End the massacre in Gaza!

More than 1.5 million people live in the ‘open air prison camp’ that is Gaza. For the last sixteen months the blockade of the Israeli regime has intensified the nightmare - a majority of the population are unemployed and suffering from malnutrition. Now the ‘prison guards’ are bombing the prison - resulting in the deaths of many hundreds of Palestinians, including children.
By Socialist Party reporters

As a UN human rights monitor put it: “Israel is committing a shocking series of atrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenceless population - attacking a population that has been enduring a severe blockade for many months.”

Reactionary role of imperialism

The population of Gaza are enduring a living hell, and the terrible prospect of a wider Middle East war is posed, and yet the Western imperialist powers have refused to force the Israeli government to halt the carnage. They have, of course, used similar brutality in their occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House has even blamed Hamas for the attacks and condemned the Hamas rocket fire into Israeli cities but, as with the Lebanon two years ago, is silent on the Israeli bombardment. .

It is true that the western powers have called for a ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ or ‘pause’ in the bombing. However, Israel, which seems to have now rejected this, was willing to consider a temporary ceasefire merely because its timing suited their military purposes - as Israeli troops mass on the border for a possible ground invasion.

At best, the western imperialist powers describe the slaughter by the Israeli army as ‘excessive’ and ‘disproportionate’. ‘Disproportionate’ is a sickening understatement. Since the start of the bombing the number of Palestinian deaths outnumber Israeli deaths 100:1.

The Israeli ruling class do not care about the working class inhabitants of the towns bordering Gaza, but uses their plight to justify this vicious bombing campaign, which in reality is taking place for very different reasons. Facing elections in a few weeks, the government feels humiliated by the war on Lebanon in 2006, and is beset by failure and scandal. Now they are trying to save themselves from defeat in next month’s elections, by means of a wholesale slaughter of Palestinians. The Israeli government deliberately broke the ceasefire, with the killing of 6 Hamas militants in November, in order to provoke this war.

We call for -
* For an immediate end to Israeli attacks. For and immediate end to the siege.
* For escalation of demonstrations against the war, in the Middle East and internationally
* No trust in the world powers and the United Nations. The Palestinian masses must trust their own struggle.
* Organise the mass of Palestinians in self-defence. Mass action to destroy the borders that imprison Gaza. Break the Rafah border through mass demos on both sides by Palestinians and Egyptian workers.
* Build independent workers’ organisations throughout the Middle East that can both defend working people and the poor and lead the fight against oppression, capitalism and imperialism.
* For the overthrow of all the capitalist regimes in the Arab states and in Israel.
* For a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel, with agreed and open borders that reflect the wishes of local people, as part of a voluntary socialist federation of the Middle East.

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