Solidarity with Brazilian MP Luciana Genro under attack for defending Palestine

Across the world, the ruling class has launched an offensive against anyone who stands up in solidarity with Palestine. Demonstrations have been banned, left wing activists have been accused of supporting terrorism and anti-Semitism in an attempt to silence them, venues have cancelled meetings, etc.

In some countries, there has been an attempt to silence politicians and political parties opposing the murderous Israeli campaign in Gaza and imperialism. This is the case in France for instance, where there has been an attack on the NPA and also Melenchon’s FI party. In Israel itself, the ethics committee of the Knesset (Parliament) has suspended for 45 days the left-wing Hadash MP Ofer Cassif for “anti-Israel statements”. In an interview with an Irish journalist, Cassif, who is Jewish, accused the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of exploiting Hamas attacks to implement a “final solution” to wipe out Palestinian Arabs.

In Brazil, the left wing Luciana Genro, a state deputy in Rio Grande do Sul for the PSOL party, has also come under attack and is being investigated by the Ethics Committee for “breach of parliamentary decorum”. She is at the receiving end of a noisy campaign accusing her of racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. The attack against Genro is a response to her statements in solidarity with Palestine in which she compared the Palestinian resistance to the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. Genro, who is from a Jewish family, explained how the attacks against her come “from the far right to attempt to intimidate those who are firmer and more articulate in their defence of Palestine… they want to leave Israel a free hand to carry out the massacre it has undertaken”. She added: “I have nothing to do with Hamas and I have no ideological affinity with it.”

The International Marxist Tendency would like to express our full solidarity with Luciana Genro and ask our readers to join the campaign in her defence and the defence of her position as a State MP against the attacks of Zionists and the far right. 

We ask trade unions, student organisations and public figures to send messages of support via solidariedademocoes@gmail.com