HOW CAN

PALESTINE
BE FREE?
Socialist Worker Student Society
O
ver the summer people across
the world reacted in horror
and anger as Israel engaged
in its third brutal assault on Gaza in
five years.
Over 2,200 Palestinians were killed,
including over 500 children. Over
10,000 people were injured and 108,000
people had their homes destroyed by
shelling. Only 10 percent of those who
survived have access to clean water on
a daily basis and it is estimated that it
could take ten years to rebuild Gaza.
Huge demonstrations took place in
many countries against the onslaught and
in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
In Britain tens of thousands took
part in demos across the country and
150,000 people marched through
London on what was the biggest demo
ever for Palestine. Tese marches threw
the politicians on to the defensive and
forced promises to review arms sales
to Israel. Tis is far from enough, but
it shows that campaigns can worry the
government.
How can we stop
the killing and more
future attacks on
Palestine?
One common sense solution is to create
a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli
oneknown as the two state solution.
But in reality as long as Israel exists
there will be oppression and war.
Te Israeli state was created in
1948 on what was then Palestine by
forcing over 750,000 Palestinians from
their homes. Tousands were killed,
hundreds of thousands were displaced.
while it steals more Palestinian land.
Today illegal settlements perforate
the occupied West Bank. Only a few
days after the current truce was agreed,
Israel announced its biggest land grab
in 30 years seizing over 1,000 homes
in the West Bank.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin
Netanyahu recently told Israeli
reporters that there cannot be a
situation, under any agreement, in
which we relinquish security control of
the territory west of the River Jordan,
meaning there will never be two states.

How can Palestine
be free?
Te only solution is to create a single
democratic and secular state where Jews
and Arabs can live alongside each other
in peace and equality.
Only this can give all Palestinians
the right of return to their homes and
land that they were driven from. Tis
isnt a pipe dream made impossible by
entrenched sectarian division. Jewish
people and Palestinians have lived side
by side in the past.
But how can a single state come
about in the face of the awesome power
of Israel and its Western backers?
Te deance of the Palestinians has
been inspiring. But under siege and with
very little military or economic power
they cant beat Israel on their own.
But the recent Arab revolutions
showed that there is a force with the
power to push imperialist regimes back.
Egypts large working class played the
critical role in bringing down hated
dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
For a brief period, at the height of
the Egyptian Revolution, the Rafah
Crossing between Egypt and Palestine
was open. Tis happened because
whilst people protested and struck for
peace, bread and social justice they also
demanded freedom for Palestine
A revolution across the whole region
can break the hold of imperialismand
win liberation for Palestine.
Te future of the liberation of
Palestine lies in a movement across the
Arab world which goes further than
2011 bringing with it freedom not
just for Palestine, but for the oppressed
and exploited of the region.
As socialists in Britain, we should
continue our solidarity with Palestine,
but also ght to topple our rulers here,
who fund Israel and arm it to the teeth.
It is a state built on racismset up as a
state for Jewish people.
Israel became one of the greatest
military powers in the world because
of Western backing. Western rulers use
Israel as a watchdog in the Middle East
to police other regimes and promote
Western interests. Israel isnt there as a
refuge for ordinary Jewish people. It is
there to further Western imperialism.
Its short history is littered with
bloody wars and attacks on its
neighbours. And it can only exist by
denying the rights of Palestinians.
Tere have been decades of attempts to
negotiate with this bloody imperialist
state. Te US, which supports Israel, has
backed up the so-called peace process.
But talks allegedly aimed at securing
a peaceful two-state solution have failed
because Israel does not want to make
any concessions.

