Communist and workers’ parties condemned the massacre of Palestinians on Nakba demonstrations and called for solidarity with the Palestinian people. (UPDATED)
ICP, 15 May 2018
The Palestinian resistance organized a seven weeks protests commencing on “Land Day” and culminating on the “Nakba (catastrophe) Day" of May 15 that commemorates the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.
The opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem after its challanging decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was superposed with the Nakba demostration. On May 14, at the eastern border of the besieged Gaza Strip where thousands marched, Israeli soldiers fired at the demonstrators killing 50 Palestinians and wounding about 2,400, mostly being children.
Communist and workers’ parties issued condemnations and protests concerning the massacre and called for solidarity with the Palestinian people and its resistance.
The Palestinian People's Party (PPP) condemned the crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces and offered its deepest condolences to the families of the martyrs and wished speedy recovery to the wounded. The PPP said “The massacre is a crime of genocide, added to the series of continuing war crimes against the Palestinian people.”
According to the PPP, the international silence regarding the hostile American policy has encouraged the continuation of Israel’s crimes. The PPP called on the international community, especially the UN and Arab states to intervene immediately to stop the massacre committed by Israel throughout several weeks. It underlined the need to provide urgent international protection for the Palestinian people.
The PPP also called upon the Palestinian leadership, represented by President Mahmoud Abbas and the Executive Committee of the PLO, to immediately begin implementation of the decisions of the National Council at its last meeting and to oblige the government and its organs to implement them: Stopping security coordination with the occupying Israeli state, supporting the popular resistance and expanding it to the Intifada of freedom and independence.
The call to the PLO leadership included cancelling all the measures taken against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip that adds to the plans to separate the Gaza Strip from the homeland.
The Palestinian Communist Party (PCP) issued a statement addressing the Palestinian people in the struggle against occupation. According to the statement of the PCP, for those who are determined to hold on to the right of return, the abandoning of Palestinian land "conducted under the cloak and within the policy sponsoring the establishment of the Zionist entity supported by Arab reactionary leaders is today a public conspiracy".
The PCP said, “Despite the success of the plot with its objectives of creating a hybrid entity that is raging on the land of Palestine, the truth of history will remain unchanged and will not be subject to the wishes of brute force.” The march of return and the revolutionary resistance against Israeli aggression “unquestionably confirms that our people will not and will not waste a seed from the soil of Palestine.”
While the the masses are shedding blood to liberate the land, the PCP observed that “some are still trying to turn them into investment projects to grow their bank balances and personal privileges in light of adaptation to the occupation.” “In light of the international and regional strife on the just cause of our people”, the PCP declared, “we are determined to adhere to the will of the Palestinian people and aspirations in the homeland of Palestine.”
According to the web site of the Communist Party of Israel (MAKI), during the inauguration ceremony of the controversial diplomatic mission in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona, police officers attacked the Members of Knesset from the Joint List, including all Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) members of Knesset (MKs) at the demonstration. Out of hundreds of protesters, Arabs and Jews, the police arrested 14 of the activists, among them members of Hadash and of the Communist Party of Israel.
Hadash, MK Ayman Odeh, the head of the Joint List, tweeted before the demonstration: “The bullying of the Netanyahu-Trump alliance continues to deepen the conflict, to kindle racism, and to spread hatred and violence.” MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) said “No to this criminal embassy move, and no to the massacre in Gaza.” The chairman of the High-Follow Up Committee for the Arab Citizens of Israel, former Hadash MK Muhammad Barakeh said, “As if what’s happening in Gaza were not enough, they cane after us as well. We’ll convene for an urgent session within the next 24 hours and make some decisions.”
Hadash MK, Aida Touma-Sliman of the Joint List said "Palestinian blood is on the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump" and added "they’re two hooligans who have set the area ablaze.” “Trump and Netanyahu are responsible for any escalation, and this is exactly what they planned in advance, in order to torpedo any attempt to bring about a diplomatic agreement and peace,” claimed Touma-Sliman.
The statement Communist Party of Israel issued a statement saying 'This step, along with the US withdrawal from the nuclear treaty with Iran, embodies the direction the Trump-Netanyahu-Reactionary Gulf regime pact is heading towards – blurring the conflict’s origin in the region and turning it from a struggle against the Israeli occupation and the American hegemony into a religious conflict while terminating the Palestinian Issue.' For full statement see the link.
The Political Bureau of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) saluted the Palestinian People's Championship, representing “the solid will of the martyrs, wounded and prisoners” of the Palestinian people and condemned “the American-Zionist-terrorist aggression, the Arab collusion and conspiratorial conspiracy and the silence of the international community “.
The PB of the LCP reaffirmed its standing on the side of the Palestinian people and their resistance for the victory over Jerusalem and its Arabic identity against the call made to the embassies of “the head of terrorism and aggression, the United States and its interests point for each move”.
The Communist Party of Tukey (TKP) declared that “the racist attacks of Israel that has been going on since March in the Gaza Strip has gained a new dimension”. According to the statement of TKP, the arrogant declarations of Israeli government, that is spoilt by its allies and has taken the advantage of US moving its embassy to Jerusalem, point out that they will proceed with these massacre policies.
TKP said “there is no legitimacy in the decision of the US to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel” and stated that organizing the opening ceremony at the seventieth anniversary of Nakba is another dimension that this is an “absolutely provocative act”. TKP underlined that while several countries have acted as part of this provocation by sending their representatives to the opening, "the call of EU for moderacy is an absolutely token gesture".
Regarding the declarations of AKP government in Turkey, TKP said that AKP “on one hand exhibits itself as the defender of Palestinian cause and on the other hand claims to be the strategic partner of US, that keeps all its military, economical and political relations with the US and Isreal and that feeds on the poverty and losses of Palestinian people, are hypocritical”.
The statement went as follows:
“But the problem is not just the US, that has lost its ability to control, being ruled by a freak, nor just the collaboration of regional governments that continuously victimize the Palestinian people in negotiations. The problem is all these to their fullest extent. The problem is this impasse in front of humanity that the world capitalism has posed.
"The reactionaries can only shed crocodile tears and pretend to mourn for Palestine, whereas the solution of the issue can be achieved only through a determined struggle with imperialism, its accomplices and all the elements which hold this system that demolishes humanity.
"We hereby declare once again: The communists of Turkey will maintain their solidarity with the resisting people of Palestine against occupation and will continue to be part of this determined struggle. The collective struggle of peoples will invalidate the dirty plans of imperialism, thousands of Palestinians that had to spent decades as refugees will regain their motherland, the Palestinian people will gain their independent state. The just resistance of Palestinian people will win!”
On the demonstration that took place on May 14 in front of the Israeli Embassy in Athens, the GS of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Dimitris Koutsoumpas, vehemently denounced the murderous attacks and expressed the KKE's full sympathy for the entire Palestinian people, "who legitimately and fairly claim the right to have their own homeland, their own state, independent, sovereign, next to Israel, at the borders of 1967, having East Jerusalem as the capital." Koutsoumpas asserted that the US decisions to transfer the Embassy to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran, as well as her continuing interventions and bombings against the people of Syria, "all these poison the people, they constitute a further escalation of the imperialist war, they make the danger of the generalization of this imperialist war across the wider region more direct. And we know that here is our neighborhood and when the neighbor's house catches fire, it will quickly reach our house, too." Koutsoumpas called for vigilance and struggle every day on the streets in order to prevent these policies leading to massacres.
The French Communist Party (PCF) declared its concern about the escalation and reminded that it had asked the President of France, Macron to intervene to the escalation and 'to pass from the word to the acts'. The statement of the PCF said 'It is the entire international community which, by letting the Israeli government act with impunity by its silence and inaction, is complicit in this terrible massacre. By taking the provocative and contrary decision of international law to move its embassy to Jerusalem, the United States bears a special responsibility. Many foreign observers and experts have seen how disproportionate the use of force against peaceful Palestinian protesters is. The snipers of the Israeli army shoot with the order to kill. In view of these new, predictable events, the PCF reiterates its call on the government to break its guilty silence and act to protect the Palestinian people.'
