Protests through Europe against Israel’s war on Gaza

Robert Stevens

Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated throughout Europe over the weekend to protest Israel’s savage war on Gaza.

The largest demonstration took place in London where organisers estimated that 180,000 protested in Hyde Park after gathering at Victoria Embankment and marching through the capital.

Tens of thousands gather at the Embankment for the start of London protest (credit: WSWS media)

Demonstrations were held in Germany, France, Spain and Italy, with protests in capitals, including Berlin and Paris as well as many other large cities across the continent.

Among the chants in London were, “Stop bombing Gaza” and "Free, free Palestine!” In London, the route took the march down Whitehall and as the crowd reached Downing Street they chanted “Boris Johnson, shame on you.”

Those attending brought a plethora of homemade banners including, “Bombing children isn't defence, it's murder”, “The British government is complicit in ethnic cleansing”, “Not 'conflict' and 'tensions'—occupation and apartheid”, “As long as the Israeli occupation exists, state terrorism will flourish”, “'Can't breathe' since 1948”, “The ongoing Nakba, 73 years is enough”, “The world is not free until Palestinians are free”, “UK is complicit—stop arming Israel for ethnic cleansing.”

The protests took place just hours after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas, but this was widely recognised among those attending the protests as nothing but a tenuous lull before Israel resumes hostilities against a defenceless population. These sentiments were summed up in banners in London including: “A ceasefire is not enough—end the occupation” and, in reference to the war crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces, “Don't let the ceasefire fool you, 90k Palestinians are now displaced.”

Protests were held in cities across the UK and Ireland, including in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Nottingham, Cardiff, Plymouth, Peterborough, Belfast and Dublin.

Thousands protested in Paris, denouncing the French president's backing of the assault on Gaza and defying his attempts to ban demonstrations in support of the Palestinians. One chant from protesters was “Israel assassin, Macron accomplice.” More than 1,000 marched in Lyon and around the same number in Lille. Other protests were held in Strasbourg, Toulouse and Montpellier. On Sunday, a protest was held in Marseille where one protester brought a placard reading, “In Palestine, confinement for more than 50 years.”

A person holds a banner that reads: "In Palestine, confinement for more than 50 years", as people demonstrate in Marseille, southern France, Sunday, May 23, 2021, during a rally supporting the Palestinians. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Numerous demonstrators in German cities again called for solidarity with Palestine, with thousands protesting across protests in Berlin, Frankfurt and Leipzig. In Berlin, where hundreds gathered in the Kreuzberg district, many demonstrators carried placards with the inscription "Free Palestine.”

Police in Berlin massed to intimidate protesters with around 3,000 of them on the streets. In comments leading up to the weekend, Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to tarnish the demonstrations by falsely associating them with anti-Semitism. She said that Germany’s Basic Law constitution, “guarantees the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” while declaring, “Anyone who brings hatred of Jews onto our streets, who expresses seditious insults, is outside of our Basic Law. Such acts must be punished consistently and have noticeable consequences for the perpetrators.”

These lies are refuted by the many Jewish groups that have participated in protests worldwide in opposition to the war crimes carried out in Gaza by Israel and have called for the unity of Jews and Arabs. A banner of the Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East association at the Berlin protest read “Against attacks on synagogues and mosques in Berlin or Gaza.”

Several thousand marched through Dell'unita Square in Bologna Italy.

In Malaga, Spain, hundreds protested, including with many homemade banners. One read, “Free Palestine—End Colonialism.”

A protest was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the London protest, a number of placards were on display opposing the slander by governments and political parties of the ruling class internationally—including the ruling Tories and opposition Labour in Britain—equating opposition to Israel’s crimes with anti-Semitism. Among the placards were, “Opposing Zionism is not anti-Semitism” and “Criticising Israel is not anti-Semitic.”

Protestors cheered Stella Moris, the partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who told the demonstration:

“Julian is imprisoned right now because the US wants to extradite him for publications that exposes war crimes in Iraq, torture in Guantanamo and evidence of Israeli crimes against the Palestinians...

“He is paying with his freedom and maybe his life...

“Julian published the words spoken by Israeli government officials... words the military materialises in the form of airstrikes that kill women and children...

“To defend our right to know is to defend our right to shape or own destiny…”

Among the other speakers in London were nominal “lefts” Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour party from 2015-20, and his former shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Corbyn told the crowd in Hyde Park, "We will be here as long as is it takes until the Palestinian people are free. We will never give up on the Palestinian people, we will never go away from the Palestinian people and their cause.” McDonnell added, "The message is clear, we will not cease our campaign in solidarity until there is justice.”

Corbyn and McDonnell could not be more cynical given the massive campaign to portray protests against the war as anti-Semitic. From the time he took over as party leader, they did nothing but capitulate to the vitriolic campaign conducted in ruling circles, and spearheaded by the Labour right, to smear them and their hundreds of thousands of supporters as anti-Semites. Rushing to placate the Blairites, the first thing Corbyn did upon becoming Labour leader was to cancel plans to address a Stop the War Coalition meeting before announcing his resignation as its chairman.

The smear campaign based on vile slanders, facilitated all down the line by Corbyn and McDonnell, has led to the suspension and expulsion of many of their supporters, and to Corbyn himself having the Labour whip withdrawn last November by party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Manhunt continues for Belgian neo-Nazi officer who planned to kill virologists

Will Morrow

A manhunt is continuing in Belgium for a military officer and right-wing extremist, Jürgen Conings, who has announced plans to assassinate representatives of the government and coronavirus virologists.

Conings, 46, disappeared on Monday, leaving behind two notes, one to his girlfriend and the other to the police. In the letters, he reportedly announced he was “entering the resistance” and would live out his “final days” as he intended. His girlfriend has publicly appealed for him to turn himself in.

Authorities in Belgium are searching a second day for an armed man who is on a terror watch list because of his extreme right sympathies and who had threatened several people. (Belgian Federal Police via AP)

The manhunt has been concentrated on the region of Limbourg, not far from the border with the Netherlands. Conings is presumed to be heavily armed and reputed to be an expert marksman. Until only a few days ago, he used his position as a military instructor with access to the arms cache in the army to prepare an arsenal. The federal prosecutors announced that inside Coning’s abandoned SUV, they discovered anti-tank rocket launchers and firearm munitions. He is “probably still in possession of lighter armaments,” they stated.

On Friday, Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne announced that on the evening of his disappearance Monday, Conings had spent “more than two hours in the area around the home of a target” but refused to specify who the target was. The Flemish-language television station VRT reported that it was likely the home of Marc Van Ranst, a leading health spokesman for the Belgian government and target of extreme-right groups denouncing coronavirus lockdowns and claiming that the coronavirus is itself a conspiracy.

Up until Friday, the manhunt had been concentrated on the dense forest region of the national park of Haute Campine. A portion of the E314 freeway, which borders the national park, was also shut down. To search the region of more than 12,000 hectares of forest and land, more than 400 officers were deployed, including 250 police, 150 military personnel, and representatives from Germany and the Netherlands.

On Friday the government announced that the manhunt in the national park would be ended. Charges were brought against Conings of “attempted terrorist assassination” and “possession of arms in a terrorist context.”

It remains unclear who are Conings’ potential targets. Mosques surrounding the Haute Campine park are reportedly under heightened surveillance, and a number of mosques in the neighbouring municipalities of Maasmechelen have already closed their doors as a precaution, according to Het Nieuwsblad. The family of virologist Von Ranst has reportedly been taken under police protection since Monday. Conings also reportedly threatened to kill members of the government.

Conings’ letters make clear he is animated by the fascistic campaign denouncing any coronavirus social distancing measures. “I cannot continue to live with the lies of people who decide how we live,” he writes. “The political elite and now virologists decide how you and me will live. They sow hatred and frustration…”

He makes clear that he is not acting on an impulse and has prepared his attack long in advance. “I know I will become an enemy of the state. They will search for me and find me at a certain point. I am ready for that. Little by little, everything has been put in place and I’ve prepared myself.”

There are many unanswered questions that are raised by Conings’ terrorist plot.

First of all, it has now been reported that he was being monitored extremely closely by intelligence agencies as both a member of the army with extreme-right sympathies and also as a potential terrorist attacker. Yet there has been no explanation as to how such an individual was kept in a senior position as a military training officer in the Belgian army and was apparently given access to the armory.

France Info, citing unnamed Belgian government sources, reported that Conings was one of “around 30” members of the Belgian army currently under surveillance for harboring “sympathies” with the far right.

For the same reason, OCAM, the Belgian intelligence agency for analysis of terrorist threats, had placed him on its file for the past three months as a potential threat, according to the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

The minister of defense, Ludivine Dedonder, admitted to the Belgian parliament that Conings had received an official sanction from the military hierarchy in 2020 after having made “racist comments” and “threats” on Facebook. An army major general had laid formal charges against him, which were subsequently dropped, according to Dedonder.

The government has attempted to explain the subsequent failure to take measures against Conings as simply a breakdown in security. Accordingly, De Croo called for a tightening of security protocols in the army for individuals with extremist views.

Yet this explains very little. Not only was Conings not removed from the army, he was kept in the position of a military instructor for recruits. Moreover, it has still not been explained how he was able to use his position to obtain vast quantities of arms. The official explanation that Conings was acting alone, without detection by other army personnel, is highly tenuous. It would mean that the protocols for monitoring the stockpile of arms were essentially nonexistent.

An alternative, and more plausible, explanation is that Conings was acting, at least at some point, as part of a far-right network within the army.

This would also conform with what has already been confirmed about the existence of such networks in other Western European countries, particularly Germany, as well as France and Spain.

In Germany, there are well-documented neo-Nazi networks inside the Bundeswehr, the special forces, and the state apparatus. There have been numerous reports of the preparations by terrorist cells drawing up kill lists of left-wing political opponents to be assassinated for a supposed “Day X” and stockpiling weapons and supplies for a protracted civil war.

In 2018, for example, a German news magazine’s investigation explained: “Numerous interrogations paint the picture of a conspiratorial troop that is supposed not to shy from the deliberate killing of political opponents. According to the investigators, the elite fighters had also set up secret caches of weapons, ammunition, fuel and food—on the German border with Austria and Switzerland.”

