Over the last few days, this video clip has gone absolutely viral. Syrian Girl, a user on X (formerly Twitter), shared it with the compelling caption, “BREAKING: Israel admits Apache helicopters fired on their own civilians running from the Supernova music festival.”

Syrian Girl also shared this passage from an article in Yedioth Ahronoth, a major Israeli newspaper, that has been quoted in several other publications:

“The pilots realized that there was tremendous difficulty in distinguishing within the occupied outposts and settlements who was a terrorist and who was a soldier or civilian … The rate of fire against the thousands of terrorists was tremendous at first, and only at a certain point, did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets.”

Since Syrian Girl posted the tweet on 9 November, the embedded video has been viewed almost 26 million times. The tweet itself has been reposted or liked almost a quarter of a million times.

Syrian Girl’s tweet has given many the impression that this type of footage has just emerged.

In fact the Israeli army published similar footage in the middle of October, though its significance may have escaped many at the time. And while Syrian Girl only posted a 14-second clip, the video released by the Israeli military is almost three minutes long.

As The Times of Israel reported on 15 October, the army published video claiming it shows “helicopter gunships striking Hamas terrorists as they streamed across the breached border from Gaza” on 7 October.

The army video was also published by other major media outlets at the time.

It’s not clear whether the clip posted by Syrian Girl is sourced from the same longer video released by the Israeli army.

But the army video almost certainly does show Israeli helicopter pilots shooting at Israeli civilians, and possibly soldiers as well.

‘Shoot at everything’

The quote in Syrian Girl’s tweet comes from an article published on 15 October in Hebrew by Yoav Zitun, military correspondent for Ynet, the online outlet affiliated with Yedioth Ahronoth.

The full article translated into English appears below. Zitun’s article also includes the video released by the Israeli military – and that is the video at the top of this article.

Zitun does offer clear evidence that the Israeli military fired indiscriminately, targeting Palestinian fighters and Israeli civilians alike.

He cites the startling case of one Lieutenant Colonel A., the commander of Squadron 190 who around mid-morning of 7 October, “instructed the other fighters in the air to shoot at everything they see in the area of the fence, and at a certain point also attacked an IDF [Israeli army] station with trapped soldiers in order to help the fighters of Navy commando Unit 13 attack it and liberate it.”

But Zitun’s account indicates that this was not isolated.

“The air force has begun to summarize the events of the surprise attack that began the war in Gaza, and it emerges that there was a fog of war during the first hours of Black Saturday, not only for the fighters on the ground, but also for the air teams that were summoned to the skies of the western Negev,” Zitun’s article begins.

‘Difficult to distinguish’ between fighters and civilians

“After the pilots realized that inside the army stations and the settlements that were conquered, it was very difficult to distinguish between terrorists and [Israeli] soldiers or civilians, the decision was made that the first objective of the fighter helicopters and the armed Zik [Elbit Hermes 450] drones is to stop the deluge of terrorists and the murderous masses that flowed into Israeli territory through the holes in the fence,” Zitun writes.

Zitun then adds: “Twenty-eight fighter helicopters shot over the course of the day all of the ammunition in their bellies, in renewed runs to rearm. We are talking about hundreds of 30 millimeter cannon mortars (each mortar is like a hand grenade) and Hellfire missiles,” he adds.

“The frequency of fire at the thousands of terrorists was enormous at the start, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets.”

At least one Israeli survivor has said that another Israeli woman was killed when a helicopter fired on the vehicle she was in with Palestinians and other Israelis.

Citing the Israeli military’s preliminary investigations, Zitun describes an utterly chaotic situation: “The air activity on the first day was not organized, and in the skies pilots had to improvise solutions to the complicated and unprecedented situation: much of the firing and targeting directions received from forces battling on the ground reached the pilots via phone calls or images sent by WhatsApp.”

The most bizarre element of the account in Zitun’s article is the claim that “Hamas made it more difficult for helicopter pilots and the drone operators” by using a ruse.

According to the Israeli military investigation, Zitun says, the Hamas fighters had been ordered “to march slowly towards the settlements and army stations, and inside them, and not to run under any circumstances, to make the pilots think they are Israelis.”

It is not explained why anyone would think Israelis would not run amid such a violent and chaotic situation, but according to Zitun, the army concluded that “the deception worked for a little while, until the Apache pilots understood they needed to sidestep their restrictions.”

He also says that some pilots started “on their own initiative to spray the terrorists with cannons without permission from their superiors.”

Two elements stand out here: By the military’s own admission, Israeli pilots could not distinguish clearly between Palestinian combatants and Israeli civilians but decided to open fire with massive amounts of weaponry anyway.

300 ‘targets’

Perhaps in order to preempt the obvious conclusion that Israel killed many of its own people, Zitun inserts this strange sentence: “Reflecting on the enormous number of murdered and kidnapped, the air force is convinced that without the fire support and many attacks carried out by the IDF fighter helicopter pilots on that day, the carnage would have been much greater.”

According to the air force, Zitun writes, “in the first four hours from the start of the battles, helicopters and fighter craft attacked about 300 targets, most in Israeli territory.”

Israel pilots fired at hundreds of targets on their own territory without even having a clear picture of who or what they were shooting at.

With that admission, it would be all but impossible for the Israeli military not to have killed large numbers of its own people.

Blasting away at civilian cars

In light of Zitun’s report, the video released by the Israeli military last month may show much more than Israeli officials are willing to admit.

