It seems that about 10 demonstrators were killed and others wounded last night during the far-right government´s raid on the flotilla, which sailed in protest against the siege of Gaza. Similar to previous protest flotillas, the demonstrators did not endanger, in any way whatsoever, the security of the residents of Israel. This time, helicopters, missile boats and commando forces were sent to confront them, and 200 immigration authority officials were waiting for them at Ashdod port, waiting to deport them from the country.
The government cynically shakes off responsibility. But there’s no need for a “state commission of inquiry” to understand that the responsibility for the killing lies on the shoulders of the government ministers and top officers of the army. While there is a media blackout on many details, we are being given a simplistic picture of events in the press, according to which the IDF soldiers were attacked on one of the boats with various objects. The IDF soldiers should not have been there to begin with, and, in reality, they were used for the political goal of thuggishly liquidating protest, even outside the official territory of Israel. There should be an emphatic rejection of the use – which is common in Israel – of the military and other “arms of security” for the trampling of the right of protest.
The ministers, generals, and their pet journalists attempt to divert attention from the aggressive, destructive and oppressive policy that the Netanyahu-Barak-Liberman government executes, including the siege and occupation themselves, as well as the wild and racist incitement against the Arab-Palestinian population in Israel. The Israeli government, which is made up of warmongers and oppresses the Palestinians, harms with its actions also the long term interests of the residents of Israel.
The only alternative to such disasters and the rest of the atrocities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the building of a wide and united social movement of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, against “divide and rule” policies, against the siege and the occupation, against all kinds of oppression and discrimination, for equal national democratic rights for all, and for the toppling of the corrupt capitalist elites in Israel and the region.
The Socialist Struggle Movement supports the escalation of the protests and will participate in the demonstrations this evening at 19:00 in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, and more demonstrations that are expected in the weekend. We call upon all of you to come and protest along with us, Jews and Arabs, and struggle for the following demands:
- No to the pyromaniac government which ignites the region
- Protest is not terrorism – lift the siege
- Security is not built on demonstrators’ dead bodies
- The racist government – security risk
- This is not security, this is disaster – enough with the lies of the government
- Generals and ministers – enough with the killing of protestors
- Even with missile boats – you will not silence protestors
- Enough with the use of soldiers against civilians
- No whitewashing will help – the siege is terrorism
- Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies
- Jews and Arabs fight against thugs and racists
- Invest in education – not in siege and occupation
- Yes to reconstruction and to medicines – No to more wars
LIFT THE SIEGE / DISMENTLE SETTLEMENTS / BRING DOWN THE WALL / LIQUIDATE SEPARATION / SMASH RACISM / END THE OCCUPATION!
Following approaches from friends and family of Mr Brendan Lillis, a prisoner in Maghaberry prison, who is close to death, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin, Paul Murphy, is appealing to Northern Ireland Justice Minister, Mr David Ford, to intervene with a view to allowing Mr Lillis to spend his last weeks at home on humanitarian grounds.
Pop sensation of the moment, Lady Gaga, has recently topped one billion views of her videos on Youtube. Her new 10-minute music video Telephone is creating quite a stir. The video has been praised as exemplifying “liberated” female sexuality and Lady Gaga herself has been held up in the media, including by feminists, as a “feminist icon and a gender revolutionary” and “a strong symbolic figure… for the openly and secretly flamboyant of all genders and sexualities.”
The education system is in turmoil. In November 2011 John O Dowd, the Sinn Fein Education Minister, announced that school budgets would be cut by £220 million, an 11% reduction over three years. This will have a catastrophic impact on schools.