THE ‘GREAT March of Return’ has become the beacon for all Palestinians and the workers of the world to unite in the struggle to demand that every country in the world recognises the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and recognises the right of all Palestinians to return to their homeland.
Every Friday, the people of Gaza march on the border fence, and are met with deadly force. The Israeli military have killed more than 40 people since the start of protests along the Gaza border on March 30.
As the crowds of unarmed Gazans demonstrate, Israeli snipers on the other side of the fence pick them off and then cheer to celebrate their murders. Teenagers and children have been shot in the head by snipers, killing them instantly; others have been left with hideous injuries.
Yesterday was ‘The Friday of the Rebellious Youth’ as they bravely advanced without fear to the sniper-infested border with Israel. More than 4,000 Palestinians have already been wounded and over 40 killed! Working in Gaza on patients hit by Israeli fire, medical teams noted ‘the injuries include an extreme level of destruction to bones and soft tissue, and large exit wounds that can be the size of a fist.’
This was the conclusion of a recently released report from Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The description of the injuries matches that of expanding bullets, also known as dumdum bullets, which are illegal in warfare. The report stated that Gaza doctors had performed 17 amputations – 13 legs and four arms in the last few weeks.
The ‘Great March of Return’, will last until May 15, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe). During the Zionists’ war on the Palestinians in 1948 to declare the state of Israel, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly driven from their homes at gunpoint, expelled, and hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages ‘depopulated’ and destroyed. The Palestinian people call this the Nakba, meaning ‘catastrophe’ or ‘disaster’.
As the Zionist gangs went from village to village, they rounded up the men and expelled the women and children. The men were put in threes, the first shot, the two remaining would be forced to throw him in a pit, then the second shot and the remaining Palestinian would be forced to throw him into the pit, then at gun point forced to stand in the pit himself and finally he was also shot.
Gaza today is one vast besieged prison camp, cut off by land, air, and sea. Ordinary consumer goods such as jam, candles, books, musical instruments, shampoo, A4 paper, and livestock such as chicken, donkeys, and cows have been blocked during the siege. The people of Gaza have had enough!
On Nakba Day, in two weeks’ time on May 15th, US president Trump plans to throw fuel onto the fire and to open the US embassy in Jerusalem, a move which will ignite the third Intifada. Trade unions and the entire working class must now take action for Palestine!
On May Day, May 1, this Tuesday, workers must demand that the trade union leaders initiate a trade union boycott of Israel, to last until the Palestinian state is established. The trade unions must bring down the May government, which celebrated the Balfour Declaration centenary, and bring in a workers government that will recognise the State of Palestine and give the Palestinian state all the assistance that it requires.
It is time for the entire trade union movement to declare its recognition of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and support the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. On May Day and on the TUC march on May 12, all workers must demand the TUC call strike action to defend Palestine.
Strike action must be called for May 15, Nakba Day to show complete solidarity with the Palestinian people. On Nakba Day, workers must demonstrate outside the US and Israeli embassies to condemn Israeli attacks on Palestinians and to urge US workers to stop the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem.
In the days ahead, the Arab people will rise up against imperialism and Zionist Israel in the Middle East, and refuse to accept the Trump ‘Deal of the Century’ that aims to hand over the whole of Palestine to form a Greater Israel, as the prelude to a new imperialist war against Iran and Syria to recolonise the entire Middle East.
Now is the time for the UK and US working class to fight for Palestine. This is not just the fight for a Palestinian state, it is the fight to prevent a new imperialist war in the Middle East.
