8 May 2014. While Hamas expressed its readiness to sign a ceasefire proposed by Egypt, Israel has begun its military aggression on Rafah. In the early hours of 7 May, the Israeli army shelled part of the over-populated town on the border with Egypt, leaving 18 people dead and dozens wounded. Israel deployed tanks to control Rafah for ‘Operation Rafah’. The border crossing with Egypt closed until Wednesday, preventing access to aid and medical care.
‘Operation Rafah’ aims to fulfil the historical objectives of the Israeli Nazi-Zionism and expel the Palestinian people from their territory. And push them into the uninhabitable area of Al-Mawasi. Armed occupants will then inhabit Rafah. Before the Israeli offensive, Rafah had a population of 200,000. Then, it received the 1.5 million refugees in around 65 square kilometres.
The military operation on Rafah is and will be another war crime that once again exposes Netanyahu’s genocidal character, deepening his isolation. The UN and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) refuse to intervene in the forced displacement. Even the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has described the operation as ‘unacceptable’. US imperialism, Israel’s prime ally, has halted 3,500 bomb deliveries to avoid affecting dense urban areas. Biden, who endorsed the genocidal invasion of Gaza, now fears the loss of support from his electoral base ahead of future US elections.
Negotiating under fire: imperialist diplomatic failure
On 4 and 5 May, Hamas reportedly accepted the proposal for a phased truce and a three-stage ceasefire that Egypt and Qatar had proposed. This proposal included the withdrawal of Israel, the military renunciation of Hamas, and the release of hostages. But Netanyahu refused to accept them, calling them ‘a terrible defeat for the State of Israel’. By Tuesday 7, Hamas should have returned to Cairo to conclude negotiations, but this never happened. While seeking to negotiate a favourable truce under fire, Israel resumed the offensive and began military aggression on Rafah alone.
The Israeli state, driven by colonialism, seeks to occupy the entire historical Palestinian territory using military power and imperialist impunity granted for over 70 years. Netanyahu and his far-right religious government do not accept any truce or ceasefire because peace is incompatible with their aims of ethnic cleansing.
Global mobilisations and the imperialist crisis
The colossal student mobilisations in the universities of the USA and Europe have put Joe Biden’s government and its imperialist policies up against the wall. Despite repression, persecution, criminalisation, and thousands of arrests, the camps, occupations, and takeovers are being sustained and extended to Europe. From Columbia University in New York to Barcelona and Amsterdam -among others- the student movement enters the scene to demand a permanent ceasefire and an end to the genocide. They demand that governments and universities break off relations of all kinds with the genocidal state of Israel. University senates -like the University of Barcelona, have already passed motions to break off relations.
This wave shows the growing worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian people, which questions the imperialist policy and still makes a military and political victory of Israel in Palestine impossible. The USA is Israel’s principal ally, together with European imperialism, and has spent billions of dollars on arming its global gendarme in the Middle East. But, struck by the mobilisation and the memory of those against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Joe Biden refuses to support ‘Operation Rafah’, fractures the imperialist bloc isolating Israel. The demos within the Zionist state repudiate Netanyahu for his failure to guarantee the return of the hostages.
For a worldwide mobilisation to support the Palestinian resistance on 15 May!
The encampments, occupations, and takeovers of universities show the way forward. Mass mobilisations in various cities around the world are facing repression and are continuing to spread. Zionism and its allies got bogged down despite the massacre in Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people.
The coming 15 May marks the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, the date of the forced exile of Palestinians from their land following the formation of the state of Israel. The brutal displacement of 750,000 Palestinians, imposed by the Zionists in 1948 and US and European imperialism, was the starting signal for the current massacre. Evicting Palestine, destroying its resources and occupying its territories was their aim. Today, with the genocide perpetrated, they seek to attain that aim 76 years after it began.
The IWU-FI calls to develop united actions and mobilisations around the world to show solidarity and extend students, workers, and people’s actions to defeat the Israeli apartheid regime. We call to fight for all governments to break diplomatic, political, economic, military, and cultural relations with Israel. Let us take to the streets to stop arms shipments and financial aid to the genocidal US fleet from the Palestinian sea! To end the military and hunger genocide, open the border crossings for the entry of humanitarian and medical aid to the wounded and the search for people in the rubble. For an immediate ceasefire! Not to the invasion of Rafah! For the withdrawal of all Zionist troops from the whole historical territory of Palestine from the river to the sea! For the return of all refugees to their land! Israel out of Palestine! For a unique, secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine! Free Palestine from the river to the sea!
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
