. 150 Palestinians, including 33 children, were killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank alone. Shots hit them in the chest, head and eyes, or in the back, while they were often fleeing from Israeli soldiers. In Gaza, Israeli forces shot and killed another 32 Palestinians. Taken together, at least 190 Palestinians thus were killed by Israelis in 2022 (including killings by settlers). In 2023 this trend intensified in many respects. There have also been recent reports of protests by Palestinian workers who have been prevented from working in Israel by the border fence.

The MLPD clearly positioned itself in the book by Stefan Engel, Dawn of the International Socialist Revolution: “Violating international law, the Israeli regime occupies the largest part of Palestine and harasses, expropriates, displaces and kills its people. The Palestinian workers in Israel are subjected to special exploitation…. Reactionary Zionists justify the politics of the State of Israel with the racist ideology that the Jews are ‘God’s chosen people.’ … It is an internationalist, anti-imperialist obligation of the revolutionary working-class movement to oppose the aggression of the Israeli state and the Zionist terror.” (pp. 234f.)

Hundreds dead on both sides, including civilians

Israel was surprised by the attack of the Islamist-fascist Hamas on Saturday night, at least that is how most of the media portray it. This seems strange in view of the highly sophisticated military counterintelligence. At numerous points, Hamas supporters crossed the martially expanded and even mined border between the Gaza Strip and Israeli territory. Since then, the Israeli air force has continuously attacked targets in the Gaza Strip, deliberately hitting civilians as well. According to previous media reports, at least 600 people were killed in Israel, and more than 2,000 people were injured. The Hamas people who crossed the border invaded Israeli towns and kibbutzim, where they also killed civilians and abducted hostages. Israeli attacks in Gaza have now already claimed at least 256 lives and injured 1,800. The USA, as the main warmonger in the world, already publicly declared support for the Israeli military strikes.

A Hamas spokesman boasts on the BBC that the group received direct support for the attack from Iran. It seems inconceivable that this massive assault could have taken place without corresponding support, especially since Hezbollah is now also attacking Israel. The aggressive advance of neo-imperialist countries is encompassing more and more regions.

However, the Islamist-fascist Hamas and the fascist regime of new-imperialist Iran are not part of the national and social struggle for freedom of the Palestinian people. They harm it and provide Israel and the Western imperialists with a pretext to lump the just struggle of the Palestinian people together with fascists. The MLPD rejects any kind of cross-front (fascist tactics of apparent reconciliation of right and left) with Hamas, Hezbollah, not to mention the fascist regime of Iran. Hamas’ goal, which it tries to justify with anti-Semitism, is a fascist Islamic state, which cannot be a prospect for the Palestinians. With its social policy and social demagogy, however, Hamas has influence on parts of the masses. The fascist Hezbollah also sides with Hamas. The fascist Islamic Jihad is also getting involved. But the main responsibility for the escalation is borne by imperialist Israel under its ultra-right Netanyahu government with the participation of fascists.

Netanyahu declares prolonged war

The proto-fascist Israeli prime minister immediately declared war on Saturday morning. In addition to military strikes, he immediately halted the import of electricity, fuel and goods into Gaza. For the population, this means impoverishment and even death. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant extended the total blockade by cutting off the water supply. Thus, the warfare is not directed against Hamas, but 2.3 million Gaza residents, with demeaning, fascist claims that one is fighting against “human animals.” Israel now has called up 300,000 troops and is threatening a ground offensive. “We are beginning a long and difficult war,” Netanyahu said after a security cabinet meeting. The plans for this war have long been drawn up and are not a direct consequence of the Hamas attacks.

This hotbed of war can quickly develop into a conflagration and involve many countries in the Middle East, all the way to imperialist and neo-imperialist states linked with them, such as Turkey, Russia, China, the EU or the USA.

Netanyahu has declared a state of war. The anti-fascist protests, involving hundreds of thousands of Israelis for months, have created quite a predicament for the proto-fascist Israeli government. However, a major weakness of the Israeli protest movement is that it is still barely connected to the Palestinian liberation struggle and is also heavily influenced by the bourgeois parliamentary opposition. Now Netanyahu wants to use martial law to suppress these protests as well. Netanyahu plans to form a reactionary emergency government of “national unity” offered to him by the bourgeois opposition.

Completely one-sidedly, the German government positioned itself for uncompromising support of imperialist Israel. We already hear demands for the ban of the Palestinian organization samidoun, against which the MLPD resolutely protests. Already in the past, fake news made the rounds to justify such plans.

The proto-fascist AfD Berlin is already posting that it is the only consistent force against “left-wing anti-Semites”. But there is no such thing as “left-wing anti-Semitism”! The accusation of “left-wing anti-Semitism” not only protects the reactionary policies of the Israeli government, but is also a new variant of modern anticommunism. Since Karl Marx and August Bebel, all socialists have spoken out clearly against anti-Semitism. Those who are anti-Semitic are not leftists, but reactionaries!

Prospects of the liberation struggle

For the Palestinian liberation struggle and for the mass struggle against the transition to fascism in Israel, the situation is complicated. The challenge is to develop the common struggle of the workers and the masses in Israel with the Palestinian liberation struggle. For this, mutual reservations and influences of petty-bourgeois nationalism must be overcome among the working class and the masses. The MLPD sees the prospect for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples in a common democratic state, in which equality, mutual respect and trust without discrimination prevail. Ultimately and in all consequence, this can only be a socialist state. A transitional stage could consist in a two-state solution, which can also only be won in the struggle against imperialism, racism, anti-Semitism, Zionism and anticommunism.

The Palestinian liberation struggle has its strongest allies in the international working class and the masses of all countries, in proletarian internationalism. But those who have the wrong friends quickly lose the right ones. The revolutionary world organization ICOR has repeatedly called, and is currently again calling worldwide, for a movement of solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle on an antifascist basis.

MLPD – Basic Position on the Palestinian Liberation Struggle