In France, a far-right network among retired army generals and officers published an open letter in the neofascist magazine Valeurs Actuelles announcing their support for a military putsch to put down the growing threat of Islam in France and a potential civil war in which “the deaths will number in the thousands.” A subsequent letter published this month and reportedly signed by up to 2,000 active-duty soldiers supported the generals’ letter.

In Spain, retired army generals have denounced the strikes by workers in March 2020 to demand the shutting down of production amid the coronavirus pandemic. They declared that it may be necessary to massacre up to half of the Spanish population.

Conings’ documented ties with the neo-Nazi networks in Belgium have already begun to be revealed. This weekend it was reported that Belgian police had searched numerous houses of known members of far-right groups as part of their search for Conings.

This includes Tomas Boutens, the former leader of the Flemish fascist “Blood, Bodem, Eer en Trouw” (“Blood and Soil, Honor is Loyalty”) movement. He was condemned to five years in prison in 2014, with a one-year suspended sentence.

UK government relaxes mask wearing in schools as it lifts safety restrictions amid spread of new Covid variant

Margot Miller

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, backed by the Labour opposition and trade unions, is proceeding recklessly with its roadmap for reopening the economy. This began almost fully on May 17 and aims to reopen completely on June 21.

This takes place under conditions where infections from the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant from India is growing exponentially and is expected to soon become the dominant strain.

A socially distanced assembly takes place at a school in in Manchester, England, Monday March 8, 2021. (Jon Super/PA via AP)

Among the safety restrictions being lifted, the government announced that teachers and pupils in secondary schools were no longer required to wear face coverings in classrooms. In primary schools, pupils were always exempt. Masks are only recommended in communal areas, excluding classrooms with poor ventilation housing up to 30 children or more.

The government took this decision despite prior knowledge of the spread of the variant in schools, which it attempted to conceal. According to documents leaked to the Observer, a Public Health England (PHE) report May 13 omitted vital data linking 164 cases to schools.

Mask wearing was the main, albeit limited, protection afforded to educators and pupils when schools reopened early March.

The virus is now spreading in schools and communities in all parts of the UK. Universities returned to face-to-face teaching May 17, exacerbating transmission after tens of thousands travelled across the country from home to campus.

The Wilsthorpe Academy School in Long Eaton, with 950 pupils, closed May 4 after confirming 100 Covid cases. Cases in the surrounding area of Erewash soared following the outbreak—the infection rate rose to 185.5 per 100,000 in seven days to May 6, indicating how quickly the disease can take hold. More than 150 cases were linked to the school. Seventeen cases were found in nearby schools.

Bolton’s Assistant Director of Public Health, Lynn Donkin, said, 'Initially we did see some cases linked to international travel, but we've now got a picture of widespread community transmission...'

Several schools in Bolton were forced to send classes home. Positive cases were confirmed at St Joseph’s RC High school and Lostock Primary School. Tonge Moor Primary Academy sent its Year One class home after finding a positive case. On Friday, each pupil at Bishop Bridgeman CE Primary School went home with a PCR test kit for all the family. Bolton has introduced voluntary surge testing and the use of facemasks will continue in the town and in nearby Bury schools.

In response to the Bolton outbreak, someone tweeted angrily, “#COVIDEmergency2021. The virus presents exponential growth, especially amongst children. Vaccination and fully supported isolation is a vital part of suppression. So why not vaccinate children? And why not close Bolton Schools?”

PHE recently informed Court Moor secondary school in Hampshire of several cases of the Indian variant at the school, incurring self-isolation and further testing.

Schools are thought to be the source of an outbreak in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, according to the city council, where coronavirus cases trebled last week. While the Indian variant was not found in Ashfield, in the large city of Nottingham it accounts for more than half new cases.

Pupils at Nicholas Hawksmoor primary school in Towcester, Northamptonshire, along with parents, household contacts and childcare “bubbles” were tested after six cases were confirmed. Mask wearing was resurrected at Wrenn school, in the same county, after an outbreak.

Runshawe College in Leyland closed for 10 days to contain an outbreak after more than 30 on campus tested positive. PHE genetic testing confirmed some of the cases were the B.1.617.2 variant.

Year groups in three schools in Wakefield closed May 15 due to Covid-19. Southdale CE [Church of England] junior school sent home Year 5 children for 11 days, Year 4 was closed at Middletown Primary Academy, and the nursery at Alverthorpe CE Primary Academy partially shut.

At 10 schools across Fife in Scotland, some pupils self-isolated after covid cases were confirmed. Parents of children at Dingwell Primary School in Ross-shire were informed after a pupil tested positive so a class was sent home for 10 days.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), confined his criticism of the government’s lifting of safety measures to the use of face masks. The NEU played a crucial role in suppressing opposition to the unsafe reopening of schools.

