Obama’s visit to Israel in March was designed to reassure Israel that they still play a central role in imperialism’s plans to control the Middle East and Central Asia. It was also an opportunity for Obama to point out to the Zionists that they won’t find a more pliant and servile Palestinian leadership than Abbas and the current Palestinian Authority (PA).
Obama’s speech in Jerusalem on 21 March was deliberately phrased in a pro-Zionist language. Full of distortions and outright lies, it praised the ‘achievements’ of Israeli democracy, equated Jewish culture with Israel and highlighted the shared interests of Israel and the US, only adding the plight of the Palestinians for liberal effect.
Its main thrust was to express US imperialist policy for the region: opposition to the Assad regime in Syria, opposition to Hezbollah and opposition to Iran gaining any nuclear weaponry. Israel and the US, Obama said, shared an interest in ‘the stability of the Middle East and North Africa…together we share a stake in the success of democracy’. And as part of this Obama expressed his support for Abbas and the PA, ‘I believe that you do have a true partner in President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad. Over the last few years they have built institutions and maintained security on the West Bank in ways that few would have imagined a decade ago’. But for this relationship to prosper Israel had to ‘recognise that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace’.
Obama’s visit was met with protests throughout the West Bank as activists denounced his visit and the lack of any real attempt to prevent Israel continuing the expansion of its colonial settlements. In the area known as E1, between East Jerusalem and the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, activists re erected a tent village called Bab Al-Shams first set up in January to protest at the proposed building of thousands of housing units for Jewish settlers. The Israeli army moved in and demolished the tents on Saturday 23 March after Obama had left. Palestinian activists protested on the streets in Hebron and Bethlehem. A street vendor in Hebron said ‘we have been hearing the same lies for 65 years. Obama is a false Messiah and I am not willing to cheapen myself by believing him.’
Palestinian activist condemn British support for Israel
On Tuesday 5 March, just over a week after the death of Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat in Megiddo prison, dozens of protesting students threw stones at the car of the British Consul General to Israel, Sir Vincent Finn, preventing him from delivering a lecture at Birzeit University in Ramallah. Students gathered in front of the Law Institute at the university where he was supposed to lecture to protest at Britain’s continued support for Israel, they displaying placards with slogans that included, ‘Stop supporting occupation’, ‘Prisoners are dying’ and ‘Refugees because of your (Balfour) Declaration’.
On 23 February, 30 year old Arafat had died in Megiddo prison in Israel after suffering torture at the hands of Israeli interrogators. He had been in custody for just five days held firstly in the Al Jalameh interrogation centre after he was arrested on 18 February for allegedly throwing stones at the Israeli occupation forces. The medical report into his death showed he had been tortured. The Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Prisoners Affairs stated, ‘The evidence corroborates our suspicion that Mr. Jaradat died as a result of torture, especially since the autopsy clearly proved that the victim’s heart was healthy, which disproves the initial alleged account presented by occupation authorities that he died of a heart attack.’ The British multinational security company G4S provides security systems and the central control room at Megiddo prison and ‘security equipment’ for the Al Jalameh interrogation centre.
The death of Arafat Jaradat intensified the already growing wave of protests in support of Palestinian prisoners across the West Bank, protests that have been brutally repressed by the Israeli occupation forces. According to OCHA, the United Nations organisation for humanitarian affairs in Palestine, between 19–25 February, at least 440 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank in protests in support of the prisoners. Israeli forces used live ammunition, tear gas and rubber coated bullets against unarmed protesters. OCHA’s weekly ‘protection of civilians’ reports for 2013 show that in the period from the beginning of the year up to 12 March Israel had killed six Palestinians and injured a further 1,257 across the West Bank.
On 17 March Ayman Sharawna, who had been refusing solid food since July was finally released by Israel but immediately deported to Gaza. He had to sign an agreement with Israel to agree to stay in Gaza for ten years. The Israel authorities had been threatening him with a prison sentence of 28 years if he did not end his hunger strike and go to Gaza. Samer Issawi, now the only other long-term hunger striker, has been refusing solid food since 1 August and has up to now resisted the enormous pressure to agree to any deal with Israel that would see him released but deported to Gaza. Samer, like Ayman, had been released in the prisoner swap that took place when Gilad Shalit was released in October 2011 but he was re-arrested in July 2012 for supposedly breaking his release conditions. Samer is a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and he has condemned British imperialist support for Israel. ‘Israel could not continue its oppression without the support of western governments. These governments, particularly the British, which has a historic responsibility for the tragedy of my people, should impose sanctions on the Israeli regime until it ends the occupation, recognises Palestinian rights, and frees all Palestinian political prisoners.’
The Palestinian call for an end to British support for the racist Israeli state has once again been trampled on by the pro-Zionist British Labour Party. Ed Miliband at a meeting organised by the British Jewish Board of Deputies on 7 March was outspoken in his support for Israel declaring that he had ‘huge respect for what Israel does’ and then condemned any call for a boycott of Israel. Responding to a question as to whether he was a Zionist he said ‘The answer to this is yes, because I consider myself a supporter of Israel…I think it’s very, very important that as somebody who supports not only Israel’s right to exist but has huge respect for what Israel does that I count myself in that category’. He then went on to condemn the idea of a campaign to boycott Israel, ‘I think the boycotts of Israel are totally wrong. We should have no tolerance for boycotts. I would say that to any trade union leaders’.
At the same time as Miliband was declaring his support for Zionism, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was busy putting together his new extreme right-wing settler-led government. The Jewish Home Party which won 12 seats in the Israeli elections has been given control of four key ministries including Housing and Industry and Trade. Uri Ariel, one of the leaders of the settlers, is now the Minister of Housing. He has declared that he is committed to forging ahead with plans to expand the settlements in the West Bank as this is ‘represents the will of the Israeli masses’. He declared on Israeli radio that ‘the land they call the West Bank is an inherent part of Israeli territories’ and that ‘we will not abandon our right to build on any part of our land. If the Israeli people are given a choice between exercising their national rights or negotiating with Arabs, they will certainly choose to exercise their right to build on their land.’ The new Defence Minister is Moshe Ya’alon who was Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army in 2002 during the height of the second Intifada. At the time he declared that the ‘Palestinian threat was like cancer’ and the answer was ‘applying chemotherapy’.
The answer to this racist bile is clear: a campaign in Britain that confronts the likes of Ed Miliband and the pro-Zionist Labour Party and builds a real movement on the streets demanding an end to British support for Israel.
Boycott Israeli Goods! Solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance! Release all Palestinian Prisoners!
Bob Shepherd
