May 12—As Red Flag goes to press, the United Nations is warning that the escalating conflict between Hamas and Israel could lead to all-out war. But US and British imperialist mass media are distorting reality. The real story is Israel’s escalating attack on Palestinians.
Since April, the Israeli military has been evicting families from the historically Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem. All because a US-based settler group wants their homes for more Jewish settlements, illegal under international law.
The families facing eviction mobilized supporters, especially youth, across Jerusalem and in twenty other cities. Many Palestinians drove hours to join sit-ins in Jerusalem. They organized solidarity marches throughout Israel-Palestine.
The Israeli military attacked these protests with batons, “skunk water,” and horses. On April 22, armed young men of the Israeli fascist group Lehava marched through Palestinian Jerusalem, shouting “Death to Arabs.”
Israeli forces banned Palestinians from gathering in public spaces. Jerusalem’s Old City became a daily battleground. Israeli troops attacked Palestinian protesters, injuring hundreds and killing many. The protests grew.
Then Israeli troops invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Muslims’ third-most sacred site. They attacked the Ramadan worshipers, who fought back.
Busloads of Palestinians converged on Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa in solidarity. When Israeli police blocked them, many continued on foot. Car caravans from Jerusalem came to collect them. Meanwhile, protesters shut down the major highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Then Hamas (based in Gaza) and the Israeli military began exchanging rocket fire and air strikes. About ten times as many Palestinians as Israelis have died in this lopsided conflict.
This is a fight for survival for the Palestinian masses.
Most Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem, have no allegiance to Hamas, Fatah or the Palestinian Authority. Many young protesters are new to the struggle. They are forming networks and connections in places where there have been no organized protests for decades.
It should be crystal-clear that there is zero chance of a “two-state solution” where a Jewish Israel would coexist with an independent Palestine. There is zero chance that Israel is, or will become, a “democratic Jewish state” (whatever that might be).
A Palestinian Al-Jazeera correspondent lamented that in Jerusalem there is no “Palestinian leadership that can quell anger and address local concerns.” The anger is justified, the concerns are global as well as local.
The institutionalized greed, brutality and fanaticism of fascist Israeli capitalism and its imperialist backers have left the Palestinian masses (and anti-fascist Jews) only one choice. The fight against Israeli apartheid must become a revolutionary struggle for communism. And with it, the end of all nationalisms and all borders.
We invite the emerging young Palestinian grass-roots leaders, especially, to join and build the International Communist Workers’ Party.
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