Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 9 October 2024
The genocidal war unleashed by Israel against the Palestinian people since 7 October 2023 has shocked the conscience of humanity.
Words cannot describe the scale of criminality of this genocide. Over 90% of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. Hospitals, schools, and religious places of worship have been specially targeted. Tens of thousands of people have been murdered, the majority of them women and children. Thousands more are reported missing, their bodies lying under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Lakhs have suffered grievous injuries. Children are dying of starvation and preventable diseases. The 22 lakh people of Gaza have been turned into permanent refugees, forced by the Israeli army to move from one part of Gaza to another. No place is safe for them, as the Israeli armed forces wantonly kill them anywhere and everywhere. The jails of Israel are filled with Palestinian youth from the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
Israel is trying to justify its ferocious suppression of the Palestinian people in the name of the “right to self defence”. It portrays the Palestinian people’s just resistance struggle against the occupation of their homeland as an attack on the sovereignty of Israel. The Palestinian people in the occupied territories have every right to resist occupation, and fight for their liberation. Israel, as an occupying power, cannot use the “right to self defence” to justify its continued occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. International law governing relations between countries acknowledges the right to self defence only when a country is defending its own sovereignty – not for defending and perpetuating occupation of other people’s homeland.
Israel has now extended the theater of its genocidal war to Lebanon. First it launched a terrorist attack using bombs planted in pagers and walkie talkies, resulting in many deaths and grievous injuries to thousands of people. This was followed by a massive bombing of the capital Beirut and of other towns of Lebanon. Over two thousand people have been killed. Israel has now launched a ground invasion of Lebanon. According to the Lebanese government, over 12 lakh people have been forced to become refugees in their own country.
In the name of protecting its sovereignty, Israel has launched terrorist attacks against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. There is every likelihood that the flames of war engulf all the countries of West Asia.
The grave situation facing the countries and peoples of West Asia is a direct consequence of the political, financial and military support given by the US to the government of Israel. The US government has given unconditional backing to Israel to carry out the genocide of the Palestinian people and to attack the sovereignty of other countries.
The aggressive actions of Israel, backed by US imperialism, are being resisted by numerous organisations in Gaza, in the West Bank as well as in Lebanon and other neighbouring countries. The imperialist propaganda paints those who are fighting against Israel, in defence of their sovereignty, as terrorists, while justifying the terrorism of the Israeli state as being legitimate self-defence. The truth is being turned completely upside down.
For the past year, justice loving peoples of all countries have come out onto the streets demanding an end to the genocide of Palestinians. There have been massive street protests in the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and numerous countries all over the world. The peoples of all countries have demanded that the US and other governments must immediately stop financing and arming the Israeli state.
The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution by an overwhelming majority of member states calling upon Israel to stop its war against the Palestinian people, withdraw its forces from the occupied Palestinian territories, and ensure that the Palestinian people have their own state. However, Israel refuses to heed the voice of the peoples and countries of the world, because it has the iron clad backing of US imperialism and its allies. In a show of defiance, Israel has even declared that UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez will not be permitted to enter Israel!
India has abstained to vote on the UN resolution calling for an end to the genocide and for stopping weapons sales to Israel. The Indian state is continuing to permit the export of weapons to Israel. These actions constitute a shameful betrayal by the Indian ruling class of the Palestinian people. It is a betrayal of the Indian people, who have always supported the right of the Palestinian nation to self-determination.
For decades, US imperialism has been using Israel as its gun in West Asia, pointed at the Palestinian and other Arab peoples, in order to ensure its complete domination over this region. This is a region rich in oil and natural gas. US imperialism wants control of these precious resources in order to deny its potential rivals access to these resources. Its military, financial and political backing of Israel is an integral part of its strategy to establish its unquestioned domination over the whole world.
The US wants to bring all the countries of West Asia to their knees in submission. In particular it is targeting Iran because Iran has refused to kowtow before the US and is pursuing its own economic and political course. It wants to use Israel to attack Iran and other anti-imperialist forces in the region.
The developments of the past one year have exposed the true face of the US before people of the whole world. It is becoming increasingly clear that the US is the main force blocking a peaceful solution to the problem in West Asia. Voices are being raised even by its allies like France and Japan, calling for an immediate end to arms sales to Israel, and the genocide of the Palestinian people.
The demand of the world’s people for an immediate end to the arming of Israel by the US or any other country is entirely just. So is the demand that Israel and the US must stop their terrorist attacks and military invasions of other countries.
US imperialism has spread the lie throughout the world that Islamic terrorism is the main enemy of humankind. In reality, it is US imperialism that is the most dangerous enemy of humankind today. Its aggressive drive for world domination poses the greatest risk to world peace.
The struggle of the Palestinian people for their national rights deserves the support of all progressive humanity.