Attacks on Palestine, Lebanon lead to worldwide protests

Attacks on Palestine, Lebanon lead to worldwide protests

By Larry Hales

July 25, 2006—As the racist Zionist regime, with the total backing of the Bush administration, continues its aerial bombardments of Lebanon, the world clamor to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its attacks on Lebanon grows by the day. Coordinated worldwide actions have been called for Aug. 5 and there will be a protest in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 12, but already there have been massive demonstrations.

Inside Israel itself, 2,500 people marched from Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square to a rally at the Cinemateque Plaza on July 22. The rally was jointly conceived and attended by Palestinians and Israelis. It had an anti-Washington tone, with slogans condemning both George W. Bush and the prime minister and defense minister of the Zionist regime in Israel. There were also calls for Israeli soldiers to refuse to fight.

Students protested in Haifa as well. They numbered 50 and held signs that read, “Unconditional ceasefire now” and “Get out of Lebanon.”

On July 21, thousands of protesters fought police in Cairo and shouted slogans denouncing the collusion of Arab governments with Israel and demanding they not recognize it as a legitimate state.

In Amman, Jordan, 2,000 rallied in support of Palestinians and Lebanon. There were protests in Syria as well as in Iraq. The protests in Iraq condemned the U.S., Israel and Arab governments that give in to their pressure, and were held in the Sadr City section of Baghdad.

Over 100,00 people turned out in the small country of Yemen on July 20 for a demonstration in solidarity with Lebanon and the Palestinian people. (AFX news, Cairo, July 22)

Asia and Europe

In Kolkata, India, the West Bengal Committee of the All India Anti-Imperialist Forum staged a protest on July 24. According to the AIAIF, speakers “pointed out how the belligerent Israeli rulers, in pursuance of their expansionist, aggressive policies against the Arab countries, more so Palestine, have unleashed an all-out offensive on innocent people, damaging the very economic infrastructure of the country of Lebanon and Palestine, violating all norms of national sovereignty and civility. They also highlighted the heinous role of the U.S. imperialist rulers.”

Demonstrations were held throughout Europe as well as Asia. Tens of thousands rallied and marched in cities in Britain, including 20,000 in London. The demonstrations were called by Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Lebanese organizations.

Some 10,000 marched in Berlin, and from Madrid and Barcelona to Paris and Moscow, in Turkey and in other nations, thousands of people came together in solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon.

Many protests in North America

In North America, the largest demonstration was held on July 18 in Dearborn, Mich., home to a large Middle Eastern and Muslim community. Some 10,000 people called for the attacks to cease, calling the onslaught terror.

Some 1,500 rallied in front of the Israeli Mission to the United Nations in New York on July 18. The protesters chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Free, free Lebanon.” Many from the Middle Eastern and Muslim communities attended the demonstration.

Some 500 demonstrators protested on July 21 at a Boston rally, and hundreds more the next day in Chicago. On July 24 a protest was held in Springfield, Mass., outside the Federal Building. The Spring field demonstration was co-sponsored by the Western Massachusetts International Action Center and the Inter national Socialist Organization.

In Buffalo, N.Y., two emergency demonstrations on July 22 and 25 drew both anti-war activists and people of Arab and Muslim descent. Banners and signs made clear that the U.S. government essentially funds the Israeli war for the same reason that U.S. soldiers are sent to die in Iraq: oil and domination of the Middle East.

On the West Coast, 700 rallied in San Francisco on July 13, where four days later Jewish peace groups staged a rally in front of the Israeli Consulate. Some 18 of the protesters were arrested during a civil disobedience action, got citations and were released.

On very short notice, 300 came out July 20 for a protest called by the San Diego Peace & Justice Coalition, with a large con tin gent from the Middle Eastern and Muslim communities.

Hundreds of protesters confronted a pro-Israeli rally in Los Angeles on July 23. The Muslim Students Association, Women in Black, and the Inter national Action Center joined with many students and youth to protest the Israeli fundraiser. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzen egger were featured speakers at the Zionist rally.

Protests were called for many cities in Canada as well—Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton—and were held throughout the weekend.

In Palestine and Lebanon, Hamas and Hezbollah have resisted valiantly, with Hezbollah challenging the Israeli claim to have gained a toehold in south Lebanon. No matter the destruction that has been rained down by high-tech Israeli hardware, which has led to hundreds of civilian casualties, when it comes to putting soldiers on the ground, the settler government has been thoroughly embarrassed by the fighting capabilities of Hezbollah.

Nick Camerota of the Western Massachusetts International Action Center sum med up what the movement in the U.S. should be doing: “We are asking people to take a firm stand on the side of those struggling against imperialism and racism. The U.S. anti-war movement mustn’t confuse or conflate the oppressed with their oppressors. Today we seek to demonstrate that those suffering in Lebanon, Palestine and throughout the Middle East are not forgotten or friendless, and that we and others in this country emphatically support their right to self-determination.”

For the anti-war movement and all those who demand real peace in the United States, there can be no other stance.

From Communists, anti-imperialists - Solidarity with Lebanese and Palestinian people

By John Catalinotto

July 28, 2006--The criminal Israeli invasion of Gaza and Lebanon has awakened protest all over the globe. Along with demonstrations and meetings have come statements from communist parties and anti-imperialist and working-class organizations expressing solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people and their organizations.

