Tens of thousands of Palestine supporters rallied across the country last weekend to protest one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Forty thousand people marched in Sydney, 20,000 in Melbourne, and hundreds more in Wollongong, Canberra and Perth. 
In Sydney and Melbourne, people have rallied every Sunday for the past 52 weeks. The streets routinely become a sea of red, white, black and green as thousands of people wave the Palestinian flag. The sound of solidarity echoes through the city with the chants: “In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinian” and “Free, free Palestine”. 
Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees addressed the roaring Sydney crowd: “We are here in some of the biggest numbers we have seen this year. We are just getting started”. 
Seeing the genocide play out in real time has compelled thousands of people to join the movement. Many who didn’t know much about Palestine prior to Israel’s invasion are today committed advocates for the cause. Others have been drawn into action by their outrage at the Australian government’s complicity in genocide, from parroting Israel’s lies about “self-defence” in justifying mass murder, to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-28/israeli-weapons-company-awarded-australian-army-contract/103519558">signing a $900 million contract</a> with an Israeli weapons company.
At the Melbourne rally, Jewish Council of Australia organiser Ohad Kozminsky criticised the Israeli government for weaponizing Jewish identity to whitewash genocide. “We are united in our opposition to Israel’s continued policies aimed at the destruction of Palestinian life. We are opposed to the vile prioritisation of the lives and rights of Jewish people over the lives and rights of Palestinian and Lebanese people.” 
Nasser Mashni, president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, fired back at politician’s criticisms about our decision to hold rallies on the anniversary. “Will anyone speak of the dead (Palestinian) children, dead women and dead men? It’s shameful that we’re being asked to be respectful when we’ve had 365 October 7’s in the past year.” 
These rallies generate a sense of confidence and strength on our side. By collectively standing with thousands of people demanding an end to the slaughter, we push back against the feelings of hopelessness and apathy which can so easily take over. 
This is even more important because every major institution is stacked against us—from the mainstream media to the universities, cops, courts and politicians. 
Israel’s invasion of Lebanon has heightened the stakes. As Palestinian activist and Free Palestine Melbourne member Noura Mansour said in her speech at the Melbourne protest, “We now watch the Israeli violence spill over into the entire region as it targets our brothers and sisters and families in Lebanon”. 
A year on from the invasion of Gaza and we’ve entered a new era of Israeli terror. That means we must continue to push our struggle forward.

Bella Beiraghi

Tens of thousands protest to mark a year of genocide in Gaza

More than 600 Melbourne University students attended a mass meeting and rally on 15 August to demand that the university end its complicity in the genocide in Gaza. The meeting was the largest pro-Palestine action ever held on the campus.
Oskar Martin, Students for Palestine member and Indigenous socialist, moved the meeting’s only motion. It called on the administration to “fully divest from weapons companies and cut all ties with the state of Israel, Israeli corporations and Israeli academic institutions in line with the global boycott, divestment, sanctions movement”. 
In his speech, Martin condemned the university, arguing that “what matters most to them is investments that boost their portfolios and power”. He then turned his fire on the officials in the University of Melbourne Student Union. “The student union didn’t want this meeting to happen. They previously backtracked on supporting BDS ... but we kept fighting and we won!” 
The student politicians who control the student union are mostly from factions associated with the Australian Labor Party. Despite their pretending to champion students’ rights and democracy, their approach to the special general meeting was one of sabotage. 
Students for Palestine activists gathered the signatures of 1,200 students to demand the union call a special general meeting on Palestine, as the constitution requires. In response, the union hired lawyers from Labor-aligned law firm Slater and Gordon to find a legal basis to prevent the meeting happening. 
The union has form in this regard. In 2022 the union adopted a motion in support of Palestine and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel. But after legal action brought by Liberal Party-aligned student Justin Riazaty, the union abandoned its position. 
The lawsuit was settled in February this year after the union agreed, in the middle of a genocide, to <a href="https://redflag.org.au/article/university-melbourne-student-union-betrays-palestine">rescind its support for Palestine</a> and pay Riazaty tens of thousands of dollars. The student union has since sought to censor pro-Palestine activity in the union, prohibiting office-bearers from using their budgets and social media to oppose Israel’s genocide. 
But their winning streak ended on Thursday afternoon. The student union officials watched, aghast, as hundreds of students descended on the amphitheatre wearing keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags and holding placards inscribed on one side with “Unimelb must divest” and on the other “Students for Palestine”. 
“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!”, the students roared. Cheers and impromptu speeches echoed around the amphitheatre as student union staff sought shelter behind a barricade they had set up to prevent Students for Palestine activists from reaching the stage.
From the stage, I opened the meeting (to the president’s horror), and the floor was ours. “Put your hand up if you’re here today to stand against Israel, to stand against our government, to stand against our university and to fight for a free Palestine!”, I asked the crowd. A sea of hands shot up in response. Chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea” made the meeting feel more like an open-air rally. 
At one point the student union president tried to address the crowd to explain why the union hadn’t done more to publicly support Palestine. She was heckled, “You voted to rescind the motion!”, and quickly vacated the stage. 
Students hadn’t come to this action for mealy-mouthed words or empty platitudes. We get that from the federal Labor government every day. The crowd was electric with righteous indignation at our university’s complicity in genocide. Yasmeen Atieh, a Palestinian socialist and member of Students for Palestine, told the crowd: 
“All over the world, students and workers have stood up to their universities and governments, declaring that we will not sit silent whilst people are being killed. Estimates are now that 186,000 have likely been murdered. From opposing the war in Vietnam to fighting against South African apartheid, students have been at the forefront of movements to spark change for decades. And today we’re making history again. Every one of us is making our voices heard, telling the university that it needs to divest. We are telling our government, the Labor Party, that we will not stop and we will not rest until Palestine is free.”

Students overwhelmingly voted up the motion, followed by a victory march to the vice-chancellor's office, where we stuck our petitions to his office surrounds, warning: “We’ll be back!” 
It was a victorious day for Palestine solidarity activism, and a credit to all the activists who refused to accept the union’s cowardice on Palestine, who refused to give up and who campaigned tirelessly to make the meeting a success.

Melbourne University mass meeting declares support for Palestine

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza could lead to the deaths of more than 186,000 people, according to a letter published in the British medical journal, <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext"></a><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext">Lancet. </a>Written by scientists who model the direct and indirect impacts of war on health, the letter estimates that the number of Palestinians killed by Israel is likely to exceed by far the official death toll of 38,000, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. 
Collecting casualty figures in Gaza is an increasingly difficult task for Palestinian officials due to the destruction of much of Gaza’s infrastructure. The letter explains that the Gaza Health Ministry has had to use “information from reliable media sources and first responders” as well as its usual methods of counting bodies brought in to hospitals or people who have died in hospital to get a realistic measure of deaths. 
According to the authors, this makes the data less robust. “Consequently”, they note, “the Gaza Health Ministry now reports separately the number of unidentified bodies among the death toll. As of May 10, 2024, 30 percent of the 35,091 deaths were unidentified.” 
This development was designed to improve data quality. Yet Israeli politicians have jumped at the opportunity to undermine the veracity of the official death toll, contesting the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures even though they have been accepted as accurate by the state’s intelligence services and international organisations such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations. 
Pro-Israel politicians and media have likewise tried to discredit or downplay the destruction Israel has inflicted on Gaza, casting doubt on the figures published by the “Hamas-run” health ministry. They have suggested that Hamas purposely inflates the casualty figures to demonise Israel. 
The scientists’ revelation that the number of reported deaths is likely an underestimate is a searing indictment of those arguments. There are thousands of bodies still buried under rubble. According to the letter, “the UN estimates that by February 29, 2024, 35 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, so the number of bodies still buried in the rubble is likely substantial, with estimates of more than 10,000”. 
But the impact of Israel’s so far nine-month war on Gaza reverberates beyond the direct harm from violence. As the authors explain, “even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases”. 
Already, the widespread destruction of healthcare and housing infrastructure, severe shortages of food and water, the lack of safe refuge for internally displaced persons and the substantial loss of funding to the United Nations Relief Works Agency have led to thousands of deaths.
Based on scientific modelling of the direct and indirect effects of war, the authors estimate that “such indirect deaths range from 3 to 15 times the number of direct deaths ... Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza”. As a proportion of the population, this means that 8 percent of the 2.3 million total population in the Gaza Strip are likely to have been killed in this war. 
An immediate end to Israel’s assault on Gaza is urgent and necessary. But to prevent further deaths, it must be accompanied by large-scale rebuilding of the infrastructure and housing necessary to sustain social life, including schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and electricity generation facilities. 
A realistic assessment of the life lost in Gaza is not only a legal requirement for Israel, but also, as the authors note, an important part of the historical record. There will be no justice for the Palestinian people without truth. The dead deserve to be counted.

Counting the dead in Gaza

“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place ... this was a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colourful logo ... it’s very clear who we are and what we do.” 
This is what José Andrés, World Central Kitchen founder, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-04/charity-founder-says-israel-targeted-aid-workers-systematically/103666184?utm_source=abc_news_app&amp;utm_medium=content_shared&amp;utm_campaign=abc_news_app&amp;utm_content=other">told reporters</a> after an Israeli air strike killed seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza on Monday. The charity’s three-car convoy was attacked while travelling along a route south of Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza. Andrés said that they were targeted “systematically, car by car” despite having pre-approved and coordinated their travel route with the military. 
They were killed while attempting to deliver food to Palestinians, who are being systematically starved. 
The latest <a href="https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Gaza_Strip_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Feb_July2024_Special_Brief.pdf">Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)</a> analysis, published on 18 March, warns that famine is imminent in Gaza’s northern governorates and will occur if Israel does not end its bombardment of the enclave and allow for the sustained passage of essential supplies and services to the population. The governorates of Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah could face famine conditions by July, according to the report. 
The entire population of the Gaza Strip is in acute food insecurity. But more than 1 million are in the IPC’s highest category, “phase five—catastrophe”, which it characterises as a situation of “starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition”. 
More than 300,000 Palestinians are believed to be trapped in the worst affected northern areas, encircled by the Israeli occupation and unable to leave. Since January, they have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day, <a href="https://media.oxfam.org.au/2024/04/people-in-northern-gaza-forced-to-survive-on-245-calories-a-day-less-than-a-can-of-beans-oxfam/">according to Oxfam­</a>—just 12 percent of the recommended intake to sustain a person’s weight. 
Imagine what it’s like struggling to survive on less than a can of beans per day. Imagine what it’s like to witness the people you love—friends, neighbours, children, siblings, grandparents—suffer the same. All while you have barely any access to clean water, or a toilet, or medical support, and knowing that every functioning hospital in your area has been <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148161">destroyed</a>. 
This is the reality for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. 
It is a deliberate strategy. Last week Israel blocked UNRWA, the largest relief agency in Gaza, from delivering aid to the utterly ravaged north. The nightmare in northern Gaza has spread to the south as Israel’s bombing of Rafah continues. 
One and a half million Palestinians, sheltering in a 64-kilometre square area, are already experiencing “very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality”. The IPC report warns that a large-scale ground invasion will plunge these Palestinians into famine, with military closures of all passages for humanitarian aid, including the Rafah crossing. 
Palestinians must be given immediate and unrestricted access to food, water and medicine. Internal food production systems and infrastructure must be restored or rebuilt. But that can happen only when Israel permanently halts is genocidal military invasion.

