A Ceasefire, as the Murderous Oppression of Palestinians Continues... Where Will This All Go?

May 24, 2021 | revcom.us

On May 21, Israel and Hamas, the ruling authority in the Palestine territory of Gaza, agreed on a ceasefire, halting—for now—the Israeli bombings and missile attacks on Gaza that started earlier this month and slaughtered at least 248 Palestinian people, including 66 children. Hamas has stopped launching their primitive missiles at Israel, where authorities reported 12 killed. The great disparity in death and destruction has yet again cast the actual nature of the state of Israel, and its genocidal oppression of the Palestinian people in sharp relief. The ceasefire is “unconditional,” meaning that aside from halting the bombings and missile attacks, there has been no agreement on anything else. The ceasefire may or may not hold—but even if the war and outright brutal violent attacks by Israel has stopped for now, the horrific suffering of the Palestinian people of Gaza not only continues but is getting even worse.

In the midst of the genocidal devastation and monstrous crimes wreaked by Israel, the resistance of Palestinian youth—including the rising of those who are treated as second-class citizens within Israel itself—indicates the potential for something important and different, potentially a greater threat to Israel than what is currently represented by reactionary forces like Hamas. And it has drawn forth support from progressive people and the Palestinian diaspora worldwide, including in the U.S. (see here and here).

In this light, the following from the Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA is crucial:

Where there is oppression, there will be resistance—the masses of people will continually rise up against their conditions of oppression and those who enforce this oppression. But, without the necessary scientific theory and leadership, the struggle of the oppressed will be contained, and remain confined, within the system which is the source of oppression, and the horrors to which the masses are subjected will go on, and on. The new synthesis and the leadership of Bob Avakian represents and embodies the scientific understanding and approach the masses of the oppressed need to make the revolution they need—a revolution whose ultimate goal is a communist world—to emancipate themselves and ultimately humanity as a whole.

And, as the Six Resolutions quotes from Bob Avakian (BA):

There is an urgent need for this new synthesis to be taken up, broadly, in this society and in the world as a whole: everywhere people are questioning why things are the way they are, and whether a different world is possible; everywhere people are talking about “revolution” but have no real understanding of what revolution means, no scientific approach to analyzing and dealing with what they are up against and what needs to be done; everywhere people are rising up in rebellion but are hemmed in, let down and left to the mercy of murderous oppressors, or misled onto paths which only reinforce, often with barbaric brutality, the enslaving chains of tradition; everywhere people need a way out of their desperate conditions, but do not see the source of their suffering and the path forward out of the darkness.

On May 21, following a cease-fire, people inspect some of the rubble from Israeli airstrikes that slaughtered at least 248 Palestinian people, includng 66 children. Photo: AP