The Communist Party of Chile expressed condemned the situation that violates all international treaties and demanded that the Chilean government, particularly the Foreign Ministry, take an active position to stop these cruel violations of human rights. The statement said, 'The attitude of Israel, followed by Trump and until now few countries in order to move the embassies to Jerusalem, is an open provocation to the people of Palestine and the international community. It is urgent to stop the criminal violence that Israel exercises on the people of Palestine. We join the call of the UN Committee on the Prevention of Racial Discrimination that issued a statement calling on the Government of Israel to end "the disproportionate use of force" against Palestinian protesters. We ask all and all active solidarity with the people of Palestine.'
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expressed its outrage and strong condemnation at the death of 58 Palestinians killed by the Israeli armed forces at the Gaza-Israel border fence. The statement said, 'The Palestinians have been holding marches to the border to demand the return of the people to the lands from which they were evicted by Israel. The opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, in complete violation of international law, on that day has emboldened the Israeli forces to resort to this brazen attack. This brutal massacre of Palestinians must not only be condemned but action taken against Israel for this grave human right violations. The Government of India must strongly condemn this barbarity by Israeli forces. The UN Security Council must act in this regard.'
The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India severely condemned the merciless massacre of PalestiniansI 'a virtual blood bath'. The statement of CPI observed that US President Donald Trump’s decision in December, 2017 to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state of Israel and to relocate the US embassy infuriated peace-loving people all over the world in general and struggling Palestinians in particular, who have been fighting occupying Israel for the last 70 years. The National Secretariat expressed its utter contempt to the major shift effected by President Trump in the official American policy itself, which will finally lead Israeli control over entire Jerusalem. The CPI urged the government of India to strongly condemn the massacre and move the UN Security Council on the issue.
The central organ of the CC of the Tudeh Party of Iran expressed that the Israeli attack is undoubtedly a horrific criminal act that must be investigated without hesitation by the international bodies. According to the statement of the TPI, the support of the Trump administration for this crime and the silence of the European states and a number of Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, indicate the close coordination of imperialism’s plans with those of the reactionary forces in the region in order to protect the interests of the criminal and racist government of Israel. It said, 'While condemning the killing and injuring of the Palestinians by the Netanyahu government in Israel, the Tudeh Party of Iran calls upon all the progressive and freedom-loving forces of the world to rise collectively to protest this horrific criminal act and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.'
The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) condemned the violent act of terror by the Zionist and racist Israel state of massive murder of about 60 innocent and unarmed Palestinians. Tge statement underlined that the whole world stands witness to the Israel-perpetrated disaster taking place in Gaza, a disaster that only seeks to wipe out all Palestinians. It said that the collaboration between the US and Israel has obliterated most peaceful options to a resolution of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The anger of the people of Palestine is justified as they have, for decades, been faced with the most inhumane attack against the people of Palestine which is nothing but a prolonged genocide. The CPS declared that it welcomed and fully supported the government of South Africa’s decision to withdraw its ambassador from Israel. The CPS called upon all governments to cut ties with apartheid Israel with immediate effect in support for the right of humanity, adding that the international bodies such as the United Nations have to realise that this is the time to take serious action against apartheid Israel.
The Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS) declared that the Algerian communists condemn with the utmost vigor the latest massacres committed by the Zionist army against the Palestinian people in Ghaza. The statement reminded that this is not the first time the Zionist occupier has slaughtered Palestinians. According to the statement, 'Since the creation of the Israeli state 70 years ago the Zionists have been dispossessing Palestinians from their land and pursuing them relentlessly in nameless butcher shops to give up the most abject terror to claim the right to return to their homeland. homeland and the right to constitute their own state. This time the green light was given to them by US imperialism through Trump's decision to transfer the US embassy to Jerusalem in defiance of all UN resolutions passed in 70 years and especially after June 1967 against the occupation.
