ISRAEL has approved more than 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.
Settlers have spent the last weeks engaging in a reign of terror. It is Palestinian olive harvest season and settlers have been uprooting and burning hundreds of trees on a daily basis, attacking farmers and their children, destroying land and farming equipment.
The latest settlement expansion announcement has caused uproar and anger worldwide. Palestinian President Abbas called on the international community to take a ‘decisive stance’ on the Israeli decision.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswomen Maria Zakharova said, ‘We reaffirm Russia’s principled position that Israel’s settlement activity is illegal.
‘Such unilateral actions undermine the chances of a survivable and geographically indivisible Palestinian state within the framework of its resolutions and the efforts of the international community to create the conditions for the resumption of political dialogue between Palestine and Israel as soon as possible.
‘The Israeli government’s plans to double the number of Israeli citizens in the Jordan River Valley by 2026 can be considered the annexation of most of the occupied Palestinian territory.’
Even the Tories have had to make noises of opposition with Tory Minister for the Middle East and North Africa James Cleverly saying: ‘We urge the government of Israel to reverse the decisions on 24th October and 27th October to advance the construction of settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Settlements are illegal under international law and present an obstacle to peace and stability.’
These are hypocritical words! It is the Tory government which has been instrumental in the funding, arming and politically supporting Israel’s plan to implement the infamous Balfour Declaration.
The Israelis are determined to occupy more and more of the West Bank. Their aim? To take the entire West Bank and claim the whole of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Jerusalem is however, the eternal and indivisible capital of Palestine and the world must recognise the Palestinian state.
Israel on the other hand is not a state at all. Israel is an occupying regime, an outpost of imperialism, armed and financed by the imperialist powers. When the Zionists launched their war on the people of Palestine in 1948, 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and over 500 Palestinian villages were razed to the ground.
The war ended with Israeli forces controlling approximately 78 per cent of historic Palestine.
In 1967, Israel annexed the whole of historical Palestine, as well as additional territory from Egypt and Syria. Since the Six-Day War of 1967, the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights has been occupied by Israel, whereas the eastern third remains under the control of Syria.
Syria made a fresh warning on Thursday that the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights will be ended through a struggle to drive the occupiers out.
The aspirations of the Zionists is for a ‘Greater Israel’ stretching across the majority of Iraq, Syria, a large part of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
However, their aspirations have come up against the defiance and determination of a Palestinian people and tens of millions of Palestinian supporters around the world who refuse to accept Israeli occupation.
It was Israel which was forced to call the ceasefire on 21st May 2021, ending 11 days of intense war, bombing Gaza day and night, invading the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, forcing evictions in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarah.
Millions took to the streets around the world in support of Palestine with some of the biggest protests in the UK, with numbers swelling to a quarter of a million mainly young people marching through London.
At the rally at the end of the march, the NEU teachers union leader Kevin Courtney, representing 15 unions told the vast crowds: ‘Trade unionists are here today in solidarity with the general strike in Palestine last week and we need to take similar action for Palestine here.’
This is the way forward for the trade unions in the UK. They must organise a mass boycott of all Israeli goods and services and a general strike to demand the UK stop its arming of Israel at once, and recognise the State of Palestine.