Starvation as a weapon of war

For decades, it was only Arab and Muslim communities and sections of the socialist left in Australia that turned out to demonstrate in solidarity with Palestine. Others were intimidated by the slander that opposition to Israel is anti-Semitic, were affected by Islamophobia or didn’t see Palestine as an issue worthy of their time. 
That’s all changed. Israel’s genocide has provoked a historic movement across the country. Streets in major cities have become seas of red, white, black and green—the colours of the Palestinian flag—as tens of thousands rally each week to demand an end to Israel’s bombing of Gaza. 
They are the biggest anti-war demonstrations since the mass marches against the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and have become one of the largest sustained anti-war movements in Australian history. 
The protests are part of a movement for Palestine that has erupted across the Western world. Protesters in Germany and France last year defied heavy state repression to mobilise tens of thousands. Just last month in London, half a million people marched. 
In an important development, layers of young Jews in the US are breaking with Zionism. Jewish Voice for Peace has organised and led dozens of occupations, rallies and sit-ins in solidarity with the Palestinian people, mobilising thousands of young anti-Zionist activists. 
The endurance of the movement in Australia—entering its fourth month—is remarkable. 
There have been massive and consistent weekly rallies, blockades of docks, occupations of train stations, historic high school walkouts, pro-Palestine motions passed in city councils and protests against weapons companies directly profiting from Israel’s war. Travel on public transport and you’re guaranteed to see a symbol of support for Palestine—stickers, posters, graffiti—or someone wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf and symbol of resistance. 
Palestine is now an issue that wider layers of people are identifying with. That’s a victory in itself. The evidence was at this year’s Melbourne Invasion Day protest: Palestinian flags and Aboriginal flags waved in unison among a 50,000-strong crowd chanting: “From the river to the sea, always was, always will be!” 
The genocide of the Palestinians is the epitome of capitalist horror. All the governments supporting Israel’s campaign of slaughter—from the USA, to Australia, to the Arab regimes, to Russia and China—are a part of the same blood-soaked club: the global ruling class, which owns and controls most of society’s wealth. 
They carry out their own genocides, wage wars and oppress and exploit workers and the poor. The global ruling classes create immense suffering, death and destruction as they compete against each other for power and profit. Palestinian oppression is the outcome not only of Israeli aggression; it is baked into capitalist imperialism (the competition between ruling classes for the world’s resources and for global influence). So the movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people is connected to a wider struggle against the entire system and the criminals who run it. 
The global Palestine movement has made history. Yet ruling classes across the world remain steadfast in their support for Israel. This isn’t the first time governments have supported industrial-scale slaughter—over the last two decades, US-led wars have resulted in millions of deaths, according to the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. 
The war on Gaza won’t be the last time they do this. 
The challenge for supporters of Palestine is to redouble our efforts to grow our movement to be as big, enduring and powerful as possible. We can’t let the horrors unfolding in Gaza become background noise, normalised by the mainstream media as just another “ongoing conflict.” We can’t let our governments mutter platitudes about “international humanitarian law” while green-lighting this genocide. We need to continue to build ongoing movements against them and the violent, blood-soaked system of capitalist barbarity they run.

Why the global movement for Palestine matters

Streets around the country were a sea of red, white, black and green this weekend as tens of thousands of people marched in solidarity with Palestine. 
Brisbane and Perth had their largest ever Palestine solidarity protests. Estimated crowds of 4,500 and 6,000 rallied to demand an end to Israel’s criminal siege and bombing of Gaza. Nearly 1,000 people came out in Canberra, and more than 15,000 marched in Sydney and Melbourne. 
The horror of watching a genocide unfold, and rage at our government’s complicity in it, has jolted thousands of people across Australia into action. 
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip for <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker">more than two weeks</a>. More than 4,600 Palestinians, including nearly 2,000 children, have been killed in the territory.
“Israel has bombed homes, whole neighbourhoods”, Palestinian Ayman Qwaider <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-21/thousands-attend-sydney-pro-palestinian-march-october-21/103005592">said in a speech</a> at the Perth rally. “Palestinians are not disposable. They are people who deserve life!” 
Only two hours after speaking, Ayman was told his sister and her three young children had been killed. “My hearts aches for my sister Alaa”, he tweeted, “she was killed by an Israeli airstrike at her home along with her precious children, Eman, Faiz and 7-month-old Sara”.
Hundreds of Palestinians like Ayman’s sister and children are killed by Israel every day. Yet our political leaders continue to defend this genocide. 
In Melbourne, Egyptian-Australian activist Inas Mahboub slammed Western media for dehumanising Palestinians. “I lived in Egypt, and I can see how the media is not hearing the Palestinian side”, she said. “The west needs to condemn the slaughtering of Palestinians.” 
In Sydney, Palestine solidarity activists doubled their numbers on the streets after winning the right to protest. Josh Lees, co-organiser of the rally, declared: “[NSW Premier] Chris Minns threatened to ban another Palestine march. But we fought against that, and we won”. 
Palestine supporters were not going to be intimidated by the government’s threats of repression. Campaigner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/21/thousands-to-attend-pro-palestine-protests-across-australia">Assala Sayara</a> rejoiced at the rally: “Today, we have come to tell the world that we stand on the right side of justice!” 
Solidarity was on the streets this weekend. Palestine supporters made clear that Israel’s atrocities, and our government’s complicity will not go unopposed. Chants of “Shame, shame, Labor shame!” and “Free, free Palestine!” echoed in every major city across Australia. 
Nasser Mashni, co-organiser of the Melbourne rally, pledged to be back on the streets next Sunday. “We joined as a community to shout to our leaders that they are supporting Israeli genocide—but not in our name. We haven’t forgotten the people of Gaza; we want them to know that they are not alone.” 
In the closing speech of the rally, Victorian Socialists member and long-time Palestine solidarity activist Omar Hassan hammered home the call to action: 
“We need to draw together all the links between Israel’s crimes, Western imperialism and the whole capitalist system that profits from all this horror. The Palestinian freedom struggle is a long one, and a hard one. But if we stand together, we will win.”