The statement emphasized that the massacre is encouraged by the attitude of the European imperialist powers, by the retrograde monarchies of the Gulf, whose de facto alliance with Israel is known under the pretext of countering Iran, by the silence of the other Arab regimes who 'sold themselves to these monarchs'. It was underlined in the statement that the struggle of the Palestinian people is legitimate and that they have the right to use all forms of struggle to oust the occupier. In the name of the Algerian communists PADS declared its full support to the fight of Palestinians and condemned the timid attitude of the Algerian authorities and in particular their refusal to let the citizens show their solidarity with Palestine.
The Secretariat of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) expressed its most vehement protest at the repressive escalation of Israel against the peaceful demonstrations of the Palestinian people. It reminded that during the 70 years after Nakba, reiterated UN resolutions have been unanswered by Israel, and always protected by the US, for whom Israel functions as a sort of advanced military post, backed by billions of dollars in armaments. The inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem just a day before the Nakba, beyond a cynical transgression of imperialism to international law, repudiated by the vast majority of countries and by the UN General Assembly, was a clear provocation to the Palestinian people. The PCdoB demanded the withdrawal of all Israeli settlements from the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the fall of the Wall of Separation and reaffirmed that peace in the Middle East passes through the respect for UN resolutions and for the constitution of the Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with the borders existing on June 4, 1967.
The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dol (BSD) jointly organised a protest programme and rally against the relocation of US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and also against the killing of 58 Palestinian and injuring more than two and half thousands by Israeli Defense Forces. In the protest, the president of CPB, Mujahidul Islam Selim said, 'The relocation of US Embassy in Israel is basically a part of the continuous imperialistic conspiracy of USA. He said, the CPB is condemning this incident and calling the world to stand against this conspiracy. Palestine supported our liberation war in 1971. If the government of Bangladesh does not condemn today's attack on Palestinians and stand against US imperialistic conspiracy, then their stand in favour of the liberation war will be in question.' The GS of BSD, Comrade Khalekuzzaman called upon all to stay alert against the conspiracy of US imperialism to hinder the communal harmony in South Asia. The CPB-BSD and Democratic Left Front declared that it will organise a countrywide protest programme at 19 May, Saturday demanding the cancellation of US Embassy in Jerusalem and protest against the killing of Palestinians.
A joint statement is issued by Communist and Workers Parties, which decisively condemns the attack of the Israeli army in Palestine territories, in the Gaza Strip, that has caused a bloodbath, murdering in cold blood unarmed demonstrators, men, women, and children. The statement continues as follows:
"The provocative decision of the Trump administration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move there the US Embassy, over and against the general international outcry, has completely unbridled the aggressiveness of Israel, that continues the illegal ocupation of Palestinian territories and continues massacring the Palestinian people.
"The governments of the countries that assume a stance of equal distances, identifying the victim with the offender, have great responsibilities; the position of the European Union, that while an organized massacre of the palestinian people is occurring is calling “all sides to show restraint” and is upgrading its relations with the Israeli state, is unacceptable.
"The Communist and Worker Parties express our solidarity and our support to the Palestinian people and to its just struggle in favor of its own independent and sovereign palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem. We continue our struggle and we call the peoples to strengthen their demonstrations so that the murderous military intervention of the Israeli Army in the Palestinian territories ceases and to revoke the decision of the USA to move its Embassy in Jerusalem."
See the link for the list of signatories.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation published an article by Joyce Chediac on the 70th anniversary of the Israel settlement titled "Israel at 70: Symbol of war, racism, reaction"
"...Seventy years after the indigenous population was driven from Palestinian and Israel proclaimed in its place, the Palestinian struggle for human and national rights has been passed down for three generations. It is viable, vibrant and growing.
The justice of the Palestinian cause is clearer than ever on the international arena. The steadfastness of the Palestinian people, seen now in the “Great March of Return” on the Gaza border, inspires the whole world.
The Syrian people, too, after seven years of war, remain determined to defend their country and way of life. After the U.S. bombed Syria on April 13, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in defiance.
The U.S. and Israel may be planning more attacks, but that does not mean they will have the final say. The determination and resilience of the oppressed make their struggle an objective force. And it will not be defeated by missiles, snipers or bombs..."
See the link for the full text.