THE NATIONAL march and rally demanding ‘Justice Now: Make it Right for Palestine’ is a massive demonstration of the support and solidarity that exists between British workers and the people of Palestine.
With every major UK trade union and the TUC supporting the demands that the British government apologise for the Balfour Declaration and recognise the State of Palestine it is clear where the British working class stands in the struggle for Palestine against the Zionist state of Israel.
It is also crystal clear where the Tories stand with their unswerving support for Israel whatever brutal crimes it commits against Palestinians. While the Tories are silent about the planned ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem by Israel, they are celebrating the Balfour Declaration which 100 years ago gave the full support of British imperialism to the establishment of the Zionist state with contemptuous disregard for the rights of the Palestinian people who lived there.
This support paved the way for the creation of the Israeli state and directly led to the brutal occupation of Palestine and the murderous campaign to drive Palestinians from their homeland. The Balfour Declaration, a letter sent in secret by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to representatives of the then-tiny Zionist movement, was preceded the year before by the Sykes-Picot agreement.
This secret agreement signed by France, Britain, Italy and Tsarist Russia was the basis for carving up the Ottoman Empire between the imperialist nations after the First World War. This plan to divide up the Middle East and beyond for the domination of the imperialist powers was exposed by the Bolsheviks after the victory of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Discovering the document in the archives, Leon Trotsky, responsible for foreign affairs in the Soviet government, immediately published the Sykes-Picot agreement on November 24 1917, thus destroying the secrecy and exposing imperialism’s plans to carve up the region for domination and exploitation with complete disregard for the lives of the millions who lived there.
Lenin accurately dubbed the treaty ‘the agreement of colonial thieves’. The practice of secret deals carried out in clandestine meetings did not end with Sykes-Picot or Balfour. It is alive and kicking in the Tory party today. Yesterday, the BBC revealed that the Tory International Development Secretary, Priti Patel, had held undisclosed meetings in Israel behind the backs of the Foreign Office.
The BBC reported that whilst on holiday Patel met with the leader of ‘one of Israel’s main political parties and made visits to several organisations where official departmental business was reportedly discussed’. She was accompanied by Lord Polak the honorary president of the influential lobbying organisation, the Conservative Friends of Israel.
Even Tory ministers were outraged at this serious breach in procedure and accused her of carrying out her own ‘freelance foreign policy’ while others were quoted by the BBC as saying, ‘This is about donors and influence.’ They believe that Patel, who wants to take over from May as leader when she gets the chop, is after funds for her leadership campaign.
This is just one more example of the Tory government and the Israeli state being joined at the hip. Their aid and support for the Zionist state in its war against the Palestinian people is an extension of the Tory war against the working class at home – it is the common enemy. The joint struggle of UK workers and the Palestinian masses cannot and must not be separated.
The demand must be for those unions supporting the rights of Palestinians to take action against the common enemy by organising a general strike to kick the Tories out and to go forward to a workers government that will immediately recognise the independent state of Palestine and give it its full financial and military support, as well as expropriating the bosses and bankers at home to benefit both the UK workers and the Palestinian masses.
We urge all workers and youth to come to our 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution rally on November 12 to celebrate the first socialist revolution, a revolution that exposed to the world the colonial ‘thieves’ and began the movement for national liberation, as well as dealing a mortal blow to world imperialism.
Celebrate the Russian Revolution by going forward to fight for a workers revolution in Britain, for the establishment of the Palestinian state and for the victory of the World Socialist Revolution – this is the only way to undo the crime committed by the Balfour Declaration.
