Organization for Democratic Action (ODA), a Marxist party in Israel

THE ODA (Da'am in Arabic) is a workers' party operating inside Israel. We attempt to empower those who have no power, especially the Arab workers. We oppose the current Israeli regime, which discriminates against the Arab citizens (20% of the population). We also oppose the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The ODA does not belong to any international organization, but we consider ourselves part of the worldwide anti-war and anti-globalization movement. We seek to advance a new alternative that will replace (1) the do-nothing Arab leadership inside Israel, (2) the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has integrated the Palestinian national movement into the American system, and (3) the Islamic current, which seeks to lead the Arab masses toward a dead end of otherworldly extremism. Our alternative will be closely connected to the regeneration of the global working-class movement along socialist lines. Only on this basis will the Arab peoples, and especially the Palestinians, be able to win independence, progress and freedom.

The ODA established itself as a political party at its first convention in Haifa in November 1995. At that meeting we also decided to run on an independent platform for Israel's parliamentary elections, scheduled for the following year. We took the step of founding a party because Israel's Communist Party, which had received our votes till then, had retreated from the principles of Marxism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1996 elections, along with the Arab parties, it supported the Labor candidate for Prime Minister as well as the Oslo Accords.

We opposed Oslo since its beginning in 1993. We saw that it provided Israel with immediate Arab acceptance, while postponing decisions on the issues important to Palestinians. By assuring Israel's political and economic supremacy in the region, Oslo harmonized well with America's concept of a new global order following the Gulf War of 1991. As the years have shown, the Accords have subjected the Palestinian people to a life of humiliation. They have forfeited the Palestinian right to self-determination. The PA, a creature of Oslo, cannot both advance Israeli-American aims and fulfill the Palestinian need for independence.

Since the establishment of the PA, we have called on the Palestinian left to create an alternative that will confront the Israeli Occupation and the American hegemony in the Middle East. The left continued to retreat, however. When Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister in 1996, all the Palestinian leftist factions rallied around the banner of "National Unity," allying with the PA. This trend continued until the outbreak of September 2000. The Left thus wasted years that could have been used to build an alternative to the PA, on the one hand, and to the Islamic factions on the other.

The fall of the Soviet Union was a major blow for the international working-class movement and national-liberation struggles all over the world. The past decade has seen American-led wars, the rise of Fascist parties, hunger and severe economic crisis. These are the signs that capitalism, left alone in the field, cannot serve humanity as a viable social and economic system.

In our region, the failure of the Oslo Accords has shown the impossibility of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution. By constructing these accords as the sole mechanism for peace, Israel has demonstrated its fundamental unwillingness to accept a truly independent Palestinian State. Under these circumstances the choices have narrowed: either Israel or Palestine, either racism and colonialism or national liberation and freedom.

This question is part of a broader choice for humanity as a whole. In the absence of the Soviet Union, there is no counterweight to capitalism. The latter goes to its extreme, leaving no room for compromise solutions. People are faced with the bare alternatives: global capitalism or socialism. The main lesson of the Cold War is that the two cannot coexist. The Palestinian question will only be solved within the context of a global solution to the crises caused by capitalism.

The last decade has shown that liberal platforms, postmodern ideologies and Islamic radicalism have all failed to solve humanity's problems. Solutions will only emerge through the struggle of the international working class to replace the capitalist system by a form of socialism, one that draws its lessons from both the positive and negative aspects of past socialist experiences.

Our work is not merely declarative. We are engaged in daily struggles against the Occupation as well as all forms of discrimination imposed on the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Our party works with youth, women and workers.

The ODA is interested in finding partners in the world, including the Arab world, to rebuild the working-class movement on a revolutionary basis. For us who endure the daily horrors of war, the formation of a new working-class international is a hope and an aspiration. The choice between socialism or barbarism is more vital today than ever. Our views and analyses can also be found in the following publications:

al-Sabar (Arabic)

Challenge (English)

Etgar Quarterly (Hebrew)

The European Social Forum and the Palestinian Question