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to this objective.

The overthrow of that state machine, however, is not simply in the interests of the Palestinian people. the same state, based on a structure of class collaboration which denies the Jewish working class any trade union or mass political party independent of the Zionist bourgeoisie, also perpetuates the exploitation of Jewish workers.

The inherent racialism of the Zionist ideology also buttresses discrimination against Jewish workers of non-European origin. And the whole apparatus of repression and military aggression runs at the expense of the Jewish working class.

In fighting for an end to this system and for a democratic Palestine in which Arab and Jewish workers can enjoy equal rights, the Palestinians are in reality spearheading the struggle against oppression and exploitation of both.

We should not be taken in by the characteristic Zionist trick of reading every reference to the destruction of "Zionism" or of the "Israeli state" as meaning the expulsion of the Jewish people. Repeatedly Yasser Arafat and . other PLO spokespersons have made it plain that they do not favour such expulsions.

"I proclaim before you that when we speak of our common hopes for the Palestine of tomorrow we include in our perspective all Jews now living in Palestine who chose to live with us there in peace and without discrimination." (Arafat speech to UN, 1974)

Surely compared to the surrounding states Israel is more democratic? Weren't its founders like Ben Gurion members of the Israeli Labour There is of course more formal democracy for Jewish people in Israel than there is for the Arab masses in the Arab states.

But the reality is that the Arab population in Israel have suffered since 1948 a form of apartheid rule which effectively debars them from democratic rights, •and discriminates against them politically and economically.

The Mapai (Labour) party certainly is still a component of the Second International: but as we have seen in Britain and elsewhere, the policies of such parties by no means necessarily reflect the interests of the workers and oppressed masses they purport to represent.

The Israeli Labour Party is not even socially based on the working class as the British and other Labour Parties are. In fact, it generally draws its support from the better-off sections of the population.

What about the Kibbutzim? Aren't they forms of socialist cooperative?

Israel is a major bastion of capitalism in the Middle East, with its economy dominated both by US aid payments and by big capitalist firms. The top 10% of Israelis share as much of the national income between them as the bottom 50%.

Within this capitalist class society there exist tiny. settlements called Kibbutzim which embrace less than 5% of the population. These settlements depend upon the banks for their supplies of credit. One Israeli banker points out that:

«To the outside world, the kibbutz behaves exactly like a capitalist enterprise, and keeps to its contracts better than an individual. If the kibbutz is internally composed of people who renounce private property, who bring up their children collectively, or who .. crawl about on all fours, that is none of our concern.

We ran no more ectahlich TY VEIL LIU HAVIN VOLLULLAI the nature of the Zionist economy from the kibbutzim than we can deduce the nature of the British economy from the existence of the cooperative at Meriden.

Moreover, the kibbutzim are not egalitarian. They use and depend on cheap Arab labour, excluded from the benefits available to the Jewish members of the kibbutzim.

And they serve as military outposts to preserve the domination of Zionist rule over occupied territory.