'It is disappointing that Boris Johnson has ignored the advice of SAGE’s [Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] modelers to keep the use of face masks in the classroom, as well as communal areas in secondary schools and colleges,” he said.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers gave carte blanche to the government’s measures, stating, “School and college employers are responsible for the safety of staff and pupils… including reviewing their existing risk assessments…”

Union representatives who attempt risk assessments face victimisation, as happened in many schools, and can expect no back-up from the unions. Unvaccinated staff who are vulnerable or pregnant work without adequate PPE in contact with potentially infectious children.

Educators and parents are turning to social media to voice opposition to government policy. One tweet on SafeEdForAll reads, “It is beyond madness to stop wearing masks in school. #WilfulNegligence.” Another, “Are they seriously considering continuing while B.1.617.2 begins circulating whilst also removing masks?

A further tweet reads, “a school is a crowded indoor space where households mix—ventilation-masks. Both necessary to mitigate risk of transmission since social distancing isn’t possible and children aren’t vaccinated.”

Supporters of the UK Educators Rank-and-File Safety committee spoke to WSWS reporters about the irresponsible lifting of safety measures. Supply teacher Brian said, “As a parent of school aged children, I am horrified watching the callous relaxing of measures against the transmission of the virus within schools. We’re being told by the government that everything is going back to normal.

“Children, unvaccinated are forced into cramped classrooms where social distancing is impossible and encouraged to do away with their masks. I’ve read about some students being told they will not be allowed to wear masks even if they are vulnerable to the effects of contracting Covid-19.

“We know from the last wave that schools were one of the main environments where transmission of the virus took place, but the government failed to acknowledge this in any meaningful way, by vaccinating teaching staff. All of this, and the emergence of the ‘Indian variant’ has left school employees and pupils extremely vulnerable.”

Learning support assistant Joe was adamant “the government should maintain as many restrictions as possible until it’s proven that vaccines are effective [in suppressing transmission]. They’ve never stepped away from herd immunity. They have an ideological target, and they are putting that ahead of critical data. It’s as if the government wants the virus to spread around in another wave.”

Yorkshire parent Lucy added, “I would like to see masks in primary. My son aged 7 is the only child wearing one and has no issue with it, he understands that he is helping to protect others.”

According to a US study by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in elementary schools in Georgia November-December 2020, “Covid incidence was 37% lower in schools that required teachers and staff members to use masks and 39% lower in schools that improved ventilation.”

German Chancellor candidates Baerbock, Laschet and Scholz threaten Russia and promote war and militarism

Johannes Stern

Last Thursday evening saw the first joint TV debate by the three candidates for chancellor from the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens in September’s general election.

Held at broadcaster ARD’s Berlin studio, the remarks of the trio—Armin Laschet (CDU), Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Annalena Baerbock (Greens)—on foreign and European policy underscores why workers and young people must support and build the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) in the election campaign. The candidates of the ruling class all stand for militarism and war.

At the beginning of the discussion, in response to a question from the moderator, Laschet, Scholz and Baerbock, unanimously stated that for them, the US was the most important foreign policy partner. At the same time, however, they raised concerns that the “America First” course remained in place under the new President Joe Biden. This posed great security challenges for Germany and Europe.

Germany's Green party co-leader Annalena Baerbock gives a speech during a digital announcement event in Berlin, Germany, where the party presented her as top candidate for chancellor for the upcoming federal election later this year, Monday, April 19, 2021. (Annegret Hilse/Pool via AP)

The three candidates sought to outdo each other with their demands for an independent and more aggressive German-European foreign and defence policy.

Laschet called for defence spending to be increased as quickly as possible to the so-called 2 percent target, which the grand coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats had first committed to at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014.

“The Alliance has pledged to invest two percent of its gross domestic product, depending on the country and its size, in joint defence and joint security. And this statement stands and there is no reason for Germany to deviate from it now, unlike all the other countries.” The grand coalition had “repeatedly taken decisions that have moved closer to this goal. And that must continue in the coming years.”

This is tantamount to a declaration of war. Amid the pandemic and under conditions where the gulf between rich and poor is constantly widening, further vast sums are to flow into the military. Since 2014, Germany has already increased its defence budget from €32 billion to over €50 billion (about 1.5 percent of GDP). With projected economic growth, the envisaged 2 percent target means increasing the military budget to over €80 billion annually.

Scholz boasted that as acting finance minister, he had pushed for the massive increases of recent years, which have been accompanied by brutal social attacks. “I have made sure every year that the defence budget has been better funded than before. That is why we have come so far.” As chancellor, he said, he wanted to continue on this course. “I believe we have to continue to make progress on this, bit by bit, in the future. ... That we are spending more money on the Bundeswehr [Armed Forces] is right, and it was right to do so over the last few years.”

The Greens candidate Baerbock was the most aggressive. Her rhetorical distancing from the 2 percent target comes from the right. She suggested that an abstract fixation on 2 percent was not enough to ensure the necessary rearmament. “You have lofty goals, but you don’t meet them,” she criticised. “If we care about our own security,” she said, we must “first analyse what do we need. ... If we have cyberattacks, maybe we need more spending on our security.”

The problem with the 2 percent target, she said, was that “you don’t define it by the security interest.” The 10 billion euros that the finance minister has made available in addition in recent years had “not contributed to the security of the Bundeswehr, because soldiers still rightly complain that their protective materials are not safe. And we are still procuring new helicopters that do not fly.”

