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The ongoing genocide in Palestine has completed its 9th month and bombs continue to rain on Palestinians. The death toll exceeded 37,000. There are more than 20,000 missing people, mostly under the debris. Gaza turned into a pile of rubble that will take years to clean up. Two thirds of all infrastructure is destroyed. The economy is halted and a significant share of farms is ruined. The few production facilities are destroyed. Schools, hospitals, cemeteries, and everything else that constitute Gaza were bombed. We know from the testimony of the chief physician of the Al-Shifa hospital, who was recently released after getting arrested last November, the unbelievable extent of Israeli torture of the Palestinians it takes hostage. Israel turned Palestine into hell!  

Israel did not, and could not, do all of this by itself. In particular, the US supplied Israel with over 12,5 billion dollars worth of aid since the onset of the genocide. It created and improved the Iron Dome that gave Israel its impunity. It constructed a pier in Gaza under the guise of humanitarian aid, but aided, instead, Israel in its operations and its soldiers even took part in massacres. It obstructed all attempts to provide relief to the Palestinian people in the United Nations. Likewise, Britain declared its unequivocal support of Israel’s massacres in Gaza in numerous instances. British airplanes have flown countless sorties to provide air support to Israeli operations since December. Britain provided intelligence for the US and Israel during the Nuseirat refugee camp massacre in May. Palestinians and their friends living in France and Germany were repressed, their demonstrations, meetings, Palestinian flags and even keffiyehs were banned! Germany was among the top weapon suppliers of Israel. During the genocide they increased their supplies to Israel ten-fold, let alone cutting it down on. It took Israel’s side in the ICC trial initiated by South Africa. Except Ireland, Spain and Norway, all European countries supported Israel unconditionally, except where imperialism disagreed on a tactical level, such as the Rafah operation and extending the war to Hezbollah. President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, parroted her unconditional support to Israel on every occasion.

And is this all? The post-coup president of Egypt, Sisi, scared to death of Palestinians and Hamas, was already among the principal implementers of the siege on Gaza. He flooded the tunnels sending supplies to Gaza in 2014, further isolating them. After the beginning of the genocide, he drew a line in the sand on forced emmigration of Palestinians to Egypt, without  harming his relations to Israel. Occasionally condemning the massacres, he nevertheless refrained from taking any action to stop it. Saudi Arabia paused its normalization with Israel, but made sure to signal a return to this policy post-war. The United Arab Emirates treated Israel with a favor to help circumvent the blockade of the Red Sea by Yemeni forces of Ansar Allah, building a land bridge from Dubai to Jaffa. This way, the losses of Israel were partially mitigated.

Are we done yet? No. The so-called allies of Hamas, and the guardian of Palestinian people, Qatar and the despotic regime in Turkey are among the supporters of Israel. One should not mistake Qatar as a steadfast ally of Hamas, simply because the political headquarters of Hamas is in Qatar. The relocation of Hamas from Syria to Qatar happened with the approval of the US. Qatar is home to the largest US military base in the region. It did not cease its trade with Israel even during the genocide. The despotic regime clinging on to its rule in Turkey, not only did not close the Kurecik radar base protecting Israel during the genocide, but did not even feign concern over the service of information from this base to Israel. Instead it was busy approving the membership of Sweden to NATO, awarding the NATO members for their complicity in genocide. The toiling people of Turkey protested in the streets for months to halt the trade with Israel, and the despotic regime ignored their call during the first 7 months of the genocide. Once the government saw the pushback in the local elections, it reluctantly announced the end of trade. But it was recently discovered that companies easily circumvented this ban. And, to this day, in the 9th month of the genocide, Israel gets most of its oil from Azerbaijan through Turkey.  

