On the commemoration of one year since the beginning of this brutal genocide perpetrated in Gaza, the Communist Party of Canada reiterates its anti-imperialist and internationalist solidarity with the people and resistance of Palestine in their struggle for national liberation. This is not an ethnic or a religious battle. It is an anti-imperialist struggle that concerns all workers, supporters of peace, progressives and democrats throughout the world.
We also take this opportunity to denounce any attempt to distance discourse from reality by reducing this bloody year to a confrontation between Israel and Hamas. We also oppose any attempt that seeks to start the clock on the assault on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, thereby denying more than a century of imperialism which, directly or through its affiliates, seeks to control the geostrategic region of the Middle East. Lies like these, spouted over and over again in the newspapers, serve only one purpose: to cover up the crimes of Israeli soldiers, to make Zionism, the colonial project of the Israeli ruling class, look respectable, and to undermine the struggle of the Palestinian people by detaching it from the global context of the struggle of peoples against their common enemy, imperialism, and even to demean it by labeling it terrorist.
As Communists, we know what this is all about. So do the peoples of the world. We know who is fighting for peace, freedom and democracy and who, on the contrary, is seeking to reinforce barbaric and murderous imperialism.
One year and almost 45,000 dead later, Israel is once again proving to the whole world the true colonialist, expansionist, murderous and even terrorist nature of its regime. Yes, terrorist, through its systematic disregard for international law. Today, it is pushing its warmongering to a climax not seen since 2006, or even since 1982. Israel is trying to make Lebanon suffer the same fate as the Gaza Strip. Beyond the Land of the Cedars, pandora’s box may open., The deputies of US imperialism risk bringing infamy, destruction and death by making bullets whistle, cannons sound and rockets explode throughout the region, and even at its margins, running the risk of a massive generalized war.
The whole world understands this situation only too well. The Israeli regime is more isolated than ever. Its diplomatic capital is dwindling on the diplomatic stage, but also in the streets of the world, including those of Tel Aviv. Recent decisions by the United Nations and its institutions bear witness to this: didn’t the International Court of Justice express its opinion that a plausible genocide is taking place in Gaza? Didn’t the General Assembly recently call on Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories within twelve months? And what can we say about the unprecedented outpouring of anti-imperialist, progressive and democratic supporters of peace, many of them young people, who have taken to the streets, including here in Canada, repudiating this atrocious barbarity and demanding a just and lasting peace in Palestine and the Middle East? And what can we say about the workers’, political and diplomatic initiatives that have brought the international war machine to a halt by preventing the delivery of arms and the severing of diplomatic and trade links with Israel. For the first time in decades, questions of peace, international solidarity and anti-imperialism are resurfacing. It’s about time!
Shamefully, the United States, NATO and its increasingly scattered allies (including Canada) refuse to condemn Israel in this context of unequivocal support from the vast majority of the world for the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom and their right to self-determination. We denounce such an attitude, which amounts to a blank cheque for the war. The ruling class is preparing to deliver us to slaughter on a silver platter. We know that behind the Israeli salvos lies the hand of the real master of the game, the United States. With its influence in the region waning, Western imperialism has no choice but to blow things up in the hope of regaining its regional hegemony. So a victory for the Palestinian people would represent a victory for all the peoples who, from Havana to Hanoi via Laayoune, are fighting against the yoke of imperialism.
We cannot forget that this war is a brutal reminder that for imperialism there are no men, women or children. There are only markets to conquer, a world to divide with the blood of peoples and monopoly profits to guarantee. That is why the Communist Party welcomes the efforts made in solidarity with Palestine. However, we can and must do more to intensify, strengthen, but also broaden this movement by rallying around demands such as:
- An immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon;
- The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon;
- The withdrawal of all warships from the Eastern Mediterranean;
- The dismantling of settlements in the West Bank within 12 months, as prescribed by the UN;
- An end to the occupation of the Syrian Golan;
- The severing of diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, including the closure of the Quebec Office in Tel Aviv and a two-way embargo on arms trafficking;
- The creation of a viable Palestinian state within the pre-June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital;
- The right of return for Palestinian refugees from 1948;
- The end of the apartheid regime in Israel, its democratization, secularization, denuclearization and demilitarization;
- Canada’s withdrawal from NATO and NORAD and a 75% reduction in the military budget.
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada