Israel/Palestine

Why binary partisanship in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is hurting both sides, and what to do about it. “They shot dad, they shot mom and they shot Avigail” said Michael (9) to his uncle on the phone. On October 7th, when Hamas terrorists invaded their home in Kfar Aza, Michael and his 6 year old sister Amalia were hiding in the closet. Their dad carried their 3 year old sister, Avigail, and ran out of the house, when the terrorists murdered him. For 14 hours Michael and Amalia were closed in the safe room together with the body of their dead mother. Little Avigail managed to release...

The political expropriation of the people of Gaza by Hamas comes not from ancient tradition, but from a swing to the right in recent decades. Israeli politics has swung to the right since the assassination (by a right-wing chauvinist) in 1995 of Yitzhak Rabin, a former nationalist hardliner who had been negotiating with the Palestinians, and even more so since the collapse of serious negotiations in 2001. Palestinian politics has swung to the right, too, with the two swings forming a vicious spiral. When Zionist settlers first started arriving in what was then the vaguely-defined Palestine...

A tweet/X post purporting to depict an IDF helicopter being shot down by a Hamas missile has garnered 9.3 million views. The account supported both Hamas and Russia, and the post is an example of the use of computer-game footage made with Bohemia Interactive’s military simulator Arma 3. Videos propagating false information about the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria are a regular occurrence, and some have even made it to national television. A 2016 research paper on Russian-originated disinformation found a “firehose of falsehood”, with impact increased by a high number of channels and messages...

Israel’s war on Gaza goes on, with over 10,000 Palestinians killed, and close to 30,000 injured. Aerial bombardment continues; Israeli troops and tanks are now deep inside Gaza. Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has intensified, and the Israeli state has launched a crackdown against internal dissent, primarily targeting Palestinian citizens. Over 200 hostages, Israelis and foreign nationals, are still held by Hamas in Gaza, although it is likely some have already died in the bombing. The humanitarian crisis caused by the war becomes more acute by the day, with hospitals...

The below statement was published in the name of multiple Jewish, Arab, and cross-communal organisations in Israel/Palestine, including the left-wing political party Hadash. We – movements, organizations and activists, Jews and Arabs – write these words out of heavy mourning for the thousands of people killed in recent weeks, and out of terrible anxiety for the safety of the abducted and those who will still be harmed in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The brutal massacre carried out by Hamas on7 October left us all – Jews and Arabs – stunned and shocked. In the weeks that have passed since...

It needs to be said: We, the Jewish people who live in Israel, are not going anywhere. Too often we hear calls to “go back where we came from”, or “from the river to the sea..”, and the only answer to that is the simple fact that millions of Jews are going to remain on this land. Like it or not, it’s a fact. And unless you’re supporting a forced transfer or a genocide... we need to work with this fact. Now, we need to understand the completing fact: the Palestinians are not going anywhere as well (hope you listen, Bibi!) And if both people who live on this land, millions of Palestinians and...

The Socialist Workers Party’s immediate response to the 7 October massacre of Israeli civilians (“Rejoice”) and its repeated statements of support for Hamas — all that is aimed at presenting an image of being the most militant “anti-imperialists” in the hope of recruiting people who are appalled by Israel’s horrific actions in Gaza Now, the SWP’s hatred of Israel and Israelis is long-standing. But its “tough-guy” pro-Hamas stance is sheer opportunism and entirely in line with a record of inconsistency and cowardice. The SWP’s forerunners, the Socialist Review group, started out in 1950 on the...

Eric Lee is the founder editor of LabourStart, writing here in a personal opinion column. These and related arguments on the call for a ceasefire are countered by Daniel Randall here. This article is not going to win me any friends. And it may convince no one. But it demands to be written. I oppose the increasingly loud calls here in Britain and around the world for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Let’s be clear: those are not easy words to write. Of course I support an end to the fighting. And not only an end to the current round of fighting. Like all of you, I prefer peace to war, and life...

The Israel-Palestine conflict is rooted in a long history of clashes, a history in which the Palestinians have been repeatedly the losers. In Israel-Palestine, and in the whole Middle East, we are, as elsewhere, for socialism, for workers’ unity and independent politics as the only way to socialism, and for mutual recognition of equal rights as the only workable basis for workers’ unity. That is why we support the Palestinian Arabs’ aspiration to have a real independent Palestinian state, in contiguous territory, where the Palestinian Arabs are a majority, alongside a secure Israel, and aid to...

Barry Finger (“Questioning the call for a ceasefire”, Solidarity 689 ) wants us to support Israel in its immediate military conflict with Hamas. But if there is an abstract case for supporting a state in a war against a clerical-fascist militia, the means by which Israel carries out its side of that conflict puts it beyond support. Israel’s military strategy, which aims to reduce Gaza to a “city of rubble”, means it is not merely making war on Hamas, but on the population of Gaza as a whole. How many Palestinian lives are acceptable collateral in the pursuit of the destruction of Hamas? And...