Thousands rally for Palestine across Australia

“The security and the land are in Israeli hands”, declared Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol one month after the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/6/4/the-naksa-how-israel-occupied-the-whole-of-palestine-in-1967">June 1967 War</a>. In just six days, Israel obliterated the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The remaining Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip were seized, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. 
In what became known as Al-Naksa (Arabic for “the setback”), Israel expelled 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, including 130,000 who had already been displaced in 1948 during Al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”). In the West Bank, 55 percent of the land and 70 percent of water supplies <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">were seized</a> for Jewish settlers, who constituted only a tiny fraction of the population. This was a major victory for Israel, whose leaders began to realise their vision of a Jewish ethno-state. 
But a big problem remained: the Palestinians. Israel’s leaders wanted the West Bank without its indigenous inhabitants. In Eshkol’s words, they “coveted the dowry, not the bride”. 
When the guns fell silent, Israel began constructing settlements for its citizens on the stolen land. Palestinians were forced into isolated enclaves while Israeli civilians claimed their homes. Settlements were instrumental in creating new facts on the ground; as former Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan explained: “Without settlers, we cannot keep the army in those territories ... it would be a foreign army ruling a foreign population”. 
Over the following decade, Israel <a href="https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/article/history-israeli-settlement-expansion-and-around-east-jerusalem-1967-1993">enacted old laws</a> to drive Palestinians from their land. The 1950 Absentees’ Property Law and the 1943 British Mandate Lands Order enabled the state to expropriate any land within the municipal boundaries for “public purpose”. Israel used other laws to take land on the grounds that it was a “requisition for military needs”. 
Settlement belts around Jerusalem and the West Bank severed and ghettoized Palestinian communities, entrenching military domination over the occupied territory and its borders. The aim was to gain “maximum security and maximum territory for Israel with a minimum number of Arabs”, wrote Palestinian academic Nahed Habiballah in an article for the Jerusalem Quarterly.
Grassroots settler movements dovetailed with the official policies of Israeli colonisation. For instance, during the 1970s, the messianic group Gush Emunim rampaged through the occupied Palestinian territories, seizing and settling hilltops with the help of the military. 
While the Israeli state officially criminalised these movements and settlements, it recognised their utility in accelerating the pace of colonisation. With the help of political and military leaders such as Ariel Sharon, settler movements tore through the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 
Successive Israeli governments accelerated the pace of ethnic cleansing. Settlements fragmented Palestinian territory and sliced apart Palestinian communities, which were turned into domains of Israeli control.
The state poached water supplies and farmland in the West Bank for Israeli industry while severing Palestinian communities from their means of subsistence. 
Palestinian workers became dependent on Israeli employment, which created the conditions for further <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235105762_Israel's_Settlements_in_the_West_Bank_Should_the_United_States_Care">collective economic punishment</a>. During both Intifadas (Palestinian uprisings in 1987 and 2000), Israel imposed a blockade on Palestinian labour that had severe economic consequences in the occupied territories. 
The <a href="https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/the-price-of-oslo.html#/14">1995 Oslo Accords</a> boosted Israel’s expansionist aspirations. The agreement, brokered between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation amounted to a subtle and slow consolidation of control over Palestine. 
It gave Israel a mandate to exercise total control over three quarters of the West Bank, while subcontracting security to the collaborationist Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, West Bank Palestinians were forced to accept Israeli settlements on their land. 
The Oslo years resulted in an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66751704">enormous growth</a> of Israeli settlements. They were accompanied by the building of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/19/separate-and-unequal/israels-discriminatory-treatment-palestinians-occupied">“bypass roads”</a>—territories under Israeli control—which facilitated the freedom of movement for settlers, while restricting movement for Palestinians. In the 1990s, more than <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/19/separate-and-unequal/israels-discriminatory-treatment-palestinians-occupied">400 kilometres</a> of settler-only roads were constructed in the West Bank. 
Israel’s expansion accelerated in the 2000s with the construction of a <a href="https://www.btselem.org/separation_barrier">700-kilometre-long apartheid wall</a>. It has become an emblem of the Israeli occupation. Around <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">85 percent</a> of its route falls within the West Bank and it has severed roughly <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">150 Palestinian</a> communities from their pastural and agricultural land. Thousands more have been cut off from schools, workplaces and essential services. More than <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">300,000</a> Palestinians were forcibly transferred to the direct control of the Israeli state, yet were denied residential status or citizenship. 
Today, there are between <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine">600,000 and 750,000</a> Israeli settlers living in at least 250 illegal settlements (130 official, 120 unofficial) in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlers have Israeli residential status and citizenship, while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law. 
Since 1967, Israel has demolished <a href="http://research.monm.edu/mjur/files/2019/02/MJUR-i04-2014-4-Tenenbaum.pdf">25,000</a> Palestinian homes, most of which are in the West Bank. There are more than <a href="http://research.monm.edu/mjur/files/2019/02/MJUR-i04-2014-4-Tenenbaum.pdf">700 road obstacles</a> and <a href="http://research.monm.edu/mjur/files/2019/02/MJUR-i04-2014-4-Tenenbaum.pdf">140 checkpoints</a> that restrict Palestinians freedom of movement. But Israelis can travel freely on their bypass roads.
Palestinians have endured physical segregation, systematic discrimination, violent repression, ethnic cleansing and genocide for more than <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948">75 years</a>. But the violence has dramatically escalated in recent times. 
A coalition of fascists and far-right ministers now hold the reins of power. These include the likes of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/27/who-is-israels-far-right-pro-settler-security-minister-ben-gvir#:~:text=A%20settler%20in%20Kiryat%20Arba,a%20%E2%80%9Cterror%E2%80%9D%20organisation%20%E2%80%93%20Meir">Itamar Ben-Gvir, a settler-leader</a> and national security minister—and self-described “fascist homophobe”—and finance minister <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-16/ty-article/.premium/israels-far-right-finance-minister-im-a-fascist-homophobe-but-i-wont-stone-gays/00000185-b921-de59-a98f-ff7f47c70000">Bezalel Smotrich</a>. They want to wipe Palestinians off the map entirely in their ambition of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/7/7/israel-is-a-settler-colony-annexing-native-land-is-what-it-does">“Greater Israel”</a>. 
More than <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/13/israel-hamas-live-dozens-killed-while-fleeing-to-southern-gaza">50</a> Palestinians have already been killed in the West Bank. Ben-Gvir says that his office is distributing <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/as-world-watches-gaza-violence-fuels-tensions-in-occupied-west-bank/7310987.html">10,000 firearms</a>, as well as combat gear, to Israeli settlers in the occupied territory. “We will change the world so that the settlements will be protected”, he warned. “I have ordered the massive arming of the civilian standby units.” 
On Friday, a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-settler-violence-gaza-war-68debe29dcc2f5a58bd899e1e424911c">settler armed with an assault rifle</a> walked into the village of Al-Tuwani in the southern West Bank and shot a Palestinian point blank. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-settler-violence-gaza-war-68debe29dcc2f5a58bd899e1e424911c">Two days before</a>, settlers shot and killed three Palestinians in Qusra. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-settler-violence-gaza-war-68debe29dcc2f5a58bd899e1e424911c">On Thursday</a>, settlers attacked their funeral procession, shooting dead another two Palestinians. 
When settlers arrived at <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-settler-violence-gaza-war-68debe29dcc2f5a58bd899e1e424911c">Wadi al-Seeq</a>, a small village home to 200 people in the central West Bank, Palestinians ran for their lives. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-settler-violence-gaza-war-68debe29dcc2f5a58bd899e1e424911c">Abdelrahman Kaabni,</a> the head of the village council, said the police and soldiers had also attacked and beaten people. The community had rushed to get out of Qusra, leaving behind their cisterns, livestock, solar panels and cars. 
“The settlers took everything”, Kaabni cried, “and now they’re squatting in our homes”.

