On February 10th, the Chester County Liberation Center hosted a study of Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire, by Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) founding member, Richard Becker. Becker also serves as the Western Region Coordinator of the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition.
A critical analysis of the region’s history, Palestine, Israel, and U.S. Empire, is an essential book for the current moment. Through a firm anti-racist and anti-imperialist frame, it traces the germination and growth of Zionism from British colonialism and brings us to the current resistance movements in Gaza, as well as the fight against illegal settlements and immiseration in the West Bank.
Originally published in 2009, this new edition includes pertinent information for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli apartheid regime, as recent as December 2023. At the point of publication, 20,000 Palestinians had been killed, 70 percent of whom were women and children. At the time of this article, over 29,000 [1] Palestinians have been murdered by the U.S.-funded Israeli settler-state.
Chester County Liberation Center volunteers were joined by many community members outraged that our tax dollars are being used to fund an actual genocide/ethnic cleansing in Gaza. What was originally planned as a study of the preface and introduction, turned into a 3 hour long discussion covering a range of topics including the similarities between the Palestinian struggle and the struggle for Black liberation in the U.S.
To the working class of Chester County, the connection between our struggle and that of our Palestinian siblings is undeniable. Capitalism is the driving force behind imperialism, land theft, the housing crisis, criminally high cost of living, gentrification (or it’s insidious rebrand “revitalization”), etc.
Now more than ever, the multi-national working class understands that our leadership must move to fund the people’s needs, not the war machine. Learn more about the PSL’s presidential and vice presidential nominees, Claudia & Karina!
Copies of this book are available for purchase at the Chester County Liberation Center at 9 N. 2nd Ave, Coatesville, PA.
References
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker