Trump and Netanyahu, February 2025. Photo: White House / Public Domain
Trump and Netanyahu’s intentions echo the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba in 1948
The statements from US president Donald Trump in the last 24 hours about Gaza and the Palestinians show a blatant disregard for human rights, international law and national rights to self-determination. Gaza is not Trump’s to take over, it is a territory illegally occupied by the Israelis which has been subject to genocidal attacks for the last 16 months.
The resilience of the Palestinian people should not be in doubt, but nor should the intentions of Netanyahu and the Israeli government to force them out of their homes and territories, echoing the ethnic cleansing of the original Nakba in 1948. Far right politicians in Israel have expressed delight at Trump’s declarations seeing it as part of their own project to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, already under threat from illegal settlements backed up by Israeli military violence.
The British government has been complicit in the genocidal attacks on Gaza and we can expect little from the craven duo of Starmer and Lammy who are obviously terrified of saying anything to displease Trump.
The megalomaniac president is saying he will send US troops to Gaza. Millions of us remember how well that worked in Iraq in 2003, or in Afghanistan in 2001. The interventions have repeatedly been hailed as successes, only in every case to have ended in ignominious failure and greater instability in the Middle East. The record of imperialism in the region speaks for itself.
We have to fight against this attempt to drive out a people whose rights and struggle has inspired a solidarity movement across the world. We also have to fight the normalisation of this process, which sees the mainstream media accepting at least some of the premises given by Trump and the Israeli right wing.
Ethnic cleansing is a war crime and should be treated as such. Netanyahu has already been indicted for war crimes but is received as an ally in Washington.
We are marching next Saturday 15th February in London to the US embassy (coincidentally the anniversary of the biggest march in British history over Iraq). Let’s spend every day between now and then mobilising and building for this protest. It must be as big as possible. And we will not stop there. The Palestine movement has been attacked at every turn by those who support Israel but we have learnt resilience from the Palestinian people. We will continue until Palestine is free.
Before you go
The ongoing genocide in Gaza, Starmer’s austerity and the danger of a resurgent far right demonstrate the urgent need for socialist organisation and ideas. Counterfire has been central to the Palestine revolt and we are committed to building mass, united movements of resistance. Become a member today and join the fightback.
Lindsey German
As national convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, Lindsey was a key organiser of the largest demonstration, and one of the largest mass movements, in British history.
Her books include ‘Material Girls: Women, Men and Work’, ‘Sex, Class and Socialism’, ‘A People’s History of London’ (with John Rees) and ‘How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women’.