Final Declaration of the Rome Forum: What Future for Palestine?

The Rome Forum crowned two days of intense work on April 20-21, 2024, with the adoption of this International Declaration, published in Sollevazione.it. Translation: John Catalinotto.

The October 7 operation and the subsequent battles have shown that the Palestinian resistance has strengthened its military capacity and achieved a broader political unity. All of the armed groups are now working together as a united front. The resistance is fighting against the Zionist regime, which is armed and financed by the United States and other Western countries. 

Outnumbered and outgunned, the Palestinian resistance has still inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. The Zionists were forced to continue their operations in Gaza for more than six months without achieving their goals. The Zionist regime left behind more than 40,000 dead or missing, including 14,000 children, and more than 80,000 seriously wounded. Gaza’s civilian infrastructure was systematically targeted and destroyed.

Today, while the Zionists are in retreat, the resistance remains on the battlefield. This is a great defeat for the Zionists — politically, economically and socially. The true nature of Zionism has been revealed to the whole world. Zionism can only exist with massacres, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Now, many around the world not only perceive the Zionists as colonizers but equate their crimes and actions with those of Nazism.

Imperialism wages war on three fronts

The United States and its vassals in the imperialist bloc have decided to wage war on three fronts. The first is in Ukraine, where the U.S., NATO and their local agents are fighting Russia. The second front is in the Middle East, where the Zionist regime, with the support of the Western bloc, is at war with the axis of resistance. The third front is in East Asia, where the United States and its regional allies seek to attack China through Taiwan and the South China Sea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea through South Korea. 

Under the Biden administration, the United States has exacerbated conflicts around the world, destroying proposed peaceful solutions, such as the Istanbul agreement for Ukraine and the revival of the JCPOA [The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal] for Iran and then tightening sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Russia, Iran and numerous other countries. It is clear that behind all three fronts of conflict is the same bloc of Western states — only their local agents change.

The current escalation in the Middle East is in line with U.S. wars against all independent states in the region since the 1990s, when [then U.S. President] George H.W. Bush declared the U.S. plan for a “New Middle East.” In practice, this meant the destruction of any state (which they call “rogue”) that refused to submit to the unipolar world order under U.S. hegemony. 

One by one, the U.S. military targeted and destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and supported the coup in Egypt. They destroyed states and killed millions of people but failed to destroy the resistance. Despite their policy of destruction in the West and Central Asia, they did not achieve their goals.

The West is targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran. Recent escalations and the killing of some 18 Iranian officers and officials since the beginning of the year, led to Iran’s massive military response, which stunned the Zionist regime. Although the situation has stabilized, provocations and escalations will continue because the West, through its Zionist project, seeks the destruction of Iran.

Two critical points must be emphasized:

War is the only way for U.S. imperialism to maintain its hegemony, i.e., a unipolar world. The U.S. is well aware that it cannot remain the leading economic, technological and cultural power. In order to continue to control the world, it has no choice but to open several war fronts and try to destroy the emerging poles of the international multipolar system.

The United States and its junior allies will not hesitate to commit the most heinous crimes, including genocide, to maintain their dominance. From the genocide in Gaza to the mass murder of civilians in Russia, the West will stop at nothing to continue violently reshaping the world in its own image. 

The imperialist West is thus the real threat to humanity and human civilization. Only its defeat will put an end to its barbaric crimes.

Israeli regime’s strategy of death

These two points guide the strategy of the Zionist regime in Palestine. When the Zionist plan to expel the residents of Gaza failed, [Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu announced a new plan for Gaza. This new plan forces Palestinians to live in tents, inside a sealed enclave under constant bombardment, with limited access to food, water, energy, medical care and education. 

Before October 7, the Zionists even scientifically calculated the caloric intake of each Palestinian in order to control the amount of food and “put Gaza on a diet.”  Living conditions continue to deteriorate and the Palestinian people are slowly being pushed to their deaths en masse.

In the West Bank, Palestinians are subjected to raids, killings and pogroms by settlers who kill with impunity. It is in this horrible situation that the conditions were created that led to the Palestinian incursion on October 7. Palestinians are left with no choice but to live in smaller and smaller bantustans or to fight for their dignity and freedom by any means necessary.

We must intensify the struggle against the United States, the European Union, NATO, the Zionist regime and their allies. We must continue to educate the people by persuading those living in the EU and NATO member states that leaving the EU and NATO will lead to a more just and peaceful world. 

We must fight to close U.S. bases in our countries. We must increase our anti-imperialist and anti-war activities and actions. Palestine will be free when Western imperialism and Zionism are defeated. Our contribution to the Palestinian Resistance is the continuous struggle at home and abroad to defeat US-EU-NATO imperialism and Zionism.

Stop World War III – International Coordination for Peace

Rome April 21, 2024