Government’s Hitlerite Logic on Immigration and Asylum Seekers Must Be Fought Against

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Government’s Hitlerite Logic on Immigration and Asylum Seekers Must Be Fought Against

PFI Hospital Funding

The "War for the benefit of the Settlements" and the way to an Israeli-Palestinian Peace

It was reported on Monday that Tony Blair will attempt to push asylum and immigration higher up the agenda of the European Union summit in Seville next month. The logic used is that if the EU does not tackle the issue in a serious way, "extremists" will hijack the issue.

Tony Blair believes progress has stalled on an EU plan agreed in 1999 for a common asylum system, his official spokesman said, and will call for the bloc to punish countries that fail to tackle the problem.

Tony Blair, according to reports, wants swift action to tighten EU borders, a tougher approach including withdrawal of aid for countries outside the bloc which fail to clamp down on illegal immigration and more help for countries such as Greece who are on the "front line". He wrote to Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar, who holds the rotating EU presidency last week laying out his proposals and expects a favourable hearing, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

The government is using the issue of "extremists" to divert attention away from their own racist stand and Hitlerite logic on immigration and asylum seekers. When the French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen won through to the final round of presidential elections earlier this month, Peter Mandelson was one of those who claimed that a so-called vacuum on these issues does not exist in Britain because the Labour government is dealing with them. Similarly, the BNP in Burnley and other towns with a high immigrant population are classed as "extremist" while the government’s platform is permeated with the same racist logic under what the government tries to portray as a humanitarian and civilised cloak.

While the description was discredited at the time, the characterisation as "race riots" of the civil disturbances which took place at the time of the General Election campaign last year is now trotted out as though it were fact. At the time, even a national minority member of Labour’s NEC who was brutally injured by the police carefully explained that the violence was coming from the state forces and was not a conflict between two communities.

The situation is being portrayed in this way so that the state can argue, as did Home Secretary David Blunkett (who refused to retract the remark) that schools are being "swamped" by immigrants, in a conscious echo of the Thatcherite position that the country is being "swamped" by an alien culture. This whole Hitlerite argument is then boosted with demands by the government that "bogus" asylum seekers and "illegal" immigrants must be kept out of the country, that immigrants must be taught English and "integrate" and become assimilated. It is added that it must be written into law that immigrants must swear allegiance to a set of citizenship values – which of course are nothing but the Blairite values that the government is trying to promote, against the right to freedom of conscience. Immigrants are supposed in this way to cultivate a "sense of belonging" and "Britishness".

Thus while the polity is divided on a racist basis, not to mention religious and other bases, which the government is seeking to make respectable after September 11, the culture and languages of minority communities is attacked as not British and by implication being of alien values.

The whole logic of putting asylum further up the agenda of the EU is completely racist, and a continuation of the Hitlerite position that alien cultures are in danger of "swamping" the civilised lands of Europe, particularly Britain. They must be kept out, they will be a drain on scarce resources. No wonder Nazi thugs are being given the green light to carry out attacks. However, the issue which is being diverted from is that the government will not recognise the rights of citizens as human beings, and wants to create a hierarchy of rights with second-class and even third-class citizens. The government portrays the backlash as "extremist" and wants to appear pure, when its platform serves the neo-liberal agenda of providing the capitalists with precisely the human capital they need to further the programme of making Britain "Great" again.

The stepping up of this platform is an integral part of implementing the darkest reaction all along the line after September 11. The government is refusing to deal with this, as with all other problems of society, humanely. These racist criteria and Hitlerite logic must be fought head on, including the assertion that the problem is only with "extremism", which is increasingly being used as part of this programme and to let the New Labour and the state as a whole off the hook.

The cost of building a new hospital under the Private Finance Initiative can be almost double that of schemes funded directly by the government, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal on May 17.

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, said of this: "In the face of this damning proof that the Private Finance Initiative costs us nearly twice as much as it would cost through public funding, the government should ditch this discredited gamble now. The evidence is overwhelming and it would be political suicide to ignore it.

"There is no way that the government will be able to deliver on election pledges to put schools and hospitals first if PFI is allowed to continue. PFI puts money into the pockets of big multinationals first. It costs us extra billions; it is not value for money; takes longer to build hospitals and leaves future generations with massive debts to service.

