“THERE is no opposition to this government’s war in the Knesset, in this country, apart from the party, Hadash, the partners in the Knesset and the Islamic movement. There are less than 10 lawmakers who are against the war in the Knesset,” the international commission of the Communist Party of Britain heard from Reem Hazzan, the international secretary of the Communist Party of Israel. 

The commission was also joined by Dr Aqel Taqaz, the international co-ordinator of the Palestinian People’s Party, who spoke on the urgency for the international community to force Israel to end the genocide against the Palestinian people.

Hazzan reported to the commission that the party was warning of the rise of fascism in Israel long before October 7. 

Since the initial incursion into Israel on that date, the party has been clear and consistent on its stance to end the war against the Palestinians and to end the genocide. 

Due to this, the intensification of attacks on the party have increased — first with the suspension of Knesset member Ofer Cassif from Knesset proceedings for six months after he accused the Israeli army of war crimes and supported the South African case against Israel on the crime of genocide. 

The Knesset’s ethics committee in theory should only concern itself with monitoring the behaviour of lawmakers in Israel and not politics. 

The commission also heard that Hadash (the left coalition of which the Communist Party is part) secretary-general Amjad Shbita had been interrogated by the police for opposing Israel’s war crimes. These two examples outline the political persecution against those  in Israel who oppose the genocide in Gaza.

Hazzan outlined that the Knesset itself is entirely dominated by the right. The government is of the right and the opposition is of the right and there are fewer than 10 members of the Knesset that will vote for measures to end the war. 

Initially protests calling for an end to the war and the genocide were suppressed unless their focus aligned with release of the hostages. 

The party had its headquarters attacked in Haifa, and last year in October the police banned a meeting in Haifa that was against the war and its consequences. While there has been a huge increase in arrests of Palestinians and Arabs in Israel, there has also been a significant number of arrests of anti-war Jewish activists. 

This suppression of anti-war protests and voices shows the crackdown on free speech in Israel for those providing an alternative narrative to the government’s genocidal war against the Palestinians. The party has worked hard to introduce anti-war messaging like “Stop the Genocide” and “End the War” into mainstream protests, however it has been difficult for these to enter mainstream Israeli consciousness. 

The party sees that Israel is pushing for the complete liquidation of the Palestinian state in favour of a “Greater Israel” and that the US and Britain are not taking measures to end the war, but rather are preparing plans for reshaping the Middle East for their own imperialist interests, escalating the chaos and promoting zionist expansionist goals. 

Dr Aqel Taqaz, international co-ordinator of the Palestinian People’s Party, began his report by outlining clearly that the war against the Palestinians is driven by the shared goals between Israeli and US administrations, with imperialist interests dominating the Middle East. 

This “new” Middle East will be shaped entirely in Western capital’s interests. Given these shared goals, the US and international community are allowing Israel to operate with complete impunity, committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. 

Taqaz outlined to the international commission how the complete destruction of Gaza, targeting civilians and infrastructure, has the ultimate aim of permanently displacing Palestinians and erasing their right to self-determination. 

The religious zionist ideology believes that Palestinians are a people without a land and Palestine a land without a people. It is for this reason that Israel are also targeting refugee camps in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank, to deliberately dismantle their existence and force them to leave their land.

Taqaz highlighted to the commission the sobering reality of the hypocrisy of the international community. While the UN continues to pass resolutions supporting Palestinian rights and statehood, these are systematically ignored by the international community. 

While the US secretary of state has visited Israel many times during the war talking about a ceasefire, the US has continued to fund and arm the Israeli government to continue the war against the Palestinian people. It is the US, Israel and their allies that conveniently ignore these resolutions and give Israel the means to continue the bloodshed. 

The Palestinians have had to endure the hypocrisy of the West which has only been further exposed by the genocide in Gaza. This also has highlighted how incapable and weak the United Nations is.

The threat of all-out regional war is growing, with Israel attacking Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Taqaz was clear that any regional war Israel perpetrates will include direct involvement from the US with US troops present on the ground in Iraq, Jordan and neighbouring countries and US bases stationed in the Gulf. A regional war would have disastrous consequences for the Palestinian people.  

Settler violence prior to October 7 was a daily matter in the West Bank and it was aided and abetted by the Israeli authorities. The meeting also heard about the escalation of violence in the West Bank with violence from the Israeli army and the settlers, with attacks on Palestinians being commonplace. 

Movement around the West Bank has been further restricted since October 7 and it is becoming like an open-air prison, like Gaza was. It was noted that there is a very real threat of annexation of the entire West Bank, something both parties will have to respond to. 

It was reiterated in the meeting by both Reem Hazzan and Dr Aqel Taqaz that, as political parties in Israel and Palestine, their view continues to be that any solution must be on the basis of international law, the UN security council and the UN general assembly: the realisation of an independent Palestinian state guaranteeing the rights of the Palestinian people in accordance with relevant UN resolutions. 

Finally, it stressed the importance of the international movement and solidarity with the Palestinian people and how we must in Britain continue to boycott and isolate Israel and force our government to take meaningful action to end the genocide and siege against the Palestinians. Unless we unite over these issues, Israel will get its dream of a “new” Middle East.