By DANIEL SUGASTI
Dec. 12—In the midst of the genocidal offensive of the Zionist state of Israel—which has so far killed more than 18,000 Palestinians, 70% of them women and children, and left almost 50,000 wounded—the Palestinian people are resisting with courage. In Gaza, where the shelling and the advance of infantry and armored vehicles are destroying both the north and the south, there are daily reports of casualties of Zionist soldiers and of armored vehicles neutralized by Hamas and other Palestinian militias.
In the West Bank, on the other hand, there have been protests of all kinds, marches, and mass political events, including funerals of those who have been martyred. In this non-Hamas-controlled territory, nearly 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since Oct. 7. Dozens of others have been arrested by the occupation forces. This is yet another fact that proves that this is not a “war against Hamas,” as the Zionist propaganda and its international spokesmen claim, but a genocide against the entire Palestinian nation.
In this context of social uprising against the genocide in Gaza, a general strike broke out in the West Bank on Monday, Dec. 11.
Called by the National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of Palestinian sectors in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the strike condemns the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. They denounce the indiscriminate shelling of civilians, the starvation siege, the tens of thousands of deaths, the forced exodus of 1.8 million Gazans; in short, they denounce the “collective punishment” that has been imposed by Israel. The strike has been powerful, with transportation, commerce, schools, and banks that have all ground to a halt.
Since it is a worldwide call, the general strike has spread to Jordan and could affect other Arab countries.
The organizers, like the various mass demonstrations around the world, are demanding a definitive ceasefire in Gaza. In this regard, Palestinian anger was fueled when, last Friday, the United States and Israel opposed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.
On the other hand, as reported by the Wafa news agency, hundreds of people marched in Ramallah chanting slogans against the “crimes of the occupation and its massacres in Gaza,” carrying banners demanding an end to the war and the forced displacement of Palestinians, and carrying a placard with the names of those killed in Gaza.
From the International Workers League – Fourth International (IWL), we unconditionally support the general strike and express our total solidarity with the Palestinian resistance inside and outside Gaza. May this general strike be a strong impulse for the unity of the Arab peoples who, together with the rest of the world, have the task of defeating the genocidal state of Israel and conquering a united, secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine in all its historical territory. This is a task that inevitably presupposes the destruction of the state of Israel.
May this general strike of the Palestinians be the first step toward a new intifada, which will reverberate in the region and in the world, provoking popular uprisings in the other Arab and North African countries against the governments that are complicit in the genocide perpetrated by Israel.
Photo: Marchers in Ramallah on Dec. 11 carry a list of Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza.