The following statement will be distributed at protests organized on July 24 in Washington D.C. in opposition to the address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint session of Congress.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing a joint session of Congress on July 24, at the invitation of the Democrats and Republicans. On the same day, tens of thousands will gather in Washington D.C. to express their outrage at the historic crime unfolding in real time.

For nine and half months, Israel has rained down death and destruction on the Palestinian people in Gaza. As Netanyahu arrived in the United States on Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that the official death toll had surpassed 39,000, the majority women and children. Nearly 90,000 have been injured.

This is the official count, based on verified deaths from Israeli bombs. The real toll is far higher. Two weeks ago, The Lancet, one of the most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, estimated that the number of people killed directly or indirectly could be 186,000 or more.

In its genocidal campaign, Israel has systematically destroyed residential buildings, schools, religious institutions, hospitals and the entire social infrastructure of the Gaza Strip. It has implemented a policy of genocide by starvation and disease by depriving Palestinians of food and medical supplies.

That Netanyahu and his ministers are war criminals is clear to the entire world. The genocide is the culmination of 75 years of oppression against the Palestinian people. The Israeli government seized on the events of October 7 to carry out its “final solution” to the “Palestinian problem.”

Netanyahu visits Washington on the heels of a ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel’s half-century-long occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal. The head of the Israeli state, along with his defense minister, face allegations by the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” including “murder” and “extermination.”

Guilty of war crimes on a monumental scale, Israel and its defenders resort to monumental lies. Against the millions who have protested these crimes, they level the charge of “antisemitism.” What a fraud! Among those most active in the protests are Jewish people outraged that Israel, in carrying out a genocide, claims to act in their names.

The charge of “antisemitism” reached the level of absurdity when it was used earlier this month in an effort to blackguard and physically intimidate protests in Michigan led by Rene Lichtman, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust.

Netanyahu and the Israeli regime are guilty of war crimes, for which they must be held accountable. But the invitation extended by the Democrats and Republicans in Congress for Netanyahu to speak at a joint session exposes the real relationship between US imperialism and Israel.

The Gaza genocide is made in Washington. Since last October, the American government has provided the Israeli military with 14,000 2,000-pound bombs, more than any other type of munition, as part of over $6.5 billion in weapons it has given to Israel since the start of the genocide.

Netanyahu is delivering his address under conditions of unprecedented political crisis in the United States. But whatever their conflicts and divisions, the ruling class is united in its support for Israel’s genocide.

The Republicans have just completed a fascist rally in the form of a national convention. The collection of political reactionaries declared their full support for the murderous rampage in Gaza. The Democratic Party administration of “Genocide Joe” Biden has overseen and financially supported it throughout.

There are reports that Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic Party nominee after Biden’s announced withdrawal as a candidate, will not attend Netanyahu’s speech. She will, however, meet with Netanyahu separately, to proclaim her support and the support of the Democrats for Israel’s actions.

The American ruling class supports the genocide in Gaza because it is part of US imperialism’s plan to reshape the Middle East and the entire world. Just two weeks ago, Biden hosted the NATO powers in Washington to plot a vast escalation of the war against Russia in Ukraine, which is itself seen as preparatory to a conflict with China.

The Socialist Equality Party welcomes the protests against Netanyahu’s appearance. Those joining the demonstrations on July 24 are motivated by outrage and anger over one of the greatest crimes of the modern period.

But anger and outrage is not enough. The fight against the genocide must be based on a strategic understanding of the social and political interests that are driving it.

Among the organizations holding rallies on July 24 is the ANSWER coalition, which has called a demonstration on the slogan of “Arrest Netanyahu!” But who is to do the arresting? Does anyone believe that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, dripping in the blood of Palestinians, is supposed to hold its paid thug Netanyahu to account?

It is not a question of begging Congress and the American ruling class to change its policies. Nearly nine months of war have demonstrated that the representatives of the corporate and financial oligarchy are indifferent to such appeals.

The rally and meeting organized by the Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site are based on an entirely different perspective. These events will not just protest Netanyahu’s visit but will advance a political perspective for how the fight against war and imperialist barbarism is to be taken forward.

The central task is the fusing of the fight against war with the growing social movement in the working class in the struggle for the socialist transformation of society. The fight against the genocide cannot be separated from the broader crisis of capitalism, the global descent into barbarism, dictatorship, fascism and war. 

The rally and meeting will advance three fundamental principles:

• The essential cause of war lies in the capitalist nation-state system, the global financial interests of the giant corporations, and the relentless drive of the American ruling class for world hegemony.
• The struggle against war requires the mobilization of the immense power of the American working class and its political independence from the Democrats and Republicans, the ruling class parties of imperialist war.
• The movement against genocide and war must be international, uniting workers globally based on their common class interests.

We urge all of those who agree with this perspective to attend the rally called by the Socialist Equality Party at the National Mall on July 24. The demonstration against Netanyahu’s speech must be transformed into a political movement of the working class that can put an end to the genocide, imperialist war, and the capitalist profit system.