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A “war against humanity”: Six months of the Gaza genocide
Andre Damon, WSWS, Apr 8 2024

Ashraf Abu Draz mourns over the bodies of his two daughters who were killed in the
Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital morgue in Rafah, Apr 4 2024.

Apr 7 marks six months since the beginning of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. In the span of just half a year, Israel has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million people, denied the entire population access to food, water and medical care, and carried out daily, systematic massacres leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people. The death toll currently stands at 33,137. Once the missing are added, the true toll is likely over 44,000. A further 75,815 people have been wounded. Over the course of just six months, 5.45% of Gaza’s population has been killed, wounded or is missing. A comparable percentage of the American population would be more than 18 million people. This is an intensity of mass death without precedent in post-WW2 history. But most shocking of all is the fact that two-thirds of those killed are women and children. Israel has deliberately targeted medical workers, humanitarian workers, journalists and artists. It is waging, as World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres said Sunday, a “war against humanity.”

In the course of the past six months, every element of the US-Israeli justification for bombing, invading and blockading Gaza has been exposed as a lie. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Israel was in possession of Hamas’s entire operational plan for the Oct 7 attack that served as the pretext for the war. Despite this knowledge, Israeli intelligence and military forces were ordered to stand down and redeploy from the Gaza border immediately ahead of the attack. In a matter of days, the Israeli military put into effect long-held plans for a genocidal war against the population of Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Oct 9:

We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly. I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel.

Just four days later, Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared:

“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. We will fight until we break their backbone.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter declared:

We’re rolling out the Gaza Nakba.

Having made these statements of genocidal intent, the Netanyahu government systematically targeted all aspects of social, economic and cultural life in Gaza, working to level every hospital, school and home, and kill as many men, women and children as possible. The genocide has undeniably shown that the perspective of Zionism is bankrupt and reactionary. Israel will forever be marked by its association with mass murder. It is the end product of decades of brutal oppression of the Palestinians, and the false identification of the interests of the Jewish people as a whole with the Israeli state. Beyond Israel, the genocide stands as a condemnation of the entire imperialist order. The capitalist powers in the US-NATO axis have supported, armed, funded and politically justified one of the greatest crimes of the modern era. As the Israeli government was publicly stating its intent to massacre and expel the population of Gaza, the Biden administration declared over and over its opposition to any negotiated settlement of the conflict. There is “no possibility” of a ceasefire, Biden said on Nov 9. Just days later, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer addressed a pro-genocide rally in Washington, in which he bellowed:

We stand with you. We will not rest until you get the assistance you need.

Over the course of six months, the Biden administration has made more than 100 separate arms transfers to Israel, making it clear that the Netanyahu government has a green light to starve, kill and torture the population of Gaza at will. This reality stands as an unanswerable rebuttal to the claims by the Biden administration and US media that the White House has sought to “pressure” the Netanyahu government to protect civilians. In fact, the administration’s policy has amounted to a massive blank check for Israel, a policy that continues to this day despite the purely verbal criticism of Netanyahu by the White House. The Biden administration’s categorical support for the Israeli genocide is part of an eruption of US militarism throughout the Middle East, including Iran, as part of a broader struggle for global domination targeting Russia and China.

The Gaza genocide will have vast and far-reaching social and political consequences. Already, the mass murder in Gaza has sparked the largest global mass demonstrations since the Iraq war. It has shown the imperialist powers, who endlessly invoke “human rights” to justify their wars, as enablers and accomplices of genocide. Most of all, the Gaza genocide is a crime of capitalism. The capitalist social order is legitimizing every form of social barbarism: from nuclear war to perpetual mass death in a preventable pandemic to genocide. Future generations will see the Gaza genocide as an inflection point, propelling the growth of powerful currents in opposition to the capitalist social order. As WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North explains in The Logic of Zionism: From Nationalist Myth to the Gaza Genocide:

The ongoing war, for all its horrors, has made one significant political contribution. It has awakened the youth. It has opened the eyes of the world. It has exposed the Zionist regime and its imperialist accomplices for the criminals they are. It has set into motion a tidal wave of outrage that is sweeping across the world and will sweep across those responsible for this genocide.

