ourtimewillcome [any]

On May 25, 2020, the Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Police officer Derek Chauvin suffocated him by pressing his knee on George Floyd’s neck for around nine and a half minutes. The racist police killing sparked protests around the world.

On the evening of May 25, 2020, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department in Minnesota stopped George Floyd. The 46-year-old Floyd had been accused of paying for a pack of cigarettes with counterfeit money. Videos recorded by passers-by show three police officers restraining George Floyd on the ground. Other officers prevent passers-by from helping Floyd. “I can’t breathe”, Floyd keeps saying to Chauvin, who is kneeling on his neck. Chauvin only pulls his knee back when a paramedic asks him to let go of Floyd. George Floyd dies shortly afterwards in hospital.

Police killings are not uncommon in the USA. 1,160 people were killed by police officers there in 2020 alone, the year in which George Floyd also entered the casualty statistics. His murder sparked protest and resistance all over the world. In the USA, millions of people took to the streets under the slogan “Black lives matter”. They demanded an end to institutionalized racism, racist police violence and the culture of impunity for perpetrators in uniform. The mobilization surpassed even that following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.

George Floyd’s murderer Chauvin had to stand trial just under a year after the crime. In June 2021, he was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison. It is the first time in Minnesota’s history that a police officer has been convicted of the murder of a black man. It is the highest sentence ever imposed on a police officer in Minnesota. One of George Floyd’s family’s lawyers calls the sentence a “turning point” in US history. Several of Chauvin’s colleagues received multi-year prison sentences for assisting in Floyd’s arrest or for not assisting Floyd himself.

Five years after the police murder of George Floyd, we are further than ever from justice for him. National police reform is on hold. The US Department of Justice recently announced that it would stop investigating police officers accused of racist police violence. Voices from within the US government calling for Floyd’s murderer to be pardoned are growing louder.

In 2024, police officers shot at least 1,260 people in the USA - a new record.

The police murder of George Floyd also triggered demonstrations in Germany. In 2024, police officers killed 22 people in Germany - another record. Here, too, no political countermeasures are being taken. On the contrary: during a question and answer session in the Bundestag on Wednesday, MPs from the CDU and AfD, among others, called for more powers for police officers, including “lower-threshold” use of firearms.

Israeli companies have relied on cheap and compliant Palestinian labor for decades. In the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the continued strangulation of Palestinian lives under occupation, another, quieter form of violence against Palestinian workers is taking shape: In recent months, Israel has embarked on an aggressive campaign to replace hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers with migrant labor from Asia and Africa. Israeli capital is to continue to have a compliant labor force at its disposal, and what is left of the Palestinian economy is to be stifled even further.

This exchange of labor is not taking place in a vacuum, but reflects a larger historical pattern in Israel’s treatment of its labor force over the decades. Since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Palestinian workers have played a crucial role in the Israeli economy, particularly in construction, agriculture and low-paid service jobs.

Israel cited security concerns to revoke the work permits of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians virtually overnight, crippling the Palestinian economy and rendering entire villages and towns jobless. Many of those affected had worked in Israeli companies for years without legal protection or the possibility of unionization.

To replace the Palestinians, Israel has sought bilateral agreements with countries such as India, Thailand, Malawi and Sri Lanka to send workers. Through these agreements, Israel gains tens of thousands of new workers for Israeli agriculture, construction and the care sector. Officially, these programs are presented as mutually beneficial, providing workers with jobs and training, but labor rights organizations say these agreements expose workers to abuses.

Many migrants pay high fees to recruitment agencies in their home countries and are already in debt when they enter Israel. Some reported that their passports were taken from them, that they were housed in poor accommodation and that they were paid wages below the legal minimum wage in Israel.

One of the most problematic aspects of this labor import system is the lack of control. Although the Israeli Ministry of Labor is theoretically responsible for regulating working conditions, the implementation of regulations often leaves much to be desired, especially on remote farms and construction sites. Non-governmental organizations such as Kav la-Oved have documented numerous cases of labor law violations, including unpaid wages and physical abuse. Under the agricultural internship program alone, at least 17 foreign “interns” have been recognized as victims of human trafficking, and there have been several deaths since the program began.

For the Palestinian workers who are being replaced, it is about far more than economic losses. For many of them, Israeli wages were their livelihood, as the occupied territories struggle with chronic underdevelopment, high unemployment and restrictions on movement that stifle the development of the local economy.

For them, the withdrawal of work permits not only means the loss of income, but also reinforces the fragmentation of Palestinian society. The financial burden increases and dependence on aid from abroad is strengthened.

