The destruction of Gaza and what followed did not start on October 7

By Oded Goldreich and Assaf Kfoury

An incendiary war has been raging for more than a year in the Middle East.  It has been indescribably devastating on Gaza and has now extended to the West Bank, to northern Israel and Lebanon, with ominous signs of expanding further into a regional war. This is a war driven by an Israeli government bent on exacting vengeful retribution on all its perceived enemies, unrestrained by its American benefactor and main purveyor of weapons. While this war has been extensively covered by the media, what is mostly understated or forgotten are the circumstances that led to it – a covert decades-long war waged by Israel on the Palestinian people. 

Greek dockworkers blocked the loading of a container full of bullets bound for Israel

On Thursday 17 October, COSCO dockers at the Port of Piraeus detected a container full of bullets that had entered the country via North Macedonia and was bound for Haifa, Israel, to be used in the massacre of the Palestinian and Lebanese people. 

The COSCO dockers, led by their trade union, the Container Handling Workers’ Union at the Piers of Piraeus (ENEDEP), took decisive action to prevent the container from being loaded onto the ship and demonstrated on the spot, calling on the people of the region to join the demonstration.

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers Parties: We stand against the widening of war in the Middle East!

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers Parties

We stand against the widening of war in the Middle East!

We, the undersigned communist and workers parties campaigning for peace and progress in the Middle East, hereby express our most profound concerns over the unprecedented escalation of the situation in the region with the Israeli multi-dimensional attacks on Lebanon and full-scale invasion of the country. This has predictably resulted in the retaliatory missile strikes by Iran on Israeli targets, following on from Israeli attacks on Lebanon and other provocative infringements on Iranian sovereignty.

Online meeting of Palestinian and Israeli communists: Stop the war on Gaza and Lebanon Now!

Stop the war on Gaza and Lebanon Now!

Only by establishing a Palestinian sovereign state will there be peace and stability in the region.

Dear comrades, the Communist Party of Israel and the Palestinian People's Party would like to invite you to an online meeting. We will discuss the escalation in the region, and the situation in Palestine and Israel.

Speakers:

Communist Party of Greece (KKE): Article on the war in the Middle East, Palestine and Israel

ARTICLE by the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE:
 

In the last few months, the whole world has witnessed a generalized attack of the political-military machine of the Israeli state against the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. Most of the bourgeois media, which support Israel, are trying in vain to convince the people that it all started on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing and taking Israeli hostages. The vast majority of the peoples know that the Israeli bourgeois state, with the connivance of the USA and its other Euro-Atlantic allies, has been occupying the territories where, according to the UN resolutions, the state of Palestine should be established and oppressing the Palestinian people for seven decades. 

KKE denounces Israeli attack in Beirut and Haniyeh's assassination

In a statement (here in Greek) concerning the recent Israeli attack in Beirut and the assassination of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) warns about an unpredictable escalation of war in the Middle East. 

 

The statement reads:

"The KKE denounces the new murderous attack by Israel on Beirut which, combined with the assassination of the leader of Hamas in Tehran, leads to unpredictable escalation of the war and a general conflagration in the Middle East.

 

Palestinian and Israeli Communists meet in Ramallah to coordinate struggle against war and occupation

A high-level tripartite leadership meeting was held in the city of Ramallah in July between delegations representing the leadership bodies of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP), and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash).

The meeting reviewed the latest political and battlefield developments considering the ongoing war and genocide to which the Palestinian people are being subjected, especially in the Gaza Strip. It also discussed ways to enhance the struggle and joint action of all three organizations.

Israeli communists: “ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant signals Israel’s rapid decline into a fascist regime"

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Kahn, said Monday that he had request arrest warrants from the court’s judges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with top Hamas leaders. Kahn said that the charges against Israel’s premier and defense chief are for the crimes of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict. 

 

Communists from Israel and Cyprus demand an end to the war in Gaza

Protest in front the UK military bases in Cyprus, January 14, 2024

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus), Stefanos Stefanou, met Friday, May 17, with MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash), member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel, with whom the situation in Gaza and in Israel in general was discussed. 

 

In statements made after the meeting, both Stefanou and Touma-Sliman called for an end to the war and the implementation of the resolutions of the UN on the Palestinian issue.

Communist Party of Greece demands from government the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state

With a written question addressed to the Greek Foreign Minister G. Gerapetritis, the Parliamentary Group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) demands the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

More specifically, according to 902.gr portal, the question submitted by the 21 KKE MPs reads:

 

Communist Party of Israel-Hadash: Netanyahu's fascist government on verge of causing humanitarian disaster in Rafah

“Israel’s fascist government is on the verge of bringing about a humanitarian disaster in Rafah,” Hadash and Communist Party of Israel (CPI) says in a common statement on Monday, May 6.

