
Statement by Socialism or Barbarism International Tendency
On the 25th of March, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution asking for a “long and sustainable cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip, “the immediate and unconditional liberation of all hostages” from Hamas, and the “guaranteed access to humanitarian aid” from Israel to able to attend the medical and humanitarian necessities of the Gazan population. This document gathered fourteen votes in favor and an abstention, corresponding to the United States, who, according to their representative, was because the text approved did not include a direct condemnation towards Hamas.
In response to this resolution, as the Socialism or Barbarism International Tendency, we declare:
1- The call to a cease-fire is a partial victory. On one hand, it represents the position of the main body of the United Nations against the continuation of the brutal military invasion in the Gaza Strip, which further separates Netanyahu’s racist and extreme right government from the rest of the world, constituting an important political stance.
On the other hand, it is partial and insufficient, as it’ll only last for the month of Ramadan and demands the unconditional liberation of all the hostages under the power of Hamas. On this last point, from our political view we defend that in the context of a skirmish for national liberation, it is legitimate to take hostages to demand concessions from the occupying force, especially in the context of forces with very dissimilar capabilities. Added to this, we consider that it would be a tactical error for Hamas to deliver all hostages without Israel compromising to a permanent cease-fire, stopping all the military violence, and retreating all of its troops from the Gazan territory.
In either case, this resolution is a tool that serves to denounce the genocidal military operation that the Zionists are committing in Gaza and adds to the ever-increasing international pressure against Israel’s plan to invade Rafah, an action which, if it were to be executed, would become a massacre, as the city holds 1.4 million Gazan refugees that have been displaced during the war.
2- It’s a fact that the extreme-right Zionist government will not comply with the resolution. Israel has a long history of disrespecting United Nations resolutions, even those issued by the Security Council, which are theoretically mandatory. It would be no surprise if they did the same on this occasion as well. Once the abstention from the vote by the United States was known, Netanyahu officially canceled the visit of one delegation from Israel to the White House, programmed for that very week, in which they were going to discuss alternatives to stopping the invasion of Rafah. This disagreement with his most important historical ally denotes the radicalization towards the extreme-right of the current Zionist government, as well as its insistence on following through with the invasion of that city, evidenced by the intensification of the bombardments days before the votes were held in the United Nations.
3- No trust can be placed in the United Nations or the hypocritical turn from the United States. This call for a temporary ceasefire was approved five months after the start of brutal military aggression, which, to date, has taken the lives of over 32 million people (most of whom were women and children) and has destroyed 70% of all buildings in the enclave (85% in the northern area of the territory). This was not because of the kindness of institutions and international law, on the contrary, it’s the byproduct of a massive international disdain and massive mobilizations against the massacre being committed by the Zionist government in Gaza¸ which has generated enormous pressure on many imperialist governments. This explains the political shift from the United States government, after months of being an unconditional ally of Israel so they may carry on their massacre, now they positioned themselves hypocritically as defenders of the human rights of the Palestinians people. In reality, their main concern is the noticeable loss of young and Arab-American population ahead of the presidential election this November.
This abstention in the Security Council vote, and the growing tensions with Netanyahu’s government are a “smokescreen” to hide Biden’s direct military participation in the conflict, as seen with the deployment of military aircraft carriers in the region to dissuade the intervention of other countries against the invasion of Gaza, or the excessive military support that they provided to Israel during the past months. For example, until the end of November, the imperialist United States had delivered 57,000 artillery projectiles and 15,000 bombs, including more than 5,400 BLU-116 and 100 BLU-109 to the Zionists, whose enormous tonnage explains the incredible degree of death and destruction in Gaza. If we extend the count to the December 25th, the White House has made 244 weapons by cargo plane and another 20 by boat.
4- We must continue mobilizing to force Israel to immediately comply with the resolution. Besides not complying with many United Nations resolutions, Israel also benefits from impunity respecting its disregard for international law, in part due to the sponsorship of the United States and other imperialist states supporting them. For this reason, it’s naive to think that the United Nations or the United States are going to take effective means to guarantee that the Zionists follow this resolution. It’s necessary to maintain and strengthen international mobilizations to demand immediate sanctions against Israel so that it follows the resolution and immediately leaves the Gaza Strip. For example, we have to demand an embargo against the purchasing of weapons and economic sanctions that weaken the offensive capabilities of the Israeli military. Also, we have to pressure national governments to break diplomatic and economic relationships with the genocidal Netanyahu government, as well as demand that the United Nations immediately accept Palestine as a full-fledged member state.
5- Transforming the call for a temporary cease-fire into a permanent one, with the consequent retreat of the Zionist troops from all over the Gaza Strip. As explained in the first point, Security Council resolution is a partial victory, but limited. Given this, we have to demand that Israel fully stops its military aggression against the Gazan population and retires all of its troops from the Gaza Strip. Also, we have to raise an international campaign for the ousting of Netanyahu’s government, as well as the immediate prosecution of his cabinet and the military leadership of his army for war crimes against the Palestinian people.
6- The fight for a united Palestine is reactivated. The extermination campaigns in Gaza and the constant advance of the colonialistic paramilitary groups in the West Bank put into evidence the clear failure of the two states policy agreed upon in Oslo in 1993. Many members of the current extreme right government that Netanyahu presides over, have declared on many occasions their opposition against the formation of the Palestinian state. Despite that, the United States and other main imperialist powers insist that this measure be complied with, even if it means creating a fictitious “state” without any real sovereignty and under colonial oppression by the Zionists (similar to the Bantustans in Apartheid-era South Africa). Russia and China, despite presenting themselves as the “Global South” (in reality they are imperialist nations under reconstruction and construction, respectively), also adhere to this false solution to the colonial and racist oppression that the Palestinian people have been suffering for more than seventy-five years. In contrast, from Socialism or Barbarism International Tendency we reiterate that the liberation of the Palestinian people is only possible with the end of the Zionist state of Israel and, in this place, with the reconstruction of a unified, secular, democratic, non-racist, and socialist Palestine, where all religious practice and ethnic groups of the region can coexist peacefully.