The unrelenting oppression, murder, torture and occupation carried out by the Israeli apartheid regime has precipitated a counter-offensive by Palestinian resistance forces. The Israeli war machine and its attendant systems of oppression are bought and paid for by U.S. imperialism. U.S. tax dollars fund the grinding oppression of the Palestinian people to the tune of $4 billion each year.
Resistance to apartheid and fascist-type oppression was labeled “terrorism” by U.S. politicians when the African National Congress took up arms against the racist, apartheid regime in South Africa. The same false “terrorism” label is being applied to the Palestinian people.
The PSL says: Resistance to apartheid and fascist-type oppression is not a crime! It is the inevitable outcome for all people who demand self-determination rather than living with the boot-heel of the oppressors on their necks.
The people of the United States are going into the streets right now to say “free Palestine!”, “cut all U.S. aid for the apartheid regime” and “free all Palestinian political prisoners!”
Israel is currently carrying out a massacre of historic proportions against Gaza and all throughout Palestine, slaughtering hundreds. The bombs and missiles that are raining down on Gaza right now are paid for by U.S. tax dollars. Instead of using money to meet people’s needs, the U.S. government has shamefully extended Israel a long-term military aid agreement worth $38 billion.
The corporate media and politicians want the public to believe that Israel is simply defending itself from “terrorism.” That’s a lie. The actions of the resistance over the course of the last day is a morally and legally legitimate response to occupation. It was brought about by escalating Israeli oppression on numerous fronts.
Less than a year ago, a new, far-right government came into office in Israel. Regardless of which party is in power, the Israeli government has always imposed occupation and apartheid. But the new administration — which includes openly genocidal, fascist senior ministers who control the police and prison system — is intent on taking this to unprecedented heights.
A wave of killings is under way in the occupied West Bank by Israeli troops, cops and vigilantes that has claimed over 200 Palestinian lives so far this year. Already horrific conditions for the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails deteriorated even further. Far-right mobs stormed the al-Aqsa mosque on numerous occasions under the protection of Israeli police. The construction of illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land was hugely expanded. The new government announced its intention to create a “national guard” — a thinly-veiled death squad that would operate under the personal command of the main fascist politician in Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
To provide diplomatic cover as this was taking place, the U.S. government has been aggressively lobbying countries in the Middle East to sign “normalization” agreements with Israel. Since the state of Israel was established amid a deadly campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1948, most neighboring countries have rightfully refused to officially recognize Israel’s existence. But in the last few years that has begun to change. In exchange for what amounted to massive bribes from the United States, the reactionary governments of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco established formal relations with Israel. In recent days, the United States was reportedly on the verge of securing the biggest normalization agreement of all with Saudi Arabia.
It was in this context of an existential threat to the Palestinian people’s very survival that the resistance organizations chose to launch a bold counter-offensive. This does not constitute terrorism. It is a basic fact of history that any people who are subjected to an occupation will resist that occupation.
The Israeli government is carrying out a bombardment of unbelievable proportions targeting Palestinian civilians in an effort to take revenge on the resistance. Shortly after the war broke out, Lloyd Austin pledged that, “Over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs.” The U.S. government is just as complicit in this massacre as Israel. Now is the time to mobilize and demand freedom for Palestine!
