ISRAELI police yesterday cancelled tomorrow’s annual massive settlers’ march through Jerusalem.
The march celebrates the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and pledges to continue to occupy and settle the whole of Palestine.
The Israeli police took the decision to cancel because, currently, Israel has no government, and the different Zionist political factions are split, divided and at each other’s throats.
The police feared that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would bar the way to the marchers, and that a new insurrection would explode throughout Palestine. The Israeli media reported that the police considered changing the route of the march and even relocating it to the western part of Jerusalem before ultimately cancelling.
The annual Flag March usually sees many thousands of right-wing Israeli settlers, under police protection, carrying machine guns, waving Israeli flags, dancing, and singing descend on Jerusalem to celebrate the so-called unification of the city, and marching through the hotbed Palestinian neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah, Bab al-Amoud and the Muslim Quarter of the Old City on their way to the Wailing Wall – with Palestinians forced to lock down and close their stores.
The Hamas resistance movement, which had already warned against the controversial march, hailed the decision to cancel as a ‘new defeat for Israel’ that solidifies ‘the equation that al-Quds (Jerusalem) is a red line.’
The ‘Joint Room of Palestinian Resistance Factions’ commented on the cancellation of the parade, saying its resistance commanders are closely monitoring Israel’s behaviour in the city.
‘If the enemy returns to the same situation before the 11-day Gaza flare-up, the commanders will enter the area and will never allow the Tel Aviv regime to export its domestic crises to the Palestinian people.’
It added: ‘We appreciate the resistance and stability of the Palestinian people everywhere. This nation is able to bring destruction to the Zionist enemy’s plans to destroy the Palestine issue.
‘We call on the Palestinian people in al-Quds, the West Bank and the 1948 occupied territories to confront the Israeli occupiers in any way possible and prevent the implementation of the regime’s Judaization and settlement schemes in the occupied lands. We also emphasise that the resistance is ready to defend them at the appropriate time.’
Israel currently has no government, and its ruling class is split and bitterly divided. It now faces a Palestinian people determined to go forward to a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinian people also now have the support of the working people of the world, especially in the USA, the UK and throughout Europe, where there have been massive demonstrations of support.
Belfast City Council has called on the UK and Irish governments to expel their Israeli ambassadors.
Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, John McDonnell, said at the recent 250,000 strong London march in support of Palestine: Netanyahu must be imprisoned for war crimes. The campaign for disinvestment in Israel must be stepped up.’
The National Education Union General Secretary Kevin Courtney told the same rally: ‘I am standing here in front of the Trade Unionists for Palestine banner, bearing the names of 15 major unions, the four largest unions in the country – Unite, Unison, GMB, NEU, along with ASLEF, RMT, TSSA, PCS, CWU, UCU, FBU, POA, Equity, the Bakers Union and the United World Transport Union.
‘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.’
The TUC trade unions and Labour MPs must now call for a general strike to not just send the Israeli ambassador packing, but to demand the immediate recognition by the UK government of the Palestinian state ‘from the river to the sea’, with Jerusalem as its capital.
With the Israeli ruling class in a huge crisis there is not a moment to lose!
The trade unions must take strike action to help establish the State of Palestine. There is not a moment to lose and there is a world to win!