QUEENS, NY, February 18 — First Student: “I’m Israeli and I thought the speaker’s presentation was completely inaccurate and one-sided.”

Second Student: “I lived in the West Bank – you haven’t – and I know that what the speaker presented is the truth.”

Third Student: “Your presentation completely misses the main point: Israel is struggling against Hamas and terrorism. We can only have peace once the terrorists are defeated.”

Fourth Student: “I am Palestinian and I don’t support Hamas. But the Israeli occupation of our lands preceded Hamas. You’re using Hamas as an excuse to justify the occupation and the mistreatment of Palestinians.”

These were just a few of the passionate exchanges between members of the audience at Queens College following an informative talk from a doctor who visited the West Bank in 2005 and 2008 with a group called American Jews for a Just Peace. They met with Physicians for Human Rights/Israeli and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and together documented the terrible conditions that residents of the West Bank and Gaza have been forced to endure as a result of the Israeli military occupation.

Over 50 students and faculty, including a number from Palestine and other Arab countries, heard how the Israeli occupation has made it difficult for Palestinians to receive proper health care, go to school or, in the case of Gaza, be able to buy basic foods. Palestinians suffer from high unemployment, disastrous health problems and have difficulty just visiting relatives in another West Bank town because of the many military checkpoints and the Israeli construction of a border wall that cuts through Arab lands.

After the forum a PL’er gave out copies of two articles that the Party published recently: “A History of Middle-East Nationalism” and “A Class Analysis of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.” These articles explain how both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism have historically been promoted and used by various imperialists for their own ends, and how they offer no solution for the vast majority of the people who live in the Mid-East.

One friend of the Party asked, “Why is the Israeli occupation such an important issue for PLP? What does it have to do with communism since Palestinians seem to be nationalist and not communist?”

This is a class question since events in Palestine are tied to the current global situation of endless imperialist oil wars affecting millions worldwide. As communists we fight for the class interests of all workers exploited and oppressed by capitalism-imperialism, whether killed by Pentagon bombs in Baghdad and Kabul or by racist cops in Chicago or Stella D’Oro strikers fighting a union-busting boss. About 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in 1948, and millions today live under armed occupation or are in impoverished refugee camps.

We support their struggles just as we expose Hamas and the Palestine Authority as ruling-class elites that want to monopolize for themselves the exploitation of Palestinian workers. At the same time, Israeli rulers use anti-Arab racism to solidify their control and exploitation of Israeli workers.

As communists, PLP must show those millions who are seeing the true murderous nature of U.S. imperialism and capitalism in general that the only real solution is to unite all workers under the red flag of a communist movement to smash capitalism.