The Palestinian drama continues ...

Von EL-Press (4.3.2008)

… but Europe remains powerless – More deaths and more wounded are counted in Gaza, as the PNA’s President Abu Mazen launches a desperate call on the United Nations. After the isolation policy conducted against the Gaza Strip, with all its consequences on civil population’s lives, after extrajudicial killings and military incursions that every time hits women and children, the Israeli army started its land operations, threatening a real war.

The condemnation of every single Qassam rocket against the Israeli city of Sderot, as the necessity of breaking the violence spiral, is supported by the entire International Community that has judged these days the Israeli government’s dis­proportionate reaction. Deaths in Gaza are more than a hundred, the sanitary situation continues to be alarming and the international politics remain powerless. The European Parliament’s re­solutions were adopted, but EU actions to implement them with efficient policies are still missing. Even the Annapolis’ negotiations confirmed to be a propagandistic show off of Bush’s adminis­tration, but the EU that was part of the process should pretend today at least the respect of the commitments adopted in that framework, in order to guarantee as well an autonomous role for Europe.

The Party of the European Left confirms its commitment to ending the Israeli occupation and to recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to have their own state. The solution of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict must be reached through an international conference under the auspices of the UN, involving all the concerned parties, and based on the UN resolutions to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state in the occupied territories in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, recognizing the Palestinian refugees’ right to return, in accordance with UN resolution 194. We call for the dismantling of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, for the demolition of the apartheid wall, for the removal of the checkpoint, for the end of the Gaza siege, for the release of all the Palestinian prisoners – especially the Palestinian national leaders and members of Parliament.

We denounce the daily and systematic violation of human rights and collective punishment carried out by the Israeli army. In accordance with the decision of the High Court of ICJ on the apartheid wall, we appeal to all freedom, democratic and peace movements all over the world to put pressure upon the Israeli Government to end the war and the occupation.

Press Release by Graziella Mascia, Vice President of the European Left