9-30-05, 9:08 am
The bombing of Gaza by Israeli planes means that despite the removal of the settlements from Gaza, the occupation and warfare against the Palestinian people continues - thus said MK Issam Makhoul, General Secretary of the Israeli Communist Party (CPI), at a speech given to the Central Committee of the party on September 23rd, 2005.
CPI considers a state of anarchy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including the shelling of Israeli dwellings and the targeting of Israeli civilians, as helpful to the Sharon-Peres government, which sends planes to bomb the Gaza Strip instead of renewing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Thus, the Sharon-Peres government proves once again that it means to use the dismantling of the Gaza settlements as an alibi for deepening the occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and destroying the possibility of a peace based on an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
CPI, which has always demanded the dismantling of all settlements in the territories occupied in 1967, has also always rejected the stance that the settlements are an irreversible reality. The Gaza redeployment has proven that CPI was correct, that settlement removal is possible and depends on the will of the government. We were also correct when we stated that the majority of Israelis supports the dismantling of settlements. After the Gaza redeployment, 54% of Israelis stated in a poll that they support continuing the dismantling of settlements in the West Bank.
CPI has been consistent in its rejection of Sharon's plan. Sharon's assumption is that the question of the future of the territories is an internal Israeli subject. This stance, which rejects the Palestinian Authority's partnership, leads not to peace and security for both peoples but to continued conflict and bloodshed. CPI warns that the current situation, following the redeployment from Gaza, may continue: a harsh reality in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the murder of civilians, the continued building of settlements and the acceleration of the construction of the Separation Wall, which dispossesses Palestinians of their land. This policy is catastrophic for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
MK Makhoul also pointed out the heavy toll the Sharon's policy extracts from the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, from the Arab population in Israel, from workers and from Israeli democracy. The social and political situation is worsening while the crisis in the two major parties, Likud and Labor, deepens. CPI, which rejects any attempt to see Sharon as the 'hero of peace', warns of the disastrous policies of both contenders for Likud leadership, Sharon and Netanyahu.
MK Makhoul denounced the Report of the Police Investigations Department (PID) of the Ministry of Justice, which evaded its duty in not indicting the policemen who killed 13 Israeli civilian demonstrators in the October events in 2000. The Report reflects the deep-seated racism within law enforcement bodies.
The downward trajectory of the legal and law enforcement systems threatens the existence of democracy in Israel. This danger requires the CPI to build a defensive wall of people and organizations, Jewish and Arab, in defense of Israeli democracy, against the 'Judaization' of the Negev and Galilee, and for the strengthening of the civil and national status of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. In this vein, Makhoul mentioned the protest actions against the PID decision by CPI organizations in Haifa, Tel-Aviv and a number of Arab towns and villages, and called for wide-ranging Jewish-Arab participation in the public protest of the Review Commission of the Arab population in Israel on this subject.
From Solidarity Network
