Solidarity calls on readers to go to the protests for a ceasefire in Israel-Gaza this coming weekend, 4-5 November, and probably many weekends for months now.
We recognise Israel’s right to defend itself, but oppose the massacre in Gaza. And we are socialists: people who get active, out on the streets, rather than “getting on with our lives” and protesting only privately or by social media.
Secondly, we go to the protests not to blend in and just swell the totals, but to create a profile for a clear and sharp position opposing both Hamas and the Israeli military onslaught.
Conversations tell us that most people on the big protests do oppose both. But at present, without us doing enough to give a profile for that stance, that majority has little way of expressing it clearly.
At the big London protest on 28 October, among the best-resourced groups with placards and chants was the Socialist Workers Party — who do not actually support the slogan of the demonstration (ceasefire)! (They are against a ceasefire by Hamas).
We want a good profile for “two states” (the right of the Palestinians to a real independent state of their own alongside a secure Israel), workers’ unity, peace. One with no taint of the revenge-for-revenge idea that Israel should be wiped out.
We want that because it is right. Having the anti-war demonstrations swung by ambiguous and slippery placards and chants towards a pro (Hamas) war tone is wrong, and will also undermine their ability to press the government.
Pressing the government to back a ceasefire may have effect. We don’t know the relative weight of factors in the Israeli government’s slight drawing-back from its early talk of a huge and almost immediate ground invasion.
Voices for peace on Israel have become louder, while the initial wave for bloodthirsty revenge has receded. Israeli military chiefs will have told Netanyahu to think through operations carefully.
The US and European powers have sought to “hug” Israel by promising support and then counselling restraint. They are worried about Netanyahu’s lack of a workable “endgame”, and about the risk of wider war. Yet the war looks set to run many months, grinding more and more civilian lives as it goes. Every pressure for restraint will be valuable.
Thirdly, even the best demonstrations in Britain can help only in a limited way. The action that most matters is on the ground in Israel-Palestine.
We go to the demonstrations not just to protest, but to help build support for a real movement in Israel-Palestine, the joint Jewish-Arab social movement Standing Together (see pages 2 and 8-9).
We want our readers on the protest in large numbers, and making themselves visible with banners, placards, newspapers, pamphlets, and leaflets, so a positive message of solidarity can make itself heard over the dead-end negative anti-Israel background noise. Join us!