The excerpts here give an idea of the range of condemnation of Israel and support for the Palestinian and Lebanese people and their resistance movements, as well as analysis of the crisis provoked by the U.S.-Israeli onslaught upon the peoples of the oil-rich regions of western Asia known as the Middle East.

All described the capture of Israeli soldiers as a “pretext” for the invasion and not its cause.

The political bureau of the Communist Party of Lebanon, which participates in the national resistance movement whose strongest military element is the Hezbollah fighters, issued a statement on July 17. Here are some excerpts:

“This aggression is a part of the Zionist-American plan for the region and is furthermore an act of aggression undertaken with international permission and cover, in particular that of the United States of America, which is using the Security Council and the United Nations as tools with which to exert pressure and control. The aggression also bases itself on compliance and collusion by official Arab regimes and takes advantage of the current atmosphere of political division inside Lebanon.

“Despite the steadfastness [of the resistance] there is an international effort involving the United Nations, Europe, and France under U.S. pressure aimed at securing political benefits from the aggression, such as the implementation of UN Resolution 1559, by holding negotiations and bringing in Israeli and international stipulations under the cover of the continued military operations.

“In the event that this effort fails—and we believe that it will fail because of the high ceiling of conditions set by the Americans and Israelis, in particular their requirement that Hezbollah must be broken up and its role completely ended ... we believe that the military operation will be relatively prolonged and could spread outside Lebanon’s borders . ...

“[T]he fundamental task is to confront the aggression with a comprehensive, cohesive patriotic stance, a stance that reinforces national unity.”

Asian parties

The Communist Party of the Philip pines, currently waging a mass and a military struggle against the pro-U.S. Macapagal-Arroyo regime in Manila, said on July 20:

“Israel’s all-out bombing aims to force Lebanon to its knees and compel it to suppress Hezbollah—a patriotic armed politico-religious group that fought the 1978-2000 Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and supports the Palestinian people’s struggle for self-determination.

“In bombarding Lebanon, Israel also aims to threaten and provoke Syria and Iran who are among the supporters of the Hezbollah movement. U.S. and Israeli authorities have accused Syria and Iran of supplying arms to Hezbollah and hinted that some of the rocket attacks in northern Israel were launched by these countries. The objective is to lay out the justification for a possible invasion of Syria and Iran in the same way the U.S. carried out its all-out invasion and occupation of Iraq.”

Manik Mukherjee of the All-India Anti-imperialist Front (AIAIF) wrote: “The AIAIF unequivocally denounces this act of the U.S. imperialists and their cohorts, as well as the Israeli Zionists, which smacks of machination for escalating aggression over the people of the entire Middle East, in the face of ignominious defeat the U.S. imperialism is experiencing on the soil of Iraq.”

Latin America and Europe

The Communist Party of Brazil called for “the Brazilian peoples and the active progressive forces in our country to mobilize in solidarity towards the Arab countries being attacked.”

The Portuguese Communist Party in a July 13 statement said: “Israel feels encou raged to continue and intensify, under the usual excuse, its terrorist policy with the aim of annihilating the Pales tinian cause, annexing territories, imposing its hegemony in the region, in alliance with imperialism.

“The silence and the complicity of the European Union (EU) and of the United Nations regarding these crimes, that nothing can justify, is unacceptable and constitutes a true insult to human dignity.”

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which later announced plans to send a high-level delegation including its secretary general, Aleka Paparaiga, to Lebanon to show solidarity, wrote on July 14:

“It became evident that U.S. and EU are taking full advantage of the aggressive stand of the Israeli government, targeting people and countries of the Middle East who resist or are not fully in line with their dangerous projects.

“The Communist Party of Greece appeals to the Greek people to use any opportunity to express its rejection of the positions of the Greek government and PASOK [the ruling party—JC] and to vehemently condemn the new attacks of the Israeli army this time against Lebanon.”

Most of these and other communist parties’ solidarity statements can be found in full at solidnet.org.

Other organizations

Workers’ organizations also took strong positions on the new war crisis. Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhary, general secretary of the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, wrote:

“Now we workers and people have more responsibility to continue our collective resistance and agitation for stopping fascist forces from creating further Afghanistan and Iraq and killing millions of millions innocent people. Palestinian and Lebanese people have right to defend themselves. They have a right to fight for their land and freedom.”

The Anti-Imperialist Camp in a July 24 statement also raised the possibility that while U.S.-Israeli aggression was inflicting punishment on the Lebanese, it could also blow up in the aggressors’ faces:

“Lebanon is democratic because its people could liberate itself from Zionist occupation and imperialist predominance thanks to the popular resistance embodied and led by Hezbollah.

“The fresh Zionist aggression against Lebanon must be understood as an element of the U.S.’s Greater Middle East project. Its essence is to subdue the region —whether ‘rogue states,’ popular movements or military resistance groups—by brute military force. ...

“We already can see in Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. first of all lacks the political hegemony to create functioning puppet states according to their model of ‘exporting democracy.’ The more armed aggressions they start the more popular resistance they evoke.” ( www.antiimperialista.org )