CPI & Hadash after US Statement: The Settlements are a War Crime

The Israeli Communist Party and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) condemn US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement on Monday, November 18, that Israel’s settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 do not contravene international law.

This statement plainly reaffirms the US administration’s unequivocal support for the policy of the Netanyahu government and the right-wing settlement project to the detriment of the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people, for the recognition of a “united Jerusalem,” for the elimination of the refugee issue, and for the erasure of the Green Line, all within the framework of the “Deal of the Century” and with the complicity of the Arab regimes.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brasilia on January 1, 2019.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brasilia on January 1, 2019. (Photo: GPO)

Israeli settlement in the occupied territories is a war crime aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. But the right of the Palestinian people to freedom from occupation and the establishment of an independent state on part of its historic homeland is a moral and historical right guaranteed internationally that Trump and Netanyahu’s policies won’t change. The US administration apparently wants to compensate itself for its strategic withdrawal from the region by issuing empty statements and resolutions in support of the policy of annexation, settlement and the denial of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The Communist Party and Hadash affirm a just program for peace at the core of which is the dismantling of settlements, the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital alongside Israel, and a just solution to the refugee issue in accordance with UN resolutions. They call on all supporters of a just peace in this country, the region and the world to escalate the struggle against occupation, settlements and violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Related: MK Odeh: No FM Will Change the Fact — The Settlements Were Built on Occupied Palestinian Land