The video released by the Israeli army shows the helicopters and perhaps drones firing away at civilian cars the identity of whose occupants cannot be determined. They may well have been Israeli civilians trying to flee the area. At one point, a car comes under fire and people pour out only to be machine-gunned by the Israeli aircraft.

It also appears far more likely that the graphic images of burned bodies distributed by Israel and its propagandists – supposed evidence of Hamas atrocities – were caused by helicopters firing heavy caliber shells or Hellfire missiles, rather than the light weapons that the Palestinian fighters were generally seen carrying.

Accumulating evidence

Over the last month, compelling testimonies and other evidence have appeared in Israeli media indicating that a large though undetermined number of Israelis were killed on and after 7 October by Israeli forces.

These accounts have been reported in English primarily by independent media, including The Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss and The Grayzone.

One of the first testimonies was from Yasmin Porat, who survived the violence at Kibbutz Be’eri.

She told Israeli state radio that Palestinian fighters treated her and the other Israelis they were holding “humanely.” Israeli security forces then showed up and started a gunfight.

Porat said that the heavy fire from the Israeli side killed almost all the civilians, along with many of the Palestinian fighters.

Need for investigation

Mainstream media and Western governments have ignored the story, preferring to stick to Israel’s lurid, unsubstantiated and often outright false atrocity tales – such as the infamous claim that Hamas fighters beheaded dozens of Jewish babies.

While sometimes unjustly questioning well-documented Palestinian death tolls, media and governments have accepted without question Israel’s claim that 1,400 people were killed on or just after 7 October.

On Friday, Israel revised that death toll down to 1,200.

While there can be no doubt given the evidence and testimonies available so far that Israel killed some of its own people on and after 7 October, knowing exactly how many would require an independent investigation – something Israel will almost certainly not allow.

But a good start would be for mainstream media – and its various investigative powerhouses – to do their own examinations and test Israel’s often outlandish claims against the evidence.

As I noted in a recent Electronic Intifada livestream, they are failing miserably to do that:

Translation of Ynet article

Translation for The Electronic Intifada by David Sheen.

SOURCE: Ynet

LINK: https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/b111niukzt

HEADLINE: Hamas tricked Israeli helicopters, and pilots over WhatsApp | The Air Force on Day 1

SUBHEAD: The first helicopters were summoned from the north ironically, and reached the Gaza envelope about an hour after the battles began. The terrorists were instructed not to run so that from the air they will be thought of as Israelis. The pilots fired at those who crossed the fence, and even right inside the settlements. The pilots received information from the ground to their mobile phones. In four hours 300 targets were attacked | The events of Black Saturday [2023-10-7].

BYLINE: Yoav Zeitun

DATELINE: 15 October 2023

BODY: The air force has begun to summarize the events of the surprise attack that began the war in Gaza, and it emerges that there was a fog of war during the first hours of the Black Saturday, not only for the fighters on the ground, but also for the air teams that were summoned to the skies of the western Negev.

The first pair of fighter helicopters that was immediately available to the Gaza Division reached the Gaza envelope about an hour or more after the start of events, around 7:30 to 8:00, from Ramat David base in the north [SW Galilee]. This though the Apache helicopters’ parent squadrons are at the Ramon base, which is closer to the Gaza Strip. At the Ramon base they quickly understood that something odd is developing and they got a fighter helicopter in the air with the Commander of the 190 Squadron Lt. Col. A himself, arriving at the Gaza envelope at 8:32.

After the pilots realized that inside the army stations and the settlements that were conquered, it was very difficult to distinguish between terrorists and [Israeli] soldiers or civilians, the decision was made that the first objective of the fighter helicopters and the armed Zik [Elbit Hermes 450] drones is to stop the deluge of terrorists and the murderous masses that flowed into Israeli territory through the holes in the fence. Twenty-eight fighter helicopters shot over the course of the day all of the ammunition in their bellies, in renewed runs to rearm. We are talking about hundreds of 30 millimeter cannon mortars (each mortar is like a hand grenade) and Hellfire missiles. The frequency of fire at the thousands of terrorists was enormous at the start, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets.

It turns out that the Hamas made it difficult for helicopter pilots and the drone operators: the investigation revealed that the invading forces were asked in their final briefings to march slowly towards the settlements and army stations, and inside them, and not to run under any circumstance, to make the pilots think they are Israelis. The deception worked for a considerable while, until the Apache pilots understood they needed to sidestep their restrictions. Only around 9:00 did some start on their own initiative to spray the terrorists with cannons, without permission from their superiors.

The air activity on the first day was not organized, and in the skies pilots had to improvise solutions to the complicated and unprecedented situation: much of the firing and targeting directions received from forces battling on the ground reached the pilots via phone calls or images sent by WhatsApp. Reflecting on the enormous number of murdered and kidnapped, the Air Force is convinced that without the fire support and many attacks carried out by the IDF fighter helicopter pilots on that day, the carnage would have been much greater.

Something else that helped the Air Force commanders realize the severity of the event in its early hours occurred around 10:00 AM, when the commander of Squadron 190 Lt. Col. A. got out of his helicopter at Ramon [Air Base] to rearm and refuel. He extracted the full video that the helicopter camera documented and quickly broadcast it to the IDF HQ at the Kirya [in Tel Aviv]. In less than 20 minutes he was in the air again, and with the information extracted, he instructed the other fighters in the air to shoot at everything they see in the area of the fence, and at a certain point also attacked an IDF station with trapped soldiers in order to help the fighters of Navy commando unit 13 attack it and liberate it.

In one instance, removing his own self-imposed restrictions, he shot a distance of only twenty meters from one of the houses on the kibbutz in order to cover the Deputy Commander of Division 80 that was called in from the Sinai sector and killed four terrorists in a difficult battle. According to the Air Force, in the first four hours from the start of the battles, helicopters and fighter craft attacked about 300 targets, most in Israeli territory.

On the ninth day of the war (Sunday) the Air Force is embedded in the effort to eliminate the leaders of Hamas, while preparing for its massive contribution in advance of a ground invasion. The Air Force has not related to the dilemma created by attacking targets in which Hamas leaders like Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar are hiding next to Israeli hostages used as human shields.

The Air Force is working to create a new barrier between Israel and the Gaza Strip up to three kilometers wide, and to encourage the Gazans to go southward in advance of the heavy bombardment that will rain down on Gaza City and the northern towns. The phrase currently driving the Air Force is “the destruction of military capabilities, movements and authorities of the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip that threaten Israel.” The pilots were instructed to act calmly and professionally, with organized intelligence and operational logic behind every one of the thousands of attacks carried out up to now.

Currently the air effort is invested in Gaza, but at heightened readiness for days of battle that is already unfolding in the north. The IDF explains that the Air Force is trained and equipped to deal with two fronts simultaneously, but its preference is to focus on one main theater. Thus for example the Air Force is not automatically attacking every Hezbollah anti-aircraft missile launcher that shoots a rocket at Israeli drones.

At the same time, the IDF has identified for some time a great effort by Iran to transport advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to the foreign press, it was the Air Force that in recent days attacked the Syrian airports of Aleppo and Damascus, shutting them down, along with the large weapons transports on the way to Lebanon.

Air Force Commander Major Tomer Bar spoke about the events of the first day, saying: “There are many stories of courage by soldiers on the ground. The pilots killed many terrorists and helicopters brought fighters to the battlefield while under fire. We are proud of them and of the reservists who prove the strength of the IDF and the Air Force. We are investigating every day, and improving every day.”

Regarding a ground invasion, Bar said: “We are preparing the theater for the most effective maneuvers possible, and are removing as many threats as possible from the ground and the air, in order to give the fighters operational freedom of action. At present we are focusing on the southern theater but are prepared at a high state of readiness to any development that could also occur in the north.”

Source: Electronic Intifada

 

Genocide Joe: Ceasefire now!

People around the world are demanding that the Zionist apartheid regime stop murdering Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,500 children.

Three hundred thousand people marched on the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4. They demanded that “Genocide Joe” Biden stop the massacre being carried out by the U.S. client state of “Israel.”

This was the biggest march in defense of Palestine in U.S. history. Many Palestinian organizations helped organize it, along with the ANSWER coalition.

Activists in the Black Lives Matter movement have rallied to defend Palestine. So have Indigenous nations and organizations defending immigrants.

Marches took place the same day across the United States. Five thousand people took to the streets in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Anti-War Committee also organized a busload of people who traveled 1,400 miles to join the Washington protest.

Hundreds of thousands marched in London and other British cities for Palestine on Nov. 4. The Tory government wants to stop a demonstration in London on Nov. 11, since that’s the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I.

As former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn pointed out, wasn’t that armistice a ceasefire? What better day to demand peace for Palestine?

Corbyn said “the Palestinian cause will never go away.” 

Thousands have also marched in Berlin and Paris. Italians are demanding a ceasefire. “Peace with Gaza” has been painted on Italian railroad passenger cars.

Thousands marched in Mexico City. They rightfully called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal.

Massive marches to stop the killing in Gaza have taken place in both Istanbul and Ankara in Türkiye. Demonstrators tried to storm the U.S. air base at Incirlik in southern Türkiye.   

Nelson Mandela supported Palestine

An estimated 2 million people marched in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. 

The 278 million people of Indonesia have been politically smothered since the CIA-orchestrated massacres of a million communists, workers and peasants in 1965-66. The mass marches for Palestine are helping to break through decades of reaction.

The people of South Africa are heart and soul with Palestine. Nelson Mandela said in 1997 that “we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

Marches have been organized in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. People remember how Israel supplied rifles and other military hardware, including nuclear weapons, to the old apartheid regime. 

They also remember Ruth First, a Jewish South African communist who was murdered by a bomb sent by the apartheid secret police. Thousands of Jewish people around the world have marched to demand freedom and peace in Palestine.

But in “democratic Israel,” nobody is allowed to march for peace and to stop murdering Palestinian children. Zionist police chief Yaakov Shabtai has threatened to arrest anti-war protesters and bus them to Gaza. 

On Nov. 9 people in the U.S. took to the streets again. At least 10,000 people demonstrated in New York City.

Among them were thousands of high school and college students who walked out of class earlier in the day. Struggle-La Lucha’s Bill Dores reported they marched from the New York Public Library down Fifth Avenue, across 34th Street through Herald Square, then up Eighth Avenue to the New York Times.

Hundreds of writers and journalists were sitting in there to protest the Times’ support of the war on Gaza. People then marched through Times Square back to the library,

Earlier in the day, activists at the People’s Forum took over the lobby of the BlackRock financial octopus that has assets of over $9 trillion. Among its holdings are war profiteers like Lockheed.

The world is with Palestine. Ceasefire now! Palestine will be free!

Sunday, November 12 – 2:00 p.m.

Gather at Union Square, 14 St & Broadway, Manhattan
March to Stonewall Inn

The House of Representatives voted 234-188 to censure Rashida Tlaib — its only Palestinian member — for condemning the U.S. / Israeli genocide in Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians have been murdered so far in Gaza by U.S.-made and U.S.-paid-for bombs and shells. Four thousand have been children.

The Nov. 7 resolution is as racist as was the expulsion of Harlem Congressperson Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1967. Powell had earlier been ousted from chairing the House Education and Labor committee, where he battled discrimination and fought for all poor people.

It’s reminiscent of Georgia’s state legislature refusing to seat Julian Bond in 1966 because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond was among the first Black people elected to Georgia’s legislature since the bloody overthrow of Reconstruction.

What was Rashida Tlaib censured for? According to Politico, “Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) had moved to censure Tlaib for what he called ‘promoting false narratives’ about the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attack on Israel and for ‘calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.’”

So Rashida Tlaib was punished for her opinions, just as Julian Bond was prevented from taking his legislative seat for what he said about the dirty U.S. war against Vietnam. “Freedom of speech” was never meant for the oppressed.

Tlaib’s censure follows the expulsions earlier this year of Justin Bautista-Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black members of Tennessee’s House of Representatives. The Montana House of Representatives prevented Zooey Zephyr, its only transgender member, from speaking or even entering the legislative chamber.

All these elected legislators were punished for expressing their opinions. The real “cancel culture” is capitalist reaction trying to silence any genuine opposition.

An earlier Nov. 1 vote to censure Rashida Tlaib narrowly failed. Its sponsor was the reactionary Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who believes “Jewish space lasers” caused California forest fires. 

Six days later, McCormick’s censure of Tlaib passed in revenge for the massive protests around the world in defense of the Palestinian people. Three hundred thousand people marched to the White House on Nov. 4 in a demonstration organized by many Palestinian organizations and the ANSWER coalition.

Twenty-two Democrats shamelessly voted with Republicans to censure Tlaib. Along with the one Democrat who was counted present, their votes were the margin of victory to try to silence the lone Palestinian voice in Congress. 

Refuses to censure Israeli racism

Prominent Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer refuse to condemn racist statements made by Israeli officials and media. Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichay Eliyahu called for dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu ostensibly kicked Eliyahu out of the cabinet. Nobody is supposed to admit that “little Israel” has nukes. The thousands of bombs dropped on Gaza have twice the equivalent of TNT compared to the atom bomb the U.S. used to incinerate Hiroshima. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “total siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” Gallant said. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog proclaimed there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, meaning that any child or adult can be killed. 

U.S. Congressperson Brian Mast also denied that Gaza lives matter, comparing the civilians there to Nazis. Yet Democrats pulled their censure resolution of the Florida Republican. 

The Israeli daily newspaper Hayom demanded that the time had come to “send Gaza back into the Stone Age.” 

Retired Israeli general Giora Eiland said a “total war” was necessary to defeat Palestinians. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels also demanded a “total war” after the German defeat at Stalingrad.

Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, called for creating “a terrible humanitarian crisis in Gaza because this kind of pressure might be the most effective one.”  

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir doesn’t want to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

This barbarism is intended to drive the Palestinian population out of Gaza as well as the West Bank. Zionist leaders want a new Nakba — Arabic for catastrophe — like what happened in 1948. “Israel” was born with 15,000 Palestinians murdered and 531 Palestinian villages destroyed.

Palestine extends from river to sea

All the big capitalist media are supporting the ruthless Zionist invasion of the Gaza ghetto. “Freedom of the press” is for those who own one.

Palestinian freedom fighters are being labeled “terrorists” just like the slave masters called Nat Turner — who led a revolt of enslaved Africans in Virginia — a “monster.”

Neither the media nor the Biden administration nor Bernie Sanders are calling for a ceasefire. Refusing a ceasefire is endorsing the continued bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in an area that’s as densely populated as New York City. 

The Zionist military and its Pentagon advisors are deliberately targeting hospitals, schools, and other shelters. Hundreds of children are guaranteed to be killed every day.

The same House of Representatives that censured Rashida Tlaib voted five days earlier to give another $14.3 billion to Israel for killing Palestinians. At the same time, $3 billion has been cut from SNAP benefits (formerly called food stamps) every month since March. 

Rashida Tlaib was censured for supposedly “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” What’s wrong with destroying a racist apartheid state that even restricts Palestinians from traveling on certain highways? 

It’s anti-racist, not anti-Jewish, to chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Thousands of Jewish people have demonstrated in support of Palestinians.

The people of Zimbabwe wiped racist Rhodesia off the map and took back their land. So will the people of Palestine.

Hands off Rashida Tlaib!

“Down with Yoon Suk Yeol — Workers united will never be defeated,” was one of the many chants resounding through this busy intersection in Koreatown, Los Angeles, on Nov 4. The spirited rally was organized by the Korean American Labor Solidarity Association (KALSA) in coordination with protests in South Korea sponsored by the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

David Yun of KALSA said: “Workers struggle anywhere in the world is a global struggle for all peoples living under capitalism. Right now, while American workers struggle for fair wages and access to health care, Congress is sending billions and billions of dollars to fund a genocide in Palestine. And for the past 78 years, South Korean workers have been living under U.S. military occupation.

