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May 11, 2021
Once again, the Palestinian people are under the fire of repression.
The clashes are multiplying, with a fierce repression by the Israeli police. The State of Israel seeks to divert attention by shelling the Gaza Strip once again, causing dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded.
The evening of May 10 was marked by dozens of rallies and scenes of riot in several towns and villages in the Galilee region (Al Jalil). The city of Haifa was cordoned off by the police. A demonstrator was killed by Israeli police in Lod, near Tel Aviv. In the West Bank, demonstrations in support of Jenin and Ramallah were repressed by the Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu decided to evacuate the military from the esplanade of mosques in Jerusalem, and the annual Israeli celebrations of the 1967 occupation (“reunification” for Zionists) of Jerusalem have been cancelled. The Shebabs (youth) see all this as a victory for their mobilization.
This is happening a few days (May 15) before the commemoration of the Nakba (“the disaster”) of 1948.
Indeed, for over three months, the Palestinian population living within the 1948 borders (State of Israel) has been demonstrating. This intifada in Jerusalem is the expression of the resistance of the families and population against the threats of eviction that respond to the demands of the settlers, who consider that they have an eternal right of ownership of the houses of the locality of Sheikh Jarrah!
For the Palestinians, this new attempt at “ethnic cleansing” is part of the acceleration of Zionism’s policy of apartheid, in the continuity of what happened in 1948. In response to these new provocations, massive demonstrations against the expulsions, against the transfers and for the right of freedom of movement are taking place throughout Palestine, including within the Israeli state, and are joined by many Jewish citizens.
The demonstrations have been violently repressed, but the mobilization has not retreated. The Israeli police use rubber bullets, poison gas, putrid water cannons and stun grenades. On Friday and Saturday, the revolt was massive. While the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, who remain totally discredited, hated and rejected by the demonstrators, are not authorized to intervene in Jerusalem, the U.S. State Department has just called on “Palestine and Israel to de-escalate”. As if the responsibilities were shared! And the United States has used its veto power in the Security Council, preventing even a formal condemnation of Israel’s criminal aggression.
We call on all workers’ and democratic organizations to support the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people and to denounce the ferocious repression by the State of Israel.
Hands off the Palestinian people!
The coordinators of the International Liaison Committee
of workers and peoples (ILC):
Louisa Hanoune, general secretary
of the Workers Party (PT – Algeria)
Dominique Canut, for the national bureau
of the Independent Workers Party (POI – France)