The victory of Palestinian people shall be our victory

All those listed above are open, unconditional supporters of Israel, albeit on different levels. All of them are the enemy of the Palestinian people as well as the toiling people in Turkey. As we repeatedly point out, workers and toilers in Turkey share the fate of the Palestinian people, they are inseparable allies. The bosses that get rich off of the trade with Israel are the very same ones that leech off of us. The soulmate of Zionism is the fascist movement in Turkey, the perpetrator of the massacres in Sivas, Corum and Maras. 

Our fight is for the victory of our ally. Our party, Revolutionary Workers Party (DIP), and its initiative Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism, plans and organizes systematic struggle against the despotism in Turkey, imperialism and Zionism, and we will continue to do so. Because our duties become ever more burning, ever more urgent with the passing days. Unable to secure victory over Hamas and making a fool of itself, Israel seeks to dial up its massacres in Gaza. An extensive land operation in Rafah may double the death toll. A similar failure is faced against Hezbollah in the north, and it seems Israel intends to take the war to Lebanon and perhaps occupy it again. This will only lead to more massacres. Even during its genocide, Israel is able to continue its propaganda efforts in Turkey, even becoming sponsors of festivals. Our toiling people face the pro-Israel propaganda of the opposition leader Ozgur Ozel, claiming Hamas to be a terror organization, as much as they face the hypocrisy of Erdogan’s despotism on Palestine. We are not obliged to endure this humiliation. Let us work tirelessly and make Turkey, West Asia and all of the world a hell for imperialism and Zionism! 

Ever since the onset of Operation al Aqsa Flood on October 7^th, 2023, the Zionists have been raising accusations of rape and sexual harassment of Israeli women by Palestinian freedom fighters. While no video or any other kind of evidence had been made publicly available for this accusation, countless examples of Israeli cruelty – sexual or otherwise – have been flooding social media around the world. Friends of the Palestinian liberation struggle have been demanding the evidence to stop the smear campaign against Palestinian freedom fighters. Zionists, on the other hand, have been raising nothing but unbacked stories to portray Palestinians as barbarians.

One unnamed Israeli paramedic interviewed by the New York Times on December 28^th has been one of the chief sources of this accusation. This medic had claimed to have found evidence of sexual abuse on the corpses of two partially clothed teenage women in the Be’eni settlement upon his investigation after October 7^th. So far, this statement has been among the main pillars of the accusation.

But the recently revealed video footage from the settlement taken by an Israeli soldier on the day of the attack belie this story. The video shows three fully clothed women with no signs of rape or harassment. Of course, it is not known whether the house in the video is the same house that the medic was referring to. Further investigation by Israeli communities themselves have also falsified the claim so far. Upon being contacted by the New York Times again, the anonymous medic declined to comment further, replying elusively that he wanted to put the attack behind him.

Meanwhile, circumstantial and limited visual evidence of Israeli rape, torture, and harassment has been mounting with no impact on the imperialist press. Not a single news article about Israeli cruelty has been released in the mainstream imperialist press, despite the livestreams by the victims themselves and their loved ones. The Zionists worldwide have been outspoken apologists of these well-founded accusations, claiming that indefensible things happen during wars. This double-standard, shameless attitude is enough to demonstrate how much of a sham Zionism rests on.

Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism held a press conference and protested the company named Medkon, which engages in maritime business between Turkey and Israel, on Saturday November 11^th, 2023, in Beylikdüzü, Ambarlı, Istanbul. The action took place in front of the Mardaş Port, which is one of the ports that Medkon Perla and Medkon Çanakkale (the two vessels that belong to Medkon) use to carry cargo to Israel, around the time when Medkon Perla had picked up the load and was about to leave. Israel’s ongoing genocide attempt at Gaza that claimed the lives of about 11.000 Palestinians thus far was condemned in the action. Friends of Palestine also pointed out that the Turkish-Israeli trade was going on undisturbedly, even in a time like this, as if nothing had happened.

