Many Palestinians in the West Bank, despite being governed by Fatah which has become totally collaborationist in recent years under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, took part in the recent demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of their land.
The demonstrations led to clashes between Palestinians throwing stones and Israeli soldiers firing live bullets and resulted in the deaths of four Palestinians. An Israeli Defence Force spokesperson described these deaths as “regrettable” and then claimed that only rubber bullets were used. An Israeli human rights organisation, Btselem, has described these claims as untrue.
The protests are primarily directed against the settlement building project in East Jerusalem. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon recently visited Israel and called for the settlement programme to be stopped after Israel announced an extra 1,600 homes would be built in the East Jerusalem area, which is still technically part of the Palestinian territories. Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, Ban said “Let us be clear: all settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory, and this must stop.” The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, argued that the settlements could legally continue as Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the state has a right to build houses where it wants.
The belligerent attitude of the Israeli government is too much even for their allies in the US. Hillary Clinton issued a stern rebuke against Israel, accusing them of holding up the peace process by continuing with the settlement building. Despite this, however, Israel knows that the US will continue to support it ultimately whatever it does.
Ban Ki-Moon also demanded that the three year long siege of the Gaza strip be lifted to allow free travel of goods into the territory. Israel claims that doing so would be a threat to its security, but they pointed to a recent relaxation of the border crossing to allow window frames to enter Gaza which are intended to be used for a UN housing project. He correctly described these as a “drop in a bucket of water.” But no UN resolutions will condemn Israel, there will be no threat of sanctions, let alone a “humanitarian” military intervention. These are reserved strictly for the enemies of the US and its Zionist ally. That is why the UN Security Council remains what Lenin called the post-First World War League of Nations – a thieves’ kitchen.
The UN cannot solve the problem in Palestine, but neither can Fatah and Hamas – a revolutionary socialist party must be built that can defeat imperialism and Zionism and establish one socialist state for Arabs and Jews.