5-14-08, 10:14 am
Sixty years of the State of Israel are sixty years of missed opportunities and of struggles for peace, democracy and equality.
The establishment of the State of Israel 60 years ago and the Disaster ('Nakba'), which turned a fundamental part of the Palestinian People into refugees – those are the two inseparable sides of the history that could have been different, if on that same year of 1948 the independent Palestinian state would have been established as well.
The Jewish and Arab communists, while operating underground and struggling against the British rule and for the independence of the country, supported the United Nations General Assembly's resolution of the 29th of November 1947 in favor of the establishment of two states in the territory of the Palestinian Mandate. From that day on, the CPI is consistent in its support of the right of each one of the two Peoples, the Jewish and the Arab-Palestinian, for self determination. From that day on the CPI is consistent in its demand for the establishment of a just and stable Israeli-Palestinian peace, based on the foundation of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the solution of the Palestinian Refugee problem in accordance with the UN's resolutions. The independence of Israel will be completed only with the establishment of independent Palestine alongside it.
The Zionist leadership during the time of the mandate, and the governments of Israel that followed, prevented the establishment of an independent Palestine alongside Israel. In 1948 and during the war of June 1967, they acted in order to implement the chauvinist principle of 'maximum territory with minimum Arabs'. During the War of Independence, the Israeli military destroyed 450 villages and exiled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. During the 41 years of Israeli Occupation, which began in June 1967, the Israeli army has not ceased to seed destruction and cut down the lives of thousands of Palestinians.
The principal and practical refusal to implement the decisions of the United Nations' institutions, to withdraw from all territories occupied in 1967, to dismantle all settlements and establish a just Israeli-Palestinian peace – is the main cause for the absence of peace and security and for the continuation of the bloodshed.
The British imperialism 60 years ago and the American imperialism today, are the main backers and sponsors of the Israeli government's policy of occupations and annexations. At the same time, the imperialism also nurtures the Arab reaction, that in the past opposed the Partition Plan, and today, in service of the American aggression, is developing covert and open relations with Israel, despite the continuation of the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian People and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
The continuation of the Occupation, combined with extreme neo-liberal policies, has made Israel into a state that implements a colonial regime in the Palestinian Territories. But Israel is also implementing in its own territory a form of inner colonialism, which is expressed in extreme socio-economic polarization, accompanied by severe manifestations of racism and discrimination towards its Arab citizens.
The Israeli capitalism is characterized by a high dosage of the militarization of the economy and society, an increasing process of integration in the corporate globalization, and an eroding democracy. For the past 30 years, the political hegemony in Israel has been principally in the hands of the rightwing, whereas the Zionist left has dislodged its social-democratic assets and for the most part obediently trailed behind the right that is called 'center.'
But even in the complex conditions of the Israeli reality, the past 60 years have been also years of important social and democratic struggles, of worker struggles, of struggles against wars and the Occupation and for a just peace, of struggles against the discrimination of women and for the protection of the environment. In the social history of Israel, pages of defiant struggles have been written by the sailors and the workers of Ata Textile Company, by the teachers and the nurses, by the students and the lecturers, by the workers of the seaports and the local municipalities, and by many others. Mass demonstrations have forced governments to concede to the will of the people and establish public inquiry commities. The Arab public, along with the democratic Jewish forces, conducted a public campaign against the military governance, against the land expulsions and the house demolitions, against the delegitimization campaign of the Arab citizens and the transfer plans, against racism and for national and civil equality of the Arab population.
The Communist Party of Israel was and will continue to be an inseparable and agitating part of the class, social, democratic and environmental struggles. It offers the workers, who are the overwhelming majority among both peoples, a vision and a practical way towards a life of peace and security, equality and democracy, economic welfare and social justice.
--Tamar Gozansky is a member of the Political Bureau, Communist Party of Israel
