Israel/Palestine

See our publications on Israel/Palestine, and articles on fighting left antisemitism.

“Efforts to silence us serve Israel’s leaders”

Statement from Palestinian members of the national leadership of Standing Together As Palestinian citizens of Israel, our daily existence is marked by systemic discrimination, persecution, neglect, and violence. We live in a state of constant tension, denied recognition of our Palestinian history, identity, and culture. Since the Hamas attack on October 7th, we have been facing a deeply traumatised Israeli society and a political leadership that capitalized on these atrocities to further incite against us. Our situation has become even more untenable, as we face collective trauma and the fear...

Boycott calls are a diversion from solidarity

The profile of calls to boycott Israel has risen since 7 October. The official Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement is playing catch-up with a primarily social media-driven effort, which has now spread to advocate boycott of the most active anti-war movement in Israel, Standing Together. Following the Hamas attack and the Israeli onslaught, people used TikTok and other social media platforms to call for boycott of various brands. At one point, the four being targeted were McDonalds, because an Israeli franchisee provided free meals to the IDF; Puma, as the kit supplier to Israel’s...

Let Gaza live!

Statements by Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant that the “intensive phase” of Israel’s assault on northern Gaza is over, and that it will soon end in Khan Younis in the south, will give little succour to the growing numbers of injured Palestinians, and the friends and families of the growing numbers of dead. Israeli troops remain, and military action could well flare up again. Hamas is far from “destroyed”, will hit more Israeli troops as their pace slows, and “permanent war” is its declared aim. Ongoing and worsening crises of homelessness and lack of basic resources, including medical...

Build alliances for ceasefire and peace

Palestinian socialist activist Sally Abed, one of the leaders of Standing Together, has rightly said: “Whatever the ICJ verdict says, it cannot change the unfathomable, catastrophic dehumanisation and massacres in the context of decades of systematic, violent oppression. It is up to us, the people on the ground, to lead the fight and build the power for change.” From the point of view of its own stated objectives, the Gaza war is going badly for the Israeli government. 22 January saw the highest number of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) casualties since the war began, with 24 killed in a single...

Solidarity, not boycotts

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), one of the organisations at the centre of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has issued a call for a global boycott and no-platforming of Standing Together, a left-wing social movement in Israel, several of the leaders of which are Palestinian. This means a boycott of one of the main anti-war voices in Israeli society. The prime beneficiaries can only be the right-wing government and the settler movement. Nothing about Standing Together’s activity “normalises” Israeli occupation and war...

Catastrophe in Gaza, says Sanders

Bernie Sanders has forced a vote on directing the US State Department to look into whether Israel is using U.S. equipment or assistance to violate human rights in Gaza. He spoke to Jake Tapper on CNN about it on 14 January. What is going on in Gaza right now is a horrendous humanitarian catastrophe. 23,000 people have been killed, almost 60,000 have been wounded, and two thirds of the people who have been killed are women and children. 70% of the housing units in Gaza have been destroyed. If I use the word Dresden, Germany, you think about the horrific destruction during World War Two of that...

Boycott Germany is a nonsense

French writer and Nobel prize winner Annie Ernaux, US academic and writer Judith Butler, and deputy director of the French National Museum of Modern Art Catherine David are the most prominent of the 1,500 signatories to have put their names to the “Strike Germany” statement to date.

Letter: Too weak against US-UK bombings

The title of the Solidarity 696 article “Yemen: Oppose Houthi attacks! No support for US-UK bombing!” is too weak on the Western intervention. The Houthis are a despicable theocratic regime that persecutes religious minorities, locks up 13-year-olds for being gay, steals aid, takes hostages, and uses them as human shields. Nobody with any human decency, let alone the left, should support them. Their attacks on shipping are, in part, a cynical PR ploy to strengthen their support in Yemen and gain recruits. The attacks should be opposed. But we can agitate against the pro-Houthi left without...

Still rejoicing at the pogrom?

Socialist Worker ’s coverage of their annual conference at the turn of the year records that someone queried their headline calling on readers to “rejoice” at the 7 October Hamas atrocity. We aren’t told whether the critic also took up SW’s claims that Hamas took no hostages, only prisoners of war, and attacked only military targets. Or its failure to report the multiple rapes on 7 October. SW reports the response from the platform: it was about “recognis[ing] something transformative has happened. We rejoice in anyone who humbles imperialism”. At the time SW equated the Hamas atrocity with...

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