Imperialism and its Zionist outpost have suffered a major blow in being forced into a ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance on 15 January. The Zionist state failed in the primary aim of its genocidal war on Gaza – to crush Hamas and the armed Palestinian resistance. Dozens of fully-armed fighters have emerged following the ceasefire to organise the handover of Israeli captives to the Red Cross, and to be saluted by the population. The celebratory response of the people in Gaza was one of relief, but crucially one of triumph as well: triumph at withstanding months of carpet bombing. Within days half a million Palestinian people had returned to the remains of their homes in northern Gaza.
Whatever the imperialists or the Zionists do now, they will never be able to erase the defeat they have suffered. The war has dealt a massive blow to the spurious prestige of the Israeli state: two-thirds of the United Nations have opposed the war; the International Court of Justice has ruled that the post-1967 extension of Zionist occupation is illegal; the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, while even Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have defined the war as a genocide.
Throughout the genocide both the Tory and now the Labour government have maintained the absolute commitment of British imperialism to the Zionist state. Since its election in July 2024, the Labour government has been unabashed in providing political cover for endless Israeli war crimes. When it announced an arms embargo on Israel in September 2024, it turned out to involve just 10% of existing export licences. In November 2024, Foreign Secretary David Lammy responded to the description of the war as a genocide by saying that ‘genocide’ was a legal term and hence ‘must be determined by international courts’ adding that ‘the way that people are now using those terms undermines their seriousness.’ The UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese properly described Lammy as a ‘genocide denier’ given the wilful Zionist destruction of hospitals, schools, universities, basic infrastructure, and the targeted mass murder of health care workers and journalists.
Throughout, the British media have proved an echo chamber for Zionist propaganda. Images and fabricated stories of the events of the Al Aqsa Flood operation were repeated ad nauseam for months after 7 October 2023; Israeli claims of ‘targeted’ attacks on Hamas fighters quoted uncritically. Both the BBC and The Guardian shamelessly repeated Zionist slurs that any support for Palestine was anti-Semitic. They have given wall-to-wall coverage of the release of the small number of Israeli captives and their reception in Tel Aviv leaving no room to address the appalling conditions that released Palestinian prisoners had faced.
Now the government is tightening the screw on pro-Palestinian protests: hundreds have been arrested since October 2023, many on bogus charges of either terrorism or incitement to racial hatred, and dozens of Palestine Action supporters are held on remand for laudable actions against Elbit and other arms manufacturers. They are political prisoners. The arrest of 77 demonstrators in London on 18 January marks a new phase of repression.
Given that the support British imperialism provides the Zionist state is second in significance only to that from US imperialism, the response of the solidarity movement here in Britain has been appalling. From the outset the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) prohibited any expression of support for armed Palestinian resistance, expelling those who broke their edict and in effect proscribing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (which is not proscribed by the British state) by stopping a meeting which would have been addressed by Leila Khaled. It has platformed speakers who condemned what they call Hamas ‘terrorism’, notably Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, as well as a multitude of trade union leaders. The PSC has also refused to condemn Labour Party Zionism even as protesters surrounded the party offices when the parliamentary party refused to back a ceasefire call in November 2023.
It has shown no interest in defending those who have been arrested at national demonstrations, however spurious the reasons. The capitulation to a Metropolitan Police order not to assemble outside the BBC on 18 January merely spurred the police to put even more restrictions on the relocated protest. The Met will use what it called a ‘serious escalation in criminality’ and the 77 arrests that day to limit future solidarity actions in London. They will have the support of the Labour government. There is little evidence that the PSC or its allies have any appetite for resistance beyond supporting their own leading members against criminalisation.
The ceasefire brings the tasks facing the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain to the fore. Our responsibilities differ from those of the Palestinian resistance. Their immediate enemy is the Zionist state. Ours is the British imperialist state and the Labour government. For months now, the Revolutionary Communist Group has argued that the contribution we have to make to Palestinian liberation is to campaign for the complete isolation of the Zionist state. We have to build an anti-imperialist movement which directly challenges British imperialism’s support for its Zionist ally. This is encapsulated in the demand for political, economic, diplomatic and cultural sanctions. Such a challenge will take different forms:
- a struggle against the Labour government and the British state to end its economic, political and diplomatic connections;
- direct action such as that undertaken by Palestine Action against Elbit and other arms suppliers;
- calling for the unbanning of proscribed Palestinian organisations. US imperialism and the Zionist state have had to treat with Hamas, however indirectly, as essentially state actors. Their status in Britain as a ‘terrorist’ organisation is at complete odds with this. Isolating the Zionist state means recognising the status of those organisations who are leading the struggle against it.
The Labour Party and trade unions are committed to a two-state ‘solution’ which both maintains the Israeli state as an outpost of imperialism, and which rejects the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. There can be no compromise with this position: it is thoroughly reactionary. Yet the PSC refuses to take issue with it because of the funding it gets from Labour supporters and the trade unions. Its statement on the ceasefire calls for an end to British state and corporate complicity yet fails to name the Labour government as the agent responsible. The constant compromises and capitulations of its leadership have done immense damage to the movement as a whole: its main aim has been to close down or isolate real resistance.
The anti-imperialist movement has to be built from the bottom up. We have to end a situation where rallies and meetings have closed platforms and where discussion from the floor is virtually banned. The movement will only succeed if it is open and democratically organised. We have to campaign in support of the increasing number of political prisoners and against all attempts to impose restriction on or criminalise pro-Palestinian actions. We urge you to be part of this.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 304 February/March 2025