How Israel colonised the West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Israeli-PM-Netanyahu-Warns-Palestinians-to-Leave-Gaza-20231007-0009.html">issued</a> a chilling warning to Palestinians after Hamas launched a surprise operation against Israel on Saturday: “I say to the residents of Gaza: leave now because we will act forcefully. All the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding, and operating, we will turn into islands of rubble”. 
Palestinian fighters from the Gaza Strip entered Israel under the cover of rockets launched from the besieged enclave. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/7/israel-palestine-escalation-live-news-barrage-of-rockets-fired-from-gaza">Unprecedented scenes</a> followed. Part of the militarised border fence along the periphery of Gaza was bulldozed. Palestinian civilians commandeered Israeli military vehicles, and fighters stormed at least one military base. Videos of dead Israeli soldiers and live Israeli hostages soon flooded social media. 
In the face of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/07/civilians-will-pay-price-for-biggest-challenge-to-israel-since-1973#:~:text=In%20the%20early%20hours%20of,that%20fateful%20day%20in%201973.">biggest assault</a> on the occupation since at least the 1973 Arab Israeli War, Israel has responded with full force, cutting off Gazans’ access to food, fuel and electricity. Gaza has been hit with airstrikes as thousands of Israeli soldiers descend upon the territory, raising fears of a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/7/world-is-watching-fears-grow-of-a-massive-gaza-invasion-by-israel">ground invasion</a>.
But while there is much talk about a new war, and fingers are pointed at Hamas for starting it, the reality is that Israel has for decades been waging a permanent war against the Palestinians. 
The Gaza Strip is the world’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15">largest open-air prison</a>. More than 2 million Palestinians live on a piece of land many times smaller than the size of Melbourne. Israel blockades the territory by land, sea and air. It <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Full-Report-Embargoed-until-1-Feb-.pdf">restricts</a> the entry of food to what is deemed “essential for the survival of the civilian population” and restricts the movement of people to “exceptional humanitarian cases”. 
<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/12/gaza-undrinkable-water-slowly-poisoning-people#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20long-term%20Israeli%20blockade,their%20children%20and%20loved%20ones.%E2%80%9D">Ninety-seven percent</a> of Gaza’s water is contaminated. Residents are forced to live on little electricity because Israel has repeatedly damaged the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/10/gaza-widespread-impact-power-plant-attack">sole power plant</a> on the Strip. More than <a href="https://www.elibrary.imf.org/downloadpdf/journals/002/2023/146/002.2023.issue-146-en.xml#:~:text=very%20high%20in%20Gaza.&amp;text=At%2044%20percent%20at%20end,percent%20in%20the%20West%20Bank.">60 percent</a> of residents live in poverty, and more than <a href="https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/where/middle-east-and-northern-africa/palestine_en">80 percent</a> of the population depend on international assistance. 
It is Israel’s concentration camp. 
Gaza is the rump of territory where victims of the Zionist campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestine in 1948 ended up. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">Seventy-five percent</a> of Gazans are refugees from the coastal and southern regions of Palestine. In June 1967, Israel seized the Gaza Strip from Egypt and has retained military control over the enclave ever since. 
The experience of internal displacement and horrific living conditions has pushed Gazans to resist. The Palestinian Communist Party was born in the besieged enclave in the 1950s, followed by Fatah in the late 1960s, and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad more recently. 
Israel met the growing resistance with an iron first. After the eruption of the First Intifada in 1987, Israel imposed <a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/israel/intifada-intro.htm">restrictions on Gazans</a>, establishing a permit system to gain access to work in or travel to Israel. Palestinians were largely denied access to the Occupied Territories, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In response to the Second Intifada in 2000, Israel <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/02/05/forget-about-him-hes-not-here/israels-control-palestinian-residency-west-bank-and">cancelled</a> most of the travel and work permits in Gaza, severing the sole avenue of income for many. 
During the 1990s Israel ramped up its <a href="https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/a-hrc-12-48.pdf">“closure” tactics</a>, trapping Palestinians in restricted areas for up to months at a time. The occupation tightened the screws by building an electronic fence and a concrete wall around the enclave. <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-places-remote-controlled-weapon-hebron-checkpoint">Military checkpoints</a> with remote controlled machine guns and cameras sit atop the 65-kilometre border separating Gaza from Israel, positioned to shoot and kill any Palestinians who attempt to breach it. 
Then came the bombs. In <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/7/timeline-israels-attacks-on-gaza-since-2005">2008</a>, a 22-day bombardment left 1,140 Palestinians dead and flattened 47,000 homes. In <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/7/timeline-israels-attacks-on-gaza-since-2005">2012</a>, Israel incinerated schools, mosques, cemeteries, and health and media institutions in a missile attack. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/7/timeline-israels-attacks-on-gaza-since-2005">Two years later</a>, Israel again set Gaza alight, slaughtering 2,100 Palestinians and forcing more than half a million to flee their homes. 
In May <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/7/timeline-israels-attacks-on-gaza-since-2005">2021</a>, a devastating eleven-day military offensive besieged the enclave, killing at least 260 and demolishing thousands of residential units. During the reconstruction process, Israel prevented the entry into Gaza of essential material needed to rebuild homes. 
The Gaza Strip is now, again, under attack. Netanyahu has declared war and members of Israel’s parliament have publicised <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/10/08/Israeli-Knesset-member-calls-for-second-Nakba-amid-ongoing-conflict-with-Hamas">calls for “a new Nakba”</a> (“catastrophe”)—the Palestinian word used to describe the process of ethnic cleansing carried out by Zionist forces in the lead-up to the founding of Israel. 
Survivors of the 1948 invasion and colonisation of Palestine say that the Nakba never ended. In a recent interview with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/20/gazas-blockade-palestines-nakba-lives-on-in-new-generations">Al-Jazeera</a>, 89-year-old Hassan-al-Kilani said: 
“I always compare my father’s life as a young man and our life before Nakba and the openness and ease we used to live in with the lives of today’s youth in Gaza. I feel sorry for them ... these youths are facing the catastrophe of losing the future.” 
For 75 years, Palestinians have been blockaded, invaded and bombed by Israel. The occupation controls every chemical compound that enters the Strip and counts every calorie that goes into Gazan mouths. Palestinians are expected to endure repeated bombardments, forced starvation and entrenched poverty as if it were normal, and not a deliberate policy of Israel’s settler-colonial project. 
Overnight, Amer Ashour took his pregnant wife to hospital as she prepared to give birth. Little did he know he would return to find his home flattened after his apartment building in al-Nasr, a neighbourhood in Gaza City, was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/8/israel-palestine-escalation-live-israeli-forces-bombard-gaza">bombed</a>. 
“I was worried about how we would get to the hospital in light of the continuous bombing”, he told <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/8/israel-palestine-escalation-live-israeli-forces-bombard-gaza">Al Jazeera</a>. “But I did not expect that my house would be bombed.” Eighty families lived in Ashour’s apartment building. Today, all of those families are homeless. 
For Palestinians, everyday life in the Gaza Strip is a continuation of the Nakba.

