‘A new generation understands what Israel is’—interview with Tariq Ali

Author Tariq Ali, a veteran of the anti-war movement, spoke to Judy Cox as the anniversary of 7 October approaches

Tariq Ali

Wednesday 02 October 2024  SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2925

What was your reaction to 7 October?

The Palestinians were right to resist—sooner or later they were going to break out of Gaza. We can argue about the methods, but the methods used by Israel have gotten worse and worse.

This is a national liberation struggle against a colonial regime backed by the US and its gangmasters in Europe.

What is Israel trying to achieve in attacking Lebanon and Yemen now?


There is no restraint on Israel now.

Israel is trying to provoke Iran into a war so they can bomb Tehran and call it their final victory—and no US government is going to stop it.

Israel’s aim is to make any form of Palestinian state impossible and the US knows that to control the Middle East it needs Israel. Whether they succeed or not depends on whether there is an uprising in Egypt.

Friends in Jordan tell me people there are seething and bubbling with rage. People across the region are resigned, but they are also angry.

How do you think the Palestine movement has developed over the last year?

I think the Palestine movement in Britain and the US has been astonishing, very positive and encouraging for the future.

A new generation understands that Israel has launched an assault on Palestine with US support. They see Israel for what it is.

This is very important for a new generation, including lots of young Jewish people who see that Israel is a colonising settler state. Some 60 percent of Israelis tell opinion polls they support Binyamin Netanyahu.

This shows that no alternative will come from inside Israel. If they get rid of Netanyahu, there might be a different language, they might be less boastful, but Israel is not going to stop now.

Is there a political alternative in the US and Britain?

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has already been appalling on Palestine. We know what she will be like in office.

Lots of Muslims are going to vote for the Green candidate Jill Stein. She stands with Palestine and defends the student encampments. The US left should not vote for Harris. Either don’t vote or vote for Stein.

Here, the Labour front benches are full of zombies. They are the living dead and they terrify me because they will vote for anything—war, genocide, privatisation, anything. That’s why Keir Starmer’s popularity ratings have slumped.

I would say to those few left wingers still in the Labour Party, what’s the point of staying in this wretched party? They would be better swelling the ranks of the independents.

We need the strongest possible movement because this can change how people see the world.

In the US, student encampments were brutally repressed, activists were arrested and deported and people can see that across the globe. In Britain, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, the cultural and political establishment is desperately trying to stop the Palestine movement breaching the dams they have erected.

Here, we had Suella Braverman and now Kemi Badenoch calling for Palestine demonstrations to be banned.

This Labour government is different from any other Labour government, even compared to Tony Blair before Iraq. It is an appalling government. We have five independent MPs, but they have to do something or they are useless.