All out for Palestine - Join Land Day actions this weekend

The first week of Israel’s latest attack on Gaza has already killed more than 800 people—including 270 children. They have attacked 2 hospitals, killed 2 journalists—Hossam Shabat and Mohammad Mansour—and displaced more than 140,000 people.

 

This builds on the already horrific death toll of more than 60,000 killed in the last 17 months according to the Gaza health ministry. And Benjamin Netanyahu says the attacks will only increase. 

 

At the same time they have renewed assaults on the West bank and have expanded bombing in Lebanon in direct violation of the ceasefire agreement signed 4 months ago. They have also pushed further into Syria, attacking towns in Deraa province. The US military has also joined the Israelis in a renewed campaign of widespread bombings in Yemen.

 

All of this is occurring in a context of an already worsening humanitarian crisis where 98 percent of the population in Gaza is suffering from hunger after a weeks-long blockade of food, medicine, water and shelter by Israel—which is also a violation of the ceasefire agreement.  

 

As Palestinian poet, Refaat Alareer killed by the Israelis last year said ‘What usually happens in occupied Palestine is that Palestinians cease, and Israel fires’

 

Genocide

 

It is a genocide driven by US imperialism. The US is only concerned with maintaining power and profit and its spot on top of the global power structure. Israel remains the US government’s most important strategic asset and it will be able to act with impunity while it enjoys such backing.  

 

The mainstream press will, of course, blame the Palestinians for breaking the ceasefire even though it was the Israelis who reneged on the originally negotiated agreement and introduced new parameters that could not be agreed to by Hamas or any other resistance faction. 

 

The agreement was always precarious. Benjamin Netanyahu maintains power through his coalition of far-right settler parties that opposed the ceasefire agreement from the beginning. He needed their blessing to pass a new budget bill to avoid being toppled in a Knesset vote. 

 

While there is an uprising in Israel against this escalation and an increasing anger at the right-wing turn of the government, these forces do not represent a path to liberation for Palestinians. Rather they advance a kinder and gentler form of zionism that has coalesced around the movement of families of hostages who are opposed to Netanyahu’s policies.

 

But Netanyahu is feeling confident to pursue this new round of killing because of the public support from Donald Trump.

 

Trump’s call to empty Gaza of Palestinians to create some sort of new Mediterranean playground for the rich is both ridiculous and potentially deadly. It has emboldened zionists that have been driving towards full removal, displacement or murder of all Palestinians within the state. 

 

Resistance

 

But the global movement for Palestine hit the streets in numbers almost immediately after the bombings restarted. Tens of thousands hit the streets in Canada and around the world. 

 

These mass movements that have been on the streets for 17 months have shifted public opinion against Israel. 

 

Israeli supporters have been fearful that the movement can continue this process and so they, and their willing supporters in government, have ramped up repression of Palestinian solidarity activists, most prominently with the arrest and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia university. He is unfortunately not the only one, but this campaign of racist attacks against free speech is being challenged and fought. 

 

Beyond the arrests, zionist supporters are trying to shut down anyone challenging the genocide. In Toronto, a new proposed by-law is seeking to restrict where the movement can organize and assemble. The law will create so-called bubble zones where people will be refused the ability to gather. This is a direct attack on the Palestine movement making it virtually impossible to march through city streets. 

 

Many Palestine solidarity groups are opposing the new rule and the city has opened up a consultationprocess. We should all flood the city’s online portal to try and shut this down before it restricts our rights further. 

 

And we must keep the pressure on the Canadian government for an arms embargoagainst Israel. We have limited levers within the Canadian state to affect this conflict but what we can stop is our governments support for Israel and we can stop Canadian weapons companies from further supporting the genocide. 

 

In the context of a federal election, there will be opportunities to challenge candidates about their support for Israel. The new Vote Palestinecampaign has lots of resources that can help you get organized and involved. 

 

Also, there will be mass demonstrations for Palestine across the globe this week to commemorate Palestinian Land Day. To find your local action check out the Palestinian Youth Movementpage for details.  

 

We all need to do what we can to build the demonstrations and to work to broaden the opposition to Israel in schools, community groups, workplaces and unions. 

 

This fight is far from over. No rest until we win freedom for Palestine.