AS WE approach the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in which British imperialism pledged to hand over somebody else’s country to conquest and settlement by the Zionists, Palestinians are getting angrier and angrier. Their state seems to be getting further away than ever, as Israel extends its settlements, is presented with billions by the US to buy arms, and the British PM May tells the world how proud she is of the Balfour Declaration and its consequences, especially the role that Israel plays in the Middle East.
o add salt to Arab wounds, the UK has grandly declared that it is returning to East of Suez and has forged an unholy alliance with the feudal Gulf regimes, under which it trains its torturers and supplies its armed forces with billions of pounds of weapons, including aircraft, tanks and cluster bombs, used to kill and mutilate the Arab people of the Gulf.
Capitalist Britain and the Gulf feudalists are allies in the struggle against the Arab people of the Middle East, and also against the many Jewish workers, who oppose the settlers, and the settlements, and the Jewish state.
Currently the Third Intifada is underway with large numbers of young people risking their lives fighting against automatic weapons and poison gas with stones, and absolutely determined to stop Israel grabbing the whole of Palestine. However the Palestinians are furious at the news that the USA’s President Trump intends to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and recognise that city as the capital of Israel.
There is such anger amongst the Palestinian masses that the PLO leadership has had to issue a special warning. Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Saeb Erekat has warned that the PLO will revoke all previously signed agreements with Israel as well as the PLO’s 1993 recognition of Israel if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He said such a move would indicate the US’ acceptance of ‘Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem,’ and further warned that ‘any hope of peace in the future will just vanish.’ Erekat also said he would immediately resign as the PLO’s chief negotiator because he would not want to ‘fool the people’ that there were any prospects of peace, and that supporters of the two-state solution – like himself – would be proven wrong if the embassy were to be moved.
Erekat also predicted that all American embassies in the Arab world would be forced to close as a consequence of the move because ‘the infuriated public in the Arab world would not allow US embassies to continue to operate.’ He added: ‘There is no longer a two-state solution when he sends an ambassador like David Friedman to the region . . . For God’s sake, what is going on?’
What is going on is that the US and its imperialist buddy the UK are about to embark on a struggle to replace Palestine on the map with an expanded state of Israel. This will drive many more thousands of Palestinians into the refugee camps or into their graves, and cement the US-UK-Israel-Saudi alliance. It will also drive forward the Arab revolution, which has just won a major victory in Syria.
Workers in the US and the UK cannot tolerate the imperialist powers trying to exterminate the Palestinian cause. After the victory of Syria and President Assad, the whole region will rise up against the Zionists and the imperialist powers. The workers of the US and the UK – whose jobs, wages, health services and lives are also under threat from the US and UK ruling classes – must form a common front with the Palestinian and Arab revolution.
UK workers must tell their trade union leaders ‘Our enemy is at home!’ The moment that a Trump regime recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel there must be mass strike actions in the US and the UK as well as massive marches in London and Washington.
The best way to support the Palestinians and the Arab revolution is to bring down the May government that cherishes the Balfour Declaration and arms the Gulf pirates and replace it with a workers government.
This government will rip up the Balfour Declaration, recognise the State of Palestine and shift all arms supplies and assistance away from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to Palestine. We fight for a socialist Europe and a socialist Middle East!