“The workers’ revolution that took place in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [North Korea] resulted in Korean workers getting 8-hour work days, a standardized wage scale, two-week annual vacations, and the right to collective bargaining. This was in 1946! These are rights that workers in South Korea and America are still fighting for to this day. 

“The situation for workers in South Korea is dire,” Yun explained. “To feed their families, workers have to work multiple jobs and work over a hundred hours a week. In the past year, over 2,000 Korean workers died on the job due to unsafe working conditions and over exhaustion. That’s six workers a day! 

“The current Yoon Suk Yeol administration in South Korea fervently opposes workers interests and is offering Korea as an imperialist playground for the U.S. Empire. For this, we the people demand he step down!”

Tsukuru Fors of the Asian Pacific Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance said: “I consider it to be of paramount importance for me to express my solidarity with my Korean brothers and sisters. Japan’s decision to dump radioactive water during the month of August, the A-bomb memorial month, was a grave insult and betrayal to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a child of Hiroshima, I found that to be absolutely horrendous and sickening. 

“I want to acknowledge that under the colonization of Korea by Japan, so many Korean people suffered, and many resistance fighters were imprisoned. I also want to acknowledge that 5 million Koreans were killed in the Korean War, which no one wants to talk about in this country. 

“In the light of what’s happening in Palestine right now, I thank all of you for standing up for Palestinians. As a descendent of the colonizer Japan, it is my duty to stand with the Palestinian people and all who are victims of Imperialism and colonialism.”

Members of the ANSWER coalition and the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice also gave solidarity remarks. Maggie Vascassenno of HTC closed the afternoon picket with these words: “It is especially important now, when global capitalism is unleashing terror and repression against workers and against the global south, that the world’s progressive and working-class forces stand together in support of all those around the world that are fighting back – from Palestine to South Korea, from Venezuela to Syria. 

“Down with Yoon Suk Yeol, down with the Chaebols and their U.S. banking partners! Down with U.S. and Japanese imperialism! Long live the Korean people’s militant struggle.”

Statement by the Korean American Labor Solidarity Association (KALSA) on the occasion of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions protests.

Demand South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol resign, regain the rights that were taken away, and prevent war.

Yoon Seok-yeol’s regime is currently at war with laborers and the general populace. He prioritizes the rule of law and labor reform for the benefit of businesses, while being determined to eliminate labor unions and harm workers. He is also enthusiastic about providing deregulation and tax breaks as gifts to conglomerates and the wealthy to realize the interests of capitalists. 

Yoon Seok-yeol has been denying the basic human rights of those who oppose his regime. He has severed dialogue with labor unions, and resorted to unilateral authoritarianism and repression. Despite a continuous increase in industrial accidents and fatalities, he blatantly enforces 69-hour workweeks and openly pressures laborers to work to their deaths. He is isolating and attacking labor unions by categorizing them as corrupt entities through financial disclosures.

The size of household debt has surpassed the national GDP, and Yoon Seok-yeol is fully shifting the burden of high-interest rates, high exchange rates, and inflation onto the shoulders of laborers and the general populace. He intends to break the backs of laborers and the general populace who are already struggling with stagnant wages, rising public utility costs such as buses, subways, electricity, gas and heating, and skyrocketing prices.

As Yoon Seok-yeol openly declared that the government and businesses are a single entity, to them, the survival rights of laborers and the general populace are merely a nuisance that should be eliminated and made to disappear.

Under the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, oppressive actions and the greed of capitalists have combined to lead to the deaths of Yang Hoi-dong and Bang Young-hwan, following the earlier death of Yang Hoi-dong. Who is acting illegally, and who are the thugs here?

Yoon Seok-yeol ignores the three labor rights specified by law and supports the illegal actions of capital. He has employed the police and the National Intelligence Service to violently suppress the legitimate rights of laborers. In his speech on Armed Forces Day, he openly admitted to a sustained infringement on the rights of the people through the deprivation and oppression of the regime.

Allegiance to declining U.S. 

Yoon Seok-yeol, who has pledged allegiance to the declining United States, brought in his accomplice, Kishida, and, through U.S.-Japan cooperation in national security, threatened the Korean people and sided with the inhumane crime of discharging radioactive water from Fukushima. The people of our country had to endure the dismal fact that U.S.-Japan joint military exercises took place on the day of Takeshima, which the Japanese marked as Japan’s territory, in the East Sea.

Yoon Seok-yeol, who once gave absolution to the crimes of imperial Japan, now conceals his own heinous acts and distorts the nation’s history, fostering division and enmity. He wrongly labels the righteous anti-Japanese armed resistance as anti-communism while supporting acts of violence, territorial occupation, and the brutal collective massacres committed by Israel. Yoon Seok-yeol is nothing more than a loyal henchman of imperialism.

While Yoon Seok-yeol is serving the United States by paying tens of billions of dollars in tribute to the American imperialists and paying enormous defense expenses and purchasing weapons worth tens of billions of won, the people are swallowing dry tears as they are deprived of even their meager welfare. 

Yoon Seok-yeol, who became the pet dog of the U.S. imperialists and NATO and funneled weapons and tax money to Ukraine, which was devastated by the U.S. imperialist proxy war, is an accomplice to the U.S. imperialist war crimes.

