Middle East

It is URGENT we step up the solidarity campaign with the Palestinian Socialist Students. The Israeli army have targeted this organisation among the Palestinians, obviously because of its left and socialist orientation. As you know this is a Student Union organisation. It is called the USSC, Union of Secondary Student Committees. It has a Socialist orientation, and takes a militant stance.

In the aftermath of the events unfolding in the Palestinian territories after 28th september we launched a Palestinian Socialist Students Solidarity Campaign. We now know that three of these Palestinian students are among those that have been killed. Below you will a letter we have received from palestine about these three victims.

Letters we have received from Students in Palestine, giving a flavour of what is happening inside the West Bank.

He gives his interpretation of the situation, together with an account of how Jews have been patrolling Arab neighbourhoods to defend the Arabs against possible attacks from right-wing Jewish reactionaries. There is also an appeal from an Israeli activist who has suffered beatings at the hands of the Israeli police.

The scenes of massacre and mayhem in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank have aroused general indignation and condemnation throughout the world. Almost one hundred people - almost all of them Palestinians - have so far been killed by the Israeli army of occupation.

After 22 years of the military occupation of South Lebanon, Israel's withdrawal marks an important change in the situation. Fred Weston looks at the history of Israel's occupation, the current state of the "peace process" and outlines an internationalist way forward.

Once again, the Middle East "peace process" hangs by a thread. The recent riots and gun battles throughout the West Bank and Gaza, which left hundreds wounded and a number dead, reveal the enormous frustration at the results of the "peace process" and the failure to end years of Israeli occupation.

The Iranian elections on February 18th 2000 returned a massive majority for the so-called "reformers" around the president Mohammed Khatami in the new Majlis (Parliament). This article looks at the results of the elections and reports the growing movement of the workers.

The election of Ehud Barak as Israel's new prime minister was heralded as a new breakthrough aimed at ending "the 100 year conflict" in the Middle East. Barak promised to withdraw from Lebanon in 15 months and honour the Wye river agreement by October. However the situation simply marks a new stage in the conflict between Zionism and imperialism and the Arab masses.

The mass demonstrations and riots in Iran are the first shots of the Iranian revolution. This article points out the importance of these events, underlines the decissive role of the workers and explains the need to link democratic demands with a socialist programme.

Workers around the world must support the struggle of the Kurdish people against the oppression they suffer at the hands of the Turkish and other regimes in the region. However, it is not sufficient to simply support the cause of the Kurdish people. It is also necessary to explain what lies behind the oppression of the Kurds and show a concrete way out of the impasse they are facing. The arrest of Abdullah Ocalan the leader of the PKK (Workers Party of Kurdistan) in 1999, brought the oppression of the Kurdish people to the attention of the whole world. The Kurds are once again at the centre of attention with the tragic events unfolding in Kobane. Here we

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