Friends of Palestine stated in the press conference that the bourgeoisie who continues its trade with Israel has only one motive, i.e., profit. They also emphasized that the shipment of the goods to Israel, while the massacre in Gaza is still going on, should be thought of in the same way as the Soma mine massacre in Turkey nine years ago, where the refusal of the company to take preventative measures to protect its profits cost the lives of 300 workers. Erdoğan and his despotic regime, who have done nothing concrete since the beginning of the massacre, were also called out, and were demanded to cut all ties with Israel and halt the trade. The real call of Friends of Palestine was, however, on the longshore workers. The longshore workers were called on to take heed from their Belgian class brothers and sisters, take organized action, and refuse to load and unload cargo from the ships that commute between Israel and Turkey. Longshore workers also joined the action and raised their voices against Israel.

 Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism’s spokesman Kutlu Dane made the following statement on behalf of the platform:

Boycott against Israel, freedom for Palestine!

No to trade with the Zionist, genocidal, ethnic-cleanser Israel!

Over 10,500 dead, with 4,300 of them children;

Over 26,000 wounded;

Thousands of people who fled to save their lives but were massacred by bombs dropped from above;

Neighborhoods, streets, a whole infrastructure destroyed by bombs dropped from the sky;

18 hospitals rendered inoperable by fuel blockade;

People massacred, dismembered, their bodies torn apart while waiting around the hospitals that did survive…

Just last night Israel massacred a host of civilians, mostly children, by targeting the Shifa hospital in Gaza.

The culprit for all this is the Zionist State of Israel.

While committing these crimes for a month now, this state has also tightened its blockade on the millions of Palestinians living in Gaza even further, almost depriving them of even drinking water, and thus engaged in genocide. Almost no human necessity has been allowed to enter Gaza throughout this month. If even a few aid trucks have been able to enter, what rendered this possible is actions such as this one, where masses all around the world demonstrated their rage against Israel. In the face of this reaction, Israel has been forced to allow some supplies to enter Gaza, however inadequate.

But this situation does not change the fact that Israel is engaged in a genocide in Gaza, accompanied by a relentless blockade!

And while all this is going on, here today at Marport, hundreds of containers are loaded onto the Medkon Perla, a vessel that belongs to the firm Medon, to reach the Port of Ashdod in Israel in a week. Another vessel that belongs to the same company, Medkon Çanakkale, also regularly carries large cargos to Israel. Many other companies play roles in the trade with Israel. But unlike Medkon, they keep their activities secret. We, Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism, protest mutual maritime trade between the ports of Turkey and Israel!

This trade is rewarding and strengthening Israel, which is strangling the people of Palestine, who are the friends and allies of our toiling people. This allows Israel to carry on with its massacres without any accountability for its crimes. However, defending their land against an enemy supported by the entirety of imperialism, the Palestinian people are asking their friends all over the world to support them in their struggle by any means necessary.

Arming the Palestinian people against its enemy is a legitimate way of support. The Palestinians today understand very well who supplies the weapons they use in self-defense, and who limits himself to the cries of “one minute”, putting on the façade of a so-called protector, and then stabs them in the back.

But as important as this is the boycott, sanctions, and divestment that the Palestinians have been demanding for years. Known as BDS in its acronym form, this set of activities brought the Apartheid South Africa to its knees in the past. It is evident that this act would have important consequences for Israel also, which, like South Africa, also has a relatively small economy. Specifically, today it would be effective immediately in stopping Israel’s massacre.

Therefore, what is needed today is not to keep up with the trade with Israel as if nothing happened, but to block Israel’s access to certain goods and services. The bosses who run the port behind us and send shipments here have proven once again that their only motive is profit, that they cannot have any ethical and conscientious criteria by continuing the trade with Israel in a time like this. The bourgeoisie, who yesterday massacred 300 workers in Soma by declining to take measures to protect their profit, is today supplying necessities from this port to a state that is currently attempting genocide, again to protect its profits.

