Alex Snowdon on escalating crises in the Middle East and Europe

The genocide in Gaza continues. The scale of destruction is illustrated starkly by the return to school that simply isn’t happening. It should be the start of a new school year, but no children in Gaza are returning to school. Education largely ceased last autumn and has never resumed.

All of Gaza’s 625,000 school children (over a quarter of Gaza’s entire population) are currently out of school. As of 3^rd September, 9839 pupils and 411 school staff had been killed in the genocide that began last October.

85% of school buildings have been directly hit or damaged. Many schools are now used as shelters, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t bombed – yesterday 8 Palestinians were killed when a school being used as a shelter was bombed. All 12 of Gaza’s universities have been bombed, preventing 88,000 university students from pursuing their studies.

We have also seen a massive escalation of deadly violence in the occupied West Bank. This began on 28 August, mainly in Jenin and the northern part of the West Bank, and is the biggest Israeli assault on the West Bank since the early 2000s. Damage to water and sewage networks has left large numbers of Palestinians without access to water.

A 10-day offensive in Jenin appeared to end on Friday. Some Palestinians had remained in their homes, unable to go outside and living under terror, while others had fled their homes for over a week. Houses were destroyed, electricity was cut off, and Palestinians were arrested and detained by occupation forces.

Also on Friday, a 26-year-old Turkish-American woman, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was killed by Israeli forces. She was taking part in a protest against the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, south of Nablus.

The killing of someone with American citizenship might be expected to prompt outrage from Washington, but a State Department spokesperson was reluctant to even concede that Ezgi Eygi had been killed by Israel. An eyewitness described a “deliberate shot to the head”, yet US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken merely called Ezgi Eygi’s death a “tragic loss”.

Meanwhile, Israeli society is in turmoil. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took part in protests at the weekend. There has now been over a week of protests across Israel, triggered by the recovery of six bodies of Israeli hostages who had been held in Gaza.

Organisers in Tel Aviv claimed that over half a million people took part in Saturday’s demonstration. These figures are hard to verify, but in a country with a population of almost 10 million it is clear the demonstrations are evidently huge.

These protests are not in opposition to genocide or in solidarity with the Palestinians. That does not mean they are irrelevant though. They reflect deep popular discontent with how Israel’s war is progressing and express the severe fractures in Israeli politics and society.

The focus for protests and strikes is the demand for a deal that will secure the release of Israeli hostages. Hostages’ families are central to the movement.

This reflects the impasse of Israel’s war in Gaza. There is a widespread sense inside Israeli society that the war isn’t bringing Israelis security, with the release of hostages an especially sensitive point, but there are elements of Netanyahu’s governing coalition that are horrified by any talk of a deal. Far-right politicians insist that only a ‘deal of surrender’, meaning total surrender by Hamas, will be sufficient.

This is happening against the backdrop of serious economic problems for Israel and large-scale emigration. The termination of Palestinian labour in sectors like construction is hitting the economy hard, while foreign investment is becoming scarce in other sectors. Up to half a million Jewish Israelis are estimated to have left Israel since last October. Together with some Israelis being used as army reservists, this has created labour shortages and damaged the economy.

Saturday also saw a huge demonstration in London. This was the 19^th national demonstration demanding a ceasefire since the genocide began. The demonstration incorporated calls for the UK government to stop arming Israel and expressed opposition to Islamophobia. Government and police efforts to interfere in the organising of the demonstration ultimately came to nothing, as the movement held the line and insisted on our right to march.

Building further national demonstrations – in Liverpool on 21 September and London on 12 October – is a major priority, as the first anniversary of the genocide approaches and the Israeli government is rocked by political turmoil.

France in crisis

The political crisis in France continues. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has appointed right-winger Michel Barnier as prime minister. Barnier is leader of a party, the Republicans, that came fourth in July’s parliamentary elections, and his appointment is designed to placate the far right.

Those elections, two months ago, led to a hung parliament, but one in which the broadly left-wing New Popular Front won the most seats. It took 188 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, ahead of Macron’s centrist coalition in second place and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in 3^rd place.

July’s election led to the prime minister, Gabriel Attal (from Macron’s Ensemble coalition), to announce his resignation. A period of limbo followed.

The election itself had been a major breakthrough for the NPF, while Le Pen’s party did worse than expected. The NPF was only formed as an electoral alliance in June, bringing together Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left-wing La France Insoumise with the centre-left Socialist Party, the Greens and others in an effort to block the far right’s advance.

Macron’s appointment of Barnier is an expression of contempt for democracy. Barnier’s party has just 50 seats in the National Assembly. Turning to the right also reveals the fear that Macron and the French ruling class feel in response to the NPF’s relative success in the elections and wider social mobilisations led by the Left. Horrified by the notion of a Left-led government, Macron instead looked rightwards to Barnier.

This does not in any sense resolve the mpolitical crisis. Barnier will struggle to win support in parliament for his measures. The NPF is united in getting behind a proposal for a ‘no confidence’ vote in October. Barnier is currently making overtures to the far right, with lots of rhetoric about immigration, but Le Pen will not want to play second fiddle to a weak establishment figure.

What about the Left? There is the parliamentary dimension, but also the broader movement on the streets. The NPF’s programme has proved popular, with demands like a higher minimum wage, protection of pensions and unemployment benefits, and increased rights for migrant workers providing a class-based alternative to Macron’s failures. The parliamentary alliance is diverse and unstable, with La France Insoumise operating as its boldest and most combative component.

On Saturday, scores of demonstrations took place across France. Initiated by La France Insoumise and other organisations, these protests took the struggle far beyond the confines of parliament. Further nationwide days of action, backed by trade unions, are planned for early October.

La France Insoumise is right to call for a left-wing NPF government that can implement progressive policies which will benefit the working class. It is also right to recognise that mass mobilisations, not merely parliamentary activity, is a decisive component of the struggle.