Confronting Zionism and US Imperialism here ♦ Communism: Basis for Real Unity here ♦
ABOVE: March 3, 2025, Tel Aviv—Jews and Arabs denounce the siege of Gaza imposed by the Zionist government, cutting off the food and electricity.
BELOW: March 1, 2025, Rafah, Gaza—Volunteers organize a collective Iftar dinner among the rubble with 5000 people to break the fast on the first day of Ramadan.
Confronting Zionism and US Imperialism
These images emphasize unity, collectivity, and courage in the face of an ongoing genocide. The fascist Zionist government, backed as always by the US rulers, has refused to move forward with the negotiated second stage of the ceasefire. Instead, it has used armed tractors, the last gift of the Biden administration, to attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. At least 40,000 people have been displaced so far this year in Israel’s “Operation Iron Wall.”
The second Trump presidency is further evidence of the decline of the US as an imperialist power. Trump’s policies are accelerating that decline.
Biden’s funding of the Israeli genocide in Gaza made the US a pariah state alongside its Zionist client. The policies of the current administration have taken that decline to a new low.
The US is increasingly isolated. Only Israel supports the Trump real estate video fantasy of a Palestinian-free “Gaza Riviera.” In contrast, a plan proposed by Egypt is backed by the Arab League, the UK, Germany, France, and Italy. This reflects a new alignment of powers that accelerates the move toward all-out World War III.
Workers and soldiers everywhere must plan to turn World War III into communist revolution.
Letter: Real Unity Flows from Communist Working-Class Perspective
“My grandfather, a Muslim who lived in Gaza, had a Christian next-door neighbor he called ‘Uncle.’ His neighbor on the other side, also called ‘Uncle,’ was Jewish,” said a Palestinian friend in the US. “To me,” she continued, “this is what a free Palestine would look like. Any Zionists who didn’t like it could leave.”
Many Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activists here agree with her. Not all. One Iraqi said, for example, that “all the Jews should go back to Europe.”
But what’s almost never discussed here is whether Palestine or anywhere can be “free” while capitalism exists there. That reflects, in part, class differences between many Palestinians in the West and those in Middle East refugee camps.
The 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) violently forced over 750,000 people from their homes, land, and villages. That was half or more of Palestine’s mainly Arab population. Most, and their descendants, ended up in refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Once mainly independent farmers, they became prisoners, proletarians, and a reserve army of the unemployed.
Palestinian culture has long emphasized education. The Gaza Strip alone had ten institutions of higher education in an area the size of Detroit (USA) before the Zionist entity destroyed them all with US bombs. So Palestine was also home to trained doctors, engineers, and other professionals. They too lost land and homes in the Nakba.
But some were able to start over in Egypt, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, or other Arab states. A few – including future key leaders of Hamas – became successful capitalists. Others were able to move, eventually, to the US or Western Europe. It’s not surprising that a nationalist outlook, rather than class analysis, mainly characterizes the Palestinian movement in the US today. Palestinian flags and national symbols are everywhere.
Many Palestinian activists in the US (regardless of religion) read and respect Red Flag. Communist ideas are beginning to gain traction among working-class Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. That has an effect here too. We need to do more, and report more on what we are doing, about the Palestine genocide in schools, workplaces, communities. Most of all, we need to do more to strengthen friendships and find out more about what our readers think.
—Comrade in Pasadena (USA)
Pasadena (USA), August 19, 2024
Read our new pamphlet:
Genocide in Palestine Demands Communist Revolution here