"Patients not profits must be the priority. It's no good pledging huge amounts of extra funding for our NHS if it's going to be swallowed up by the PFI black hole."

The facts continue to underline that New Labour’s pledge of "delivering on public services" means that the government is delivering social programmes to private capital as a source of profit, a means to take funds out of the economy at no risk to the financiers.

The Communist Party of Israel Central Committee has forwarded to us the following document on the position of the Communist Party of Israel. WDIE is reproducing it for the information of our readers.

The war started by Sharon’s government at the end of March, 2002, to reoccupy the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, was another phase in an ongoing war during the last 18 months aimed at eliminating by military force the national rights of the Palestinian people, and primarily their right to a sovereign state at the side of the State of Israel, and to consolidate Israeli rule and settlements in the territories occupied in 1967.

In the last year, during which the right-wing government of Sharon and Peres was in power, thousands of Palestinians were killed and about 400 Israelis, and many thousands were wounded. The human suffering, the casualties, the hunger, the material and economic ravages of the war – should move anyone with a conscience, anyone to whom civil rights and the rights of nations are dear, to take action against the war and for a just Israeli-Palestinian peace.

There can be no end to the cycle of bloodshed as long as the main cause of the violence and destruction is not dealt with, and that is the continued Israeli domination of the Palestinian territories occupied in June 1967. In the course of the continued Israeli occupation, these last 35 years, 140 Israeli settlements have been built in the occupied territories, more than a third of the territories in the West Bank and Gaza have been seized, numerous war crimes have been committed. The 35 year ongoing occupation continues to be illegal and immoral.

Barak’s policy

The policy of the Sharon-Peres government has been to escalate the confrontation and to wage a war against the Palestinian people and against its elected and internationally recognised leadership, headed by Yasir Arafat. But the various Israeli governments have adhered to a policy of denying the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people for more than 50 years.

In an attempt to justify this criminal war, Sharon and his collaborators have been claiming that the Barak government had offered the Palestinians a "state containing 95% of the territories", but that the Palestinian leadership had rejected this generous offer in favour of a military option. This argument is baseless.

The Barak government completely ignored its obligation to continue to implement the signed agreements with the Palestinians. In the two years it was in power (May 1999-June 2001) the Barak government didn’t transfer any land to the Palestinians but, on the contrary, expanded construction in the settlements on an unprecedented scale. When Ehud Barak realised that his government was about to fall, he attempted to dictate to the Palestinians an accord which would have established a non-viable Palestinian entity, lacking actual control of its borders, its air space and its sources of water, together with Israeli annexation of additional parts of the West Bank where most of the settlers lived (aside from those regions which had already been annexed in 1967 in the Jerusalem region). The so-called "95% of the territories", which Barak claimed to have offered, were never backed by a map, and Barak never indicated which settlements he was prepared to evacuate.

It is important to recall that Barak, as head of government, had authorised the provocative visit of Sharon, then opposition leader, to the courtyard of the holy mosques (Harem-a-sharif – the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem in September 2000. The following day eight Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli police on this holy site. This action triggered the second Palestinian uprising (Intifada). Legitimate protest actions of Arabs – Israeli citizens – against the killing were suppressed by force, during which 13 Israeli Arabs were shot and killed by the Israeli police and dozens were wounded.

When we recall that Barak had been courting Sharon to join his government, we may conclude that Barak’s "peace campaign" was aimed in fact to "prove" that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority are no partners for peace, and hence there is no alternative to military escalation. And indeed in October 2000 Barak organised a military offensive against Palestinian towns in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which included rocket attacks, aerial bombardment and total siege of the Palestinian towns.

Sharon’s policy

Prime Minister Sharon, who in his previous military and civilian functions had been responsible for setting up dozens of settlements, for demolition of Arab houses, for the war against Lebanon in 1982 including the massacre carried out in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila – is conducting a strong-arm and particularly violent policy towards the Palestinian people and its leadership.

Although we are already living in the 21^st century, Sharon continues to hold high the banner of colonialism. He is convinced that Israel has the right to rule the 3.5 million Palestinians living in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, and that it is possible to abolish national rights by means of military supremacy. As far as Sharon is concerned, all the territory occupied by Israel in June 1967, will forever remain under occupation, and as for the Palestinians, he is prepared that they be granted limited autonomy in a number of ‘Bantustans’, with responsibility for sewage and road repairs, and that in no more than 40% of the occupied territories.

It is important to emphasise that Sharon’s government is planning to achieve its political goals by waging a ruthless war. Sharon and the right-wing leaders envisage a "greater Israel", incorporating the West Bank, in which the Palestinians will live in a regime of "apartheid model 2002". There is no place in Sharon’s plans for an independent and viable Palestinian state that will coexist in peace with Israel. And in order to remove from the agenda the establishment of a Palestinian state, Sharon has instructed the Israeli army to destroy systematically all instruments of government, and all the civilian institutions that have been set up in the territories since the Oslo agreements. This is also the reason for the ‘siege’ he has imposed on the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat, and for the destruction of the building in Ramallah in which his offices are located. From Sharon’s point of view, the purpose of the elimination of Arafat is to remove from the order of the day the establishment of an independent Palestine.

The Sharon-Peres government is aware of the Palestinian popular resistance to the continuation of the occupation and of the aspiration of the Palestinian people for national independence and a state. And in order to repress the natural aspiration to be free of foreign occupation, the Israeli army was sent at the end of March into the Palestinian towns and refugee camps. The purpose of this war was to coerce the Palestinians to accept the "solution" that Sharon proposes, namely, a continuation of the Israeli occupation. The Israeli army has reconquered the towns and refugee camps, commits war crimes, executions without trial, imposes military and economic siege, starves the Palestinian population and cuts off medical assistance, preventing children and students from learning in schools and universities, preventing pregnant women from giving birth in hospitals.

Responsibility of the Bush administration

The reprehensible terrorist attack in New York in September 2001 was exploited by the Bush administration to institute a campaign to reorganise the world in accord with the interests of the American monopolies and American military hegemony. With these aims the Bush administration is conducting the war in Afghanistan and is preparing future wars against Iraq, Iran and other states.

The Sharon-Peres government reacted to these changes in the international arena by attempting to use the "war against terror", the pretext for the renewed American aggression. In order to gain the support of the U.S. and other governments in its ruthless war against the Palestinians, Sharon and the Israeli army leaders have decided to ride the wave of the "war against terror". They have conferred on the Palestinian Authority the title of "Terrorist Authority", in the hope that such a label would blunt the criticism of the Israeli war to put an end to the Palestinian Authority.

In the framework of this policy the Sharon government has declared its support for the American military plan to attack Iraq, and as a reward it has indeed obtained the overall support – military, economic and political – of the Bush administration for the Israeli military offensive against the Palestinian people and its leadership.

The Bush administration has attempted to blunt the criticism for its support for the war and the continued occupation by means of visits of Foreign Secretary Powell, Vice President Cheney and the emissary General Zini, but without ending its concrete support for the Sharon-Peres government and its destructive policy. It should be emphasised that without the firm and overall support of the American administration, Sharon would never have been able to continue with the war and to further his plans of annexation and abolishing the rights of the Palestinian people.

But the cynical calculation that labelling the war against the Palestinian people as "a war against terror" would receive international approval, did not take into account the horrified reactions in the world to the terrible scenes of bombardment, destruction, death and bereavement, in consequence of the reoccupation of towns and refugee camps. The pictures of horror that were televised worldwide, led to a sharpening of international criticism of the war crimes committed by Israel.

In face of international criticism, the Bush administration was compelled to take the initiative in passing Security Council resolution 1397, which includes a Palestinian state in the future peace accord, and was obliged to support Security Council resolutions 1402 and others that followed, which demanded of Israel to stop the war immediately and withdraw the army from towns and villages subject to Palestinian sovereignty. But in parallel to its support of Security Council resolutions, the Bush administration continues to accuse Arafat and the Palestinian Authority of being responsible for the bloodshed and demands of them to put an end to what it calls "Palestinian violence".

Terror attacks against civilians

Terror attacks against civilians, including suicide bombings in Israeli population centres, are intolerable acts that should be condemned unambiguously.

The Communist Party of Israel condemns in principle terror attacks, whose aim is to sow death and fear among civilians, and declares categorically that terror is not a legitimate form of struggle.

Acts of terror contribute nothing to the just struggle against Israeli occupation but, on the contrary, do it harm. To achieve a just and stable peace, the warmongers and advocates of occupation must be isolated, but acts of terror help Sharon and the right wing to mobilise public support for the conduct of a ruthless war against the Palestinian people.

Many years of experience have proved that 35 years of occupation, oppression and humiliation, themselves a form of state terror, are fertile soil for the growth of the grave negative phenomenon of terror attacks. It should be emphasised that Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, as well as other Palestinian leaders, have condemned terror attacks against Israeli civilians. Thus, putting an end to the occupation and establishing a just peace, based on respect for the right of the Palestinian people to set up their own independent state, side by side with the state of Israel – is the way to eradicate terror.

Expressions of antisemitism in the world

The Israeli Communist Party condemns the outbreak of antisemitism in different countries in the world, which has become more frequent lately. Antisemitism, which is an expression of national hatred and national-religious persecution, should be categorically condemned. Expressions of antisemitism primarily serve Sharon, who is interested to represent Israel as a victim of hatred of Jews, in order to justify his devastating war and the long term oppression of the Palestinian people.

The struggle against the occupation, for dismantling the settlements and for a just peace, is in the interest of the two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian, of Jews and Arabs, of all people in the world. This struggle is a direct continuation of the heroic struggles of occupied peoples against foreign occupation, against the deprivation of national rights, against persecution on a national, racialist or religious basis. Consequently, the struggle against occurrences of antisemitism is an inseparable part of the struggle for peace and justice in the world, and also in the Middle East.

The Israelis and the price of the occupation

The protracted occupation has again degenerated into a terrible war, for which the people of Israel are paying a heavy price – social and economic crisis, the stifling of democratic rights, an increase in racist outbreaks, an atmosphere of apprehension.

In addition to the human cost, the Israelis are paying a heavy social and economic price. Because of the renewed war against the Palestinian people which has been going on some 18 months, the economic crisis in Israel has deepened: whole branches have collapsed and the unemployment rate already exceeds 11%. The government allocates more than half of its annual budget to finance the war and the occupation, and at the same time it cuts, again and again, the allocations for children and the aged, for education and health services. It reduces the minimum wage, cuts unemployment benefits and social aid, increases the number of poor. The government deliberately slashes, with special severity, the social rights of Arab citizens of Israel.

The Sharon-Peres government has exploited the many months of war in order to pass a series of laws which restrict the freedom of speech and freedom of the press, restrict the right of those who oppose the occupation to run for election to the Knesset, has strengthened the organs of internal oppression, has strengthened the nationalist trends in the educational system.

The influence of the occupation on the mood of the Israeli society is complex. Increasing apprehension and hopelessness have driven part of the Israeli population to nationalist extremism and racialism. Leaders of the extreme right are conducting a campaign to frighten people, in order to mobilise support for a massive expulsion of Palestinians ("transfer") as the "final solution" of the political problems.

This merging of the economic-social crisis with the inroads into Israeli democracy and anti-Arab racialist incitement, is being exploited to accelerate the process of fascisation of Israeli society. This is a grave danger for the future of Israeli society.

Israelis against the occupation

In recent months wider circles in Israeli society have freed themselves of the illusion of force. Increasing numbers of Israelis oppose the war crimes and are participating in protest actions of the left and of various peace movements. The Israeli Communist Party, together with its partners in the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), is playing an active role in organising protest and solidarity actions, and its members are active in the various peace movements.

The phenomenon, unprecedented in scope, of officers and soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, creates a dynamic that increasingly legitimises different forms of opposition to the policy of force and occupation conducted by the Sharon-Peres government. Especially noteworthy is the increasing number of women and mothers, including bereaved mothers, who are participating in the protest actions. "The occupation is killing us all" and "Stop the war!" – have become the slogans of the opponents of Sharon’s policies.

In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in Haifa and Nazareth, many thousands demonstrate repeatedly with the demand to stop the war immediately, to quit the occupied territories and to conduct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority headed by Arafat.

In the present conditions, the main task of the peace activists in Israel, aside from actions of solidarity with the Palestinians, is to shorten the days of the Sharon government and to remove it from power.

