This article is based on a talk given in Toronto at Ceasefire NOW: How can we stop the genocide in Gaza?
We supporters of Palestinian freedom have followed the Israeli war in their program of “Mowing the Lawn” before October 7, 2023. We have been horrified and felt helpless by these attempts of Israel to terrorize the Palestinians struggling for their freedom. The Palestinians have tried every which way to defend themselves. They’ve only had sticks and stones as their ammunition. The Israelis answered them shooting the knee caps of a whole generation of youth, and with daily bombardments of their homes in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel’s peace was threatened by a constitutional conflict. And the government and the population refused to address the issue of the Palestinian struggle. It was said that the occupation and daily bombings of two million people in the concentration camp of Gaza, the land takeovers and terrorization of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the oppression of Palestinians in Israel, were all irrelevant to the future of Israel.
Judging history in the context of the class struggle
llan Pappe, a celebrated Jewish historian, said referring to the events of October 7, “We lose our moral compass if we take an event and analyze it without understanding its history, its context and its consequences.”
In other words, as socialists, we must judge in the context of the history of the class struggle.
The class struggle had a strange way of interfering with apartheid Israel’s stranglehold on the Palestinian people. The Hamas guerilla operation was Israel’s miscalculation in underestimating the ability of the “lawn” to mow them back.
The events of October 7 took place in the context of a history of colonial settler occupation by Israelis dating back to 1947 which could not exist without the full support of the United States, its corporations and government. But the Palestinians have had enough of apartheid racism, brutal occupation. The genocide of Palestinians began with the Naqba of 1947 and has mounted into a full and naked war today. It threatens to develop as a war against Arab nations and perhaps even further — because it is a war of colonial occupation.
It is important to understand that the occupied and oppressed peoples who have a long history of struggle will rise again and again until they’ve gained their goal. You friends in the audience from countries under colonial occupation, you can tell us of the history of your battles, and the present context of your liberation struggle. We are in solidarity with you.
Solidarity key to liberation
In the Jewish Holocaust which I survived, the Jewish people organized an armed resistance and fought the Nazis as best they could. The resistance allied with anyone and everyone who stood with them against the racist Nazis. The Palestinians have a right to ally with anyone and everyone who stands against for their rights and against the oppression and occupation.
The most important issue in the struggle against the Nazis, was unity – not only among the Jews. It was the unity of the French people, not all of them, but many. We also had ghetto struggles, the most celebrated was the Warsaw ghetto. The resisters were a small group. They fought with all they had, some guns and knives, sticks and stones.
Liberation from the Nazi colonial project has an entirely different story from the Palestinian one. But survival and victory were successful due to solidarity against the Nazis.
For the Palestinians, the worlds’ unity and insistence on a cease fire and ending the occupation are crucial. The tools of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions are vital. The unions can make a difference in this campaign. They could have a significant impact on Israel’s economy.
Jewish people say, Not in our Name
Today, Jewish people, where ever they are in the world, are in the forefront of demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinian freedom. Israel commits its crimes, especially against the Palestinians, in the name of the Jewish people. We say, Not in our Name!
Judaism is opposed to racism. Yet, the occupation, the systematic war of destruction is done in our name. That is an unforgiveable Zionist crime against the Jewish people. It is also a crime against the Palestinians and an offence, a violation of solidarity on the peoples of the world.
Here in Canada, politicized stances taken by Canadian so-called leaders have not advanced peace in the region. Instead, they have deepened divisions among Canadians, heightened polarization and contribute to a rise in hate crimes against our communities. They divide and rule that’s what they do.
As Jews, we are devastated by Israel’s actions – not only because we care about Palestinians, our cousins, as human beings, but also because our “safety” is being used to justify indiscriminate violence. This warped argument has been used to fuel 75 years of Nakba, occupation, and apartheid.
Defending Palestinian freedom, we are denounced as self-hating Jews, and as anti-Semitic. In fact, anyone speaking against the racist program of Zionism is slandered as anti-Jewish, and anti-Semitic.
Antisemitism is a serious problem, but it is wrong to characterize those expressing opposition to Israel’s apartheid government’s murderous actions as being antisemitic. Judaism and Zionism are not the same thing. Zionism is a political ideology that emerged from European colonialism in the 1800s; Judaism is a multifaceted religious, cultural, and ethnic identity.
We must challenge the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in Canada. The dictionary definition of anti-Semitism is hatred of Jewish people. But they want to change that definition to mean that criticism of apartheid Israel is anti-Semitic. Yet we are free to criticize our government and other governments.
Many people are under attack for supporting Palestinian freedom. Toronto District School Board’s failure to protect Palestinian students during this crisis is rooted in its approach to antisemitism. We must support the rights of people to discuss the actions of foreign or domestic governments, without being vilified or criminalized. Political expression is central to a free and democratic society. Our Charter of rights must be applied.
We say with all our hearts never again for anyone
I was saved from Nazi death by the solidarity of many individuals and a whole community who understood persecution. They invited and protected thousands of Jewish people and others fleeing the Nazis, living among them until the war ended.
Today, we are a diversity of Jewish people who carry the intergenerational trauma of genocide, and ethnic cleansing. We feel that history very deeply. We stand and act against Netanyahu’s goal of a final solution for the Palestinians. Gaza is a concentration camp and a death camp. Gas chambers have been replaced with bombs, tanks and white phosphorous. We say with all our hearts never again for anyone.
Our unity must include all of us and encompass new recruits against Israel’s crimes. Every voice matters in this struggle. Everyone does what they can, distribute leaflets, write letters, sign petitions, demonstrate, employ the tactics of BDS. Everything helps.
Palestinian freedom is our freedom too. Humanity will not be free until the Palestinians are free!
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