Long live the resistance of the Palestinian and Lebanese people

 Out with U.S. imperialism and NATO

For a socialist federation of the peoples of the Middle East

1 Israel’s bombing and invasion of Lebanon, which in a few weeks left more than a thousand dead and a million displaced, marks a new leap in Zionism’s criminal campaign in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened “a long war that will bring destruction and suffering similar to what we see in Gaza”. A few months earlier, his finance minister, Bezalez Smotrich, had directly urged to “return Lebanon to the Stone Age”.

In the Gaza Strip, which Netanyahu presents as a possible model for the future of Lebanon, there are already more than 42 thousand dead and two million displaced. The Zionist forces systematically attack schools, hospitals and refugee centers and have imposed an iron blockade that prevents the entry of medicines, fuel, water and food. There are days when not a single truck of humanitarian assistance enters the coastal enclave. This is undoubtedly a genocidal operation.

In the West Bank, since October 2023, more than 700 people have been killed in the criminal raids of the Israeli army and the aggressions of the settler gangs, which are armed by the government itself. The colonization of the territories in which the Palestinians live, meanwhile, is accelerating. To this must be added the bombings on Syria and Yemen, and the imminent new attack against Iran.

In short, Zionism leads the region to destruction and “civilised” barbarism.

2 The State of Israel counts, in its criminal crusade, with the endorsement of U.S. and European imperialisms. Despite its hypocritical criticism of the alleged “excesses” of the Israeli forces, Washington continues to provide the bombs that fall on the heads of the Palestinians. US President Joe Biden said in early October, “make no mistake, the United States totally, totally, totally (sic) supports Israel.” The opposing candidate in the presidential race, Donald Trump, is no less explicit in his endorsement of Zionism. As far as European imperialisms, which have firmly sided with Israel against the Palestinian resistance, some of them now want to contain Israel’s further expansion which they fear would impinge on their influence in the region. The State of Israel is a gendarme state of imperialist interests in the Middle East.

In this scenario, there is no room for neutrality: we denounce the genocide in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon, we demand the withdrawal of Israeli troops, we reject the threats against Iran, and we support the resistance against the Zionist occupation. We call for a redoubling of mobilization throughout the world, beginning with the imperialist countries themselves, denouncing the war machine that supplies Israel.

3 In recent years, the Arab bourgeoisies have accelerated their rapprochement with Zionism. Through the so-called “Abraham Accords”, Morocco, the Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized relations with the State of Israel, following the path of Egypt and Jordan. On the eve of the Palestinian resistance operation of October 7, 2023, Saudi Arabia was preparing to do the same. Many of these countries are the same ones that host the U.S. military bases in the region. Hand in hand with the Arab bourgeoisies, only the enemies of the Palestinian and Lebanese people will advance. We warn, also, about the negative role of the Palestinian Authority, which has signed security agreements with Israel and plays a role of containment of the masses and the resistance in the West Bank.

4 There is public discussion of an iminent Israeli and US attack on Iran. Revolutionaries and all those who fight the imperialist wars and massacres have the obligation to come out in force against this offensive. Such an attack will have very bloody consequences for the people of the region. This attack is essential for the long-term plans of the USA and Israel.

Beyond the tensions and differences between Israel, the White House and the European Union regarding the future of Gaza and the appropriateness – or not(In fact)  – of opening a war against Iran, with unpredictable consequences, Western imperialism and Zionism have long been escalating their actions against Tehran (attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria, assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020, reintroduction of economic sanctions, etc.), which deserves an unmitigated condemnation.

We reject the economic sanctions and imperialist provocations against the Iranian people. This does not amount to any political support for the reactionary regime of the ayatollahs, which is the executioner of its own working class and women, as was seen with the death of young Mahsa Amini at the hands of the notorious Morality Police and with the harsh, and often bloody, repression of popular protests.

The intervention of imperialism will not bring democracy nor rights to workers and women, but extend the bloodshed and oppression. Hands off Palestine, Lebannon, Syria, Yemen and Iran. Expel imperialism and Zionism from all the Middle Eastern region!

5 In fact, these attacks are part of a deepening of the militaristic tendencies on an international scale, which have their greatest expression in the inter-imperialist war in Ukraine, but which can also be seen in the tensions in the Pacific between the United States and China.

The context of these growing confrontation is the world capitalist crisis. Western imperialist powers and Japan are striving to preserve their traditional spheres of influence, including the Middle East (and conquer the former USSR periphery) against the inroads of China, by means of protectionism, technological blockade and military aggression. Faced with the difficulties to process the disputes in economic and political terms (bankruptcies, takeovers, diplomacy, etc.), the great powers are increasing their military budgets and the prospect of a third world war is gaining prominence.

As for Russia and China, the permanence of their commercial ties with Israel is evidence of their hypocrisy, manifested even in the fact that their governments have avoided a condemnation of the genocide in Gaza and continue to pressure Hamas and other resistance forces into conciliation agreements with the collaborationist Palestinian Authority.

This scenario demands an independent political intervention of the working class, which assumes that the enemy of the workers to confront is the bourgeoisie of their own country and it places on the agenda the formation of an independent international and internationalist proletarian camp opposed to both capitalist camps.

6 The political limits of the nationalist and Islamist leaderships cannot be an excuse to place ourselves in a field of neutrality in the face of the attacks of imperialism and Zionism. We support the struggle of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance, and we defend the peoples attacked by Zionism and imperialism (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen). At the same time we deny any support to the bourgeois and reactionary governments of these countries. On the contrary, it is necessary to promote the independent organization of the workers and the exploited masses of the regiona as well as their revolutionary struggle, without distinctions of cult or ethnicity, with an internationalist and socialist orientation.

7 The constant territorial colonization of Zionism has finally demonstrated the unfeasibility of the so-called “two-state solution”, supported by all the great powers and the Palestinian Authority, which sought to establish a Palestinian micro-state, fragmented into a thousand pieces and completely encircled by Israel. The failure of this attempt emphasizes the importance of a strategy that reflects the true historical aspirations of the Palestinian masses.

We defend the right of return and a single, free and secular Palestine (a perspective incompatible with the Zionist State of Israel), as part of a socialist federation of peoples of the Middle East. The final and decisive word belongs to the Palestinians themselves and the peoples on the region. To defeat Zionism and imperialism, the greatest guarantee is the uprising of the peoples of the region.

8 We call for the broadest united front against the Zionist-imperialist genocide against the Palestinian people. To redouble the mobilizations. To block the shipment of arms and munitions to the Zionist State (as sectors of workers in Italy, Greece, the United States, etc. are doing). To boycott everywhere the Zionist presence (festivals, sporting events, etc.) and to show support for the Palestinian people. Break commercial and diplomatic relations with Israel.

October 25 – 2024

First signatures:

NAR (Greece)

PO (Argentina)

SEP(Turkey)

TIR (Italy)