The Socialist 16 November 2006

Millions reject war and occupation

Iraq, corruption and wealth gap send Republicans into a tail-spin

Palestine: "No excuse can justify this atrocity"

Join the fightback - save the NHS

Save mental health services

Don't 'unfetter' drug giants

Courts cannot fight far right

Is capitalism killing football?

Fraud hits poor at Christmas

Fight for free education!

Fighting start for the Campaign to Defeat Fees

Respect Organising Fighting Unions Conference

Visteon workers:: Vote 'no' to concessions




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Palestine

"No excuse can justify this atrocity"

ISRAELI PM Ehud Olmert enraged Palestinians by describing the deaths of 18 civilians, killed by Israel tank shells in Gaza last Wednesday, as a "technical mistake". It seems that these "technical mistakes" have killed over 170 civilians in Gaza in the last four months.

Dave Carr

An editorial in Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz stated: "No excuse can justify this atrocity. When artillery batteries aim their shells near a residential neighbourhood, such a disaster is inevitable."

The latest killings in Gaza have led Hamas - the Islamist movement which won a majority in elections to the Palestinian Authority last January - to threaten a return to suicide bombings in Israel after an 18-month unilateral ceasefire. However, senior figures in Fatah - the political rival of Hamas which includes the Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas - stopped short of calling for retaliatory action.

Faced with a desperate economic crisis in the Palestinian areas (due to Israeli, US and EU sanctions imposed on the PA following Hamas's election victory), Fatah's leadership has been pressuring Hamas to join a 'national unity' government with Fatah and accept previous PA agreements with Israel ie. recognition of Israel and ceasing armed attacks, to lift sanctions and gain diplomatic recognition.

Ending the aid boycott and the Israeli blockade would give some relief to the present starvation conditions, but would be far from bringing any resolution to the national conflict.

Only a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel, as part of a socialist confederation of the Middle East, would provide the conditions for a permanent end to the national conflict, and decent living standards for all in the region.