Adopted by the 10th Congress of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Authored by the Chicago District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
As anti-imperialists and proletarian internationalists, Freedom Road Socialist Organization supports the heroic national liberation struggle of the people of Palestine to liberate every inch of their land, to secure their rights to self-determination and Return, and to end zionist Israel’s colonization and occupation of all Arab territories.
The people of Palestine have struggled for justice and liberation for over 100 years, including 78 years since the founding of the apartheid state of Israel on May 14th, 1948. From 1947 to 1949, over 750,000 Palestinians were forced off their lands in what Palestinians call Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), and Al-Nakba continues today, with over 72,000 killed in the ongoing Gaza genocide since October 2023.
And so, we join the people in Palestine, Palestinian refugees in exile, and the entire Palestinian diaspora worldwide in honoring the Palestinians who have been martyred over many decades of ethnic cleansing by zionist Israel’s colonization and military occupation, one of the most brutal in history.
We salute and support the righteous October 7th, 2023 rebellion of Palestinians—led by the Unified Palestinian Resistance—to liberate their lands and break out of the largest open-air prison in the world in Gaza. We condemn the genocide of Palestinians at the hands of Israel, which would not have been possible without the unconditional backing of the U.S. and other Western imperialist states.
Palestine’s important role in challenging U.S. imperialism is clearer today than ever before. October 7th has created a ripple effect all across the world. The genocide exposed the myth of Western civilization, accelerated the decline of U.S. and Western hegemony, and led the entire region to open resistance against zionism and U.S. imperialism. Additionally, we recognize that Palestine has become a litmus test in U.S. domestic politics, playing a huge role in organizing and radicalizing many working-class people.
As communists in the U.S., we call for the end of all U.S. imperialist aid to criminal, racist, white supremacist, apartheid Israel, including all financial, military, diplomatic, and political support. U.S. aid to the apartheid state amounts to nearly $4 billion per year, including the almost $20 billion in additional emergency aid given to Israel since 2023.
We also support the Axis of Resistance led by Iran and popular forces in Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq, and recognize their international right to challenge U.S. imperialism and zionism in the region.
We support the National Program of the Palestinian people, originally developed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the right to self-determination; the Right to Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants, to the homes and land from which they were exiled in 1947-49, and again in 1967; and an end to Israeli colonization and illegal military occupation of all of historical Palestine, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, the 1948 Palestinian territories currently called “Israel,” the Syrian Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon.
We demand freedom for ALL Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, especially Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Ahmad Saadat, and almost 10,000 others. We condemn, and call for the rescinding of a recently passed bill in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) that would allow the racist state to execute Palestinian political prisoners.
We also condemn Israel’s ongoing land theft in the West Bank and Jerusalem, attempts at annexation of areas within the Jerusalem municipality, and the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Church of Holy Sepulchre, and other sites of worship.
We echo the call from progressive forces in Palestine and the Arab world for an end to official Arab government normalization with zionist Israel; for an end to U.S. and Israeli attacks against Hezbollah, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, and others; for the dismantling of the zionist, settler-colonialist state of Israel; and for the establishment of a single, democratic, secular state in all of historical Palestine (the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and 1948 Palestine), with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.
We call on all the people of the U.S. to: 1) support the Palestine Liberation Movement and its righteous resistance in all its forms; 2) answer the Palestinian-led call to join the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement; 3) apply pressure on local and state governments to divest from apartheid Israel; 4) boycott all products, institutions, organizations, politicians, and other individuals who support, do business with, and defend the horrific crimes of Israel; and 5) target, confront, and disrupt elected representatives at every level, and pressure them to pass legislation in support of Palestine and to end ALL aid to Israel.
Finally, while we recognize the strength of the zionist lobby in the U.S., we refute the notion that Israel has compromised or controls the U.S. government. The zionist entity of Israel is a vassal state of the U.S. and an extension of its empire, acting in its service and used to attempt to crush any resistance to U.S. imperialism in the region. Colonialist Israel would not exist without the unconditional and unlimited support it receives from the U.S.