Due to the war alliance, nuclear alliance, and ROK-U.S. alliance, the nuclear strategic assets of the U.S. nuclear fighter planes, nuclear submarines, and nuclear aircraft carriers are mobilized and frequently travel in and out of the homeland as if it were their own home, threatening nuclear war.

Yoon Seok-yeol, a descendant of the Syngman Rhee regime, which proclaimed its subordination to the U.S. imperialists by turning his country into a military base, war powder keg, and outpost for the U.S. imperialists 70 years ago through the humiliating ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty, became a slave to the nuclear-based ROK-U.S. They are trying to turn it into a battlefield. 

There is no other choice for the working people who are in a moribund state, their survival is at stake, and suffering from the threat of war.

In order to survive, we must uproot Yoon Seok-yeol, who wields fascist tyranny against the working people on the inside and becomes a loyal dog of the U.S. imperialists on the outside and goes crazy for war, and destroys the lives of the working people.

Trans Day of Remembrance 2023: 

MOURN THE DEAD, FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING!

The Coalition to Protect Trans Lives calls on trans and queer people and our allies to come out in force for Trans Day of Remembrance events across the country on Nov. 20, 2023. The need to remember our fallen and fight for our future has never been more urgent.

In October alone, at least six of our Black trans siblings were murdered: A’nee Johnson, Skylar Harrison Reeves, Chyna Long, Lisa Love, London Price, and Dominic Dupree. Twenty-six trans people are known to have been killed so far this year, though the real number is likely much higher thanks to misgendering by police and media. This year, like every year, the overwhelming number of victims are Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color.

Anti-trans violence and threats have skyrocketed, propelled by hate campaigns driven by far-right politicians, corporate media, and fascist groups and funded by the super-rich. Laws passed in HALF of U.S. states in 2023 aim to eradicate trans lives, especially targeting youth, with more and worse to come in 2024. 

Republican presidential candidates like Trump and DeSantis scapegoat trans people for political gain, while President Biden and Congressional Democrats offer us nothing but worthless “thoughts and prayers” while life-saving health care is ripped away.

Trans people are part of the working class and all marginalized communities under attack by the capitalists across this country. We are part of the movements for Black Lives, for immigrants, for a free Palestine, for unions. We need to reach out and build a united fightback in the spirit of the Stonewall uprising, AIDS activism, and the Civil Rights Movement.

That’s why our grassroots coalition took the fight to the front lines of the fight against fascism in Florida. We organized the Oct. 7 National March to Protect Trans Youth in Orlando, uniting hundreds from across Florida and the U.S. to defiantly resist. And we’re not stopping there. More acts of resistance are coming in 2024 – get involved to help us plan and organize. 

Join us to build a movement to turn back the attacks on trans lives. Let’s fight to expand the rights of trans people and all people! 

Speak to an organizer, email info@protecttranskidsmarch.org, or sign up at ProtectTransKidsMarch.org.

No more stolen trans lives! We remember:

London Price, Oct. 23, Miami
Lisa Love, Oct. 17, Chicago
A’nee Johnson, Oct. 14, Washington, D.C.
Dominic Dupree (Dominic Palace), Oct. 13, Gary, IN
Chyna Long, Oct. 8, Milwaukee
Skylar Harrison Reeves, Oct. 2, Washington, D.C.
YOKO (YouOnlyKnowOne), Sept. 19, New Orleans
Sherlyn Marjorie, Sept. 17, Albuquerque
Thomas ‘Tom-Tom’ Robertson, Aug. 17, Calumet City, IN
Luis Ángel Díaz Castro, Aug. 12, San Juan, U.S.-occupied Puerto Rico
DéVonnie J’Rae Johnson, Aug. 7, Los Angeles
Camdyn Rider, July 21, Winter Park, FL
Jacob Williamson, June 30, Monroe, SC
Chanell Perez Ortiz, June 25, Carolina, U.S.-occupied Puerto Rico
Ashia Davis, June 2, Detroit
Banko Brown, April 27, San Francisco
Koko Da Doll, April 18, Atlanta
Ashley Burton, April 11, Atlanta
Tasiyah Woodland, March 24, St. Mary’s County, MD
Chashay Henderson, Feb. 26, Milwaukee
Zachee Imanitwitaho, Feb. 3, Louisville, KY
Unique Banks, Jan. 23, Chicago
Maria Jose Rivera Rivera, Jan. 21, Houston
Tortuguita, Jan. 18, Atlanta
KC Johnson, Jan. 14, Wilmington, NC
Jasmine “Star” Mack, Jan. 7, Washington, D.C.

According to HRC, in 2023:

88% of victims are people of color
52% are Black transgender women
47% with a known killer were killed by a romantic/sexual partner, friend, or family member
48% were misgendered or deadnamed by authorities or the press

The Coalition to Protect Trans Lives demands:

• Reverse the bans on trans health care, restroom access, Black & Queer history
• Stop racist attacks on our communities
• Stop censorship and attacks on the civil liberties of teachers, students & libraries
• Hands off Pride!
• Free, legal, accessible abortions
• Expand Medicaid and SNAP
• Stop voter disenfranchisement 
• Drop charges on the Tampa 5 and all activists targeted by the state
• Demand Biden & Congress enforce civil rights from coast to coast

 

On Nov. 2, a hate group called PragerU spent what is reported to be a million dollars to promote anti-trans lies on the social media site “X” (formerly Twitter), owned by right-wing billionaire Elon Musk.

