Statement on the new Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Recent events in the Middle East, the brutal bombing of Israel and Gaza, which led to the death, injury and psychological trauma of hundreds or even thousands of people, inter-ethnic clashes and pogroms in Israel itself, as well as the confused and often one-sided reaction of the anti-capitalist forces of the world (including many anarchists) prompted us, as anarcho-syndicalists and anti-nationalists, to make this statement.

We strongly condemn the entire chain of actions that led to a real military crisis: evictions of Arab residents from their homes, missile attacks on Israel from Gaza, bombing of Gaza by the Israeli army, acts of violence by Arab and Jewish nationalists. All these acts haven`t and can`t have any justification.

It is quite obvious that the chain of criminal violence has been launched in the power-political interests of the ruling circles of Israel and Palestine. The right-wing Israeli government of Netanyahu and his Likud party, faced with the prospect of losing power, deliberately escalated and provoked the conflict. For their part, the authorities of the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas regime in Gaza considered it necessary to prove themselves "defenders of the national interests" of the Palestinian Arabs, on the eve of the upcoming elections in Palestine. To force the population to gain support for themselves, the ruling circles of all sides resorted to a tried and tested means: fanning nationalism and stirring up military hysteria.

The socio-economic situation of the working people in the region is becoming more and more catastrophic. Israel has gone through months of a despotic, totalitarian lockdown, when people were actually forbidden even to leave their homes and neighborhoods. The country is shaken by political and corruption scandals. Medicine and social services are ruined by neoliberal reforms. The housing problem has not been resolved. Most of the Arab population in Palestine and in Israel itself lives in poverty. In Gaza, it suffers especially from both the Israeli blockade and the totalitarian policy of the Islamist regime of Hamas. All this cannot but cause deep discontent among the disadvantaged strata of Jews and Arabs. To prevent their anger sooner or later from falling on the rulers and the rich, the rulers of Israel and Palestine are increasingly pitting Israeli and Palestinian workers against each other. As always, to the top - power, profit and benefits, to the bottom - suffering, blood and death!

The current military outbreak must be stopped and, one way or another, will be stopped. But this will not lead to a resolution of the conflict. The problems of the region will not disappear anywhere. They are generated by the interests of power and property of the rulers and capitalists of all sides, and can only be eliminated together with them - eliminated by joint struggle and, ultimately, by the social revolution of Jewish and Arab workers, ordinary Israelis and Palestinians.

The path to this decision is difficult and long. Too much despair, too fresh the smell of spilled blood, the minds of ordinary people are too much poisoned by Israeli (Zionist) and Arab nationalisms, emotions are too raging today. But there is no other road to peace in the long-suffering region, and there cannot be. And the joint actions of Jews and Arabs for peace that are already taking place today - however small they may be - give us hope that someday it will be so.

NO WAR! NO TO NATIONALISM, MILITARISM AND RELIGIOUS FANATISM FROM ALL SIDES!

NEITHER ISRAEL, NOR PALESTINE, BUT A JOINT CLASS STRUGGLE OF THE WORKING PEOPLE IN REGION!

Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (section of the International Workers Association in the Region of Russia)