The right of return for
Palestinians
Palestinian representatives have even
oered to limit the right of return for
Palestinian refugeessomething they
have no mandate to do. Yet even this
wasnt enough for Israel to agree a
settlement because it doesnt want one.
It wants to keep the talks going
www.swp.org.uk l 020 7819 1178 l swss@swp.org.uk
Protesting outside Downing Street in August
T
he campaign for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
against Israel has a crucial part to
play in turning the massive anger we
saw on the streets worldwide against
the murderous attack on Gaza into
eective action.
BDS was launched by a wide
array of Palestinian organisations,
representing Palestinians who live in
the 1948 territories seized by Israel, and
their brothers and sisters in the West
Bank, the Gaza Strip and Palestinian
refugees worldwide. It is backed by
the Palestinian lecturers union and
Palestinian student unions.
It targets Israel as a racist, colonial
state because of its:
Systematic discrimination against
Palestinians in every area of life
Aggressive colonisation of Palestinian
lands through the building of
settlements in the Occupied Territories,
the blockade of Gaza and the
construction of the Apartheid Wall
Denial of the right of return to the
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
and their descendants who were
ethnically cleansed from their homes
by Zionist militias in 1948
Tis is why BDS is not a boycott that
is aimed simply at Israeli goods that are
illegally produced by Israeli companies
on the West Bank. It is about forcing
on Israel the issue of universal human
rights for all Palestinians.
BDS follows in the footsteps of
the anti-apartheid movement which
targeted South Africa in the 1980s,
by calling for non-violent, democratic
collective action across the world to
isolate and condemn Israel.
It is not campaign which targets
Israeli Jews because of their religious
beliefs. Tere are a growing number of
Jewish supporters of BDS.
Tis means in practice winning our
universities, colleges, workplaces and local
authorities to policies which include:
Refusing to buy or use Israeli goods
and services
Refusing to buy or use goods and
services from multinational companies
which are complicit in Israels
occupation
Boycott, divestment and
sanctions: What can you do?
Campaigning for our institutions to
sell shares in these companies until
they divest from Israel
Refusing to collaborate in academic
partnerships or research projects with
Israeli academic institutions which are
complicit in the occupation
Campaigning for our governments
to impose sanctions on Israel, in
particular to stop the arms trade
which fuels the Israeli war machine
Te most eective forms of BDS
activism are those which seek to enforce
democratic decisions to boycott Israel
within institutions whether trade
unions, local councils or universities and
colleges.
Successful campaigns like these dont
just cost Israeli companies valuable
contracts and undermine Israels
international propaganda eorts.
Tey may also give condence to
workers to take collective action in
solidarity with Palestine. We want to
get to a position where port workers
regularly refuse to unload Israeli ships,
civil servants refuse to handle Israeli
documents, shop and distribution
workers refuse to put Israeli goods on
the shelves.
Some of these things are already
happening BDS campaigners in
Oakland on the US West Coast
persuaded some dockers to respect
their picket line and refuse to nish
unloading an Israeli cargo ship in
August 2014.
Tere is also an important
connection to be made with our own
battles against privatisation. Companies
like Veolia and G4S are complicit in
Israeli crimes. Tey also make a killing
from taking over our public services
and jobs. Another reason to step up the
campaign for kicking them out of our
local councils, colleges and schools.

Israeli universities:
laboratories for the
occupation
Te Israeli army works closely with
research centres in Israeli academic
institutions to produce the technologies
which are used to repress, maim and kill
Palestinians.
Examples include research carried
out by the Technion to develop a
remote-controlled bulldozer used to
destroy Palestinian homes, as well as
methods for detecting the tunnels
which form a lifeline for the besieged
Gaza Strip, and a research centre
developing electro-optics in partnership
with Elbit Systems, Israels largest
military company.
Elbits drones killed 1-000
Palestinians between 2000 and 2010.
Tel Aviv University likewise has a
long track record of direct collaboration
with Israeli military research. Bar Ilan
University is located in the Israeli
settlement of Ariel in the West Bank.
Israeli academic institutions
commonly oer special scholarships
for Israeli soldiers: not only does this
discriminate against Palestinian citizens
of Israel who do not serve in the Army,
it militarises Israeli campuses.

What you can do
Set up a BDS meeting on campus for
students and sta interested in joining
the campaign.
Organise a public meeting to explain
the campaigns aims. You could invite
your student union and campus trade
unions to support the meeting.
Explain the campaigns aims.
Approach student societies and
campus trade unions for support
Investigate whether or to what
degree your institution is engaged in
cooperation with Israeli institutions,
and commence a local campaign to
force disengagement
Campaign in your institution for the
establishment of formal relations
with Palestinian universities, and
formal exchanges of sta and students
at school level, and investigate the
possibility of joint research projects,
or the sharing of lectures and teaching
materials
Read the full guidelines on
http://pacbi.org
Go to www.bdsmovement.net
for more information.
Get in touch with us:
swss@swp.org.uk