Tuesday, 18 March 2025

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) unequivocally condemns the Zionist apartheid state of Israel for once again violating the ceasefire and resuming its relentless genocide against the Palestinian people. With complete impunity, Israel continues its mass slaughter of civilians in its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. This is yet another blatant act of aggression, proving that Israel, along with its ally the United States of America (US), have no interest in peace but are instead committed to maintaining and expanding their imperialist occupation of Palestine and the broader Middle East.

This latest round of airstrikes which began this week have already killed more than 300 Palestinians, including many children, and come in the wake of the ceasefire reached between Hamas and Israel on the 19^th of January this year. Despite this, Israel carries on with its war crimes, emboldened by the fact that Western imperialist powers continue to shield it from accountability. Even the issuing of arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister by the International Criminal Court (ICC) has done nothing to deter the apartheid regime, which continues its massacres with full knowledge that no Western power will stop it.

We are particularly disgusted by the role of the newly empowered Donald Trump administration, which has openly admitted to being consulted by Israel before this latest round of airstrikes. Trump, a warmonger obsessed with power, is using this moment to further destabilise the Middle East while simultaneously distracting the world with chaos in his own country. His government is consumed with spectacles— whether it be political witch hunts, manufactured economic crises, or reckless military actions elsewhere in the world—all while ensuring that the US continues to support Israel’s crimes against humanity.

At the same time, Trump and his administration are punishing and silencing those who stand for Palestine. Anyone who dares to call out Israel’s genocide is being blacklisted, threatened, or criminalised. Activists, journalists, students, and even politicians who speak in defence of Palestinian rights are being targeted, while those who support the Israeli occupation are emboldened. This hypocrisy is a clear sign of the lengths to which imperialist forces will go to protect Israel while persecuting those who resist.

Trump’s administration is enabling Israel’s continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, while also continuing deadly strikes in Yemen, the only country that has taken up for Palestine militarily, in a blatant act of imperialist aggression. While South Africa, who stood with Palestine and ensured that the world and the highest courts finally recognised the occupation and the genocide occurring there, have been severely punished in several heightened diplomatic incidences and withdrawal of aid.

The EFF will continue to condemn the US’s active support for Israel’s genocide, as well as the broader Western hypocrisy that allows these crimes to persist. As it stands, forced displacement orders have been issued for several areas in Gaza, just weeks after some families had begun returning to their homes. More than 22 hospitals have been destroyed, and fewer than seven remain partially functional, making it impossible to treat the number of new casualties. Furthermore, the total blockade on aid and essential medical supplies ensures that even those who survive Israel’s bombings will suffer slow deaths from starvation and untreated injuries.

Even families of Israeli captives have now turned against Netanyahu’s government, recognising that his genocidal ambitions are more important to him than securing the lives of his own citizens. Netanyahu and his war cabinet have deliberately sabotaged negotiations for the release of hostages, part of the ceasefire reached earlier this year, proving that they care only for war, not peace. In fact, it seems the ceasefire may have been a ploy to allow Palestinians to return to Gaza to simply be further victimised in more cruel and twisted ways than before, after giving them hope.

The EFF stands firmly with the Palestinian people and reaffirms our call for an immediate and total boycott of Israel. The whole world must escalate its efforts to isolate the apartheid state diplomatically, politically, and economically. We demand that Israel be held accountable for its war crimes and that decisive action be taken to dismantle its imperialist regime. The time for words has passed—Palestine must be free in our lifetime.

ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Leigh-Ann Mathys (National Spokesperson) 082 304 7572

Thato Lebyane (Media Enquiries) 078 304 7572