The main obstacle in achieving this goal is the participation of the Labour Party in Sharon’s government. The Labour Party provides Sharon with a coalition majority and with a facade of political moderation, but in fact it is a full partner to the war crimes and the brutal repression in the occupied territories. The chairman of the Labour Party, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, is Minister of Security, responsible directly for the war, the destruction, the executions, and the stifling of the Palestinian people. Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister, serves as a fig leaf for Sharon’s brutal policy of occupation. One of the objectives of the Israeli peace forces is to bring about, as soon as possible, the withdrawal of the Labour Party from Sharon’s government.

Another condition for success of the peace forces in removing Sharon and the extreme right wing from power – is the development of a joint Jewish-Arab struggle. Without co-operation on the basis of equality and mutual respect – the Israeli left and the forces of peace, democracy and civil rights have no chance. As bearers of the banner of equality and unity of struggle of Jews and Arabs for 83 years, we communists see the struggle of the Arab citizens of Israel against racialism and national discrimination as an inseparable part of the struggle for an Israeli society that strives for peace and equality, and defends democratic and civil rights.

The road to a just and stable peace

The struggle against the occupation and for a just and stable Israeli-Palestinian peace, in the framework of which a Palestinian state will be established with East Jerusalem as its capital, side by side with the state of Israel, and the refugee problem will be solved in accord with the UN resolutions – has, for tens of years, been a matter of regional and international importance. The war focus in the Middle East concerns all the peoples in the world.

The ongoing occupation and bloody confrontation claims its toll of human lives, shatters the lives of the Palestinian people and undermines society and democracy in Israel. Consequently, peace-lovers in the region and in the world must take to heart the humane and democratic lesson: occupation is a calamity for both peoples, Israeli and Palestinian; a people cannot build its future on the ruins of another people; there is no military solution to the long lasting national Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The involvement of lovers of peace in the world in the struggle to end the Israeli occupation, and their solidarity with Palestinian people and the forces of peace in Israel – is of considerable importance. This is a valuable contribution towards saving the Israeli and Palestinian peoples from misfortune.

In these fateful days we consider it important to present to the international community involved in the struggle to end the occupation and to bring peace and security to the region, some specific goals.

· To remove all restrictions on the movements of Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, to defend his rights as an elected and recognised leader.

· International intervention in the conflict by stationing UN forces to separate between Israeli and Palestinian forces. About a 1000 Israelis recently signed such an appeal that was sent to the UN Secretary General.

· A boycott on goods produced in the settlements as a means of stressing that the settlements are the main obstacle on the road to peace.

· Application of pressure by political parties and organisations on the Labour Party to withdraw from Sharon’s government immediately, while rejecting the deceitful pretext that the Labour Party has a moderating influence on Sharon’s policies.

· Immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from the point where they ended in the days of Barak and Clinton.

Taking into account the complex experience of the Oslo agreements and the obstacles to their implementation, the intolerable suffering of the Palestinian people and the deterioration of Israeli society – it is our view that proposals by Sharon to reach interim agreements, to convene a "regional conference", aimed to prevent the end of occupation, and other such proposals, should be rejected.

Although the articles in the document proposed by the Saudi Crown Prince and adopted by the Arab League are well known ingredients of a just Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, it is important to warn against any American or Israeli attempt to interpret the document as affirming that peace negotiations can be conducted without the Palestinian Authority, without the P.L.O. and without Chairman Arafat.

There are two alternatives before the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and before all peoples in the region:

- either a continuation of the war, the occupation, the killings, the destruction and fear of the future,

- or establishing a just and stable peace, based on recognition of the rights of the peoples to self determination, on an end to the occupation, dismantling of all settlements, making the "Green Line" a border of peace between the state of Palestine and the state of Israel. In the framework of a peace agreement East Jerusalem will be recognised as the capital of Palestine, and West Jerusalem – the capital of Israel; the problem of the Palestinian refugees will be solved by an agreement based on the UN resolutions; agreed solutions will also be reached on additional problems such as water resources, security arrangements, economic co-operation and other questions.

The fate of the two peoples, Israeli and Palestinian, depends on getting rid of the occupation and on embarking on the road to peace and good neighbourly relations, which will create the conditions for mobilising the people to build a better life, a life of democracy’ equality and social justice.

Tel Aviv, early May, 2002