The occupation of Gaza: Nine months of struggle

By Editor-in-Chief on June 28, 2024

*^{“Forward to Victory,” a poster by Guevara Abed Al Qader for the PFLP, 2023. The Arabic text reads, “We are carrying our revolution forward to victory.” (The Palestine Poster Project)}*

Aspen R. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Indiana–

“In today’s world no one is innocent, no one is neutral. A man is either with the oppressed or he is with the oppressors. He who takes no interest in politics gives his blessing to the prevailing order, that of the ruling classes and exploiting forces.”
–George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

As we enter the second half of 2024, the people of the world are faced with a sobering reality: the brutal and unrelenting genocide of the people of Gaza has been going on for nearly nine months now. Under the pretext of self-defense, the Zionist Israeli occupation has released an unparalleled campaign of bloodshed, terrorism, and genocide on the millions of people that call Gaza home. They justify this with the persistent reality that most of the Palestinian people justifiably support the resistance, claiming that this provides them with the right to inflict as much terror on the oppressed population as they deem necessary. The communist, democratic, and progressive forces of the world resolutely condemn this notion as well as the ideology of Zionism itself. We stand firmly behind the resistance and the right of the Palestinian people to attack all appendages of the apartheid state, whether they be in Gaza, the West Bank, or Israel proper.

Throughout this period of direct armed struggle against the Zionist state by the coalition of resistance forces, numerous deals have been proposed to bring about a temporary or permanent end to the conflict. As usual, advocacy of a long-term two-state solution has come to dominate some circles. Others, in both the Zionist and Palestinian camps, continue to claim the entire region, holding that Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel rightfully belong to their respective factions. But one reality has been made absolutely clear: the Zionist state is prioritizing its destruction of the people of Gaza and the forces responsible for defending them over any “peaceful” resolution to the conflict, whether it be permanent or temporary. In addition to this, it’s also been made clear that Israel’s desire to crush the resistance and the spirit of the Palestinian people is far more important to their interests than the lives of the Israeli prisoners currently held in Gaza by the resistance that they claim to be fighting for. They could choose to release the thousands of Palestinian hostages illegitimately held in occupation prisons in exchange for their own captives. Instead, the tyrannical and fascistic foot soldiers of the Zionist entity continue to wreak havoc on civilian infrastructure in Gaza, facing embarrassment after embarrassment in actual combat against the resistance, and displaying the pinnacle of cowardice in their treatment of the local civilian population — opting for airstrikes and bombing tactics in order to avoid on-the-ground combat in which the Israeli forces are poorly trained.

Despite the depravity of the enemy and despite the crushing reality of witnessing a genocide unfold directly before our eyes, it is extremely important that the people of Palestine and the world do their absolute best to keep their heads high. The people remain unwavering in their support for the resistance and the fight for national liberation. For decades now, Palestinians have languished under colonial occupation. The history of the Zionist regime and the peoples’ struggle against it has made two realities absolutely clear, one being that Palestine will not be liberated without armed struggle and direct confrontation with the occupier, and the other being that the terror of the oppressed and the terror of the oppressor take fundamentally different roles in relation to the fight for a liberated world. The Palestinian people have the right and historical obligation to strike at the heart of the Israeli state and fight to free their nation, from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. Any other stance is defeatism at best and opportunism at worst.

We express our solidarity with the progressive forces of the Palestinian resistance! Free all Palestinian hostages and political prisoners! Free Palestine!

“Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause.”
–Ghassan Kanafani, Palestinian author and former spokesman of the PFLP.