Since the beginning of this year, the Israeli state has greatly stepped up its atrocities against the Palestinian people. Not a day goes by without it conducting raids and missile strikes against Palestinians particularly in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as East Jerusalem. Dozens of Palestinians have been shot dead, including children. Hundreds of homes have been demolished, leaving their occupants with nowhere to go. At the same time, the rabidly chauvinist coalition government headed by Netanyahu, installed last December, has gone full steam ahead with its drive to establish Jewish settler colonies in the occupied Palestinian territories. All these moves have been met with fierce resistance by the Palestinian people living in these areas.
People all over the world have protested against the escalating crimes of the Israeli state. Tens of thousands of people have protested in demonstrations in Israel as well. At the end of December, thee United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution accepting the recommendation of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, to refer the issue of the illegality of the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel to the International Court of Justice. The Israeli state is increasingly isolated on the world stage, but it arrogantly continues with and is stepping up its aggression because it is backed to the hilt by US imperialism. US imperialism not only continues to assist Israel to arm itself to the teeth, but it attempts to block every move by other countries in international bodies to condemn or even criticise Israel’s actions.
In January alone, 36 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes and raids, including 8 children. Here are just some of the latest crimes committed by the Israeli forces:
- On 26 January, 9 Palestinians were killed in a single raid on a refugee camp in Jenin. The same day, 2 others were killed in Israeli attacks in Ramallah and East Jerusalem.
- On 5 February, at least 5 Palestinian men were killed in a major raid on the Aqabet Jabr refugee camp. The bodies have not been released by the Israeli authorities.
- On 6 February, a Palestinian teenager was shot in the head and killed during a raid in Nablus.
The Israeli state has been an aggressive and expansionist state since its inception in 1948. It was a creation of Anglo-American imperialism, designed to confront the threat to its interests – in this oil-rich region after World War II. It was set up at the expense of the Palestinian people by expropriating their lands. The Palestinians, who constituted more than 70% of the people in this region, were allotted less than 30% of the land. And even that land was not to be theirs, as right from the start, the forces of the new Israeli state invaded and occupied their lands, and continued to occupy more in subsequent decades. As a result, currently more than 1.5 million Palestinian people are condemned to living out their whole lives in refugee camps scattered across various countries in the region, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. Others who reside within the Occupied Territories are forced to live with the daily threat of raids, demolitions, and brutal, humiliating methods of frisking at the hundreds of checkpoints set up by the Israeli forces.
One of the key aspects of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians is to use Jewish people to establish settler colonies in the Occupied Territories. This move is in direct contravention to the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population to any territories taken over by it. The current Netanyahu government has declared its intention to proceed full steam ahead with this campaign. Currently, there are about 250 such illegal settler colonies with a population of over 6 lakh settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. These are given full armed protection by the Israeli state. At the same time, Palestinians living on their own lands have to apply for permits to build their own houses there and are rarely given permission to do so. A common excuse given by the Israeli authorities to demolish these Palestinian homes is that they were constructed “without permission”!
Meanwhile, in January, US imperialism and Israel conducted their biggest ever joint military exercises together, involving thousands of troops, aircraft, naval vessels and artillery weapons. The clear aim of these war games is to threaten Iran, which has given unequivocal support to the Palestinian cause, and is the biggest obstacle to US imperialism’s hegemonic designs in the region.
Despite the ever increasing atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli state, the Palestinian people continue to step up their struggle against Israeli aggression, in defence of their right to their homeland. In this, they have the support of the Indian people and all justice-loving peoples around the world.
Long live the Palestinian resistance!