The task is to turn this growing opposition, which is as yet of a politically amorphous character, into a conscious movement based on a socialist perspective oriented to the working class.

Vanderbilt University expels Nashville students for pro-Palestinian sit-in as attacks on campus free speech spread
Jane Wise, Kevin Reed, WSWS, Apr 8 2024

Students in front of Knowland Hall on the Vanderbilt campus

The students who occupied the hallway outside of Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s office on Mar 26 were informed of disciplinary measures against them on Friday. Three students who allegedly forced their way past campus security personnel to enter the Kirkland administrative building have been expelled from the university. One student, who attempted to enter the building by saying there was an appointment, has been suspended for a semester. More than 20 other students who occupied the hallway outside of the chancellor’s office have received 15 months of probation, and their offense will be documented in their official university records. The Vanderbilt expulsions are only the most serious sanctions in a wave of repressive actions taken by university administrations in every region of the US, seeking to beat back the growing opposition to Israeli genocide in Gaza and the Biden administration’s fulsome support for it. Just in the past few days, students have been arrested or otherwise targeted at Pomona College in Southern California, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Columbia University in New York City, and many other colleges.

At the University of Michigan, the administration is preparing to enact a new policy that would effectively outlaw all protest actions on the campus, historically a center of student political activism of a left-wing, democratic and anti-war character. These actions call for a massive response by workers nationwide. The attacks on student protests are attacks on all working people. The police-state methods being employed against students will be directed at the working class as a whole, as it moves into struggle to defend jobs, living standards and democratic rights, and to oppose imperialist war. The Vanderbilt students appeared before a kangaroo court of university officials early last week where they were shown a doctored video of the demonstration and were prevented from offering evidence in their own defense. Roughly 60 students participated in the 22-hour demonstration at Kirkland Hall organized to oppose the university’s unilateral decision to block the vote on an amendment to the Vanderbilt Student Government Constitution that would divest student government funds from companies that finance Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

A “let us vote” sign left behind by Vanderbilt student protesters

In addition to more than two dozen students who entered Kirkland Hall, another 30 students blocked the steps outside of the building. Students reported being denied access to restroom facilities, as well as food and water throughout the demonstration. The BDS petition was overwhelmingly supported by students, garnering double the required signatures to move forward with the initiative. The punishments were handed down despite widespread support for the students and their protest across the university. A letter signed by more than 150 faculty detailed the lengths to which the university went to thwart students’ attempts to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza and build support for their referendum to divest student government funds from Israel. The faculty members wrote:

We are concerned that these rules seem arbitrary, shifting, and unevenly applied to student activists and other community members. We also contend that the criterion that student protests must not ‘disrupt’ university operations is perniciously vague and expansive.

Meanwhile, the Vanderbilt University Divinity School presented a petition that recalled the university’s suppression of student protests during the Civil Rights era and the expulsion of a divinity student, James Lawson, for his involvement in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins during the 1960s.

A sign on Knowland Hall at Vanderbilt, restricting access to the building

On numerous occasions before the sit-in at Kirkland Hall, the university canceled previously approved protests and meetings by the Vanderbilt Divest Coalition (VDC), the group behind the BDS initiative. Misconduct warnings were sent to students posting flyers in support of the BDS referendum. Only later did they discover that an unpublished map detailing updated no-protest and silent-protest zones had made their outdoor protest and speech a conduct violation. A student close to the protest told the WSWS that the administration is actively monitoring VDC members’ social media and that students identified as Muslim or in support of Palestine are being stopped by campus personnel and questioned about their association with the VDC. “They are looking for the leaders,” the student said. Chancellor Diermeier is a right-wing figure who justified his attacks on students in a strident op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal. He is the Managing Director of Diermeier Consulting Associates LLC, which specializes in crisis leadership, reputation management, and regulatory and political strategy. The chancellor counts Shell, ExxonMobil, BP and the Federal Bureau of Investigation among his clients. The attack on the free speech rights at Vanderbilt University is part of a crackdown carried out against pro-Palestinian student protests across the country:

Pomona College

Nineteen students in Claremont, California, were arrested after occupying the college president’s office on Friday. The protest began after the college dismantled a student-erected pro-Palestinian protest art on the Claremont campus, which had been standing since Mar 28. Eighteen students were charged with misdemeanor trespassing, and one with obstruction of justice, according to the Claremont Police Department after riot gear-wearing officers from Claremont, Pomona, Azusa and La Verne responded to the scene. The protest was organized by Pomona Divest Apartheid, which is demanding the college divest from Israel’s war in Gaza. The student demonstration included an installation art piece the group called an “apartheid wall,” which was forcefully removed earlier that day. News reports said more than 100 protesters had gathered outside the Alexander Hall by 4 pm Friday, and as many as 40 protesters had entered President Gabrielle Starr’s office. When police arrived, about half of the protesters left the office and the rest remained. Pomona Divest Apartheid issued a statement to FOX 11 that said:

Today’s escalation by Pomona College’s leadership, which led to student arrests, represents a clear choice by Pomona College to put students at risk and suppress students’ right to free speech rather than meaningfully engage with the hundreds of students opposed to their policies.

President Starr issued a statement on Friday night that the students arrested Friday would face suspension, and any students from the other Claremont colleges would be disciplined at their own schools and banned from Pomona College campuses.

Columbia University, New York

At least four students were suspended for participating in an unsanctioned panel on campus called Resistance 101, on Mar 24, according to the student newspaper Columbia Spectator. University President Dr Minouche Shafik announced the disciplinary measures on Friday claiming that the students had participated on the panel with “known” supporters of terrorism. The New York Daily News reported that leaders of more than 100 student groups that belong to the coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest were sent email messages by investigators into the Resistance 101 event and demanded students share their private text messages. The group described these demands as “threatening” and an attempt to “intimidate” students. The Daily News report also said that Chief Operating Officer Cas Holloway announced last week that the university had notified law enforcement of the event and engaged an “outside firm led by experienced former law enforcement investigators” to conduct an investigation. The assault on student rights at Columbia is part of the preparations for Shafik and two Columbia University trustees to testify at a congressional antisemitism probe in Washington on Apr 17.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The administration has condemned a resolution passed by the Student Government Association (SGA) on Mar 29 calling for the university to stop funding an archaeological research project in Israel until there is a ceasefire. The SGA resolution states, in part:

We recognize that genocide is being committed by Israel in Gaza and call for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s total divestment of funds from the State of Israel until at least the time in which the State of Israel arranges a ceasefire in Gaza and there are proper measures in place to hold the State of Israel and other party actors accountable for their role in the Palestinian genocide.

The university administration responded to the resolution by sending a statement to Queen City News that said:

The SGA has been counseled several times on the University’s commitment to maintain institutional neutrality. The resolution does not align with that commitment and will not be acted upon by the administration.

Falsely identifying the SGA’s divestment demand with antisemitism and violence on campus, the administration’s statement said:

The university is committed to fostering conversations in a manner that affords respect, fairness and dignity to every member of the campus community and will immediately address any actions that compromise its ability to provide a safe environment to learn, live, and work.

Student groups have said the funding of a license for a dig site in Israel violates the administration’s claimed neutrality. A member of Social Justice for Southwest Asia and North Africa (SJ4SWANA) said:

Their actions speak otherwise. And I think that if they truly are neutral, they shouldn’t be funding other governments, especially not Israel.

A UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for Apr 25 and students said they plan to attend to ensure the board addresses their concerns.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality condemns the growing wave of attacks on the free speech rights of students protesting the US-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians. The suppression of resolutions and the arrests and disciplinary actions against students are aimed at silencing the widespread opposition to the collaboration of university administrations with the US government, military and businesses that have ties to Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The intransigent position of university administrators and boards of regents toward the demands of students, as well as their use of law enforcement against students, demonstrates that appeals to academia, like all factions of the US ruling establishment, will not stop the bloody wars being carried out in Gaza and elsewhere around the world. The struggle to stop imperialist war cannot be waged through appeals by students for divestment from Israel to representatives in the universities or to the Democrats and Republicans in the US government. Imperialist wars and the barbarism of the genocide in Gaza can only be halted through the mobilization of the working class against the entire capitalist system, and it is to this revolutionary force that students must turn.

Berliner Sparkasse freezes bank account of “Jewish Voice” due to anti-war event
Gregor Link, WSWS, Apr 8 2024

Iris Hefets of Jewish Voice was arrested by police in Nov 2023 for walking alone across a public square
in Berlin carrying a sign that read, “As a Jew and an Israeli: Stop the genocide in Gaza.”

In the midst of growing global opposition to Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, the bank accounts of Jewish anti-war organisations are once again being blocked in Germany. After the Berlin state government recently created the conditions for preventing students from graduating on a political basis, there are now also calls in the media to ban anti-war events. Last week, Berliner Sparkasse blocked the bank account of “Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East,” known for its opposition to the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s apartheid and occupation policy. It did this “as a precautionary measure” and with immediate effect, without prior consultation or justification. In a letter to the group’s board of directors, Berliner Sparkasse demanded that a list with the names and addresses of all members be submitted within a few days. This is an anti-democratic and criminal attack by a bank on a political organisation that is unprecedented in recent decades. The fact that a German bank is freezing a left-wing Jewish organisation’s financial resources to the tune of five figures is reminiscent of the confiscation of Jewish property during the Nazi dictatorship and is obviously politically motivated. In a statement, Jewish Voice reported that the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft had already closed the organisation’s account in 2019 on a political basis. The organisation said:

This pressure and political persecution will only increase the more Israel and its apartheid policy in the state of Israel and the West Bank, and now its genocidal policy in the Gaza Strip, lose approval in the world. Germany is one of Israel’s last loyal allies, and German policy is cooperating with Israel’s apartheid and genocide, even though over 80% of the German population does not support the German government’s policy.

The reason for the attack is that a “Palestine Congress” is planned for the middle of the month in Berlin, which is to be directed against Israel’s massacre in the Gaza Strip. The event will include various lectures by human rights activists, artists, trade union officials and bourgeois and pseudo-left politicians such as the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. The organisation reports:

The closer the congress gets, the more persecution takes place. We, the Jewish Voice, have made our account available for this, which is why it has now been blocked.

The association has announced that it will take legal action against the blocking of its account and compared the demand for a list of members to the repressive measures “of the Berlin state Criminal Investigations Department (LKA) or the police, who have been politically persecuting us as a Jewish organisation for some time.” In fact, there can be little doubt that the actions by the Sparkasse enjoy the political support of the government authorities and were most likely even instigated by the Berlin Senate (state executive) itself, a coalition of the CDU and SPD. In mid-March, Interior State Secretary Christian Hochgrebe (SPD) announced he would look into banning the “Palestine Congress” and have its preparations analysed by the intelligence services. CDU state parliamentary group leader Dirk Stettner declared:

We must do everything possible to ensure that such a Jew-hating event does not take place.

The measures envisaged are extremely far-reaching. While Stettner appealed to Berlin conference facilities providers “not to rent rooms to the organisers” and called on the federal government to “refuse entry” into Germany for speakers, in the tabloid Bild, Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) threatened to “issue a ban on political activity in relation to the event” against participants. The demands for a ban and censorship were immediately eagerly taken up by the bourgeois media and justified with further unrestrained lies. A glance at the headlines shows just how blurred the line is between the supposed “quality press,” right-wing gutter media and pseudo-left gazettes: from “Jew-haters plan summit in Berlin” (Bild) to “Congress of Israel-haters” (Jungle World) to “Antisemites of the world want to gather in Berlin — authorities review ban on Israel-haters’ congress” (Tagesspiegel).