Protesting far-right Israeli government plans to “bomb and invade the Rafah area on the Egyptian border, which houses hundreds of thousands of displaced people,” Hadash and the CPI warns of “the mass slaughter and humanitarian disaster involved in the bombing of a very small area containing more than a million displaced people.”

Israel: Jewish and Arab workers honored May Day, sent message of proletarian solidarity amid war

Thousands gathered on Saturday, April 27, for the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash May Day parade in Nazareth, this after the police confiscated last Friday equipment and flags from the Hadash and CPI branch in the city ahead of the march.

At Paulus Street in Nazareth, between the red flags and flags of Palestine, banners were carried against the deadly war in Gaza, occupation of the Palestinian territories, US imperialism, capitalism and in favor of the dignity of the working class. Young Communist League orchestras filled the air with the sound of drums.

Israeli left-wing MP Ayman Odeh expelled from the Knesset because he condemned the massacre in Gaza!

The chairman of Hadash-Ta'al left alliance and MP, Ayman Odeh, was removed from the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, following statements against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the devastating humanitarian situation there.

"What the army is doing there is murder, it is a massacre - the starvation of children," Odeh said, adding that "there is blindness of heart and there is blindness of conscience. I appeal to you to be a real opposition against this government and its crimes in Gaza. There is a position regarding October 7, but what the army is doing there is a crime, it is killing, it is murder, it is a massacre". 

McCarthy in the Knesset: Hadash deputy Ofer Cassif expelled from Israeli Parliament

Members of the Knesset committee on Tuesday took a key step toward expelling MP Ofer Cassif (Hadash) over his support for the South African-led International Court of Justice case accusing the Israeli Government of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The following day, the extreme-right, racist Minister of National Security of Israel, Itamar Ben Gvir, published on his social network a photo of comrade Ayman Odeh (Head of the Hadash-Ta'al coalition) with Khalida Jarrar (Palestinian PFLP parliamentarian), with a comment threatening the revocation of Comrade Todeh's mandate.

Ceasefire Now! Thousands protest across Israel calling for release of hostages and Netanyahu’s dismissal

Tens of Thousands protest Saturday night, January 27, in various demonstrations across Israel, demanding the release of hostages, immediate elections, against war in Gaza and the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Protests were held this in several locations across the country. Protests demanding elections were held at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, Horev Center in Haifa, Karkur Junction, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Rehovot, Nes Tziona, Kafr Saba and Caesarea. 

Israel: Communist lawmaker Ofer Cassif faces possible expulsion from Knesset

Seventy Knesset members signed a motion on Monday to support the expulsion of lawmaker Ofer Cassif (Hadash) from the Knesset over his support of South Africa’s petition against the Israeli government at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Cassif announced on Sunday that he would be joining the lawsuit against the war in Gaza in the Hague. More specifically, in his announcement, he claimed:

Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations

On Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations: A Jewish Voice for Peace and PARCEO Explainer

 

What is antisemitism? 

Antisemitism is grave, serious, and totally incompatible with movements for collective liberation, and we stand against it in any form. 

Antisemitism is discrimination, targeting, violence, and dehumanizing stereotypes directed at Jews because they are Jewish. 

Israel: Communist MP Aida Touma-Sliman sanctioned over statements against Gaza War

Aida Touma-Sliman and Ofer Cassif (Photo: Zo Haderech)

Knesset Ethics Committee suspended Wednesday a leading Communist Party of Israel lawmaker, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) from the plenum sessions and committee meetings for a period of two months over statements she made against the war in Gaza.

The Touma-Sliman’s post read: “And they still insist: The ‘most moral army in the world’ does not harm innocents and does not attack hospitals!” That evening, the army spokesman issued an official statement saying that the military is not striking [Palestinian Hospital in Gaza Strip] Al-Shifa.” Touma-Sliman said her words were taken from “repeated Palestinian testimonies in the hospital” that she had given and subject to “the right of freedom of speech given to members of Knesset.”

KKE: Short answers to current ideological-political questions concerning the Israeli attack and massacre against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip

Article by the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE

Short answers to current ideological-political questions concerning the Israeli attack and massacre against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip

From the first hours of the recent military attack of the Israeli state and the massacre against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the KKE took a militant and principled position on the side of the Palestinian people and organized dozens of solidarity mobilizations. The communists led many workers’-people’s mobilizations all over Greece. 

Israel: Communist Party leading member Mohammad Barakeh detained after announcing anti-war protest

UPDATE, 10 November 2023

 

According to the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), after several hours of detention and interrogation, comrade Mohammad Barakeh, was released without restrictions, all other members arrested at the protest were released with restrictions including a distancing from Nazareth for 14 days.  

 

A leading Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and former Hadash lawmaker was detained Thursday morning after he announced a protest against the war in Gaza. Mohammad Barakeh, chair of umbrella organization for the Arab-Palestinian community in Israel, the High Follow-up Committee, called for Arab officials to demonstrate in Nazareth. The general public was not invited to the vigil.