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self-determination 4 palestine
A Brief History: In 1948 the colonial settler state of Israel was formed and its borders were drafted. With the aid of Britain, the new state was placed on top of 1,300,000 Palestinian people already living there. Of the 475 villages and towns that existed in Palestine, 385 were soon demolished. These people were pushed into the fringes and outskirts of their homeland, and would later flee to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, where they were just as unwelcome.
The new Israeli state was founded on the ideology of Zionism, which holds that Jews have a religious right to a nation. Unfortunately this has become a political ideology that has brought pain and misery to the lives of both Jews, Muslims, and Christians. The Zionist leaders of Israel, both then and now, have shown that they do not respect the lives of Palestinians and treat them as though they were second-class citizens.
The borders of Israel, that were drawn in 1948, were meant to change. There is much evidence to suggest that the Zionist leaders were conservative with their proposition in the beginning to rally support from British Imperialism. Later when they had a grasp on the land, they set up policies that would allow for the right of return for any Jew around the world. Meanwhile the right of return for Palestinian refugees kicked out of their homes and off their land was merely a dream. This right of return made it so that the Israeli state would be able to continually grow to support the new waves of Jews looking for land, housing, etc. With the aid of first British Imperialism, and now U.S. Imperialism, Israel, a very, very small country, has the fourth largest military in the world. With such a military force it has no problem expanding its boarders farther and farther into ever decreasing Palestinian enclaves. As Ben Gurion (Israel’s first prime minister) put it, “A partial Jewish State is not the end, but only the beginning. I am certain that we can not be prevented from settling in other parts of the country and region.”
Draconian laws have been set up by the Israeli government to confine and oppress the Palestinian people. Such laws include curfews, search and seizures, checkpoints, and other such invasions of a citizen’s civil liberties. Activists and people who do not bow to Israel’s every whim are systematically tortured. In fact, Amnesty International has reported numerous human rights violations precisely because of the tortures instigated by Israeli police and military. Perhaps the boldest and most outrageous law is that no person, who cannot prove that they are maternally Jewish for four generations, can own, work on, lease, or rent land within the borders of Israel!
Israel is toted around by the U.S. and its media as the only democracy in the Middle East, but based on its history of repression, torture, and oppression of the Palestinian people it is easily understood that democratic is one thing that Israel is not.
Within Israel itself there are deep divisions. 70% of the Israeli population are Sephardic Jews, that is Jews from Arab descent who were encouraged to come to Israel for prosperity. However, they have no representation in the government and make up only 3% of Israelis in higher education. On the other hand the 30% of Israelis who are Ashkenazi Jews, who are western and lighter skinned, are in control of almost all of the land, resources, education, and the government.
The Socialist Solution: In 1978 the Palestinian Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) led by Yasser Arafat, along with other left wing and Palestinian nationalist organizations, called for the formation of a democratic, secular Palestinian state. The basis of this proposed solution is that the Palestinian people have a right to their land, and at the same time understands at the oppressed population of Israel, namely the Sephardic Jews, were their natural class allies. The new Palestinian state would not be based on religion whatsoever and it would be a real democracy led jointly by Jews and Palestinian Arabs. This solution, though still held by many Palestinians, has been abandoned by the P.L.O., which unfortunately now supports a two state solution.
Youth for Socialist Action supports the Palestinian Intifada and the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination. We whole-heartedly condemn Israeli repression, and the existence of Israel, period. We believe that Israel is a nation that was built on racist foundations and the unjust expelling of an entire people from their homeland.
Youth for Socialist Action is also whole-heartedly opposed to anti-Semitism in every form and recognizes the violence and oppression that the Jewish people have been historically subjected to. However, we do not believe that the tragic past of the Jewish people in any way justifies what is being done to Palestinians today.
It is for these reasons that we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for the abolition of Israel and the creation of a democratic and secular Palestine!
