11-10-06, 1:10 p.m.

On November 7, in a horrifying confirmation of its official policy of state terrorism, the Israeli occupation army perpetrated a new massacre, this time against the civilian population of Beit Haroun in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of 18 innocent people, many of them women and children, by Israeli artillery bombardment.

By carrying out this latest massacre, the most recent in an escalating series of brutal attacks on the Palestinian people, the Israeli government has once again laid bare its hostile and bloody face for all the world to see, establishing yet another grim milestone on the path of murder and destruction it has forged throughout the long years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s aggressive actions, whether at Qanaa or Beit Hanoun, are a natural result of the hypocrisy of the international community, and the totally one-sided alignment of the United States government with Israel, a policy of favoritism that grants Israel permission to try to destroy the Palestinian people and its legitimate national cause by means of an oppressive economic and military siege, a criminal blockade imposed with the backing of the international community and legitimate international organizations.

This hypocrisy is starkly evidenced by the way in which the international community uses dual criteria to judge the actions of the two peoples, a double standard that demolishes the fundamental basis of international relationships and tarnishes the noble nature of the Palestinian national struggle, a struggle which is, in essence, a legitimate reaction to the illegal Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian People’s Party condemns the bloody massacre at Beit Hanoun. It calls on all Palestinian political groups to accelerate their process of mutual dialogue in order to achieve the formation of a new Palestinian government as quickly as possible, and to be beware of the dangers of ending this dialogue. We must all work to expose the bloody, terrorist nature of the Israeli occupation. We must work to internationally isolate the Israeli government by clearly identifying it as a leading practitioner of state terrorism, and thereby isolate it as a nation both in terms of international law and governmental legitimacy. We must work to dismantle the machinery of the political and economic siege under which the Palestinian people are forced to live, and we must strive to recover the standing of the Palestinian struggle at both the regional and international levels.

The massacre at Beit Hanoun confronts the international community and its organizations, especially the United Nations Security Council, with its ethical and political responsibility toward the suffering of the Palestinian nation. The shameful images of the carnage at Beit Hanoun lay bare the reality of Israeli aggression, an aggression carried out as the Israeli government continues to ignore all international resolutions passed against it, and engages in a murderous policy that targets innocent civilians. It is a policy of state terrorism carried out in the midst of massive international silence, a silence that actively encourages Israel to continue its bloody aggression.



This new massacre against our nation, in spite of the horrifying loss of life, will only increase the Palestinian people’s commitment to its homeland and its national rights. Such actions will never break the will of the Palestinian people as it continues its just struggle, as it resists all efforts by the Israeli occupation forces to defeat it and desecrate our national cause.

Long live the just struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation and independence!