Israel’s permanent war on Gaza

The murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police last September sparked the largest revolt in Iran since the 1979 revolution. What began as a protest in Gina Mahsa Amini’s home town of Saqqez soon developed into a nationwide revolt against the Iranian state. Over the course of six months, hundreds of thousands of students, workers, the young and the old, took to the streets with the battle cry “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi!” (Women, life, freedom). 
On the eve of the first anniversary of the rebellion, it’s important to reflect on one of the most inspiring struggles of this century. It stands as a testament to the potential of radical movements to challenge exploitation and oppression. It demonstrates how struggle raises the confidence and consciousness of the oppressed. Most importantly, it points us to the potential power of the working class to win a world without oppression. 
Women played a leading role in the uprising. They were the first to protest—at Amini’s funeral in Saqqez—waving their headscarves in their hands as they chanted “Death to the dictator!”. Schoolgirls bravely challenged principals who refused to support the protests, in some instances chasing them off school grounds while chanting “bi sharaf!” (disgrace!). 
Ethnic minorities organised the largest and most militant demonstrations. In the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, weekly rallies of thousands continue to this day, despite fierce state repression. 
Oppression is not just something that breeds anguish and suffering. It can also give rise to resistance. By standing up and fighting back, the oppressed can gain the confidence to challenge their oppression. <a href="https://slingerscollective.net/the-voice-of-baluch-women-woman-life-freedom/">A group of Baloch women</a> described their experience in the uprising as transformative: 
“Before the struggle we were trying to improve aspects of the law, we asked the clergy not to prevent girls’ education and asked our fathers not to force us into marriage as children ... but after Mahsa’s death we found ourselves in the forefront of struggle. All of a sudden, with indescribable passion and energy, we Baloch women demand life and freedom. A life free of all chains, of all forms of oppression.” 
No longer were these women pleading for the easing of the worst aspects of their oppression. They began demanding, in their own words, “nothing less than total liberation”. 
The struggle also transformed the way that Iranian people related to one another, challenging the divide-and-rule tactics of the ruling class. The regime tried to sow divisions in the movement from the outset. After security forces <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-baluchistan-zahedan-blood-friday-protest-crackdown-deaths/32083785.html">massacred more than 90 protesters</a> in Sistan-Baluchestan, officials claimed that it was the fault of Saudi-backed Sunni militia. 
But the attempt to stoke the flames of sectarianism backfired as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in solidarity with the slain protesters. The chants “Long live the Kurds, the Arabs, the Balochis!” and “From Kurdistan to Tehran!” became widespread as the movement took on an explicitly anti-sectarian character. 
The rebellion also stands as a testament to the capacity of students to act as a social detonator. Young people are often the most creative and dynamic force in mass movements. In the days following Amini’s murder, students erupted in revolt. The universities were <a href="https://slingerscollective.net/university-protests-and-strikes-timeline/">transformed</a> into hubs of resistance and organising. Students defied gender segregation rules, organised huge occupations and urged their teachers to support the movement by going on strike. The state mobilised to crush the students, but this only inflamed their anger. 
Following an attack on Sharif University, students in Tehran called for nationwide campus occupations. They warned that government repression wouldn’t stop them: “We will continue to fight ... even when you pull our hair and knock our heads to the ground, it is you who are afraid of us!” 
Students were at the centre of the rebellion. But as a social layer, students do not have the capacity to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Only the working class has the power to strike at the heart of capitalist profits and bring to their knees those responsible for all forms of oppression. 
So it was inspiring to see that begin to happen across the country. <a href="https://slingerscollective.net/the-ccittu-call-for-strike-in-response-to-student-suppression/">Independent teachers’ unions</a> initiated a series of nationwide strikes in response to the regime’s persecution of university students. Oil, gas and petrochemical workers followed, announcing rolling strikes across refineries in the south of the country. They cried “We are all Mahsa!” as they downed their tools and joined the movement. Workers raised the stakes of the struggle by combining the political demands of the uprising with long-held economic grievances. 
The minority of revolutionary workers argued that the fight against oppression is inseparable from the struggle against exploitation. For liberation to be achieved, the economic roots of oppression must be destroyed. <a href="https://slingerscollective.net/haft-tappeh-syndicate-solidarity-statement-with-the-oil-workers-strike/">In the words of sugar cane workers, </a>“To have bread and freedom, let us not leave the women of the revolution alone”. 
In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, <a href="https://t.me/shoranaft">oil workers called for a full mobilisation</a>. “We know how religion and gender discrimination have always been tools in the hands of the government to oppress the entire society”, they wrote. “March 8 is the day to struggle against this injustice. The Organising Council calls all workers in oil and all other labour centres to this nationwide protest. March 8 is the day of women, life and freedom.”
Unfortunately, the participation of workers was confined to the most politically conscious and organised sections, most importantly teachers and oil workers. While many individually participated in the protests, wider layers of workers did not join the uprising as a class. This limited the capacity for the struggle to challenge the regime. As in most recent mass movements, liberal and reformist ideas and strategies predominated, while the forces of the revolutionary left were too weak to influence events. The struggle had reached an impasse. Eventually, the government regained control and defeated the uprising. 
This is not to suggest that the struggle is over. On the contrary, the women, life, freedom rebellion has deepened the ongoing economic and political crisis gripping the Islamic Republic. It should be understood as the latest rupture in an ongoing revolutionary process. 
Inside Iran, recurring periods of social revolt since 2018 have contributed to an ongoing radicalisation among layers of students and workers. The regime’s increasingly repressive response to rebellions has only fuelled its growing crisis of legitimacy. And the new forms of organisation born from this rebellion, particularly the neighbourhood committees and teachers’ unions, will help lay the basis for future struggles to deepen. 
This has implications beyond Iran. The regime is a force of counter-revolution in the region: movements that threaten the regional order are butchered with bullets and bombs. This means that any serious challenge to the Islamic Republic would also rock the foundations of many despotic Arab dictators and factions the regime supports.
Out of it all, hopefully, a socialist left can build itself for the struggles of the future. On the eve of the first anniversary of Amini’s death, a group of neighbourhood committees <a href="https://slingerscollective.net/the-revolutionary-committees-declaration-on-the-jina-movement-anniversary/">published a statement</a> declaring their commitment to rebuilding a current of Marxist politics in Iran: 
“Our vision is to build a society where production is driven not by the profit-seeking of a privileged few, but by the collective needs of the community ... in essence, a free and socialist society where every individual contributes according to their abilities and receives according to their needs.” 
These are all hopeful signs in the struggle for women, life and freedom to come.

