Israeli military blocks aid flotilla
Emily Lyndon, Camden and Haringey Socialist Party
The Israeli state continues to act with impunity. Every day, the media report new instances of people in Gaza desperate for food forced to queue for food facing death and destruction. But there is international solidarity as well. French dockers and activists aboard the Madleen Gaza Flotilla are organising against the continuation of brutal attacks on Gaza.
French dock workers in Marseille refused to load 19 crates of machine gun parts headed for Haifa to be used by the Israeli military. Backed by their trade union federation, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), workers were able to stop the shipment. A statement by CGT general secretary Sophie Binet highlighted that it is unacceptable that CGT dockers should be the ones forced to uphold the principles of international law, calling on governments to immediately block all arms trades to the state of Israel. Following the events in Marseille, dockers in Genoa and Piraeus are also refusing to handle shipments destined to arm the Israeli military.
Freedom flotilla
On 1 June, the Madleen ship launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Catania, Sicily, seen off by local activists in support of their aim to break the siege and provide vital aid needed in Gaza. The last attempt to deliver aid by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was interrupted by drone attacks orchestrated by the Israeli military in May this year.
On board the ship were twelve international activists, including Greta Thunberg and a member of the European Parliament, dedicated to entering Gaza and provide life-saving aid to Palestinians including medicine, food and baby formula following the months-long blockade.
The activists on board knew that the aid they are carrying will not be enough to reach all those who need it, stating that the mission is to bring international attention to the starvation and sickness, due to the lack of aid being allowed into the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli navy boarded the ship, diverted it to the Israeli coast and deported those on board.
Pro-capitalist governments and international institutions have failed to uphold international law and hold the Israeli state accountable for war crimes. We cannot rely on such officials to protect our interests.
Workers and young people have fought back in Britain, defying the government to attend the hundreds-of-thousands-strong protests against the war over the last year and a half. We are fighting back against oppressive governments, war criminals and propaganda by using their collective power to challenge the consequences of capitalist rule.
The Socialist Party fights for:
- End the siege of Gaza and the occupation of all the Palestinian territories. For the permanent withdrawal of the Israeli military from those areas
- Stop funding Israeli state terror – trade union action to stop production and distribution of arms for use by Israeli state forces
- A mass struggle of the Palestinians, under their own democratic control, to fight for liberation
- The building of independent workers’ parties in Palestine and Israel, and links between them
- An independent, socialist Palestinian state, alongside a socialist Israel, with guaranteed democratic rights for all minorities, as part of the struggle for a socialist Middle East
- No trust in capitalist politicians internationally. Fight to build workers’ parties that stand for socialism and internationalism
