We thank the internationalist comrade Fredo Corvo for the English translation.
In recent months in East Jerusalem, in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, the State of Israel is implementing its usual plan of social segregation on an ultra-nationalist basis: the demolition of Palestinian homes to facilitate the settlement of Israeli settlers. Taking advantage of the pandemic, restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinian Arabs have multiplied and tightened, accompanied by violence and abuse. On the contrary, political groups of the Israeli extreme right have been left free to move in search of Arabs to be lynched, while the Israeli police and the army let them do the brutal repression of the protests, beating hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators to death. Hamas reprisal on Israeli civilians and Israeli counter-reprisal on Gaza civilians. An escalation of the armed clash that leaves no doubt about the oppressive role of the Israeli State, which has activated an Emergency Committee for the economy to manage the supply of goods and services in time of war.
That the State of Israel militarily protects the economic, social and legal oppression of the Palestinian population is an incontrovertible fact. However, by itself, this fact is not sufficient to explain class interests in the region. Considering the State of Israel the sole enemy of the Palestinian proletariat is a simplified representation. If one does not understand the role of the Palestinian bourgeoisie (albeit based on small and medium enterprises), as well as the Egyptian, Jordanian and Iranian bourgeoisies in the constant repression of the proletariat in the area; if one does not address the question of the necessity of the mobilization of the proletariat of these countries, starting with the Israeli one, against the enemy at home: its own bourgeoisie and its state, it will leave the Palestinian sector of the Middle Eastern proletariat – along with the other social strata affected by the crisis – politically disarmed, condemning it to isolation and massacre, in the name and on behalf of banners that will re-propose its social subjugation.
The Palestinian proletariat has been living for more than 70 years the following condition: on the one hand the oppression of its own bourgeoisie (today less felt but not less present) and on the other hand the police and military intervention of Israel (at the moment perceived as the only enemy).
This is a condition of extreme weakness for the Palestinian proletariat which, on the one hand, suffers Israeli bombings and reprisals, on the other hand, international political games on its skin and internal oppression by its own bourgeoisie and its leaders. Compromised political leaders, when not carefully selected through targeted suppression by a fierce, skilled and well-armed Israeli bourgeoisie.
Only a revolutionary process involving all proletarians in the region, especially in Israel, Egypt and Iran will be able to change the fate of the proletariat and the entire Palestinian people.
Israeli apartheid, armed repression, and the search for visibility to deal by weak and unscrupulous Arab bourgeoisies, lead the Palestinian proletariat to arm itself against Israel in a supposed people’s struggle in the service of Hamas or Fatah – or other Islamic, social democratic and nationalist organizations. The only delivery in the interests of the Palestinian proletariat is to try to preserve its forces for a struggle on the independent class terrain, for a resumption of the struggles of the proletariat throughout the region.
There is another element in the picture, which too often is neglected to include: the Israeli proletariat. A proletariat that exists, even if today, for the most part tied to the cart of its own bourgeoisie and ideologically hypnotized by the myth of the “besieged fortress”, it turns its eyes elsewhere or joins the nationalist chorus. A proletariat that will never be truly free from fear and its bourgeois instrumentalization if it does not make the cause of the proletariat and the Palestinian people its own.
If all this does not happen, the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli proletarians will continue to mourn their dead in an endless series of funerals and wars, hypocritically planted by the local bourgeoisies and the imperialist powers.
There are no easy solutions, there are no shortcuts, apparently radical, to the very difficult task of the class vanguards in the Middle East.
Israeli proletarians, strike against the violence of the Israeli armed forces, boycott your state, abandon the army!
Palestinian proletarians defend yourselves against military aggression and seek connections with your class brothers!
The time has come for Israeli-Palestinian internationalist class unity!
The enemy of the proletariat is the bourgeoisie! Regardless of its strength and under all its banners! The only unconditional support is to the working class!
Internationalist circle “workers coalition”
circolo internazionalista "coalizione operaia" 