How can antiwar activists best defend Palestinians? PICKETING ISRAELI O CONSULATES

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10 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1988 Apartheid; Jobs and Justice, Not War.

Some activists argue that it is now time for the Mobilization to include another major demand referring to recent developments in the Middle East. This point of view might appear to be quite reasonable at first.

Regular news broadcasts tell the story of Palestine today—stones against tanks, young children against heavily armed troops. These dramatic confrontations result from decades of national oppression at the hands of the expansionist and racist Zionist state.

More opportunities exist now than ever before to explain how imperialism manipulated Jewish refugee victims of Nazi oppression into becoming tools for the creation of the racist Zionist state of Israel.

Today, Israel is aligned with the most reactionary regimes in the world. It serves as a U.S. military outpost in the Middle East.

Nonetheless, it would be a major error to include a slogan on the Middle East among the demands of an anti-intervention coalition like the Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice.

Maintain breadth and unity A single coalition like the Mobilization cannot be the vehicle for expressing opposition to U.S. intervention everywhere in the world. There simply is not a uniform understanding by the American people of the role U.S. imperialism plays all over the world.

The broad unity of the Mobilization around four demands does not automatically transfer to a fifth or sixth demand. This is especially true of complex issues in the Middle East. Many coalition activists and leaders who oppose contra aid, oppose apartheid, and oppose nuclear weapons, for example, also support Israel.

This is a serious contradiction. But it would be a mistake for the Mobilization to force a resolution of this contradiction by adding demands which would cause a split-and therefore the destruction-of the coalition. This would do nothing to help the people of Central America, South Africa--or the Middle East.

The Mobilization is the only coalition in the country that is organizing a mass protest this spring against the increasing U.S. war on Nicaragua. A split in the coalition would represent a grave setback in the defense of the Nicaraguan Revolution.

The success of a coalition like the Mobilization is based upon its ability to unite the most divergent political forces behind an action program. This unity would fracture if confronted with an additional slogan over which there is substantially divided opinion. And, unfortunately, this is the case with the Middle East.

It is a mistake, therefore, to expect the Mobilization to.

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"'There can be neither peace be neither nor justice for Palestinians-or Jews-as retain its broad support and at the same time organize opposition to U.S. support to Israel or to tr le Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza-as so: me in the coalition have argued.

There are ways, however, for coalitions like the Mobilization to deal with the Middle East without tampering with its four basic demands.

In the past, the Mobilization has had several prominent rally speakers addressing the issue. Its coalition newspaper has published articles on the Middle East. Its educational conference has included workshops on the Middle East. And each year the coalition also encourages groups to organize march contingents which focus on the Middle East.

This year the Mobilization has called for the unconditional defense of Palestinian human rights in the West Bank and Gaza in its leaflet advertising its April 30 and June 11 spring protests.

But for the Mobilization to go further than human rights demands such as "Stop the Deportations of Palestinians, End the Brutality, Release the Detainees" will dangerously threaten the unity and effectiveness of the coalition.

The plain truth is that controversial issues like the Middle East require a full-scale educational campaign SE ind me more informe about Socialist Action. [] l'd like to join Socialist Action itself with a democratic and secular Palestine in which Jews and Arabs can live together with equal rights.

Demands which recognize the Israeli state, confine their political slogans to freedom or "self-determination" in the West Bank or Gaza, or place the rights of Israelis on the same plane as those of the Palestinians are, therefore, incorrect because they concede the existence of an inherently racist and oppressive state.

This is particularly true of a demand which was recently proposed by representatives of Democratic Socialists of America and the U.S. Peace Council for adoption by the Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice. This proposal called for the United States to support a peace conference in the Middle East which would recognize the national rights of both Israelis and Palestinians.

The reference to the national rights of Israelis, it must be understood, means recognition of the oppressive Zionist state. It is a demand which concedes, from the start, the preservation of the central problem: the state of Israel.

Which demands should be raised?

The complexities of a discussion over which political slogans to adopt makes it even more improbable for an anti-intervention coalition like the Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice to survive such a discussion intact. But it is absolutely imperative for an action coalition focusing on the Middle East to take a clear stand on slogans.

The most important demand for these type of action coalitions to raise is "No U.S. Aid to Israel." This demand frames the whole debate. It zeroes in on the real problem.

Connecting specific demands dealing with problems in the West Bank and Gaza to the broader solution of stopping all U.S. aid to Israel gives real meaning to the call for self-determination for Palestinians—selfdetermination not restricted to a rump "mini-state" in the West Bank.

This approach is ultimately the only resolution to the conflict capable of uniting Arabs and Jews alike. A genuine settlement cannot ignore the historical fact that a whole people were forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands; made refugees in their own country.

The oppressive Zionist state appears strong; actually it is almost completely dependent on U.S. aid. And like all regimes founded on injustice, it rules through violence which daily threatens its stability. It is sitting on a powder-keg of its own making —a rebellious Palestinian people and growing sectors of the Israeli population who are dissatisfied with the racist policies of Zionism. I ] Please send me the following Socialist Action pamphlets: 'Hidden History of Zionism, by Ralph Schoenman Other pamphlets (see list page 5)

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long as the Zionist state of " Israel exists."