Baerbock also criticised the grand coalition from the right regarding the development of a German-European great power policy. “In the last four years, where the Americans have completely dropped out, it would actually have been the moment when the Europeans said: we are now stepping up to the world policy level. We are becoming capable of world politics.” Now, this had to happen quickly—with all the consequences. Europe must be “capable of global politics” and “on an equal footing with the Americans.”

The choice of words alone underlines the reactionary and megalomaniac traditions to which the German ruling class once aspired. “Weltpolitik”—world politics—was the rallying cry with which the German Empire set its course at the end of the 19th century for an imperialist foreign and colonial policy that led to the mass slaughter of the First World War. Now, the infamous term, long considered taboo after Germany’s crimes in two world wars, is being revived to once again drum up support for an aggressive foreign and great power policy.

As in the first half of the 20th century, the offensive aims to bring Europe under German leadership, and it is directed primarily against Russia. All three candidates poured out declarations of solidarity with the right-wing, anti-Russian regimes in Eastern Europe—first and foremost Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine—and attacked Moscow.

Laschet spoke out in favour of the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipeline for “economic reasons” but indirectly threatened the nuclear power Russia with NATO’s nuclear arsenal. He said he did not know whether the Eastern European states would find it “reassuring if, for example, we were no longer to contribute to NATO’s nuclear safeguards in Germany and the weapons were to be withdrawn.

“In a world where nuclear threats are still there,” Laschet concluded, “Germany must also make a contribution.”

Exactly 80 years ago, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, murdered six million Jews and killed 27 million Soviet citizens in a terrible war of extermination. But that did not stop Baerbock from threatening Russia militarily. She said that one had to talk about the question of “reinsurance” and “look conventionally” at how “we guarantee the security of our European and Eastern European neighbours.” They felt “particularly threatened, especially by the stationing of Russian missiles in Kaliningrad.” Unlike Laschet and Scholz, Baerbock rejected Nordstream 2.

All three candidates agreed to introduce majority voting at the EU level in order to act more quickly and more effectively, especially in foreign and defence policy. It was necessary to move away from the “unanimity principle ... otherwise, we are not a good player in the world,” Scholz explained. “Whoever wants to be sovereign and strong, whoever wants to ensure that we are not pushed around in the world,” must be able to “speak with one voice” and that presupposed “majority decisions among the foreign ministers.”

With the statement, “Israel has the right to defend itself,” Laschet, Baerbock and Scholz backed Israel’s war against Gaza, which until Friday’s ceasefire had cost the lives of at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children. In doing so, they made it unmistakably clear that they are prepared to defend the economic and geostrategic interests of German imperialism with the most brutal force.

The war offensive abroad goes hand in hand with a massive stepping up of the repressive powers of the state at home. At the end of the discussion, when it briefly turned to questions of immigration policy, the candidates argued along the lines of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) for a strengthening of Fortress Europe. “A free Europe needs a secure external border,” Baerbock stressed. And Laschet added, “Today, protecting the external border is already a European task. I think it must also be strengthened at the European level.”

The discussion must be understood as a warning. The next federal government will continue and intensify the right-wing policies of the grand coalition at all levels—regardless of which party ends up forming a coalition with which and who becomes chancellor. The contempt that all capitalist parties have for the lives of workers is especially evident in the pandemic. The murderous “profits before lives” policy has cost the lives of more than 87,000 people in Germany alone. Significantly, none of the candidates said a word about this.

In the election, the SGP is the only party resolutely opposing the turn by the ruling class to militarism, war and dictatorship. While the Left Party courts an alliance with the SPD and Greens—parties of war and austerity—the SGP is arming the growing opposition with a socialist programme.

Israeli provocations continue as scale of Gaza damage emerges

Mike Head

A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad held for a third day on Sunday despite inflammatory threats by the Israeli government and police-backed fascistic attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians on the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli provocations intensified as more residents in Gaza emerged from their homes on the weekend to survey the massive damage caused by the 11-day Israeli bombardment. The full extent of the destruction became clearer, even as Israeli drones buzzed incessantly overhead.

The United Nations said nearly 450 buildings had been damaged, including six hospitals, 53 schools and 11 primary healthcare centres. More than 1,000 housing units in 258 buildings had been destroyed, and another 14,500 homes suffered damage.

A crater full of water and sewage remains where the home of Ramez al-Masri was destroyed by an air-strike prior to the cease-fire, Sunday, May 23, 2021, in Beit Hanoun, the northern Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

More than 100,000 people had been internally displaced, and about 10 times that number—half the population of the tiny Gaza Strip—had little access to piped water because of the destruction of three major desalination plants, as well as power lines and sewage works.

At least 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, and 1,948 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Health authorities in the West Bank separately confirmed 31 killed in that region, totaling 279 across all Palestinian territories, compared to 12 deaths in Israel.

Under these conditions, dozens of Jewish settlers, flanked by heavily-armed Israeli special forces, entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem yesterday, further raising tensions hours after Palestinian worshippers were beaten and assaulted by the Israeli police.

