4-05-06, 8:32 am

Statement by the Political Bureau of CP Israel


Thanks to the devoted work by members of the Israeli Communist Party (MAKI) and its organs, by its partners in the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (DFPE), by students and young people, the DFPE list in the Knesset elections received 86,000 votes of Arabs and Jews, in difficult conditions, and increased its representation in the Knesset from 2 to 3 members (out of 120).

The election campaign in the 17th Knesset was marked by an overall reduction in the percentage poll from 68% to 63%, and from 58% to 56% among Arab voters. This reduction is an expression of the growing lack of trust of the public in the existing political system. The increase in the number citizens who show apathy or lack of confidence in the possibility of change via elections is evidence of the weakening of the Israeli democratic system.

The election results also show that those parties that raised the banner of opposition to evacuation of settlements and withdrawal from the occupied territories, LIKUD and ICHUD LE'UMI ('national unity') suffered a serious setback. The failure of these parties indicates again that the majority of the Israeli public backs a withdrawal from the occupied territories and evacuation of the settlers. Parties which came out in favor of withdrawal (in some form or other) received a clear majority in these elections.

The results of the elections also point to the growing criticism of the socio-economic policy. The AVODA (Labor) party devoted much of its election campaign to social issues; SHAS (the Sephardic religious party) appealed to the public with a call for a 'social revolution'; the Pensioners' Party, was perceived as a social party because of its candidates and its message these parties received the support of a third of the electorate.

But whereas on the political and social plane the election results indicate a growing rejection of the agenda of occupation and neo-liberal social policies, in the field of human rights and equality the situation has deteriorated. 270,000 votes were cast for Lieberman and his list ISRAEL BEITEINU ('Israel our home'), which emphasized a racist, anti-Arab platform, and 24,000 votes were for the racist Kahana party. Together with the LIKUD and ICHUD LE'UMI, both extreme nationalist parties, the racist block received 800,000 votes.

The complexity of the election results is also apparent from the wide support for the KADIMAH party, that presented a political and economic program and a list of candidates designed to obscure political differences and to present a party of 'national unity'. This party, which symbolizes 'the end to politics' (for indeed it includes the former heads of LIKUD and AVODA), has attracted the votes of former supporters of the centrists party SHINUI, which totally disintegrated. Today it is already clear that KADIMAH is not a solution to the overall crisis but an expression of its depth.

From the election results one can judge that a coalition headed by Ehud Olmert, the leader of LIKUD, will soon be formed that will continue with the policies of Sharon in all fields: the annexation of settlement blocks in the West Bank in which most of the settlers are located, and will thereby block the way to peace; will continue with the brutal oppression of the Palestinian people and with unilateral actions, which ignore the role of the Palestinian people in reaching a solution and turn the fate of the occupied territories into an internal Israeli matter; will continue with the conservative policy of privatization, slashing social expenditure and increasing class polarization. We warn in advance of the disasters that the Olmert government is likely to inflict both on the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The DFPE list campaigned in the Knesset elections in conditions which were seemingly more favorable, for indeed, as mentioned, the majority of the public expressed its wish for a withdrawal from the occupied territories and its opposition to the policy of social disaster. But it encountered the barrier of nationalism and racism among the Jewish electorate and the barrier of hopelessness among Arabs and Jews alike.

As the only left-wing Jewish-Arab list, the Communists and their partners in the DFPE list in these elections had to face up to Jewish nationalism and to the pressure applied on the Arab voters by the establishment parties. In the Arab sector the Jewish-Arab DFPE list had to compete with two rival lists. One of them (the Islamic Movement) with a religious platform. The second (Bishara's National Democratic Alliance) with an Arab mono-national platform.

The results of the elections show that under such, by no means easy, conditions we made important gains. We countered successfully the generation of despair and frustration, designed to deny the Arab public political influence by means of the pretext of 'voting for the national interest.'

We sum up, that the Central Committee of MAKI and the Party Council took strategically correct decisions when they stressed the importance of participation in the elections in a list that would reflect its electoral potential and whose composition would ensure a Jewish-Arab composition of the faction in the Knesset. We emphasized that preservation of these principles was a source of strength for the DFPE, not of weakness. This stand which was adopted by the organs of the DFPE proved itself in the elections, and in the 17th Knesset the DFPE will be a Jewish-Arab faction with 3 members: Muhamed Barake, Hana Swed and Dov Khenin.

Encouraged by this important achievement in the Knesset elections, the Israeli Communist Party (MAKI) will make special efforts to establish a wide Jewish-Arab front for the defense of democracy in Israel and against the policy of racism and discrimination; to widen its activity in defense of the day-to-day interests of the workers, women and young people; to strengthen the organization of MAKI and to widen its public base.

It is our historic responsibility to be the vanguard of the camp of peace and equality, the camp of social justice and environmental justice, of partnership in the Jewish-Arab struggle, that always has been and remains the living spirit of the Israeli Communist Party.