A-Infos (en) France, UCL - Tribune, Feminism and the Palestinian cause: a look back at March 8, 2024 in Paris (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

At the initiative of Urgence Palestine, more than 500 personalities, 
activists, and collectives - including UCL - denounce the 
instrumentalization of the feminist struggle by the collective We will 
live and assure that "the liberation of Palestine is a feminist cause. 
However, UCL adds its own commentary. ---- UCL shares the indignation of 
feminist groups and organizations protesting against the muscular 
provocations of the pro-Israeli feminist group We will live in the 
demonstration of March 8, 2024.
However, we would like to add this comment: during the military 
operation of October 7, 2023, atrocities were committed; war crimes; 
rape and sexual violence against Israeli women. The testimonies and 
reports on this subject have given sufficient insight[1]. There is no 
point in minimizing these facts or sowing doubt about them, as some 
supporters of the Palestinian cause have done.

Just as we must guard against the image that Arab men rape, while on the 
other hand Palestinian women "only" die under Israeli bombs. Sexual 
violence as an object of humiliation by the IDF, particularly in prison, 
has been documented[2], but which does not achieve the same media coverage.

Abuses against civilians, in the context of a war, especially a colonial 
war, are unfortunately nothing exceptional. But the colonialist state 
bears the primary responsibility. As UCL wrote about October 7, "this 
explosion of blind revenge was not a surprise to anyone who was aware of 
the hellish living conditions in the Gaza Strip, the heights of 
frustration, "exasperation and resentment accumulated over generations."

Libertarian Communist Union, March 23, 2024

Tribune
SUPPORT FOR A GENOCIDAL STATE
DO NOT HAVE THEIR PLACE
IN OUR FEMINIST STRUGGLES!
Since March 8, the press and the government have accused the feminist 
movement and pro-Palestine activists in Paris and Bordeaux of 
anti-Semitism for having refused the presence of the pro-Israel 
collective "We will live" in the annual demonstration for womens rights. 
We are writing this text to reaffirm our refusal to use feminism to 
cleanse the crimes of a colonial state. We say it, once again: 
supporting the ongoing genocide in Gaza is not feminist.

No, the presence of the "We will live" collective did not pose a problem 
because it would be a collective made up of Jewish women. In reality, as 
the demonstration of November 25 had already shown, this group only goes 
to our demonstrations to orchestrate political provocations, by putting 
at the heart of its discourse the false and virulent denunciation of 
feminists "accomplices of terrorists". While a large part of the 
feminist movement is increasingly expressing its support for the 
Palestinian people, it is a question of dividing and discrediting, with 
the help of complacent media, any opposition to the genocide in Gaza.

The political composition of the "We will live" group, which includes 
members of Renaissance, Republicans and even Republican Spring, says a 
lot about what the "universalist feminism" it claims to cover covers. 
Since October 7, this Zionist collective has been at the origin of 
provocations against left-wing political associations and organizations, 
threats, insults and slander against pro-Palestine activists.

Same methods at the March 8 demonstration: an exclusively male security 
force wearing masks and protective gloves threatened, insulted and 
attacked women at the March 8 demonstration. Several people ended up in 
the emergency room. It is this shocking and violent intrusion worthy of 
far-right methods that should have made the headlines in the national 
press. But the seriousness of this attack is eclipsed by a false 
narrative, serving as a pretext for offensives against activism in favor 
of Palestine, in a political context where the State attempts to 
assimilate anti-Zionist positions with anti-Semitism.

The reality of what is happening in Gaza is impossible to ignore. Nearly 
40,000 deaths, tens of thousands of pregnant women forced to give birth 
in tents, starvation used as a military tactic, starving people 
massacred by the colonial army during food distributions, infectious 
diseases spreading to unprecedented scale and threaten the lives of the 
entire population who can no longer seek treatment due to the lack of a 
completely destroyed health system. Faced with this situation, who can 
be surprised that activists refuse to march alongside the "We will live" 
collective which, among other things, minimizes the number of deaths in 
Gaza on social networks and chants in the Parisian demonstration "Israel 
will live, Israel will win!»

Feminism is a fight for the emancipation of all women, but it is also a 
fierce fight against all forms of oppression. In recent years, 
reactionary states and forces have attempted to cover their racist and 
Islamophobic political projects with a feminist veneer, while hunting 
down "wokists" and "intersectionals", that is to say the new generation. 
young anti-racist feminists. To accept the recovery of feminism by 
reactionary forces is to betray and liquidate its political heritage.

As hundreds of thousands of women protest around the world for 
Palestine, as LGBT people raise the Palestinian flag in the United 
States, the United Kingdom, Morocco, Argentina and France, we reaffirm 
that yes, the liberation of Palestine is a feminist cause.

First signatories
<snip>

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Feminisme-et-cause-palestinienne-retour-sur-le-8-mars-2024-a-Paris
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