The Gaza ceasefire

The rs21 steering committee’s response to the ceasefire in Gaza

rs21 stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine following the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza. This moment of fragile relief arrives after two years of genocide, a period marked by immense sacrifice in which the unwavering struggle of the Palestinian people thwarted the Zionists’ attempts at displacement and annihilation. The ceasefire stands as a testament to their steadfastness, a hard-won achievement for Palestinians everywhere, even as we recognise that true and lasting peace can only flourish in a Palestine that is free, from the river to the sea, with equal rights for all. 

The struggle of the Palestinian people has become a unifying force for millions, if not billions, across the globe. It has awoken a collective consciousness and allowed people to recognise their shared opposition to imperialism. We stand in solidarity with every part of the global solidarity movement it ignited from – the resistance in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, the energy embargo in Colombia, the mass strikes in Italy, the student intifada on campuses worldwide, the Global Sumud flotillas – to the the popular mass movements that have emerged on every continent.

The fragile agreement rests on the compliance of the Israeli state, which has broken a similar ceasefire already this year, and the enforcement of the core imperialist power of our time, the United States, without whose support neither the genocide nor the continuation of the Zionist project would have been possible. The ceasefire is merely an initial step on the long road to ending the genocide and winning liberation. 

The future, freedom and self-determination of Palestine should be determined by the Palestinian people and can never be won through the colonial governance of Gaza by those powers that deny it – Israel, the US, as well as their allies in Britain and the Arab states. While we should recognise this achievement for the resistance, we must emphasise that the occupation continues, the Zionist brutality continues, and thousands of Palestinian prisoners remain in the occupation’s cells.

What the resistance of the last two years has proven, as it has for generations before, is that the fight for Palestinian freedom and liberation will continue. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine has stressed the ‘necessity of confronting the second chapter of the Trump plan with a unified Palestinian national stance that thwarts all projects aimed at separating the Strip from the West Bank’, and other resistance factions commented that they will not abandon their people’s national rights until freedom, independence and self-determination are achieved.

In Britain, Palestine solidarity has become a mass movement. It has made strides towards isolating the Zionist state not just in the popular imagination but through sustained action on the ground. Nevertheless, the ruling class in Britain still refuses to cede their support, and material wins inflicted on the political, military, and economic support provided to Israel have been few and far between. There’s a sharp contradiction here, and it’s one that we must now fight to resolve with a shattering defeat for the ruling classes.

Our aims are clear: a full arms embargo, divestment, sanctions and the complete isolation of the Zionist state. This means we have to escalate:

• Mass direct actions against the imperialist war machine and its profiteers
• Organising in workplaces to enforce a workers’ arms embargo and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions, institutionalising the solidarity movement in our neighbourhoods and communities
• Building power for a political alternative which can pose a serious challenge to the imperialism of the British state

Palestine continues to teach us. Its people set the example. We must heed their call to escalate the struggle and bolster the resistance in the next stage.

Free Palestine. Glory to the martyrs. Victory to our people.