Class Struggle Anarchist Statement on Gaza

Gaza is in flames. Its population terrorized by the incessant bombing if Israeli
warplanes against its public and residential districts and even its schools (3).
Countless of the Gaza Strip's mostly impoverished residents are dead, many of
these children, woman and the elderly. Many more Palestinians have lost loved
ones, have maimed, both physically and psychologically, and all are living
without access to basic necessities, water, food, medical care, etc. All of
this as the consequence of the largest military assault (codename: "Operation
Cast Lead") waged by Israeli armed forces since 1967 War against the Gaza Strip
and its approximately 1.5 million residents.

The leaders of the Israel and the Western nations, of whom the
United States is the largest and most vocally supportive, erroneously
claim that it is the Palestinians who are the aggressors in this conflict,
this despite the fact that for more then half a century the state of
Israel, and its Western equipped military, has steadily squeezed the
Palestinian population into smaller and smaller enclaves. Within these
enclaves Palestinians are forced to live surrounded by fortified concrete
barriers under the occupation of heavily armed Israeli troops.

It has been stated that Israel is but responding to the
rocket attacks on Israeli cities by Hamas, that these rocket attacks
legitimize what amounts to the collective punishment of Gaza and the
murder of Palestinian civilians on the part of the Israeli state. To which
we respond that one must consider not only the foregone conclusion that
the Israeli state has treated the basic humanity of the Palestinian
population with a near total disregard for over 60 years, but also that
within days of the initial assault by Israeli forces the death toll among
the Palestinian population climbed well into the hundreds, in fact, as
noted by Aljazeera news (2), approximately 350 Palestinian lives as of
December 30th, 2008, a figure that has climbed significantly after more
then ten days of near constant bombardment by Israeli forces against a
region with a population density of over 10 thousand inhabitants per sq
MI. While on the other hand, over the past 8 years the number of Israeli's
killed due to Hamas rocket attacks has been recorded as being 28 as of
January, 4th 2009.(1)

Considering the vast discrepancy in casualties between the relatively
small number of Israeli citizens killed over a period of eight years by
Hamas rockets, and the huge number of Palestinian killed in less then a
Week, it is difficult to see how anyone could consider the latest Israeli
military response as being anything even approximating a proportional
response.

Yes, this is a very disproportioned struggle, with the Palestinian
population of Gaza suffering the greatest misery and outrages by far. But
from accounts given by the capitalist controlled media in the West,
including that of the United States, one could scarcely be aware of this
vast discrepancy. One might in fact be mislead into supporting the notion
that the Israeli's are the main victims of the latest conflict when the
statistical data and the history behind the conflict betray any such
notion.

Through word and deed, not only the U.S. media establishment, but also
U.S. statesmen have taken the stance that the lives of impoverished
Palestinians is a virtual non-consideration when it comes to supporting
the expansionist policies of it's most valuable Geopolitical ally in the
region, the Israeli state. Thus the Israeli state is used as pro-western
bulwark for the expansion of U.S. hegemony in the oil rich lands of the
Middle East. The so-called "War on terror" serves as useful pretext for
continuing support of the Israeli state and other pro-western Middle
Eastern governments. Thus the United States Government will be giving an
unprecedented $30 billion in military aid to Israel between the years 2008
and 2017.

Jumping aboard, right beside U.S. leaders in both media and politics, in
aiding and supporting the aggression of the Israeli state has been the
U.S. based arms dealers who have consistently supplied the Israeli armed
forces with some of the most modern and destructive high-tech weaponry in
existence. For example, the Chicago based Boeing corporation has recently
delivered a hundreds of the most modern and deadly jet aircraft and
assault helicopters, bunker busting munitions and sophisticated rocket
systems to Israeli armed forces. At one point during the Israeli offensive
against Gaza shares in Boeing were reported to have climbed 1.6% within 24
hours!(4) Thus even as Gaza smolders and its civilian population lives in
constant terror of aerial bombardment U.S. arms dealers make fortunes.

Not only the United States but also the nations of Europe have
supplied Israel with sophisticated armament. As the statement by the
Italian Federation of Anarchist-Communists (FdCA) "The Gaza slaughter:
Europe's hand is bloodied too"(5) notes, a variety of modern weaponry supplied
to Israel by European arms dealers is currently being used by Israeli troops in
Gaza. As with the United States, the various nations of Europe hope to influence
this global imperialistic struggle in a direction favorable to their own Geopolitical
interests. This in the hopes of gaining some control of the regions valuable marketable
resources, namely petroleum and natural gas, both for the economic benefit of their
own capitalist class and to enhance the hegemony of their own nation-state within the
international sphere.

Geopolitical and economic profits aside, seemingly the only other
possible reasons for such duality of opinion when it comes to a greater
outrage for the lost lives of a few dozen Israelis over that of the lost
lives of many hundreds of Palestinians must be attributed to either a
virulent racism, nationalistic and ethnic chauvinism, or, as in the case
of certain right-wing Christian fundamentalists in the U.S., religious
dogmatism of a type befitting the religious traditions of the Middle Ages.
These Fundamentalists, hoping that Armageddon is right around the corner,
believe that the necessary prerequisite of such is the existence of a
Zionist state.

For all sincere class-struggle anarchists the death or suffering of any
member of the working class, of whatever nationality or ethnicity, is a
cause for great and equal concern. Unlike the politicians, the
capitalists, the armed forces, and the religious hierarchy that play some
role in upholding the global system of viciously competing nation-states,
there is no acceptable idea of national or religious exceptionalism,
chauvinism, or competition for land and other vital resources among class
struggle anarchists. We are internationalists in the fullest sense of the
word. We recognize that all of humanity has the same basic biological
needs and that the earth is the natural habitat which we share in common.
We recognize the reality of the class war that the economic and political
elite are constantly waging against the worlds working masses as means to
serve their own narrow aspirations. We recognize the primacy of the
struggle between the ruling class and the working class of every land,
that an understanding of the nature of this struggle, and its successful
persecution by the worlds working-class, is vital to securing the
liberation, freedom, and well-being of all humanity.

One point that must be made clear is that class-struggle anarchists do not
support any form of antisemitism. Instead, what we are opposed to is the
displacement of one population from their homelands in order to make room
for another population, a form of displacement that has long been the
hallmark of Israeli settler expansion in Palestine. We oppose all forms of
settler colonialism, be it that perpetrated by the Israeli state, or that
perpetrated by others.

Instead of settler colonialism, instead of global system of nation-states,
in which the hateful sentiments of chauvinism, racism, and religious
bigotry are constantly aroused among the working-class, this in order to
get them to support whatever atrocity the leaders deem vital to national
interests, what we class-struggle anarchists aspire to instead is the
creation of an international federation of self-managed working class
organizations and autonomous communities that transcends all national
borders and all walls of separation.

If you agree with this statement, we encourage you to sign on.

Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA)
wsany@hotmail.com.
http://www.workersolidarity.org.

1.Lunch Exposes pro-Zionist Media Lies over Israeli Atrocities
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/27683&Itemid=1

2. In the US, Gaza is a different war
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/war_ ... 04690.html

3. Israel kills dozens at Gaza school
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middl ... 08851.html

4. Bristol To Gaza
http://raytheonout.wordpress.com/2008/1 ... l-to-gaza/

5. The Gaza slaughter: Europe's hand is bloodied too
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11133
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