We call on the workers on this port and all longshore workers of Turkey. Israel is the enemy of us, the workers and toilers. At the heart of capitalism, the system that allows for our exploitation by the bosses, and the robbing of our labor by a handful of parasites, lie the imperialist backers of Israel. When Israel wins, imperialism and capitalism win, and we lose. Therefore, our side is that of the Palestinian people. Let us take heed of the longshore workers in Belgium who refuse to load ships that carry goods to Israel and unite to organize and do the same thing in the ports of Turkey. Do not load the vessels Perla and Çanakkale, do not unload the incoming cargo!

We also call on the government and Erdoğan, who do nothing against the great slaughter the Palestinians face other than uttering lofty words and preparing parades. It is not as if he does not know of the Palestinian people’s call for support. But throughout his stay in power, far from taking steps against Israel, the two countries broke trade records, constantly improved their military and intelligence relations, and were actively approaching one another leading up to the al-Aqsa Flood on October 7^th. The flood caught Erdoğan just in the act of fixing all the quirks with Israel and becoming partners in stealing the Palestinian natural gas. Turkey must abandon this policy immediately and end all military, commercial, diplomatic, and academic ties with Israel.

Of course, this cannot be done by appearing to be on the same side as Palestine but working for the interests of NATO and imperialism, who are siding with Israel. The government that claims to be on the Palestinians’ side must shut down the Kurecik military base used by Israel, not the Constitutional Court. If the parliamentarians in the National Assembly are on the side of the Palestinian people, then they must make sure that the Incirlik Airbase – which was used to load fuel to the aircraft that bombed that very same Assembly on July 15^th – is shut down, reject Sweden’s NATO membership – which is a project to strengthen NATO –and thus give the adequate response to Israel and the US!

We, the Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism, are on the side of the Palestinian people, who are friends to our toiling people. We are fighting for their liberation and their victory over Zionism. We are calling on our people to support this struggle. The Palestinian people will triumph; the imperialists, Zionists, and their local allies will be vanquished!

End the maritime trade of Medkon Perla and Medkon Çanakkale with Israel!

Total mobilization against Zionism in the ports of Turkey!

Cut all commercial ties with Israel!

Cut all military ties with Israel!

Turkey out of NATO!

Shut down the Kurecik and Incirlik bases!

Down with the Zionist State of Israel!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

As of today, the Palestinian resistance forces, led by the Al-Qassam Brigades, have initiated a historic offensive against Israel. Forces moving along a front extending up to 25 kilometers beyond Gaza, surrounding the Gaza Strip, have launched a lightning operation by land, sea, and air. On the first day of the operation, at least three settlements and a number of military posts under Israeli occupation have fallen into the hands of the Palestinian resistance. Clashes continue in about 20 settlements. While the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, spearheads the offensive, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Islamic Jihad also took part in operations. The resistance has taken many Israeli soldiers, including high-ranking Zionist commanders, as prisoners and appears to have seized dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, as indicated by videos circulating online.

It is difficult to predict how the offensive will unfold. The youth of the West Bank, including in Jerusalem, have heeded to Hamas’s call for action, but these actions are still limited in scale. Hezbollah has stated that it is in communication with resistance commanders but has not yet signaled any intention to participate in the operations. It is likely that Israel will launch a major counteroffensive in the near future. Regardless of the outcome of this counterattack, it is clear that this offensive, known as the “Aqsa Deluge,” represents a significant tactical setback for occupying Israel. Furthermore, the presence of captured Israeli soldiers provides the resistance with a powerful bargaining chip, even if the Zionists manage to reclaim the seized settlements.

At the same time, indiscriminate Israeli bombings have begun against Gaza. Already, hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including children, have lost their lives in Israel’s attacks on densely populated urban centers. The death toll in Gaza seems bound to increase. While Western nations shamelessly rush to condemn the Palestinian resistance’s attacks on military targets, Israel started blatantly killing hundreds of innocent people, including women and children. We unequivocally stand with the people of Gaza against these inhumane attacks. Gaza has the right to defend itself!

