Issued January 24, 2024
Approved by membership-wide vote.
The world is currently witnessing an unspeakable escalation of the genocide in Palestine that has been committed by the Zionist entity over the last 100 years. The contradictions of which Karl Marx spoke, involving colonialism, imperialism, land ownership, capitalist expansion, national liberation, and self-determination are clearly visible once again. In response, we have seen a growing mobilization both domestically and internationally in support of Palestine.
Socialist COVID–19 Organizing, Resistance, and Education (SCORE) unequivocally stands with the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance against the settler-colonialism of the Zionist entity. We join the call for the proletariat of the world to resist the genocidal death machine that is US-funded imperialism around the globe. We call for the immediate cessation of violence against the Palestinian people. We call for the end of U.S. funding of the Zionist entity and an end to the occupation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. We stand with the fight for liberation around the world. Now is the time to shed the chains of ableism, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and Zionism.
The connections between the ongoing pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID–19) and the genocide being committed by Zionists are extensive. In order to achieve its end goal of ethnically cleansing Palestine, the Zionist entity has systematically targeted infrastructure to deny or restrict access to adequate sanitation, shelter, food, water, heat, communications, and health care. The most egregious and recent example of the Zionist entity's tyranny has resulted in the total destruction of the health care infrastructure as well as the roads and the intentional targeting of doctors, specialists, and their families. In addition to those harrowing conditions, Palestinians face the dual impact of COVID–19 and the spread of preventable diseases due to overcrowding exacerbated by ongoing bombardments. The conditions created by crowded spaces, coupled with the destruction of medical facilities in Zionist attacks, contribute to the rapid rise of various diseases among Palestinians.
Over 65,000 tons of TNT equivalent have been exploded in Gaza, more than four times the 15,000 ton explosive yield of "Little Boy," the nuclear weapon the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. As described by John Hersey in the 1946 book Hiroshima, during the nuclear attack, the health care system was decimated, leaving burn and radiation victims without hospitals, medicine, or hospital staff to care for them, worsening the number of fatalities. [1] It is easy to see parallels with the destruction or evacuation of all hospitals in Gaza today. Many Palestinians that survive the bombings will receive no treatment, and tens of thousands will likely die in the coming weeks from infections, disease, and starvation.
The WHO estimated on November 29th that over 110,000 Palestinians contracted respiratory illnesses, this figure is likely exponentially higher nearly two months later with the further attacks on the Gazan health care system. More than 456,000 people in Gaza have contracted infectious diseases as of January 18th. Over the past four years of the pandemic the Zionist entity has prevented Palestinians from accessing COVID–19 testing and vaccines. Diseases are being weaponized—on November 19, retired Major General Giora Eiland, advisor to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, "...severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer...". Just like the U.S. government, the Zionist entity is passively benefiting from the spread of disease to cleanse "undesirable" members of their society (i.e. the disabled, elderly, and marginalized peoples).
Mass disablement is a function of both the ongoing pandemic and the tyranny of the Zionist entity that is targeting Palestinians. It is estimated that more than 60,000 Palestinians have been injured by the illegal bombing of civilians, and this number is likely severely underestimated. With the collapse of their health care system due to the criminal targeting of medical workers and hospitals, these injuries will result in exponential increases of disability and death due to a lack of treatment. According to the WHO, the spread of disease and untreated injuries will undoubtedly lead to even higher numbers of Palestinian casualties than the fallout we are currently witnessing due to the direct toll of relentless bombardments. As the genocide continues, modern medicine becomes increasingly inaccessible to suffering Palestinians, leaving these innocent people in the battlefield conditions that prevailed before World War II.
COVID–19 infects multiple organ systems, and has over 300 symptoms associated with acute infection, in addition to the devastating effects of Long COVID and other unknown long term impacts we have yet to fully comprehend. COVID–19 is a mass disabling event, those who resist against eugenicist campaigns are obligated to resist genocide in all forms, including the Zionist genocide on Palestinians.
The revolution is right now, wherever you may reside. We cannot forget, Palestine cannot be free from the atrocities of settler-colonialism without the liberation of disabled Palestinians—the people that were disabled by bombs, epidemics, and lack of access to care must be supported during and after the fighting ends. In our fight to resist the ongoing mass disabling events, we must protect the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities. The smallest act of resistance, and the very first act of love, is to wear a properly fitting N95 mask indoors and outdoors, adequately cleaning the air with MERV13 or better filtration and opening windows indoors. This is a critical first step for mounting broader revolutionary actions and achieving liberation for all marginalized peoples.
Protecting your community and organizers is critical, and we advocate for enforced masking policies, air cleaning, expanding testing capabilities, and vaccine awareness in addition to distributing free N95 masks at meetings, protests, and within your communities. SCORE emphatically links our collective activism to Palestinian liberation, and all collective liberation movements of the present and future. We have been lied to for far too long.
Join us as we pursue truth and justice together.