The revolt in Iran, one year on

“It looked like an earthquake had struck the Jenin camp. The roads were completely obliterated, ambulances could not get through, wounded people had to walk. People inside their homes were crouching down and peeking out from the windows. You could just see the top of people’s heads because they were trying to avoid being shot through the windows.” 
Ameed Shahada, a journalist from Al Araby television, was in the Jenin refugee camp when Israeli forces raided the city on Monday morning. His eyewitness account, reported in <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-jenin-raid-eyewitness-account-large-scale-offensive">Middle East Eye</a>, detailed the brutal attack. 
Israeli bulldozers ploughed through the Occupied West Bank city, levelling most of the streets surrounding the refugee camp. One thousand soldiers, supported by snipers and drones, targeted civilian infrastructure. Aerial bombardments blew up homes and cut access to water and electricity for hundreds of Palestinians. 
The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.net/news/liveblog/2023/7/3/%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B8%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B8%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B9%D8%A9">Palestinian Red Crescent Society</a> reported that it had to evacuate 3,000 people from the camp, while many are still trapped inside crumbling homes and underneath rubble. <a href="https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1483-2023-becomes-deadliest-year-for-palestinians-in-the-west-bank-as-israeli-military-launches-fresh-attack-on-jenin-refugee-camp">Red Crescent director Ahmed Jebril</a> told the UK charity Medical Aid for Palestine that “ambulances came under direct fire” when trying to enter Jenin to help wounded civilians. The death toll has reportedly risen to ten, with at least 100 wounded. 
Last month, Israel carried out airstrikes on Jenin for the first time since 2006. Monday’s offensive has been described as <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-assault-jenin-enters-second-day-death-toll-rises">one of the biggest attacks on Jenin</a> in decades. The scale of destruction elicits the memory of Israel’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/30/jenin-why-the-palestinian-city-became-a-symbol-of-the-resistance">2002</a> attack on the city, in which at least 52 Palestinians were killed. 
That attack was a turning point for Jenin. The crowded refugee camp became a symbol of Palestinian resistance. Today, armed grassroots resistance is growing in the West Bank, with militant groups like the Jenin Brigade gaining popularity. 
While initially launching defensive operations against military raids, they have shifted to hit and run actions against Israeli soldiers. This has been met with an increase in military repression by the Israelis. 
The Israeli government publicly initiated the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-702782">“Break the Wave campaign”</a> in March last year. This enabled near-daily military raids across the West Bank and resulted in mass arrests. It was the deadliest year for Palestinians since the beginning of the Second Intifada two decades ago. Israeli military violence has continued to escalate, with at least <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/3/two-palestinians-killed-as-israel-attacks-west-bank-city-of-jenin">185</a> Palestinians killed in the first half of this year. 
The dramatic escalation in Israeli violence is also a reflection the broader political dynamics shaping Israeli politics—namely, an insurgent far right. Figures such as Itamar Ben Gvir, a fascist convicted for inciting racial hatred, head Israel’s national security apparatus. 
Last week, Ben Gvir <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/visiting-evyatar-ben-gvir-tells-settlers-to-head-for-the-hilltops-expand-outposts/">addressed a group of settlers</a> atop the illegal outpost of Eviatar, in the West Bank. He called for settlers—illegal colonisers of Palestinian lands—and the military to work together. “We have to settle the land ... and at the same time to launch a military campaign, blow up buildings”, he reportedly said. “Assassinate terrorists. Not one, or two, but dozens, hundreds, or if needed, thousands.” 
Politicians such as Ben-Gvir endorse and encourage settler attacks on Palestinians, while the Israeli military facilitates them. <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-settlers-rampage-through-palestinian-villages-fifth-day">Last month</a>, settler gangs ransacked the town of Turmusaya, north of Ramallah, twice in one week, setting fire to at least 30 Palestinian homes. Four hundred settlers stormed the village under the protection of the army. Omar Jabara Abu Al-Qattin, a 25-year-old Palestinian, was killed during the rampage. 
The unofficially sanctioned settler violence dovetails with the official colonisation policy of Israel. In mid-June, the government approved plans for more than <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/18/israeli-minister-given-sweeping-settlement-building-powers">5,000 new housing units</a> in the West Bank. 
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-16/ty-article/.premium/israels-far-right-finance-minister-im-a-fascist-homophobe-but-i-wont-stone-gays/00000185-b921-de59-a98f-ff7f47c70000">Fascist finance minister</a> and settler leader Bezalel Smotrich was granted sweeping powers to expedite the construction of illegal settlements. He has since vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank and retroactively legalise some illegal outposts. 
The government was met with applause from settler leaders. Yisrael Gantz, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-hands-smotrich-full-authority-to-expand-existing-settlements/">the head of the Benjamin Regional Council in the West Bank</a>, said that Smotrich’s decision would “turn construction in the settlements into something that is not newsworthy but rather, routine”. 
In the face of escalating settler violence, the onslaught of military attacks and mass arrests, Palestinians continue to resist occupation. <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/solidarity-with-jenin-hundreds-of-palestinians-protest-at-gaza-fence/">Hundreds of Palestinians</a> in the besieged Gaza strip held a solidarity rally with Jenin, standing on the fence separating Gaza from Israel. 
<a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/general-strike-observed-in-west-bank-in-protest-against-israels-aggression-on-jenin/">Shops were shuttered</a> in most areas of the West Bank as Palestinians called for a solidarity strike. <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/general-strike-observed-in-west-bank-in-protest-against-israels-aggression-on-jenin/">Protesters marched in their hundreds</a> in the Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem, while <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/general-strike-observed-in-west-bank-in-protest-against-israels-aggression-on-jenin/">smaller demonstrations</a> dotted several neighbourhoods in Occupied East Jerusalem.

Tens of thousands protest to mark a year of genocide in Gaza

Melbourne University mass meeting declares support for Palestine

Counting the dead in Gaza

Starvation as a weapon of war

Why the global movement for Palestine matters

Thousands rally for Palestine across Australia

How Israel colonised the West Bank

Israel’s permanent war on Gaza

The revolt in Iran, one year on

Jenin under attack

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