[PLS SPREAD THIS EVENT AROUND]
The next big National Rally for Palestine will be happening on Sat 18 May. D.A.A.W.N is organising an Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Militarist, Anti-Racist solidarity bloc for the march. Meet at 12 noon @ Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park

A new round of suicide attacks seems likely to provide a pretext for a massive Israeli military assault on the West Bank and Gaza. In the name of peace and security, the Israeli government will massacre civilians, bulldoze whole neighbourhoods, use helicopter gunships and tanks against lightly armed Palestinian security forces, target electricity and water supplies, and hold a gun to the head of every Palestinian - man, woman and child.

Yet the last major Palestinian demo in London attracted only a handful of anti-capitalists and Western peace activists. Many stayed away for fear of associating themselves with anti-semitic and "fundamentalist" factions on the demonstration. In the absence of a wider critique of the capitalist system, these factions are beginning to assume a disproportionate influence within the Palestinian diaspora.

The May 6th pro-Israel rally on Trafalgar Square saw a large Palestinian counter-demonstration. The Israelis held up placards reading "Yes to peace, No to terror" while listening to an inflammatory speech by former PM Binyamin Netanyahu. Some Palestinians chanted "Nuke, nuke Israel" and "Bomb, bomb Tel Aviv" - comments that were duly reported in the following day's newspapers to brand all Palestinian smypathisers as potential terrorists.

Our failure to engage with the wider Palestinian community has left the field clear for religious extremists, bigots and zealots of every kind to propagate their sectarian agendas. We, as anti-capitalists, do not claim a monopoly on the truth. But we do have a viable alternative to this kind of hate propaganda - a world-view that encompasses peace and justice for all communities, in every part of the world.

[apologies for repated posting but this event needs as much advertising as it can get]