Israeli Socialist to speak in Derry and Belfast

Wednesday May 29, 2002 16:59

by Gary - Socialist Party

Israeli Socialist Speaks Out.. ...Against the re-occupation and for A socialist solution in Israel/Palestine Derry: 8pm Monday 10th June, The Junction Bishop Street Belfast: 8pm Tuesday 11th June Holiday Inn 106 University Street

Derry: 8pm Monday 10th June, The Junction Bishop Street

Belfast: 8pm Tuesday 11th June Holiday Inn 106 University Street

Towards a regional war?
Israel’s bloody re-occupation of parts of the West Bank will turn out to be a disaster not just for Palestinians but for the ordinary people of Israel as well.
Sharon’s methods carried out in the name of “providing security” will only produce a new generation of suicide bombers determined to inflict revenge on Israelis.
Further military incursions, probably into Gaza, as well as the West Bank followed by retaliatory attacks inside Israel are now likely. It is possible that the end result of this escalating spiral of tit-for-tat bloodshed could be a new regional war.
Solutions from below
Neither the right wing Sharon government nor the corrupt Palestinian rulers are capable of offering any way out. The Israeli ruling class will not grant the Palestinians a genuinely independent state and none of the groups leading the struggle on the Palestinian side have either a programme or tactics to bring such a state about.
As in Northern Ireland a genuine solution will not come from the ruling elites, whether it be the ruling class in Israel or the rotten regimes that are in power in the Arab states.
It is only the ordinary people of the region, the working class and impoverished masses in the Occupied Territories and the Arab states and the working class in Israel who can end the conflict.
Developing a socialist struggle
If the Intifada is to be developed into a struggle that can achieve a state for Palestinians it needs to be organised on a democratic basis with committees of struggle organised to allow the mass of the people to take control. It also needs a programme, not just to end the Israeli occupation, but to get rid of the corrupt Palestinian leadership and set up a socialist Palestine.
Suicide bombings and other attacks inside Israel only drive the Israeli population behind the government. An appeal by Palestinians to Israeli soldiers and to the Israeli working class for a common struggle against all the regimes of the area would be a much more effective way of undermining the Israeli ruling class.
Ma’avak Sozialisti is the Socialist Party’s sister organisation in Israel/Palestine. It campaigns among Palestinians and Israelis for a socialist solution – a socialist Israel and a socialist Palestine as part of a wider socialist federation of the region.
Following Sharon’s re-occupation of West Bank towns Ma’avak Sozialisti members in Israel were active on the streets demanding an immediate withdrawal of the IDF from the occupied areas.
Yuval, a member of Ma’avak Sozialisti from Israel, will give a first hand account of the current upheaval in Israel and in the Territories. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear an Israeli socialist give a true account of what is really happening.