Stand with GAZA!

WW photo: G. Dunkel

When oppression makes life a living hell for those who suffer under it, there can be no end to their resistance, whatever the cost.

This is what the Israeli settler state and its imperialist backers, particularly the U.S. ruling class, fail to take into account as they try to bludgeon and squeeze the people of Gaza until they can take no more.

But millions around the world recognize what is going on in Palestine — whose very name is denied by the settler state of Israel. Their hearts go out to the people of Gaza, who are sacrificing everything rather than submit to Israel’s relentless bombing.

They know that the money and weapons provided by the Pentagon have led to an incredibly one-sided struggle. As of July 14, some 172 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli air strikes, 140 of them civilians. One bombing killed 18 members of the same family. Thousands more were wounded. Not one Israeli had died.

Yet the people of Gaza refuse to surrender — again showing their enormous solidarity and courage.

The U.S. and Israel had done everything they could to discredit and disarm the militant Hamas organization, but the people of Gaza responded at the end of 2006 by electing Hamas to run the territory.

This latest Israeli assault comes after the collapse of highly touted talks between Israel and the Palestine Authority, brokered by the Obama administration to supposedly effect a “peace agreement,” but offering nothing new. Hamas and the Palestine Authority then announced on June 2 that they had formed a government of national unity to encompass Gaza and the West Bank.

In less than 10 days, the Israeli attacks on Palestinians had begun — using as a pretext the killing of three Israeli teenagers. Who committed that crime is still not known, but meanwhile scores of Palestinian teens have been killed by Israeli bombs and one was lynched outright by right-wing Zionist vigilantes.

In this issue of Workers World, we report on some of the acts of solidarity with Gaza that erupted in the U.S. and around the world with this latest Israeli onslaught. We also reprint an urgent message from 17 organizations in Gaza that outlines their demands for an end to the oppression they have suffered under Israeli rule.

Now is the time to act! Long live Palestine!