Israel is again becoming overtly fascist. Gone are the liberal masks of the 1990s and the early 2000s. Now, government officials openly advocate for annexing the (already occupied) West Bank and establishing an open apartheid regime where Palestinian residents will be forced to live under Israeli rule. The government increasingly censures the press, and uses libel lawsuits to silence criticism. Openly sexist, and - of course - racist politicians will likely be ministerial appointees in the next administration.
The Israeli Defense Forces have killed 182 Palestinians and wounded 9,204 while suppressing anti-siege protests on the Gaza border. Many more were killed as “collateral damage” in Israeli bombings of Hamas targets in Gaza in response to rocket fire on Israeli towns. Per UN data, 38 percent of Gazans live in poverty. There is 26 percent unemployment in Gaza, and 38 percent of the youth are unemployed. Fifty-four percent of Gazans are food insecure and over 75 percent are aid recipients. Gazan workers protested these conditions earlier this year, but Hamas - the religious movement in control of Gaza - repressed the protests with brutal force.
Given our limited resources, we mainly participate in two struggles. The first is the National Coalition for Direct Employment. It’s a multi-racial, women-led organization of workers fighting against “contract” bosses. These bosses are modern slave traders, who hire workers and then “rent” them out to various firms and government offices. A PL’er, a housekeeping worker in a mall employed through a contractor, leads one of the struggles.
The other struggle is against racism in southern Tel-Aviv. Thousands of Black asylum seekers have come to Tel-Aviv in the past two decades, fleeing fascism and genocide in their home countries. Local racists, encouraged by government officials, leading a campaign against them, claiming the asylum seekers are “rapists and murderers” who “destroy the neighborhoods”. This racism helps “developers” who want to evict tenants from these poor neighborhoods and build luxury apartments. We join with local community fighters, led by working-class Black and Jewish women, to fight these fascist scums and build worker unity.
We are all struggling with capitalism’s horrors. We need communism now more than ever!  We will overcome these difficulties and continue the class struggle, together with our sisters and brothers in Israel-Palestine and the whole world.