STATEMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL WORKERS LEAGUE – FI
The International Workers League-Fourth International expresses its unconditional solidarity with all the left political organizations, associations, and all those fighting for the liberation of the Palestinian people in France, who are today being shamefully attacked by the Macron government. Our organization is committed to the movement fighting for the liberation of the Palestinian people until its conclusion. We defend the struggle for a free, secular, and democratic Palestine, and to that end we advocate strategies of struggle that favor mass actions to confront the Israeli state, such as the first Intifada (1987-1993), the March of Return (2018) and the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), and we unconditionally defend the right of the Palestinian people to engage in resistance.
The response of Western imperialist governments that support the colonial and racist state of Israel is to muzzle those who want to build active solidarity with the Palestinian masses and their resistance to the occupation. We strongly condemn the outrageous actions of the Macron government against allies of the Palestinian cause in France, starting with the unjustified and dishonest attacks against the NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party) and other left organizations.
On Oct. 10, the National Center for the Fight Against Online Hate (PNLH) of the Paris prosecutor’s office referred the case to the criminal brigade of the Paris judicial police to initiate an investigation against the NPA for “apology of terrorism.” On the same day, the senator of the conservative party (Les Républicains), Stéphane le Rudulier, called for the dissolution of La France Insoumise (LFI), the NPA, the Jeune Garde, the Indigènes de la République, and Révolution permanente. They are accused of defending the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation. In doing so, the government reduces all those who want to resist colonial violence to terrorists and seeks to criminalize any action opposed to the Zionist occupation.
We reject these conflations and this fascist rhetoric. We will also defend our democratic freedoms to the end, i.e., the right to express and debate freely on the best way to wage this battle against Israel’s colonial project and to organize active solidarity, as well as the right to demonstrate against the actions of the Israeli state and the governments that support it politically and militarily.
We would also like to point out that, contrary to what many Zionist organizations and governmental parties claim, criticizing the state of Israel is not at all the same as antisemitism. The most striking evidence of this is the growing number of anti-Zionist Jews around the world who have embraced the Palestinian cause and the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against the apartheid state of Israel, as well as anti-Zionist Jewish organizations such as the UJFP (Union juive française pour la paix) in France, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in the United States, and the International Jewish AntiZionist Network (IJAN), to name only the best known.
On Oct. 12, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, sent a telegram to all prefects demanding the dissolution of all pro-Palestinian mobilizations because they were “likely to generate disturbances of public order.” Fortunately, Palestinians in France and all their supporters ignored the prefectoral order and gathered thousands of people in the streets to demand an end to the atrocities in Palestine and an end to the siege of Gaza, where the Israeli army has already dropped more than 6000 bombs in six days.
The measures of the French government repress the Palestinians because they refuse to let their people be massacred without revolt. What disturbs social peace are the actions of a colonial and warlike state that is now threatening to make the Gaza Strip unlivable. Herzi Halevi, Chief of the Israeli General Staff, has declared that “Gaza will no longer be the same. We will reach a situation where the group that runs Gaza will be hit hard, we will dismantle it. And whoever is left there will understand very well that this is not done with the State of Israel.” The IDF is already conducting incursions into Gaza, has ordered the forced evacuation of northern Gaza, and is on the verge of invading the territory.
In the face of these decisions that attack freedoms, that recall the darkest past of the French state, it is more important than ever that we do not remain silent, that we do not allow criminal states and their accomplices to act in silence and ease their conscience in this clearly announced genocide. We express our total solidarity with the organizations under attack. In these moments of repression, it is important to act in a united front with all the organizations of our class that are already involved in this common struggle to defend together our freedoms and create public spaces of debate and protest, so that we can involve more and more sectors in active solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
We insist on the importance of continuing to use our democratic freedoms to explain to our class the history of resistance of a people that they want to erase, and to defend the legitimacy of their struggle. We call for continued mobilizations in France and around the world for an immediate end to the siege of Gaza and for a new Intifada, a movement that galvanizes the Palestinian masses and their allies to end the occupation. We extend this call to student organizations and trade unions to join these mobilizations.
We will always stand with those who fight for freedom, against exploitation, oppression and colonialism, with the Ukrainian people heroically resisting Putin’s murderous invasion, and with the Palestinian people today fighting a survival struggle for their dignity and existence, which we will support with all our might.
End the siege on Gaza now!
Guarantee the right of expression and assembly and an end to repressive measures!
Long live the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people!
For a free, secular and democratic Palestine!
SIGNERS:
• Partito di alternativa comunista (PDAC)-Italy
• Corriente Roja-Spain
• Em Luta-Portugal
• Kirmizi Gazete-Turkey
• International Socialist League(ISL)United Kingdom
• Ligue Communiste des Travailleurs (LCT)-Belgium
• LIT militants in France