At the same time, the Israeli economy, especially sectors such as construction and agriculture, is being burdened by the lack of Palestinian labor. Israeli business media have reported project delays and labor shortages, prompting companies to push for faster recruitment of workers from abroad. This has led Israeli companies to see foreign workers not just as a stopgap, but as a strategic alternative - a way to keep the economy going without political “risk”.

This dynamic highlights a deeper structural problem: the transformation of labor into a commodity under apartheid conditions. Israel replaces Palestinian workers, whose presence is politically explosive, with migrant workers from abroad, who are easier to control and deport and who have no claim to political rights. Labor is thus reduced to a commodity that can be imported and removed at will, regardless of the human cost.

Criticism is now being voiced internationally. In 2024, the International Labor Organization (ILO) received a formal complaint on behalf of Palestinian workers who had been denied wages and labour rights since the start of the war on Gaza. Israel is accused of violating international agreements on the right to work and collective bargaining. However, the complaint has few real consequences for Israel, as major donor countries and trading partners continue to prioritize political alliances over the enforcement of labor laws.

These developments show that Israel’s labor policies, shaped by the occupation, security doctrine and neoliberal economics, have a profound impact on both Palestinians and the growing number of migrant workers from other countries. The replacement of one large number of precarious workers with another illustrates the cruelty of Israeli apartheid, which simply restructures the labor market according to the interests of the state and corporations while concealing the continuity of exploitation.

Israel’s labor policies will increasingly rely on imported labor in the future, as the regime seeks to shield its economy from the political costs of occupation and intensify its apartheid and genocide policies. Palestinian workers are left out for now, and the migrant workers who fill the gap adopt the same system of weak protections, legal gray areas and systematic disregard for their human dignity.

The Fédération Internationale des Résistants (FIR) has issued a statement on the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine:

We would like to remind you that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, FIR has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire and the start of negotiations between the warring parties. In our view, this was the only way to end the war, which has already claimed tens of thousands of victims in the first few weeks, as quickly as possible. We were convinced from the outset that neither arming Ukraine nor the assertion of “unwavering support” from NATO countries would bring about a military solution to this conflict. We therefore welcome the fact that, following the Russian announcement as part of the unilateral ceasefire on the anniversary of the victory, talks between the warring parties have now actually begun again.

Now that the smoke from the smokescreens has cleared, we can see a little more clearly what has emerged from the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul. The most important result is undoubtedly that, for the first time in months, a dialog between the warring parties is underway again. This gives hope to the people in the Russian and Ukrainian war regions, who are the main victims of this war. Secondly, the mutual exchange of larger groups of prisoners of war has been agreed. And thirdly, a continuation of these talks has been agreed. We as FIR can therefore only welcome the start of these talks.

We are also glad that the propaganda bluster and political influence in the run-up to the talks did not cause them to fail. At the same time, one does not get the impression that the four European statesmen who met with Zelensky had any interest in a peaceful solution. Although they represent three powerful states of the European Union and Britain, enthusiasm for the continuation of their war course is clearly waning even there. Nevertheless, the new German Foreign Minister, who is not even known to every government in Europe, believes he can issue an ultimatum to Russian President Putin to come to Istanbul - as if he were a naughty schoolboy who only needed to be admonished severely enough. In addition, a phone call was made to US President Trump to warn him not to make any agreements with Putin that run counter to EU interests.

The announcement that tough sanctions would be imposed if Russia does not give in highlights the absurdity of the EU’s stance. What is the point of a seventeenth package of sanctions if the previous 16 have already had little effect? Moreover, several EU states have already made it clear that they do not agree with this approach. Significantly, the European Commission decided on the sanctions package before the planned meeting in Istanbul had even begun. And, of course, it is to come into force even though the implementation of the results of the talks has not yet been completed. Ms. Kallas is already calling for an eighteenth package.

Zelenskys announcement that he only wanted to talk to Putin personally may have been good for a headline in the media, but it shows that there are still considerable reservations on the Ukrainian side about a direct dialog between the parties involved in the dispute to find a solution in the interests of the people.

Irrespective of such interference, it is indeed significant that this meeting took place in Istanbul. It is unclear what role the USA played in these talks. It was not at the negotiating table, nor were the European states. What is interesting about the USA’s change of strategy in the Ukraine war is the statement by Secretary of State Rubio that this war cannot be ended with weapons (i.e. Ukraine is not expected to win), but only through diplomacy. Apparently, the USA wants to keep its weapons ready for other purposes and not use them in Ukraine.

It is to be hoped that the Russian-Ukrainian talks will continue with less media fanfare. Otherwise, they could suffer the fate of the peace negotiations in spring 2022, which were broken off by Ukraine due to British influence. The consequences were devastating. It is interesting to note that even the new Pope Leo XIV has mentioned a mediation role for the Vatican. Such opportunities should not be missed in the interests of all people in the war-torn region.