Category: Palestine/Israel

Israel’s West Bank Inferno & the Responsibility of Socialists (I)

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This is the first of a two-part essay that appears in the January/February 2024 edition of Against the Current. The author, Alan Wald, is an editor of that publication and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace since 2016. Wald begins his essay as a review of the recently published book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy” by Nathan Thrall. From that starting point, he addresses some of the most urgent political issues arising from Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack led by Hamas. Wald’s article will be of interest to anyone opposed to the current horror unfolding each day in Gaza as well as those interested in learning more about the history of the issues posed today.

Cuba and the Palestinian Liberation Struggle: An Exchange

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This is an exchange between Karen Lee Wald and Pete Seidman. Wald is a long-time Cuba solidarity activist in the United States; she publishes the “Cuba Inside Out” newsletter. Seidman is a member of the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Blockade of Cuba. The discussion touches on important questions related to the Palestinian national liberation struggle. These issues are being debated by many today, as Israel is carrying out an increasingly genocidal war on Gaza in response to the October 7 atrocious attack by Hamas.

No to Israel’s new Nakba in Gaza (III)

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This is the last of a three-part series. The first detailed how Israel is carrying out a mass dispossession of Palestinians in Gaza — like the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe, that led to Israel’s founding as a colonial settler state. The second documented how long-standing Israeli government policy made possible the the October 7 pogrom by Hamas. This concluding part focuses on what may be a way out of these dire conditions.

No to Israel’s new Nakba in Gaza (II)

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This is the second of a three-part series. The first detailed how Israel is in the middle of carrying out a mass dispossession of Palestinians in Gaza — like the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe, that led to Israel’s founding as a colonial settler state. This article documents how the October 7 Hamas pogrom was made possible by long-standing Israeli government policy.

‘End Oppression of One People by Another’ (II)

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This is the second of two parts of an interview with Palestinian American scholar Rashid Khalidi on the dynamics of the crisis unfolding in the Mideast. Khalidi lays bare Washington’s complicity and responsibility for the brutal war on Gaza, unleashed by Tel Aviv in response to the October 7 pogrom by Hamas. The war on Gaza, marked by increasingly genocidal death and destruction with no end in sight, has already claimed the lives of over 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children.

‘End Oppression of One People by Another’ (I)

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This is the first of two parts of an interview with Palestinian American scholar Rashid Khalidi on the dynamics of the crisis unfolding in the Mideast. Khalidi lays bare Washington’s complicity and responsibility for the brutal war on Gaza, unleashed by Tel Aviv in response to the October 7 pogrom by Hamas. The war on Gaza, marked by increasingly genocidal death and destruction with no end in sight, has already claimed the lives of over 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,000 children.

Hundreds of Jews, Muslims in Israel Call for Ceasefire in Gaza

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This is an article on an October 30 meeting at a mosque in Haifa, Israel, where the 600 Jews, Muslims, and others present called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The significance of this rare but powerful event can only be understood by considering the atmosphere in which it occurred. Israel is at war, which a large majority of Israelis support. At the same time, the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed a widespread crackdown on anyone opposing the war or advocating peace.

How Can the Jews Survive? A Socialist Answer to Zionism

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One might reasonably ask, what is the value of reviewing a brief pamphlet, written over 50 years ago, that its publisher has now taken out of print? The answer is quite a lot — in light of the brutal October 7 Hamas attack that left over 1,000 Jews and others dead, and the murderous Israeli response that has targeted the entire Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip. Even the title may strike some as jarring today. The Israeli siege of Gaza, the cutoff of food, water, fuel and other necessities, accompanied by a brutal air war, with a ground invasion apparently imminent, pose the real danger of the survival of the 2+ million residents of Gaza as an immediate concern to humanity. Is the survival of the Jews also posed? This review of the pamphlet, “How Can the Jews Survive? A Socialist Answer to Zionism,” delves into these questions.

End Israeli Assault on Gaza! An Eyewitness Account

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This an essay by Fadi Abu Shammalah, the executive director of the General Union of Cultural Centers in the Gaza Strip, written from the the Khan Unis refugee camp in southern Gaza. We are publishing it because it graphically depicts the dire situation the population of the densely populated territory faces, which “threatens Palestinians there with death and destruction that can become genocidal,” as a World-Outlook editorial, titled “Oppose Israel’s War on Palestinians,” pointed out two days ago.

Oppose Israel’s War on Palestinians

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The Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip — cutting off water, food, and electricity to its inhabitants, accompanied by widespread bombings that set the stage for a ground invasion — threatens Palestinians there with death and destruction that can become genocidal.

Working people around the world should do everything in our power to stay the hand of the Israeli government as it mobilizes its military to inflict further devastation on the Palestinian people in response to the repugnant attacks by Hamas. The atrocities by Hamas must be unequivocally condemned.

‘So Long As There Is A Single Palestinian Alive, We Will Claim Our Right to Palestine’

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This interview with Hanan Ashrawi was given to Argiris Malapanis by telephone on April 9, 1991. Ashrawi was in Ramallah, West Bank, and Malapanis in East Jerusalem at the time.
While first published 30 years ago, many of the issues Ashrawi addresses in this interview remain central to the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination that has erupted now again. It is a timely reminder of the political context in which the most recent events have developed.