International day in solidarity with the people of Palestine celebrated November 30 - More that 300 people packed a lecture hall in San Francisco to celebrate the International Day in Solidarity with the People of Palestine. The educational and cultural event supported the Palestinian intifadah and the struggle for freedom and statehood. It was sponsored by AL-AWDA, the American Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee and the All Peoples Coalition. In the past year of the intifadah, Israel has carried out tremendous violence against the Palestinian people. One of the moderators of the event stated that this may be the worst time for Palestinians since 1948. She detailed the atrocities of the past year: 843 Palestinians killed, 182 of them children; 16,671 injuries, most permanently disabled; 3669 residential buildings have been shelled; 112,000 trees uprooted to destroy the farming that many depend on for their livelihood. Border closures and checkpoints have devastated the Palestinian economy -- 53% of Palestinians are below the poverty line -- and kept 90,000 children from school. This is all a part of Israel's attempt to control the majority of Palestine and expand its settlements in the occupied territories. The settlements also provide a convenient excuse for further Israeli military actions. The Israeli military claims it has to defend its citizens -- never mind the provocative attacks of the heavily armed, ultra-reactionary settlers. The event also featured a showing of the BBC Documentary, "The Accused," a detailed account of the war crimes case against Israel's current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Introducing the video a speaker said that it had received much praise -- including being labeled as "distorted, unfair and immensely hostile" by the Israeli state. In June legal proceedings began against Sharon in Belgium for war crimes committed in Lebanon in 1982 when he was Israel's Defense Minister. Sharon is charged with the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps on the outskirts of Beruit. The Israeli Defense Forces sent the Lebanese Phalange militia (a notoriously vicious and anti- Palestinian military force) into these camps where they massacred more than 2,700 refugees, according to the International Red Cross. 23 refugees who survived the massacre brought the case to the Belgian courts under recent legislation which allows them to prosecute foreigners for certain crimes committed abroad, including genocide and war crimes. Sharon claims that he had no idea the Phalange militia would massacre the people in the camps, but as one of the U.$. officials interviewed in the documentary states, only someone recently arrived from Mars could really be so ignorant. The video provides compelling evidence of Sharon's war crimes in Lebanon and makes it clear that the label of terrorist applies well to him. But for the most part it portrays Israel and the United Snakes in a positive light. The documentary makes it appear that the atrocities carried out in Sabra and Shatila were a result of a brutal Lebanese militia and that the Israeli armed forces and the Israeli state as a whole are far kinder and more democratic. The reality is that this massacre is just one of many attacks against the Palestinian people by Israel. The numbers of deaths and injuries this year alone are clear evidence of the ongoing Israeli terrorist campaign against the Palestinian people. The United $tates comes off even kinder than Israel in the video, with a U.$. official providing evidence against Sharon but also pretending that the United $tates was shocked and horrified at the massacres and demanded Sharon put an end to the Phalange actions. However, after the invasion of Lebanon U.$. aid to Israel tripled to $3,000 per citizen per year.(1) At the same time the United $tates supported the fascist Phalange in Lebanon; Israel was giving them aid as well. By any reasonable definition this should indict both Israel and the United $tates of war crimes and terrorism. Another speaker at the event gave a brief presentation on the struggle for the right of Palestinians to return to their homes. There are close to 4 million Palestinian refugees registered by the United Nations and an additional 2 million others not registered. The fact that these refugees have been unable to return to their lands (in some cases for more than 50 years) and that many have been slaughtered in impoverished camps like Sabra and Shatila only shows that the United Nations is tethered to U.$. policy.(2) Despite countless U.N. resolutions against the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, against Israeli repression, etc. etc., the United $tates and its Israeli protectorate still do what they damn well please, thank you very much. To truly ensure peace and security, we need a proletarian-led United Nations, which would stand up to the Unites $tates and block its military and economic aid to criminal regimes around the globe. Of course, right now, such a United Nations only exists in our "radical imaginations" -- it will take numerous people's war's and revolutionary struggles to bring it into existence. At the recent World Conference Against Racism in South Africa more than 40,000 people marched in the streets demanding land for the Palestinian people. People around the world recognize the blatantly oppressive nature of the Israeli state but the united states continues to support it as a key ally in the Middle East. U.$. support is crucial to the existence of Israel. The U.$. funds Israel more than any other state in the world. Over $1000 was raised at the event and all money was donated to the legal team prosecuting Sharon. The trial will certainly help focus international attention on the crimes of the Israeli state and anti- imperialists need to take advantage of this. But we know that no international court under imperialism will ever bring true justice to the people. While the war criminals run the world the people will never know peace. Notes: 1. Jerusalem Post, 19 April 1986. 2. See articles on the U.N. High Commission on Refugees in this issue and MN248.