The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and its Hadash front, the largest of the four blocs in the Joint List Knesset faction, has condemned Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s puzzling visit to Jerusalem at the beginning of this week. According to a statement issued by the CPI, Shoukry’s trip constitutes a “puzzling step, in light of the Israeli government’s open refusal of peace, and its attempts to annihilate the two-state solution and the right of self determination for the Palestinian Arab nation.” The statement went on to say that: “The Israeli government, which rejects all diplomatic initiatives, including the Arab Peace Initiative, is exploiting its ties with Arab countries and its open alliance with Turkey and the Gulf states to advance a plan against the Palestinian people which costs it nothing, either politically or economically… The attempt to market all this in the guise of a diplomatic initiative is nothing more than throwing sand in people’s eyes.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Sunday, July 10 (Photo: GPO)

The CPI finds Shoukry’s visit as “surprising” in that it took place precisely when the far-right Israeli government is entrenching itself more than ever in its open rejection of peace. Furthermore, the CPI statement said, the guidelines of the current coalition government, along with “repeated statements by Netanyahu and his ministers, as well as by opposition leader [Isaac] Herzog, the occupation army and the settlers, all attest to Israel’s not heading toward ending the occupation.”

The CPI statement continued by saying: “We’ve warned against this dubious alliance with Israel in the context of the plan to topple Syria and the forces that stand behind it. This is an alliance that undermines a just peace and real stability in the region, as well as the national and historical rights of the Palestinian Arab people.” Hadash MK Aida Touma-Suleiman (Joint List) echoed the press statement in the Knesset on Wednesday, July 13, charging that Shoukry’s visit has burnished Netanyahu’s image just when “the government is entrenching itself in its positions.”