This offensive have also exposed the hypocrisy of Middle Eastern states, from Turkey to Saudi Arabi, from the UAE to Egypt, who started calling for restraint. Shame on them for calling for restraint when Palestinian people is fighting for their homeland. We call for victory, not restraint. Regardless of the direct military consequences, this offensive, like the Tet Offensive of Vietnam’s brave revolutionaries, will go down in history as a turning point on the path to a people’s liberation. We salute the Palestinian people’s Tet offensive!

Down with Zionist Israel!

Free Palestine from the river to the sea!

Victory or victory!

In the January issue of the newspaper Gerçek (Truth), the Turkish language newspaper of the Revolutionary Workers’ Party (DIP), a piece was published on the reactionary nature of the new Israeli government, established under Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership. Now, for the last few months, this government’s desire to take control of the Israeli judiciary has dragged the country into a major crisis. The most important pillar of this is the draft bill prepared to deprive the Supreme Court of its power to exercise oversight and to give the executive branch a decisive say in the selection of the members of this court. This is another case of rapidly multiplying powers all across the world that defy the rule of law. Moreover, in this way, Netanyahu is trying to avoid corruption allegations against him. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

The arrangement resulted in masses taking to the streets in opposition to the reactionary government. In addition, Israel’s closest allies, both the U.S. administration and the U.S. Jewish community, began to react to this attempt, first diplomatically and then openly. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, also displayed fierce opposition. Finally, inside the Netanyahu government, the Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant went public on Sunday, March 26, stating that this step puts Israel’s security in peril.

Netanyahu’s dismissed the Minister of Defense in response. This led to the sudden eruption of large demonstrations on Sunday, March 26, alongside the demonstrations that have been taking place every Saturday for weeks. On Monday, 80 thousand people took to the streets spontaneously.

In the end, the reactionary coalition at the helm of Israel seems to have stepped back in the face of this backlash. At least for the moment being. Netanyahu announced that the bill was delayed until the next parliament session (that is, mid-April). In doing so, he made another concession to Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of his most reactionary partners, who played an important role in the dismissal of the Minister of Defense. Ben-Gvir, who is sitting in the seat of the Ministry of National Security, has been demanding the establishment of a militia which would answer to him directly and whose purpose would be aggression against Palestinians. And indeed, he got his way.

What does the crisis of Zionism mean for Palestine?

We have just stated the first outcomes of the crisis of Zionism. The fact that Ben-Gvir will have the authority to establish a “National Guard” can only bring about worse massacres for the Palestinians.

However, one should further elaborate on the question. Can a beneficial result come from the sharpening of the internal contradictions of the Zionist enemy and thus weakening it to some extent? To answer this particular question, it is important to know the reasons leading to the resignation of the Minister of Justice in the reactionary government, Yariv Levin, which is the culmination of these internal contradictions. There are two main reasons for the resignation. The first is that the army is also split into two fractions in the face of the bill and this will create some weakness. Secondly, the possibility exists that the disappearance of the “independence” of the Israeli judiciary will lead the soldiers of the Zionist army to be tried in international courts. In other words, one strand of the opposition to the government’s seizure of the judiciary stems from the concern that it will work against the occupation of Palestine and harm Zionism.

The Arab people have succinctly summarized the “democracy” demands in Israeli demonstrations. Israelis are practically saying: “Democracy for us! Apartheid for the Palestinians!” After all, the laws that the protesters are trying to preserve are the ones that are the basis of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment of the Palestinians, administrative detention of the Palestinians, and the Apartheid system in general! There are outlier objections that confront these loves, but they are rather weak!

Wherever there is movement, there is hope!

But it should not be forgotten that the consciousness of the masses does change in action. To say that this struggle of the hundreds of thousands is unlikely to lead to any change in consciousness goes against the great dialectic between practice and consciousness. Something interesting happened in the gigantic mass struggles. The national trade union center in Israel, Histadrut, has recently declared a general strike, although, at first sight, the issue had nothing to do with the class issues. The bosses’ organization immediately opposed this. Perhaps one of the important reasons why Netanyahu took steps to cool the problem was the possibility of the struggle unexpectedly turning into a class struggle. Yes, Histadrut is a Zionist organization. But one should not underestimate the possibility that the general strike would go far beyond the will of the ones who triggered it.