Who funds this hate group? It’s unknown where that specific million dollars came from, but the group was originally funded by two hydraulic fracking billionaires, and a quick search suggests those same billionaires are still involved in the group. 

Research also shows that other major donors include a right-wing foundation started by people who made their fortune pushing automation in factories, one of whom was a founding member of the infamous anti-communist, racist, sexist, fascist organization known as the John Birch Society.

There are three kinds of political group in this country:

1. Those that are kept together with the grit and spit of working-class people and what little we can scrape together to fund resistance to oppression, exploitation, and violence.
2. Those that are funded by rich people who want to push the most anti-worker, oppressive agenda you’ve ever heard of.
3. Those that are funded by rich people who want to push a more liberal agenda in order to keep you from supporting the first kind of group, because they hate the first kind of group since those are the only kind that can make a difference.

The hate group (of the second variety) pushing this anti-trans barrage on social media is not unique. There are many anti-trans hate groups, most of them funded by very similar billionaires (or, in some cases, multimillionaires, as if that makes a difference in their political outlook). 

A recent exposé by the Huffington Post went into detail about Joseph Edelman, a hedge fund manager whose business focuses on health care. He funds anti-trans, anti-abortion, and anti-anti-racist (that’s not a typo) groups, including PragerU.

Bosses need scapegoats

You have to ask yourself: Why do they care?

The answer is: They don’t. They don’t care about trans people. They care about making money.

These capitalists make their fortunes destroying the environment, automating factories, and investing in for-profit health care. They make their fortunes intentionally worsening conditions for most of humanity. They profit off human suffering, and they know that right now, that suffering has escalated all over the world. 

Between the pandemic, climate change, unemployment, new forms of automation, and endless war, it’s pretty grim for workers and oppressed people everywhere.

They know that those conditions breed resistance. They know that people are angry and that anger has to go somewhere. The best thing they can do to keep that anger from showing up at their doorstep (where it belongs) is to push a scapegoat. 

A million dollars to tell everyone that trans people are coming for their kids is a small price to pay to keep justice at bay for another few years.

The fact that this will likely cause many trans people to die – as we lose access to health care ourselves, as we are so demonized that we become targets of violence, as we are driven into the closet and eventually to suicide – does not matter to them. They might hire people who have been deceived enough to sincerely hate us, but the rich and powerful people pushing this agenda? They don’t care if we die.

And that makes them worse than the true believers. There’s nothing there to convince, to shame, to educate, to grieve, to find compassion, to be debated. The only thing they will ever understand is mass resistance.

They are the source of the problem, not religion, not politics, not misinformed doctors, not terrified parents, not “stupid cis people.” They dangle millions of dollars in front of enough people, and some of those people will sign up to be used to spread hate. Then the religious, political, medical, parental, people out there are gulled by the million-dollar campaigns and constant media barrage. 

Without those millions dangled in front of them, most of the opportunists would never even think about trans people, and the deceived would never stop to think about us unless we were part of their lives. The few true believers would be powerless to push their agenda without the money as well.

Pushing ‘de-transition’ myth

The million-dollar campaign from PragerU is pushing the idea of de-transitioners. While many trans people do desist (the proper term for it), most do so due to economic hardship, threats of violence, discrimination, or other issues, not because they aren’t really trans. The number of trans people who permanently desist is very low. 

(There are reports of anti-trans parents in online forums complaining that their kids “aren’t growing out of this trans phase” – i.e., parents shocked to learn that the lies they have been fed are lies.) 

The number of people who regret transitioning is also exceedingly low, and even then, most regret it on the same basis as they desist — because of anti-trans bigotry, violence, or economic hardships.

Furthermore, there’s nothing wrong with de-transitioning. It’s another way of saying, “I explored my gender and figured out that transition wasn’t for me.” In the rare instances this happens, it’s perfectly okay. We should all be allowed to explore our genders without any barriers to doing so.

The problem is, the “de-transitioners” who are being promoted by these hate groups are opportunists using their stories to spread anti-trans hate. In the last year or so, there have been articles exposing anti-trans de-transitioner spokespeople as frauds. They’re usually paid to tell a story of de-transition, distort or exaggerate parts of it, and do the bidding of these hate groups. 

One recently exposed story was about a trans woman who was encouraged to sue her medical providers for pressuring her into transitioning. When she did this, the medical providers stopped providing her with hormones.

Yes, you read that right — this infamous “de-transitioner” was still transitioning! Cutting off her hormones sent her into a depressive spiral that sent her to a mental hospital. She eventually renounced her de-transitioner status and ties to the hate groups. 

While this individual was used by them, she was also willingly involved in their agenda, making her story a clear example of how these groups operate, and more importantly, what empowers them and their agenda: the money behind it.

This is why we have to make it clear when we stand up for trans rights that our enemy is the super-rich and their willing, knowing pawns, not the ones who have simply been deceived. Once we defeat them, once we defeat capitalism, the power behind anti-trans hate is gone.

This is not to say we should not fight for better conditions and oppose anti-trans hate before we defeat capitalism, but that understanding who is funding and empowering anti-trans hate should inform how we fight.