Criticism of Israel’s bourgeois state apparatus is routinely cast as ethnic hatred. This process is based on a form of nationalist mythology that bears more resemblance to the “blood and soil” ideology of the extreme right than to a serious argument. In the conservative weekly Jüdische Allgemeine, Sigmount Königsberg, antisemitism commissioner of the Jewish Community of Berlin, also demanded that the congress be “banned” and its speakers “prohibited from entering Germany and Berlin, and be banned from engaging in activities.” The congress aimed to call for the “annihilation of Israel” and to demand “that the people living there should either be murdered or expelled,” he claimed. According to Königsberg, “neo-Nazis, anti-imperialists, Muslim Brothers, Tehran mullahs and Marxist PFLP terrorists” could “hardly be distinguished from one another” in terms of content. Each of these claims is a brazen, hysterical lie that has no basis in fact.

In the same newspaper, Volker Beck, a former member of the Bundestag (parliament) for the Greens and current president of the German-Israeli Society, demanded that not only the “Palestine Congress,” but also all calls in favour of the abolition of nation states should be banned. According to Beck, it was “not possible to legislate for Israel alone.” In order to provide the judiciary with appropriate means, “the Federal Budget Code, the Criminal Code and foreign trade law must finally be tackled.” The media agitation and the police-state campaign against the Palestine Congress and Jewish Voice confirm what the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei has warned against. When the Berlin Senate set about liquidating the Oyoun cultural centre in November last year, the SGP condemned the “far-reaching attack on freedom of art and expression” and declared in a mass-circulated leaflet:

From now on, any organisation that criticises the government’s policy must fear losing any basis for work. Anyone who criticises the government’s pro-war policy must expect arbitrary arrests, house searches and secret service surveillance. Demonstrations against the massacre in Gaza are banned by the dozens, the demand for equal rights for Palestinians is criminalised, and Muslims are placed under general suspicion.

Since then, the Berlin Senate has agreed to introduce a censorship clause covering the cultural and arts sector and is working on imposing stricter regulations upon universities, which will enable university administrations to deregister students on a political basis. Now, it must be added, the ruling class is also threatening to expropriate Jewish organisations if they criticise the pro-war policy of the German government and its Israeli ally. We call on all workers, young people and defenders of democratic rights to reject the attacks on opponents of war and left-wing Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian organisations in the strongest possible terms and to protest against them. The far-sightedness of the SGP’s warnings shows that a socialist perspective is necessary that combines the struggle to defend democratic rights with the fight against war and its root cause, the capitalist system.

US treasury secretary Yellen warns China on military and economic fronts
Nick Beams, WSWS, Apr 8 2024

Janet Yellen, centre, with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, third
from left, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Apr 7 2024

Both sides spoke of co-operation and the development of a more stable relationship. But there was no disguising the increase in tensions between the US and China, the world’s number one and number two economies, during the weekend visit by US treasury secretary Janet Yellen to China. Yellen began her discussions with Chinese leaders and officials by backing statements from US Sec State Anthony Blinken to a meeting of NATO foreign ministers last week. He claimed Beijing was assisting Russia “at a concerning scale” by supplying “tools, inputs and technical expertise” to support its war in Ukraine. Citing three people “familiar with the discussions,” the Financial Times said the “warnings were explicit” and the “shift” was “very striking.” Following discussions in Guangzhou, a statement from the US Treasury said:

Secretary Yellen emphasized that companies, including those in the PRC, must not provide material support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Such conduct bears significant consequences.