Citing witnesses, Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli police had earlier on Sunday assaulted Palestinians who were performing dawn prayers at the mosque and “excessively beat” them in order to make way for Israeli Jewish settlers to storm the compound—Islam’s third-holiest site.

It was the violent police storming of the mosque two weeks ago, combined with moves to evict more Palestinians from their homes in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, that triggered the 11-day conflict.

Israeli police also attacked and dispersed a Palestinian protest against the potential evictions on Saturday evening in Sheikh Jarrah.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stepped up its incitement of these racist layers, on which the caretaker coalition regime depends for its political survival.

Finance Minister Yisrael Katz threatened to assassinate leaders of Hamas, which governs Gaza, over any rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Speaking to the Reshet Bet local radio station, Katz said any rocket fire into southern Israel would be avenged by killing Hamas leaders, stressing that this policy was agreed by the Israeli security cabinet before approving the ceasefire on Friday.

Netanhayu declared: “If Hamas thinks we will tolerate a drizzle of rockets, it is wrong.” Vowing to respond with “a new level of force,” he boasted that Israel had done “daring and new things” during the conflict “without being dragged into unnecessary adventures.”

Netanhayu also claimed to have sought to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza, but that lie was exposed on Al-Wahda Street, where Israeli bombing caused three buildings to collapse in the middle of the night on May 16, killing more than 40 Palestinians. Among the dead was Dr. Ayman Abu Al-Aouf, head of internal medicine at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. He was responsible for the hospital’s COVID-19 ward.

Israel said the aim of its attack on al-Wehda was to destroy a network of tunnels it called the “Metro.” The military denied it had intended to make the buildings collapse.

Even before the latest major Israel assault, the Gaza Strip’s two million inhabitants already lived inside what they call the “world’s largest prison,” with more than 50 percent unemployment, an overwhelmed heathcare system, sometimes poisonous water and endless power cuts.

The Zionist regime in Israel and the military dictatorship in Egypt have for 14 years enforced a blockade on Gaza, supposedly to restrict the flow of weapons and munitions to Hamas. The two countries restrict who and what can enter the enclave, and control much of its energy supply, while Israel controls its airspace, maritime fishing rights, birth registry and cellular data.

UN and aid agencies on Saturday started distributing tents and mattresses for the thousands made homeless. Trucks bringing urgently needed medicine, food and fuel entered Gaza on Friday through border crossings previously blocked by Israel.

More than 525 businesses were damaged or destroyed in the fighting, the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated. The toll included at least 50 factories, along with hundreds of small businesses, destroying the livelihoods of thousands of workers and proprietors.

The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, launched a 30-day flash appeal for $US38 million to cover the most urgent needs of Gazans, as well as those living on the West Bank, who have suffered violent attacks. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the funds would be used to house up to 50,000 people on the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who are now residing in some 50 designated emergency shelters.

Protests in Israel indicated revulsion and opposition within the country to the military offensive and the eruption of far-right violence against Israeli Palestinians. A pro-peace rally and march in central Tel Aviv on Saturday drew several thousand participants, calling for Jewish-Arab partnership and an end to the occupation of the West Bank, which Israel seized in 1967. Similar demonstrations had occurred in various parts of Israel during the previous week.

On Saturday, hundreds of people had gathered outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, calling on Netanhayu to resign, accusing him of deliberately extending the conflict for personal and political gain. About 200 people also marched through the mixed city of Jaffa, voicing support for coexistence between Arabs and Jews.

Netanhayu has used the military operation to cling to office, despite facing an array of corruption charges. A mandate given to Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid to form a new government after four inconclusive elections in two years expires next week and seems unlikely to succeed after Naftali Bennett of the Yamina (New Right) party said such a move was now “off the table.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the Biden administration’s backing for Israel on ABC News on Sunday. He insisted that any aid to Gaza would not flow through the Hamas government and he defended the administration’s latest $735 million package of weapons to Israel, which will continue to supply the Zionist state with the missiles it uses against the Palestinians.

Abandonment of health measures threatens US COVID-19 resurgence

Andre Damon

On May 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its guidance on mask-wearing, urging vaccinated people to stop wearing masks and socially distancing in crowded areas.

The World Socialist Web Site, in line with the statements of leading epidemiologists, warned that these guidelines would trigger businesses, states and municipalities to remove all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike.

These warnings have been confirmed. Nearly every major retailer in the United States, including Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Walgreens, abandoned nationwide masking requirements within days of the CDC’s ruling, with no mechanism to verify whether those walking into their facilities are vaccinated or not.

National Guard members assisting with processing COVID-19 deaths and placing them into temporary storage at LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner Office in Los Angeles, Jan. 12, 2021. (LA County Dept. of Medical Examiner-Coroner via AP)

Epidemiologists and workplace safety experts have vocally condemned the CDC’s action. “It’s such a mess! So many of us are really upset. It is incredibly frustrating!” Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, told the World Socialist Web Site last week. “Inevitably, now state after state and business after business is saying you don’t need to wear your masks if you are vaccinated.”