When Netanyahu suspended the issue, the general strike became moot. But, just for now. The question stands: If the Israeli working class were to take part in this gigantic mass action, could both the character of the action and the consciousness of the masses who have carried out the actions transform? The struggle that will be revived after mid-April could provide us with the answer to this question.

On the occasion of the 47th anniversary of “Land Day,” which has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance, activities are held in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories.

On “March 30, Land Day”, which symbolizes the struggle, territorial integrity, independence and freedom of the Palestinian people, the Zionist occupation is being protested in different parts of the world, especially in the Palestinian territories.

On March 30, 1976, Israeli forces seized thousands of acres of land belonging to Palestinians living in the Galilee region of northern Palestine. Thereupon, the Palestinian people started a resistance to protest this usurpation and went on a general strike. Israeli police opened fire on Palestinians participating in the demonstrations, killing 6 people and wounding hundreds. This event has become a symbol of resistance against Israeli seizure of Palestinian land. Since then, March 30 has been known as “Palestinian Land Day”.

March 30 is an important day in terms of showing that the Palestinian lands are under occupation and expressing the existence, unity, territorial integrity, independence and freedom of the Palestinian people against the Zionist occupation. With this tradition that has been going on for 47 years, Palestinians say that they will not give up their homeland, that they will continue their struggle to return to their homeland, and that they will not recognize the Zionist occupation.

The far-right Israeli minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, called for the complete destruction of the Palestinian village of Huwara, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, attacked by radical Jewish settlers.

“I think the town of Huwara should be wiped off the face of the earth,” Smotrich, head of a pro-settler party in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, said at a press conference.

Two days after two Israeli settlers were killed in their cars by a suspected Palestinian gunman, radical Jewish settlers set fire to many houses and vehicles in the Palestinian village of Huwara, killing one Palestinian and injuring dozens.

Israel has been systematically pursuing ethnic cleansing since the Nakba in 1948.

As the Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism, on Saturday, September 10, we gathered in front of the consulate building of Zionist Israel in Istanbul, to condemn Zionist terror and its local collaborators and object the decision taken by the despotic regime in Turkey to appoint mutual ambassadors with Israel. We stand against any measure of so-called normalization with Zionist. To that aim, we held our rally to call the toiling people of Turkey to fight against the despotic regime, imperialism and Zionism.

We stood behind a banner which carried the following battle cry: “Despotic regime invited the Zionist ambassador; the toiling people of Turkey will kick him out! No reappointment of ambassador with Zionist Israel.” Throughout the rally, we voiced our call to struggle untile Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.

In the speech at the beginning of the rally on behalf of the Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism, our comrade underlined that the despotic regime dragged the country towards an alliance of evil, an alliance of humiliation in relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Israel. With the slogans such as “let Israel be destroyed, along with the kings and sultans” we called the toiling people of Turkey, to fight against the reactionary forces and follow the path of Deniz Gezmiş and his comrades, who were Turkish communists who fought for the freedom of the Palestinian people in the Palestinian lands, against this reaction, and became the epitome of anti-imperialism in these lands.

In the statement made on behalf of the Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism, we pointed out that the despotic regime, which negotiated to facilitate Israel’s stealing Palestinian gas and selling it to Europe, sold out the Mavi Marmara case, increased the volume of trade with Israel despite all the boycott calls from Palestinian, in fact has always been amicable toward Israel. We was stated that the struggle will continue until the Middle East is cleared of Zionism and imperialist bases, and until the Palestinian people will stand victorious. We also called for the termination of all diplomatic relations with Israel and the expulsion of the Israeli mission, which is the exact opposite of what the despotic regime has been doing, namely taking the relations further and reaching the point of mutual ambassador appointment.