The Road Map means a Return to the darkest Days of Colonialism

16/07/2003

Declaration of Abnaa elBalad ("Sons of the Land") movement, 6 July 2003

The Road Map of US Imperialism for the Middle East Means a Return to the Darkest Days of Colonialism and the Perpetuation of Israeli Occupation and Apartheid

Initial Lessons from Iraq

Almost 3 months after the occupation of Iraq by the US and British Imperialists, the real face of the new Master Robbers becomes more and more clear. They came to steal Iraq`s oil riches, and are not ready to take responsibility even for the elementary obligations of an occupying force as defined by the international law, such as taking care for the health and personal security of the occupied population. No wonder: The invasion of Iraq was launched by the same ultra-reactionary US administration that made the smashing of pensions, the health system and other basic rights the battle cry of its internal economic policy, and made immunity from prosecution for war crimes for US soldiers a basic axis of its foreign policy.

The arrogance of the occupiers, their total disregard for the lives of Iraqi citizens, the terrorizing of Iraqi cities by their tanks, helicopters and guns, the shooting and killing of civilians for the slightest suspicion, all this leaves to the Iraqi people no other way but to resist the occupation with all available means. The occupiers try to make fast profit from their occupation, selling Iraq to American and British companies, many of them with direct links to those politicians that gave the orders to invade Iraq. They even invite their Israeli cronies to take part in the loot. At the same time, all the talk about establishing democracy in Iraq fades away. The alleged "threat from Iraq´s weapons of mass destruction," was no more than thin camouflage for the greed of the invaders, used for the consumption of the willingly gullible, hypocritical Western media.

With the new wave of threats, mostly against Syria and Iran, the current direction of US imperialist policy is clear. Without the international balancing effect of the Soviet Union, and after the big lie of prosperity for all under globalization has blown and the reality of world capitalist crisis emerged, Imperialism turns to a savage attack on the narrow margins of independence allowed to Third World countries under neo-colonialism. It tries to use its military might to force exploitation without borders and without limits. Any kind of resistance to this world dictatorship is defined as terrorism, and any people or regime that tries to defend a country´s resources or dignity is a target.

Bush turns on the Palestinian people

In the almost 3 years of the second heroic Intifada, the Palestinian people in their struggle proved again that the power of the people that fight for their rights is stronger that all the means of oppression. The racist Israeli occupiers didn´t spare any means in their attempt to crush the Palestinian people: from assassinations of political and religious leaders to indiscriminate mass killing of civilians, from long curfews and endless blocking of movement between Palestinian villages and towns to the demolition of thousands of houses and the mass destruction of trees and fields. With all these barbaric means they could impose on the Palestinian people hunger, but no surrender.

At the same time the Intifada brought about a severe crisis on the Israeli colonialist outpost. All sectors of the Israeli economy are in deep crisis. Less Jews around the world are tempted to take part in the Zionist adventure, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis look for their future abroad. Thousands of Israeli youth refuse or evade the military service in order to avoid taking part in the crimes of the regime.

Now US imperialism tries to use all its political might, and the humiliation of Arab nationalism due to its occupation of Iraq, in order to defeat the Palestinian Intifada and ensure the perpetuation of Israeli occupation. The first step in this imperialist plot is to define resistance to occupation as "terror" that should be rejected by the international community. In this outrageous distortion of morality, depicting the aggressor as the victim and the victim as a villain, US imperialism is finding the support not only of European imperialism, but also of some of its puppet Arab regimes, and, worst of all, of the new government that it forced on the "Palestinian Authority."

The solution that Bush tries to force on the Palestinian people is a local version of the Bantustan plan that tried (and failed) to perpetuate Apartheid in South Africa. The main goal of Imperialism is to rob the Palestinian refugees of the right of return, and to achieve recognition for the right of Israel to carry out ethnic cleansing in order to create and preserve a Jewish majority, i.e. to provide legitimacy for a racist Jewish state. The naming of the "Palestinian Authority" as a state is designed to give it a permanent and legitimate status, as the Israeli occupiers preserve effective control of the whole of Palestine, including the settlements and the whole of Jerusalem.

In order to crush the Palestinian resistance to the occupation, what the mighty Israeli army failed to do in 35 years since it occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israel and US are trying to ignite a bloody civil war between the Palestinians. In order to achieve this goal, they finance and arm those Palestinians that care only for their short-term self interests in the framework of the occupation. They try to push the likes of Mahmood …‘Abbas and Dahlan to fight against their own people as defenders of the occupying army and the settlements.

In this most dangerous occasion the Palestinian people must invest all their efforts in avoiding the internal conflict that is forced upon them and in forging the widest unity in struggle for their just national rights. All the democratic and progressive forces around the world are called upon to support the just Palestinian liberation struggle and to boycott the murderous Israeli Apartheid regime.

…· For the right of return of all Palestinian refugees!
…· Free all Palestinian prisoners!
…· For a free democratic Palestine!

Abnaa elBalad is a Palestinian movement, active in the part of Palestine occupied since 1948, and calling for the return of Palestinian refugees and the creation of a secular democratic Palestine. For more information see:

Source: http://www.abnaa-elbalad.org