Letter from Palestine: “Our neighbors! Stop the madness!”

We have received this letter, originally written in Hebrew, from a Palestinian, addressed to the masses of Israel. Although we do not agree with every point of this letter, we publish it as it shows that even in the midst of the terrible barbarism unleashed by the Zionist state, there are Palestinians who can see the class differences on both sides of the divide and see a solution in the working people on both sides uniting against the common enemy.

“In our street I am being told that no Palestinian will ever talk about peace in the next fifty years. They tell me that because they know that I still stand for peace and coexistence between the two nations. And when I ask them why, they tell me: because the Israelis are going mad and launching vengeful wars over nothing. They ask: ‘why would they destroy entire cities in response to rockets that don't cause any casualties? Our revenge should be tenfold for the destruction of our towns and massacre of our children throughout the generations.’

“And I have to restrain myself and think: soon the two nations will mature and understand that they have no other choice but to live together.

“In all my travels in and out of the country I preach for mutual and egalitarian life for whoever lives on this land. This is because I believe that the humane, natural and historically justified solution is the living together in the same state and under the same rule. I believe that there is room in this country for everyone, even if all the Jews in the world would immigrate here. And if we learn to live together there will be prosperity and progress: we spend so much money on the wars and the result is ravaging and destruction. Imagine how it would be if we invested in industry and development instead of in wars.

“But who would want to prevent coexistence in this land?

“I summarize the social elements that have no interest in coexistence as follows:

1. The first element that is interested in preventing coexistence is global imperialism, which initiated the colonial regimes in the East in the last century. Imperialism found in the Zionist movement an ally and a tool in order to conquer, oppress and steal oil from the Middle East, and turned the Israeli state into its police officer in the Middle East which prevents the native peoples from escaping the stranglehold of global imperialism.
2. The second element interested in preventing coexistence is the Zionist movement which represents the Jewish capitalist giants throughout the world. These are interested in preventing peace or coexistence in order to resume Zionist settlements. You can see for yourselves that the entire Israeli nation owes money to the banks which are the colonial tools of the Zionist movement. The Zionist movement steals and occupies Arab lands, builds houses on them and sells them to the Jewish immigrants.
3. The third element that is interested in preventing coexistence are the religious elements in both nations. The Jewish religious leaders are convinced that God gave the country only to Jews, and that all gentiles are enemies of the Jews, which should be fought against and turned into slaves. The Muslim religious leaders believe that the entire country is a Muslim Waqf and must not be delivered to the Jews, which are considered heretics which should be fought against until doomsday.

“Now, the masses in both nations are being misled by these elements and their preaching of hatred and wars. They, in turn, become both the fuel and the victims of the ongoing conflict between the poor on both sides.

“The humane, natural and fair solution is to live together and cooperate, to build and develop under the rule of law for ALL, and not to be victims of useless and unclear wars.

“I call on the poor masses – the workers, the farmers, the dwellers of the villages and development towns, middle classes and working class ‑ to turn their backs on their support of the representatives of reaction on both sides. The war between the Zionist movement and the Arab-nationalist movement is a war between two elements that are on the same side: they are both allies of global imperialism, and we, the poor, pay unjustly in our lives for this war. We are the victims of an unfair conflict; we can live together and win without wars and without conflicts as soon as we free ourselves from the influence of global imperialism and its tools, the religious elements, on both sides.

“Let us rise and resist, let us stop sacrificing our children for the Zionist movement and the representatives of the fallacious nation, there is room for all of us and we can build the regime of us ALL.”