Red Statement: Ceasefire Doesn’t End The Suffering Of Palestine

The annoucement of a ceasefire in the Israeli attack on Gaza has been welcomed by Palestinians as an opportunity to stop the bombs, search the rubble and get much needed food into the area.

But this ceasefire doesn’t stop the genocidal ambitions of the Apartheid regime - this phase is set to last just 6 weeks. The Zionists ultimately want to remove the Palestinians, take Gaza and it’s resources and push the remaining Palestinian people into exile.

After the ceasefire was announced an Israeli strike on a home in Jenin in the Occupied West Bank killed 6 people and on Wednesday this week they killed 62 people.

The Israeli state has said it reserves the right to “re-engage” in Gaza and the far right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has threatened to resign from Netanyahu’s government over the ceasefire.

Over 46,000 have been brutally murdered by Israel since Oct 7th 2023 including 18,000 children. The Lancet medical journal thinks that deaths may be as high as 180,000 when the rubble is eventually cleared. This is genocide.

Gaza lies in ruins - the U.N. has said around 66% of structures, including more than 227,000 homes, have been destroyed. Hospitals have been targeted. 1.8 million people face famine conditions and many families have been on the edge of starvation for months.

That’s why it’s important the international solidarity protest movement stays on the streets - Palestine is still under siege with electricity, food, water, and fuel controlled by the Apartheid regime.

Netanyahu is still a wanted war criminal and we cannot allow Western governments to drop the charges against him, using the ceasefire as an excuse. Trump has threatened Gaza and promises to continue backing his friend “Bibi” Netanyahu just like Genocide Joe Biden did.

The problem is not just this particular Israeli government - the problem is Israel itself. It is a colonial settler state built on occupation and expulsion, on oppression and Apartheid. It has to go.

Only a single, secular, state of Palestine that gives all refugees the right to return can really bring justice for the Palestinian people. “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” as the chant goes.

The Western Empires back Israel because they get an armed attack dog in the resource rich Middle East. To free Palestine we need to take down imperialism - a key product of the capitalist system of corporate competition and greed that spills over into frequent wars.

There’s only one force capable of doing that - the working class. Only an uprising of workers and the poor across the Middle East and in the West can actually take down imperialism.

In Ireland this means continuing the solidarity movement - particularly important considering the new Programme For Government includes a definition of anti-semitism that would criminalise pro-Palestine activists - but also to keep the pressure on the war criminals.

We need to build on the boycott that isolates and weakens the Zionist regime.

But in the long term the only way Irish workers can contribute to the overthrow of imperialism is to take out the Irish state. To win workers to that perspective you need to be a socialist, connecting oppression abroad to the fight for the everyday needs of working class communities at home.

If you don’t make that connection we can’t build an army of workers that can take out our state and actually play a role in undermining imperialism.

The bravery and determination of the people of Palestine, in the face of decades long barbarism, should inspire us all to fight harder against all inequality and oppression wherever we find it, at home and abroad, until we live in a socialist world where workers are in the driving seat and war is a distant memory.

If you agree with our perspective you should contact the Red Network. We have a world to win.