/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

We have long stated that the essential character of the Israeli state is that it is fascist. The current slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the rump of the West Bank by the imperialist-backed zionist forces, demonstrates this once again.

Israel is artificially sustained by world imperialism
The US regime and companies directly pay $2bn every year to sustain Israel. Most diamonds from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, mined by Anglo American, are sent to Israel for cutting and polishing while the masses here are kept in unemployment and starvation. Thus these Southern African regimes, contrary to their claims of being independent, are total slaves of US imperialism. Without the diamonds from Anglo American in Southern Africa and without the funding of the US state, the artificial state of Israel would collapse overnight.
The crisis of capitalism and increasing fascist methods around the world

The stagnation of world capitalism leads to increasing attacks on the world working class, to increase the rate of exploitation. As the masses resist, the governments that spearhead these attacks are increasingly discredited. Thus world imperialism is increasingly relying on open brute force methods to maintain control. Thus the rise of fascist regimes in Ukraine, Egypt, the slaughter of the Syrian masses by Assad and the ISIS, the US-backed bombing of civilians in Iraq, the ongoing war against the masses in Afghanistan, etc.  The attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by the Zionist regime are part of this world process.

A deliberately created war
We should not forget the tens of thousands of Israeli youth who set up tent cities, demanding housing. Although these masses were not directly supporting Palestinians, they had identified the Israeli state as the representative of the Israeli elite who were enslaving them too. In other words, the reactionary base that US imperialism and the Israeli elite depend on to exercise control over entire masses in the Middle East, has split. In fact a section of this base has come into direct opposition to the Israeli state. This split in the base has begun to reflect itself in the political apparatus. Just before the brutal killing of the 3 Israeli youth, the Netanyahu govt was on the point of splitting.

Another key component of how imperialism exercises control over the Palestinians is through control from within, namely by means of the PA (Palestinian Authority). Imperialism directly funds the police and Presidential guard of Mahmoud Abbas. Increasingly, after Zionist forces have attacked Palestinian demonstrations, then the police of the PA take over to continue the brutalization of demonstrators. The jails of the PA are full of Palestinianactivists, kept in captivity on behalf of the Zionists. A point has been reached where the vast majority of Palestinians regard the PA as ‘mercenaries of occupation’, in other words, the Palestinian masses can no longer be controlled by the PA- this creates a crisis for imperialism. Their mechanisms of control over the masses in general are being shattered and possibility of unity of Jewish and Arab masses grows daily.

Even further, the Hamas govt has also lost support as it has also acted against Palestinian demonstrations and they have lost further support when they joined with the PA to form a unity govt.
Thus imperialism faced a serious crisis, with the possibility of Jewish and Arab masses uniting on the one hand and all the agencies through which they control the masses being totally discredited. If the activists united and formed a united revolutionary working class party, a revolution that would shatter the imperialist-capitalist relations in historic Palestine, threatened to break out. It is to pre-empt the masses setting uptheir own unitary state with their own mass actions, that imperialism has created this war on the Palestinian masses.

Imperialism realises that the 2-state ‘solution’ has lost all credibility; thus if a one state ‘solution’ is to happen, it has to be according to their dictates. This means a crushing of all Palestinian armed groups and terrorising the Palestinian masses into submission. On the other hand, the war creates a temporary unity of the different factions of the Israeli capitalist class. It also creates a climate where it is very difficult for activists and Israeli masses (Jewish and Arab) to openly oppose the state.

The war is thus not a reflection of strength of imperialism and the Israeli state, but rather of their weakness, of their desperation.  The need of imperialism to act is further illustrated by the total rejection of its puppet in Egypt by the masses there, as well as the rejection of the Syrian masses of both Assad and Isis, the Iraqi masses are also beginning to rise against the imperialist puppet Maliki.

The brutal killing of the 3 Israeli youth through torture and burning is not consistent with the methods of any of the Palestinian resistance groups. In fact the only people who have been proven to use suchmethods are the fascistic zionist settlers on the West Bank (who tortured and killed the Palestinian youth). Thus evidence points to imperialism being behind the killing of the 3 Israeli youth as a means to create a war. They knew that when the zionist start attacking the Palestinians in ‘revenge’, the Palestinians would react. Thus a cover would be created for an attack on the Palestinian masses.

Now the Israeli press is claiming that ISIS/ISIL is behind the killing of the 3 youth. So why bomb Gaza when ISIS is in North Syria and Iraq? Isis is funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, so why is the Israeli state not targeting them? The Jewish masses in Israel should wake up to the realization that imperialism and the Israeli elite are just using you as cannon fodder for their own purposes- this has nothing to do with ‘defending’ the masses at all.
The PA (Palestinian Authority) shows its treacherous nature by congratulating Netanyahu for acting ‘swiftly’ in arresting the 6 settlers who butchered the Palestinian youth. Abbas conveniently forgets that hundreds of homes of Palestinians were destroyed in East Jerusalem and hundreds of Palestinian activists arrested under false pretences.   This is not a war against Hamas but a war to attempt t break the independent spirit of resistance of the Palestinian masses. This is a war to divert all the masses from uniting to overthrow the Israeli regime and the Palestinian puppet regimes.

At the same time, Obama has just asked congress for a further $5bn for spending on the war on ‘terror’. This war also creates as convenient cover for the US military complex to receive funds and directly increase their profits.

The ANC govt is complicit in the murder of Palestinians
While the Palestinians are being slaughtered, the ANC govt has gone to Brasil to watch the world cup. Instead of acting against Anglo American, most of the ANC, SACP and Cosatu leaders have shares in the mines. The Vice President was involved in the Marikana massacre. The President’s family is involved in labour broking on the mines. The ANC govt has signed 2 conventions since 1994 with Israel: the first, in 1995, was to expand tradewith Israel, including military trade, and in 2003, when the Mbeki regime agreed to never expropriate any Israeli companies. Most of the diamonds from SA, from the mines of Anglo American, some R2.4 bn worth was sent to Israel in 2013, as was R2.2 bn of coal (also from Anglo American). SA still supplies spare parts for Israeli planes and helicopters that are currently bombing innocent Palestinians.

It is time for masses to unite against our common enemy, world imperialism and their puppet regimes, which include the Israeli regime and the PA and the so-called unity govt. Muslim, Jew, Christian and other masses unite against the zionist and arab elites. The masses in the USA have a special responsibility too to rise up against the US state for its role in the slaughter. We support the direct action protests around the world, against the Zionists as well as against all the capitalist regimes that are complicit in this massacre. The time is overdue for the activists to unite in a revolutionary working class party, for a unitary, Socialist Palestine, based on workers’ councils (uniting Arab and Jewish workers) and the immediate return of Palestinian refugees. Forward to working class power.