Since 2007, the people of Gaza have lived in what can only be described as an open-air prison, surrounded and blockaded on all sides by the Israeli regime. For nearly two years, the government of Israel has used this blockade to systematically starve Gaza’s population. As former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on October 9th, 2023: “There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed.”

Today, according to the United Nations and international humanitarian experts, Gaza is entering the most extreme phase of famine. Its people face irreversible harm and a rising death toll. While the United States continues to fund, arm, and shield the Israeli government politically, the majority of the world’s governments have either failed or refused to intervene meaningfully to end this catastrophe.

In the face of this inaction, more and more people have stepped up. Most recently, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) launched a humanitarian mission to deliver food and medical supplies to Gaza. The ship Handala, named to honor refugee children and the Palestinian right of return, was illegally intercepted in international waters by the Israeli navy. Activists on board were detained, and reports indicate that U.S. labor organizer Chris Smalls, the only Black person on the boat, was physically assaulted by Israeli forces. All aid aboard the ship was confiscated and denied to the starving people of Gaza.

The Peace and Solidarity Commission of the Communist Party USA commends the courage of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and stands in full solidarity with its activists and the people of Gaza. We call on all progressive, peace-loving people around the world to do everything within our power to stop the bombing, break the siege, and end the suffering of the Palestinian people. Raise awareness, organize, protest, and pressure our governments to stop this genocide.

The appalling conflagration we witness today that envelopes so many countries across the Middle East is not an aberration. While its searing heat is now focused on destroying the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, it continues the long, bloody history of colonial and imperialist efforts on the part of the U.S. and many European powers to dominate that region of the world, to steal its fossil fuels, and control trade routes. This policy continues today in order to maximize the profits of monopoly corporations, including the big oil extractors and weapons makers.

This brutal war and blockade are the logical consequences of first British and then U.S. imperialism, which have used and supported Zionism and settler-colonialism for decades as a method of promoting their interests in the region. The people of Gaza and the West Bank are being punished for daring to exist on their own land. For years, Palestinians have been denied the most basic rights, such as freedom of movement, access to clean water and medical care, and even the right to mourn their dead in peace.

We renew our call for the human rights of the Palestinian people to be guaranteed, an end to Israeli apartheid, the termination of U.S. military aid to Israel, and for Israeli war criminals and their international enablers to face justice.

The clock is ticking. Every day, more Palestinians perish, killed by the fascist Netanyahu regime, supplied with U.S. weapons and shielded by U.S. political power. Only a global groundswell of mass solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to life, dignity, and self-determination can bring this horror to an end. The Peace and Solidarity Commission of the CPUSA urges all comrades, allies, and those of good conscience to deepen their commitment to the democratic right of all people to live in peace, and to act forcefully with the urgency this moment demands.

Image: The Handala (freedomflotilla.org)