To defeat the capitalists funding the anti-trans agenda, we need everyone we can get to stand with us, which means remembering that not everyone with a backward idea about trans people is actually our enemy. They’re victims of deception, and it’s to them that we should address attempts at education and persuasion – and also solidarity in their own struggles, which are caused by the same group of rich parasites. 

Solidarity with others under attack should be the first step.

The writer is a member of Workers Voice Socialist Movement.

Late on the night of Oct. 29, a group of over 300 people stormed the airport terminal and ransacked a nearby hotel in Makhachkala, the regional capital of the Dagestan region of Russia. The mob’s stated goal was to capture and exact revenge upon Jewish people for Israel’s recent genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people. 

The Russian government and local Dagestani authorities moved quickly to squash the riot and attempted pogrom. The word attempted is crucial, as the mob was unable to cause any harm to Jewish people or damage to Jewish institutions. 

This was partially due to the few number of Jews in the area that night. However, the quick response of Russian police and political leaders certainly played a role in stamping out the excesses of Oct. 29. 

Russian officials at all levels harshly condemned the antisemitic riot and ordered security forces to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. Sergey Melikov, the elected head of Dagestan, attacked the rioters as cowards bent on dividing Russian society. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov reiterated these sentiments in no uncertain terms. All of these leaders harshly condemned antisemitism or any form of ethnic bigotry and urged the people to avoid provocations led by opportunists. 

Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, gave a particularly passionate statement on the issue. Kadyrov pushed his citizens to resist the urge to take out anger about Israeli apartheid on Jews living in Russia. He also ordered his security forces to help investigate and arrest the leaders of the Oct. 29 riot and all those who participated. 

Nonetheless, media outlets in the United States and Europe were quick to jump on the opportunity to frame Dagestan as an antisemitic place bent on the destruction of civilization, along with the rest of the Muslim world. 

Spreading anti-Muslim hate

This sort of blood feud narrative is used to justify Israel’s genocidal actions and obfuscate U.S. culpability in destabilizing the entire Middle East. One only has to look as far as the imperialist publication The Hill. In the wake of the events at Makhachkala, The Hill released a piece by Yulia Latynina, an open right-wing ideologue. 

In the piece, Latynina argues that the attempted antisemitic pogrom is a result of “Islamization” in the Caucasus region over the past 30 years. She further argues that this “Islamization” has given rise to a feudal clan culture equivalent to gangland rule. In her own racist words, “There is no civil society in Dagestan.” 

CNBC also seized on the opportunity to push this propaganda point, framing the entire incident as “rising ethnic tensions in Russia.” The implication of all this Western media coverage is that the more Muslim people in any given society, the more antisemitism and general barbarism in that society. This is a theme we have seen repeated in the statements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling Palestinians “children of darkness.” 

Not only is this narrative patently false, but it only serves to justify current U.S. and Israeli aggression towards Palestine, as well as Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. 

Jan. 6 attempted coup

The pearl-clutching on the subject is rich coming from U.S. politicians and the corporate media. Because it was exactly those two groups that whitewashed the horror of the Jan. 6, 2021, bierhalle putsch in Washington, D.C., where not hundreds but tens of thousands of fascist lunatics carrying Nazi and Confederate flags succeeded in storming the U.S. Capitol building. 

At that racist riot, one protester was seen wearing a shirt that read “Staff: Camp Auschwitz – established 1940.” This sort of frothing-at-the-mouth antisemitism was on display for the entire country that day as fascist shock troops chased Black Capitol police officers and sought to assassinate members of “the Squad.” The racist mob made it all the way to the floor of the House of Representatives, the supposed seat of “American democracy.” 

In the wake of the attempted fascist coup, the U.S. Capitol police launched an internal investigation into the security failures that led to the storming. The investigation concluded that not only were the capitol police aware of the potential fascist riot, but were ordered to stand down in the face of explicit threats of violence against Congress. 

In Russia, state authorities could not rush fast enough to suppress the antisemitic mob at the Makhachkala airport. Local police and military assets responded in force. Further, leaders at every level of the Russian government vowed fierce prosecutions of all responsible. 

While in the wake of the Jan. 6 racist riot, there was widespread condemnation in most of the mainstream press and from many mainstream politicians, Congress still voted not to impeach Donald Trump despite overwhelming evidence that he incited the putsch. 

Much can be said about a government based on its response to racism and fascism. The U.S. always responds to fascism with a whimper, if not a cry of support. 

This is just one of the many realities that distinguish the current Russian government not only from the United States but also Russian tsardom that waged a campaign of countless large-scale pogroms against the Jewish people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The Russian Federation of today is not socialist, as the USSR was before it. However, that does not mean the current Russian government is in the image of imperial tsarist Russia, despite incessant Western media comparisons of the two. 

The events in Dagestan on Oct. 29 were vile and unacceptable. However, those events were almost certainly a result of efforts by right-wing opportunists and foreign enemies of Russia. This sort of division between different Russian ethnic groups serves only U.S. imperialism. 

Any instability in Russia is beneficial for NATO as it desperately tries to fuel a Ukrainian fascist breakthrough on the war front. 

This was an unfortunate chapter of history, where genuine anger against Israeli genocide was seized upon by political opportunists in an attempt to undermine Russia’s moral authority among its people. 

What Oct. 29 was not is proof that the global Muslim community or the Russian state are inherent dangers to Jews. The inherent dangers to Jews internationally are fascism and U.S. imperialism.