From the beginning of the pandemic, workplaces have been a central source of transmission and broader outbreaks. The removal of any restrictions, under conditions in which nearly two-thirds of the population is not fully vaccinated, will lead to an increase in cases and deaths.

Over 500 people continue to die every single day from the disease in the United States. This translates to a death rate of 15,000 every month, or 182,500 every year.

The fact that hundreds of people are dying every single day from a disease that could be stopped through aggressive public health measures is treated as a non-event in the media. When the official US death toll crossed 600,000, the media simply ignored the milestone, just like it downplayed last week’s report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that the real death toll in the country is actually closer to one million.

Globally, moreover, new cases remain at or near record highs, and epidemiologists are warning about the dangers posed by new variants of COVID-19 emerging as the pandemic surges throughout the world.

Every day, 600,000 people test positive for the disease, a figure that vastly underestimates its spread. Daily deaths are at more than 12,000. In India, the total death toll has surged past 300,000. While the country is recording more than 4,000 deaths per day given the scale of undercounting, the actual figure could be in the tens of thousands. In Brazil, the official death toll is approaching half a million, and at 65,000 daily new cases are just shy of records set in March.

On Sunday, Germany banned travel from the UK as a new variant of COVID-19—termed the B16172 or “Indian” variant—is spreading rapidly throughout the country.

Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding warned of the significant dangers posed by the new variant of the disease. “Pay attention to rising #B16172 crisis in UK—crucial because [the] Indian variant affects us all,” Feigl-Ding wrote on Twitter. “It is now ~50% of all cases in England, surging fast, especially in kids. Hospital #COVID19 ward in Bolton filling up.”

He noted that the new variant “is by leaps and bounds growing faster than any other variant. The previously fast #B117 is growing much much slower—5x slower than B16172.” He continued, “Reinfections with #B16172 is also approximately ~4x more with B16172 versus #B117 if we compare the rates of reinfections / variant cases found. 4x ... is a lot.”

The rise of COVID-19 variants that are increasingly resistant to vaccines is reason for utmost vigilance. Government policy, however, is in exactly the opposite direction.

The CDC’s mask reversal has created the conditions for an even more dangerous move. The ending of mask requirements in schools, placing the lives of unvaccinated students as well as teachers in danger.

On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott banned mask mandates in public schools, declaring that “no student, teacher, parent or other staff member or visitor may be required to wear a face covering.” On Thursday, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds banned schools from requiring masks, and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster followed suit.

These actions come despite extensive scientific evidence showing that masking significantly reduces the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Dr. Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore, condemned these moves, noting that “unvaccinated children need to stay masked around other unvaccinated people, including in schools. Nearly 1 in 4 new [COVID-19] infections are in kids. We need to help keep them safe.”

The reduction of COVID-19 cases in the United States is the outcome of mass vaccination that came about as a result of an unprecedented effort by scientists and academic institutions to create a whole new class of vaccines in record time.

In a rational society, the reduction of COVID-19 cases would be used to strengthen protections ahead of what public health experts warn will be a new resurgence in the fall. But the Biden administration is squandering what health officials call a temporary reprieve to abandon measures to monitor and contain the disease.

On May 1, the CDC ended its monitoring of “breakthrough infections” of COVID-19 in people who are fully vaccinated, unless the disease leads to hospitalization or death.

Like the withdrawal of masking recommendations, the move has drawn condemnation from epidemiologists, who warned that it would leave the US blind to the effect of new COVID-19 variants.

“By the CDC not doing this level of monitoring, it’s very reminiscent to me about how I felt in the Trump era: ‘You’re each on your own,’” Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Washington Post .

The Post paraphrased Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in San Diego, as saying that “the CDC should monitor those people, along with hospitalized and fatal cases, to determine whether and how virus variants might evade vaccine protection, help discover new variants and track how well certain vulnerable groups, such as the immunocompromised, are shielded by vaccines.”

The Biden White House, like the Trump White House before it, is seeking to convince the public to disregard the continued pandemic—in many cases leading by example.

The attitude inside the White House was summed up by a recent headline by NPR: “How the Biden White House Learned to Drop the Masks and Stop Worrying.”

“At the Biden White House,” wrote NPR, “it’s like 2019 all over again, with large and largely mask-free events in the East Room both Thursday and Friday.” Asked whether the White House was even tracking whether those in attendance were vaccinated or not, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told NPR bluntly, “That’s not the role we’re going to play.”

As with similar displays under Trump, such callous disregard for public health and safety has the direct intent of sending a message: The pandemic is over. There can no longer be any obstacle—in the name of preserving public health—to the accumulation of private profit.

The stance of the Biden administration channels the demands of major corporations, which see efforts to save lives from COVID-19 as an unacceptable impingement on the extraction of profits from the working class.

COVID-19 breaks out in Taiwan, with daily case numbers above 100

Jerry Zhang

Amid the continuing global pandemic, a new wave of COVID-19 infections has broken out in Taiwan. The Taiwan Pandemic Control Centre announced on May 23 that there were 287 new cases, 284 local cases and three imported cases in Taiwan. Six people have died. This is the ninth day that there have been more than 100 new cases.

