Stop U.S. aid to apartheid Israel!

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VOL. 32, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. / CANADA $1 The U.S.-backed racist, colonialist, apartheid Zion­ ist entity known as Israel has once again saturation bombed the Palestinian people, destroying the infra­ structure of the world’s largest open air prison—the Gaza Strip—a slip of land roughly 26 miles long by 5.5 miles wide.

Gaza’s 1.82 million Palestinian residents, many driv­ en by force and violence from their land and homes throughout historic Palestine over the past 66 years, are compelled to live in one of the most densely popu­ lated areas in the world. Unemployment stands at 80 percent.

For the third time since Israel’s 2008-9 three-week air bombardment and ground occupation that slaugh­ tered 1400 Palestinians (14 Israelis died), the be­ leaguered masses have been subjected to a murder­ ous invasion of 50,000 Israeli “Defense” Force (IDF) troops, accompanied by tanks, and supported by massive air strikes, cross-border mortar and artillery bombardments, and unending offshore naval shelling from Israeli gunboats.

Israel employs one of the world’s most sophisticat­ ed and powerful military apparatuses, replete with advanced fighter jets, helicopter gun ships, a naval armada, and well-equipped land forces. In turn, the Zionist state confronts a comparatively unarmed peo­ ple. Even Israeli officials have mocked Gaza’s rocketmaking capabilities as little more than the efforts of a cottage industry, which they contemptuously refer to as “high tech.”

Most of the rockets used by Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, are homemade devices filled with fertilizer, ammonium compounds, and related explosive mate­ rials. Although some rockets, designed to emulate rel­ atively sophisticated Syrian and Iranian models, have a range allowing them to reach most of Israel’s cities, they are notoriously inaccurate.

As a cease-fire went into effect in early August, the number of Palestinian deaths stood at over 1800. Ac­ cording to UN on-the-scene staffers, almost 80 per­ cent of the Palestinian deaths were civilians—includ­ ing many children. In contrast, three people in Israel died from rockets or mortar fire across the border. Al­ most half a million Gazans have been displaced from their homes (270,000 are crammed into UN shelters).

The last week of July saw Israeli warplanes destroy­ Tony Savino / Socialist Action ing Gaza’s only power plant, further exacerbating the already near total devastation of Gaza’s infrastruc­ ture. “We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room,” Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza energy authority told the British Guardian. “Everything was burned.”

Israeli tanks shelled the UN school in Beit Hanoun on July 24, killing 16 people and wounding over 100. During the next few days, Israeli aircraft and artillery hit UN refugee centers at least five times more, killing five UN staff members. Twenty died in an attack on a school in Jabaliya on July 30, and 10 died in an attack on a school in Rafah on Aug. 3.

UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pil­ lay, based in Geneva, has indicated that Israel is likely guilty of war crimes. Many civilians were in the UNrun schools and clinics at the time they were hit, seeking safety after being driven from their homes by bombing. UN officials informed The New York Times that they had given the IDF specific GPS (Global Po­ sitioning System) coordinates of every building un­ der their control, to no avail. The UN has warned that (continued on page 8, in “The Marxist analysis of women’s oppression”)

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Barry Weisleder / Socialist Action

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