To: Detroit/Seattle
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March 1, 2024
From Seattle Workers’ Voice, March 1, 2024, vol. 7 #4:
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have presently killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, with thousands more missing. The majority killed have been civilians, with roughly 70% being women and children. In addition, some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now homeless due to the Israeli bombings, and they suffer from hunger, lack of water, medical supplies and other necessities because of the Israeli blockade. Meanwhile, Israel has been increasing its establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where it has killed 383 Palestinians in less than five months.
Rafah. This city on the southern border of the Gaza Strip
normally has a population of 300,000. But due to IDF's massive
bombings to the north coupled with orders for civilians to evacuate, by
early February some 1.3 million displaced Palestinians were sheltering
there, often in tents or partially destroyed buildings. Then,
Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu asked the military to plan the
evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in preparation for a
ground invasion. This resulted in some thousands of Palestinians
heading toward the center of the strip on their own.
There were also stepped up Palestinian solidarity demonstrations around the world, while even Biden said Netanyahu's plan was “over the top.” But now, while Israel often mercilessly kills a hundred or more Palestinians a day with its bombings of Rafah, it's unclear whether its threatened ground invasion of the city will happen.
Temporary ceasefire talk. After the U.S. vetoed the February 20 UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Biden turned around to give an interview on February 26 in which he said that he hoped to have a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas worked out by March 2. Israel and Hamas downplayed this possibility, but *Reuters* reported that the Israeli war cabinet has approved a ceasefire for hostages deal, while other news outlets report that the pause will be during Ramadan (March 10 through April 9). But Netanyahu says that after any pause, his forces will press on with the planned ground attack on Rafah.
Starvation. The United Nations has warned that 2.2 million people
in the Gaza Strip are on the brink of [Israeli-caused] famine.
Indeed, Palestinians, especially children, are already dying of
starvation due to the tightened Israeli blockade of the Gaza
Strip. In other words, they're being murdered in Israel's
collective punishment campaign.
And now, in the northern strip, where the famine is worst, on February
29 the IDF murdered in cold blood at least 112 people and wounded 760
as they rushed to get bags of flour from a rare aid truck. These
were the fathers, sons and brothers of families who have been surviving
for weeks by eating animal feed and whatever else they can find.
People are calling it Flour Massacre, and it is a day that will be long
remembered.
But the United States is also guilty of this murder of Palestinians by
starvation. How? By late January nearly the entire Gazan
population was relying on the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for
basic necessities, including food, water and hygiene supplies, and more
than 150 of its staff had been killed by the IDF. But immediately
after the International Court of Justice ruled that the South African
case that Israel was committing genocide was plausible, Israel claimed
that 13 of UNRWA's 13,000 Gaza Strip employees had been involved in
Hamas's October 7 raid into Israel that killed 766 civilians. And
Biden immediately suspended UNRWA funding by the U.S., which was
UNRWA's largest donor.
In this situation, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and France began cooperating to airdrop food into the Gaza Strip during the last days of February. And while airdropping is the most inefficient way of delivering aid, Canada said it would join the effort as soon as possible, and Biden announced on March 1 that the U.S. will also make airdrops.
The United States supplies 70% of all international transfers of major conventional weapons to Israel, and this is a bipartisan policy, a ruling class policy. The reason is that Israel is a key tool in its imperialist strategy to enforce order in the strategically located (e.g., Suez) and oil and gas rich Middle East. Another component of this imperialist strategy is that the U.S. is the main supplier of weapons to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian military dictatorship—reactionaries all. Nevertheless, despite continued U.S. support, Biden and Netanyahu obviously have differences, with Biden's main worry being, “If [Israel] keeps this up with this incredibly conservative government they have...they’re going to lose support from around the world.” Well, the Israeli government has already lost an incredible amount of support around the world, especially among the youth, and that's a good thing!
The movement that has risen in Seattle since October 7 has been very good, but it obviously must be built farther. Everyone can lend a hand in doing this by learning more about Palestine and its history; by talking about Gaza with friends, neighbors, fellow workers or fellow students; by sharing leaflets like this one, and by joining and bringing friends to the solidarity demonstrations and other events.
For a permanent ceasefire!
Lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip!
Massive aid to the starving Gazans!
No more aid to Israel!
Stand in solidarity with Palestine on March 8, International
Working Women’s Day!
920 E Barbara Bailey Way (at the north end of Cal Anderson Park near
Capitol Hill Sta.)
4:00 – 6:00 pm - Speak-out, info fair, and more
6:00 pm - Night March around Capitol Hill
Seattle Workers’ Voice, seattle.com.sg@gmail.com
Watch https://www.facebook.com/groups/128397930515336 [Palestine
Solidarity Committe-Seattle] and
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100081689528945
{Falastiniyat] for more events.
PDF form of this leaflet is at https://www.communistvoice.org/Sea240301.pdf
Picture: Protesters in downtown Seattle on February 24 demand a
ceasefire.
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