With this sudden outbreak, Taiwan is again shrouded in anxiety about the potential dangers. Amid an ongoing public debate, the government is yet to implement a full lock-down to contain its spread.

According to Taiwanese media reports, the outbreak has been traced to infections that took place in a quarantine hotel at the end of April. Some crew members from a China Airlines cargo plane returning to Taiwan were infected—at least one with the British strain, according to the Taiwan Pandemic Control Centre.

People line up at a rapid coronavirus testing center after the COVID-19 alert raise to level 3 in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

The crew members were quarantined in a hotel near the airport, but the hotel did not comply with the epidemic prevention regulations. As result, cross-infection took place between the crew members and hotel employees, which then spread to their families. Now, Taiwan is experiencing cases in which the infection source is unknown.

On May 15, Taiwan added 180 local cases and another five imported cases—a daily record of confirmed cases. Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-Chung told a press conference on May 15 that the new cases were mainly concentrated in the greater Taipei area, including 89 cases in Taipei City and 75 cases in New Taipei City. The patients were between five and eighty years old.

Taiwan Prime Minister Su Tsen-chang announced the need for “larger, stronger and more timely” measures to control the outbreak. At present, Taipei City and New Taipei City have been upgraded to the third level of restrictions—the second highest level. Gatherings of more than five people indoors and 10 people outdoors are prohibited. All entertainment venues and gyms in Taiwan are closed, and religious venues must halt their activities.

The government’s limited response has provoked public criticism, with accusations that the authorities are trying to avoid any impact on the economy by avoiding the imposition of a complete lock-down. Health minister Chen Shih-Chung has defended the government’s actions with the absurd claim that further restrictions would lead to “epidemic prevention fatigue.”

Cases have continued to escalate. Taiwan announced on May 17 that 333 new local cases had been detected in a single day—a new daily record. The government reacted by suspending the arrival of foreign tourists and flights to Taiwan from May 19 until June 18. Schools in Taipei City and New Taipei City are closed until May 28.

Over the past year, the Taiwanese government has been boasting of its lack of COVID-19 cases, holding the island up as “a model for epidemic prevention.” With US backing, it argued on the basis of this record that it should be represented at World Health Organisation meetings—a move that Beijing rejected as a breach of the One-China policy that treats Taiwan as part of China.

Despite the resurgence of the pandemic globally, Taipei continued to ease restrictions, leading to what is now a dangerous outbreak. Some health experts have criticised the lack of facilities to carry out large-scale testing. Chen Yi-min, a Taiwanese epidemiologist, accused the government of not wanting to conduct large-scale testing as the current situation was already difficult to handle.

Su Ih-jen, the former director of the Centre for Disease Control, said that the most effective way to prevent the epidemic was vaccination, but the country had insufficient vaccines and a “golden opportunity” to protect the population had been missed.

Taiwan opened its vaccination program on March 22, but its uptake has been slow, in part because of the incessant government propaganda that Taiwan was a “safe country.” Although doctors and medical experts have stressed the importance of vaccination, the government has largely ignored that issue. To date, the vaccination rate in Taiwan is less than 1 percent—one of the lowest in a relatively developed country.

The outbreak in Taiwan—an island nation—demonstrates that there is no “safe country” while the pandemic continues to rage globally. Concerned by the latest outbreak, many people have begun to seek vaccinations but are facing a shortage. A doctor told the media that clinics are already full and vaccinations will not be available in Taipei City until June.

Taiwan is completely dependent on imports for vaccines, but with European and American countries scrambling to stock up vaccines Taiwan’s access is very limited.

Vaccine supplies are also restricted as a result of tensions between China and Taiwan, further fueled by Washington’s increasingly aggressive confrontation with Beijing. On May 17, the Taiwan Affairs Office of China offered to provide vaccine assistance, but the offer was immediately rejected by the Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Council which declared that the Chinese government did not have to “pretend to be kind.”

Over the past year, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favours greater independence from Beijing, has joined the US and its allies in denigrating China’s offers of vaccine assistance as “vaccine diplomacy” designed to further China’s interests. The accusation is entirely hypocritical coming from Washington which always used its foreign aid to advance its political and strategic ends.

The government’s attitude has been criticized by opposition parties, including the Kuomintang, which favours closer relations with China. Chang Hsien-yao, former deputy director of the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council, told the media that geopolitical factors should not come into consideration when dealing with pandemics and vaccines.

Despite the criticism, the government is maintaining its hostile attitude to Beijing. Chen Zong-yan, Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of the Interior, accused the Chinese government of spreading false news about the Taiwan pandemic.

Lee Chun-yi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Office of the President of Taiwan, branded calls on social media for large-scale testing, temporary quarantine hospitals, lock-down and the use of Chinese vaccines as part of Beijing's psychological warfare. The purpose, he claimed, was to “intensify internal conflicts in Taiwan, reduce Taiwan's productive forces, and hit the economy and stock market.”

Faced with the increasing case numbers and an unresolved vaccine shortage the Taiwanese government is attempting to divert public attention from its own inadequate response by trying to shift the blame to China and accusing its critics of being part of Beijing’s psychological warfare.