People Before Profit has called for the “total dismantlement” of the state of Israel and its replacement with a “secular, democratic Palestine”.
In a pamphlet published on Thursday, the group rejects the idea of a “two-state solution” and says: “The only way out now is a one-state solution, requiring the total dismantlement of the racist, Apartheid Israeli state and all of its repressive capacity, its military, its courts, police and prisons. Replacing it, a secular, democratic Palestine where equal rights are guaranteed to individuals regardless of their religious or ethnic identity.”
The group has five TDs in the People Before Profit-Solidarity alliance, which include Richard Boyd-Barrett and Paul Murphy, and has been an outspoken critic of Israel in Dáil debates since the attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7th and the huge military response by the Israeli Defence Forces in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
In the pamphlet, entitled From the River to the Sea: The Struggle for Palestinian Liberation, the group rejects “western mainstream media” portrayals of Hamas.
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“Israel is a settler colonial society and inevitably this leads to a violent response from its subjects. The people of Gaza have been locked in an open prison for 17 years and so it is hardly surprising that some will try to break out and inflict suffering on their oppressors,” it says.
It goes on to say: “The brutal realities of Zionism in its late stage of expansion are the backdrop for the events of October 7th when Hamas launched a do-or-die operation to break the 17-year siege on Gaza and to disrupt the complete colonisation of Palestine.”
It also predicts that the Israeli assault on Gaza will add to the support for Palestinian armed resistance.
“The loathing of Israel and the US will continue to result in increased Palestinian resistance. No matter how many Hamas fighters Israel executes, a new generation of fighters will arise. These in turn will be emboldened by the new wave of support for Palestine in the region and around the world.”
The document dismisses Israeli opponents of the prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu government, and says that “Israeli democracy” is “a contradiction in terms”.
Of protests against proposed judicial reforms in Israel, it says that “When half the population in historic Palestine is disenfranchised, these protests cannot be said to be about democracy. Instead, this was a case of the two wings of Zionism going up against one another to fight over how best to administer the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people.”
“From the River to the Sea” is regarded by many Israelis and Jews as an anti-Semitic slogan, as they say it calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and of Israelis.
At the launch of the pamphlet, Mr Boyd-Barrett was critical of the “ethno-nationalist supremacist ideology” of the Israeli state, but he has always rejected charges of anti-Semitism.
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