After this warning on the military front, Yellen then proceeded with the main purpose of her visit. This was to demand that China not use its so-called overcapacity in the production of electric vehicles (EVs) and other green technology products to flood the market with cheaper goods. The US maintains that China is providing state subsides to companies, enabling them to undercut American firms. She told reporters after one of her meetings:

I think the Chinese realise how concerned we are about the implications of their industrial strategy for the US, for the potential to flood our markets with exports that make it difficult for American firms to compete.

It was a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black. Under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, subsidies and major tax breaks are provided to US firms investing in green technology. China has lodged objections to the measures in the World Trade Organisation and the European Union had denounced them as protectionist. Yellen, however, was determined to remain “on message.” She said at an event hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China:

China is too large to export its way to rapid growth. Their output is more than the global market can bear.

Such comments underscore the total irrationality of the capitalist market and profit system. Under conditions in which climate change poses an ever-greater danger, the production of goods based on green technologies in greater quantities and at a lower price leads to intensified conflict. Chinese Premier Li Qiang was reported to have advised Yellen against turning “economic and trade issues into political” matters. An editorial comment in the official Chinese news agency Xinhua as Yellen’s trip began summed up the position of Beijing. It declared:

Talking of fair play in business and trade, America should wean itself off the practice of abusing the national security pretext to elbow aside leading Chinese high-tech and clean energy companies. They attempt to manage US-China relations from a position of strength, aligning everything with its own interests while disregarding the perspectives and concerns of others.

While this was an accurate summation of the US stand, Beijing is seeking, at least at this stage, to avoid an open breach. The editorial went on to say:

The visit was a good sign that the two largest economies are committed to maintaining the momentum of communication and coordination.

Likewise, Yellen, even as US presses forward with its economic warfare measures, especially in the high-tech area where a range of bans have been introduced against China, sought to maintain this façade, at least for the present. In prepared remarks issued at the start of a meeting in Beijing on Sunday, Yellen said while there was more to do:

I believe that, over the past year, we have put our bilateral relationship on a more stable footing.

This did not mean ignoring differences or avoiding “tough conversations” but understanding that “we can only make progress if we directly and openly communicate with one another.” In discussions with Premier Li, she said:

As the world’s largest economies, we have a duty to our two countries and to the world.

Meanwhile behind the talk of open communication and the development of a more stable relationship, the conflict intensifies. As she was departing for China, Yellen said the imposition of further tariffs on Chinese goods had not been ruled out. The conflict over green technology, in particular solar panels and EVs, is being fuelled by the slowdown in world economic growth and the ruthless battle in the auto industry for market share and profit. This is what led Yellen to place “overcapacity” front and centre in her discussions. Last week the WSJ published a major article outlining the growing problems facing the EV manufacturer Tesla and its chief executive, the billionaire Elon Musk. Laying out the situation confronting the firm, it began:

After a period of rapid expansion, the company has seen its sales fall and its once-enviable profit margins shrink. For the first time in years, the biggest question for Tesla is not whether it will be able to make enough cars, but whether people will buy them.

Last week Tesla reported its first year-on-year decline in its quarterly deliveries since 2020. The article noted that the value of the company’s stock on Wall Street was down by 34% so far this year and its market capitalisation had more than halved since reaching a peak in 2021. The core of Tesla’s product range, it said, was “dated.” It concluded:

Chinese carmakers are now the ones that look like nimble tech-savvy start-ups.

Behind the diplomatese and blather about co-ordination, the conflict will intensify on both the military and economic fronts. This is because existential questions are stake for the US and China. For the US, Chinese economic development is regarded as the greatest threat to its global dominance which it is determined to maintain by all means, including war. The NATO-led war against Russia must be seen in this context. The defeat of Russia is seen as necessary to place the US in the best position to deal with what is referred to as the “big one”—a war with China. For the Xi Jinping regime, technological development, what it calls the advancement of “new productive forces,” is the road to a new economic model to ensure growth and prevent the eruption of social conflicts, above all the development of the class struggle that would threaten its very foundations.