Above photo: Eyad Baba / AFP.
The brutality of the Israeli regime in Rafah is the brutality of a project in decline.
The global working class, united with students, has the power to end it once and for all.
There are no words for the inhumane brutality committed by Israel in Rafah on Sunday. These words, this article, it is insufficient, it will be insufficient. There are no words.
Children beheaded.
People burned alive.
Mostly women and children.
Murdered in a camp designated by Israel as a safe area.
People. Human beings. With families and friends. With joy and love, hopes and dreams. People who had traveled miles and miles in hopes of surviving this brutal genocide. People who had fled into an area meant for refugees, meant to be safe. People starving in crowded inhumane tents, just trying to hold on. They were burned alive by the state of Israel.
A doctor who was at the scene said, “In all my years of humanitarian work, I’ve never witnessed something so barbaric, so atrocious, so inhumane. These images will haunt me forever… And they will stain our conscience for eternity.”
We know that it is our government in the U.S. that is sending the bombs that murdered Palestinians taking refuge in tents. The Biden administration is responsible. Just a few days ago, he said there was no genocide in Palestine. To deny this is a genocide is to make that word devoid of all meaning. To deny this is a genocide is to deny the humanity of the tens of thousands of people murdered since October. And that is precisely what Zionism does; it is a racist ideology that denies the humanity of the Palestinian people. The growing Far Right in Israel, the center of global fascism, celebrates the murder of Palestinian children.
The imperialist capitalist system, based on racism, dehumanization, and brutality denies the humanity of the working class and oppressed people in Palestine, and all over the world. But it’s not just Biden: it’s the bipartisan regime. It’s US imperialism, led by the Democrats and the Republicans. It’s a system built by and for U.S. corporations, U.S. profits; it’s a brutal agreement between U.S. imperialism and the genocidal, murderous state of Israel in order to maintain a U.S. imperialist foothold in the Middle East.
The genocidal Zionist state of Israel must be destroyed.
The capitalist, imperialist system must be destroyed.
Since October we have seen the most obscene brutality against Palestinians by the genocidal Israeli state. Over 40,000 people have been murdered. A whole population is being starved to death. We have witnessed it live on our instagram feeds, on tik tok, in all the images and videos the New York Times won’t run. But the brutality on Sunday — it was beyond anything we have seen before; beyond anything I have ever seen. The screams of terror, the wailing in pain are part of 76 years of apartheid, of violence, of settler colonialism and of genocide. Screams that have also come alongside 76 years of hope, of struggle and of resistance. Of a struggle from a Palestinian people who absolutely refuse to be crushed and who have inspired a global uprising.
These screams do not fall on deaf ears.
We hear you.
We see you.
We vow to keep fighting until you are free, from the river to the sea.
A new anti-imperialist movement is rising up in the center of global empire. We have occupied our universities — demanding that our universities end their complicity with genocide and end their academic and financial ties to the murderous state of Israel. This should not be complicated. Our universities should cut ties with the state that burns women and children refugees alive in tents. Our universities should not be investing in U.S. imperialism.
This movement of university encampments has inspired young people all over the world to stand up; the “student intifada” is spreading all over the world.
In the past few days, we’ve seen tens of thousands protesting at graduations. Millions wore keffiyehs. So many raised their fists, chanting “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!” 1,000 people at Harvard walked out of graduation. One girl was told, “don’t walk with a Palestine flag. It’s not worth risking graduation.” She took out her flag and waved it courageously. The sense of justice, the defiance of injustice, the bravery of this new generation should inspire us all. Calls to free Palestine and end the repression of the Palestine movement echo across the country.
And a generation of Jewish youth are breaking with Zionism, standing for a free Palestine and playing a central role in highlighting the lie that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
Amidst the horror, the absolutely unfathomable horror, there is hope.
At my own workplace at the City University of New York, we gathered hundreds of faculty and staff at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, standing with the demands to divest, to end the repression of the movement and for a free Palestine. In a democratic, rank and file assembly, we voted to go on a sickout on May Day in solidarity with the demands of the encampment and against the repression of the movement. As we stood together in that encampment, chanting free Palestine, I felt a sense of what is possible, but we need to build that into a movement capable of ending the war and fighting against this whole capitalist system.
I know that no amount of pressure on Joe Biden will end Zionism and free Palestine. No amount of pressure on Biden, no amount of “uncommitted” promises will end U.S. imperialism. We’re not uncommitted. We’re sure he is our enemy. We know he and U.S. imperialism are also responsible for the brutality in Rafah. We will not forgive and we will not forget.
But I know the power of the working class. I know that the global working class could stop arms shipments to Israel; we could shut down hospitals when Israel bombs hospitals. We could shut down this whole city, and this whole country. We could stop this genocide.
Our potential power is huge, but our actual power must grow. I think of the weakness of the labor movement: the ways our union leaders have wedded labor to the Democratic Party, a barren marriage in the words of Mike Davis. The product of that marriage has meant unions that are not yet up to the task. Our unions, even those who have said “ceasefire” are still endorsing Genocide Joe. Our unions are not yet up to the task of ending this genocide, of breaking with the Democratic Party and fighting for the international working class.
But the tide is turning.
The working class is mobilizing. There is a political strike at the University of California system against repression and in solidarity with Palestine. In Canada, a union of one million workers has vowed to defend the Toronto encampment against the police.
In some cities in the West Bank workers organized a general strike to protest the tent massacre, closing shops and bringing all of society to a standstill.
The tide is turning. The brutality by the Israeli regime is the brutality of a project in decline; the most violent animals are those that have been wounded.
The majority of people in the U.S. are against this genocide. We must organize at the rank and file, we must discuss and strategize. We must organize democratic spaces to debate, decide, and move forward with an unrelenting struggle against this genocide and this brutal imperialist, capitalist system. Now, more than ever, we must fight for a free Palestine and we need workers at the heart of imperialism who have said ceasefire to call for more than empty words. Rescind your endorsement of Biden, and following the examples of the UC’s and workers in Toronto, strike against weapons to Israel. Now more than ever, we need the unity of students and workers, united to fight this genocide, united in rage, horror and hope in an international struggle for a free Palestine and against the whole imperialist capitalist system.
United, we can stand up and we can bring this whole system down.