The Struggle of Peoples and International Solidarity
A delegation of the CPI(M) comprising Nilotpal Basu, Polit Bureau member, Santanu De and V P Sanu, members of West Bengal and Kerala state committees respectively visited Lebanon on September15, to participate in a seminar organised by the Lebanese Communist Party. Below we publish the text of the speech made by Nilotpal Basu on behalf of the CPI(M), at the seminar.
AT the very outset allow me to thank the Lebanese Communist Party for hosting this seminar on “The Struggle of Peoples and International Solidarity”. The timing and the subject could not have been more appropriate. Nor could there have been a better venue than Beirut for the event. We want to, at the very outset express our solidarity with the Lebanese people and the forces of resistance who are battling hand in hand with the Palestinian people for their freedom from the settler-colonial State of Israel along with their own sovereignty. History is witness to their sacrifice and struggle for all these years.
It has become more than clear that there is a horrific genocide pursued by the settler colonial State of Israel which leaves nothing to imagination. Across all areas under Israeli rule, Palestinians live under the terror of annihilation, broadcast in real time to a watching world. Genocide, occupation, and apartheid is chillingly playing out – while the majority of the Israeli population openly cheers and calls for more .
The atrocities of the past twenty-one months are not a sudden aberration; they are the culmination of decades of policies to displace and replace the Palestinian people through ethnic cleansing and occupation of land, and in the process dehumanising the Palestinian people.
Against this backdrop, it is inconceivable that political forums, from Brussels to New York, are still debating recognition of the state of Palestine – not because it’s unimportant, but because for thirty-five years, states have stalled and refused recognition. Meanwhile, political discourse has reduced Palestine to a humanitarian crisis to manage in perpetuity rather than a political issue demanding principled and firm resolution: end permanent occupation, apartheid, and today genocide. And it is not the law that has failed – it is political will that basic question was abdicated.
The basic issue about the Palestinian question was that creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was that it was a part of a larger imperialist project involving Britain and other Western powers excluding and marginalising the Palestinians in the exercise which decided their destiny.
In the last almost eight decades, the worst fears about Israel have come to life with ethnic cleansing and occupation and annexation of territories. The continued appeasement by the West have come to such a pass where the pursuit of a two State solution appears to be a remote possibility. Even with growing number of nations raising the question of recognising an independent Palestinian State is being responded to with scorn as Netanyahu claims that there is no question of a Palestinian State and the entire land belongs to Israel.
The tone of empowered audacity is unmistakable. This have come about with the level of not just complicity of US imperialism, but they are moving to actualise this as a joint project. Without the financial and military support from the US, this would never be possible. The repeated vetoes blocking UN Security Resolution to stop the transgressions have led to this gigantic intransigence. Israel’s aggression and the regional hegemony they want to exercise suits the US military-industrial complex to further their profits on expanded potential for war. At the political plane, the continued appeasement of Israel reminds us of similar capitulation before the Nazis and the consequent monster like magnitude that it assumed threatening to devour the whole world.
It is the duty on all states stemming from the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion that confirmed the illegality of Israel’s prolonged occupation, which amounts to racial segregation and apartheid. The UN General Assembly adopted that opinion. These findings are more than sufficient for action. It is the state of Israel that is accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, so it is that state that must be responsible for its wrongdoings.
But the horrors of genocide, particularly since Israel’s response to October 7, 2023, the huge number of deaths of hapless people, the destruction of schools, hospitals and the weaponisation of food and access to humanitarian aid and resultant famine and starvation deaths livestreamed into homes have given rise to massive international solidarity actions drawing millions to the streets to condemn Israel. Clear evidence of Israel turning their long-term economy of occupation to an economy of genocide where global corporates are getting enmeshed to ensure huge profits from the pernicious policies of Israel is out in the open.
But a new wind is blowing. The narrative is shifting- away from Israel’s endlessly invoked “right to self-defence” and toward the long-denied Palestinian right to self-determination — systematically invisibilised, suppressed, and delegitimised for decades. The weaponisation of antisemitism applied to Palestinian words and narratives, and the dehumanising use of the nomenclature of terrorism framework for Palestinian resistance. The streets have started to influence, globally impacting Governments because of their adverse electoral outcomes. The enlargement of the conflict with attacks on Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen and Qatar now show that Israel imagines itself as above of all yardsticks of international law and the UN charter.
Indian people and our national independence movement have been in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle against Imperialist powers and the subsequent settler colonial State of Israel. The stand of the Indian people and subsequently, the independent Indian Republic was not a chance coincidence; but born in the crucible of own struggle against British imperialism and strivings for decolonialisation. Therefore, India was one of the last nations to diplomatically recognise Israel.
But now we have a completely different landscape. The present ultra-right-wing government has a distinctly pro US orientation It had developed close military, security and economic ties with Israel. Israel has become the second highest supplier of arms to India. Even with the clear evidence of genocide, the Indian government refused to categorically condemn Israel.
Only very recently stung by Trump’s tariff terrorism, Indian government is making some noise although haltingly on US. India has also associated more visibly with the BRICs and the Sanghai Cooperation Organisation. It has also associated with the strong Tianjin resolution on Palestine. However, immediately after Tianjin, the Indian government has hosted Bezalel Smotrich-the Israeli Finance Minister who has been debarred from visiting quite a few countries including those in the West for his horrific comments on annexation of land in the West Bank. This visit was purportedly for signing a bilateral agreement. This was a clear sign of vacillation. Therefore, some new possibility for has opened for us in the solidarity movement in the country, there is a need to remain vigilant.
We are also witnessing a stronger response from the Indian people. The time is now to join the people’s struggle on a much larger scale, building international solidarity to confront the US-Israel axis, support the Palestinian people in their fight for freedom, and uphold the sovereignty and just peace of the region.
