The 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties (IMCWP) was held in Hanoi, capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, on October 28-29, 2016 under the theme: “Capitalist Crisis and Imperialist Offensive – Strategy and Tactics of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in the Struggle for Peace, Workers’ and Peoples’ Rights and Socialism.” The meeting was attended by 58 communist and workers’ parties from around the world. Delegates attending this meeting from the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) included the party’s Secretary General, Adel Amer and member of the party’s Political Bureau, MK Abdallah Abu-Ma’aruf (Hadash – Joint List).
Israeli communists demonstrate in West Jerusalem against the occupation of the Palestinians territories. (Photo: Al Ittihad)
During the meeting, Secretary General Amer addressed the assembly as follows:
Comrades! First, allow me to express the deepest gratitude to our comrades in the Communist Party of Vietnam, on behalf of the Central Committee of our party and all of its cadres, for organizing this important and much needed meeting. We wish you more achievements for your party and for the great Vietnamese people.
Comrades! We come to you amidst profound global changes as we are currently witnessing the end of the single-polar era which as determined and imposed events in the international sphere. A new axis is forming with Russia and China at its center. At the same time we are encountering boorish colonialism and Arab reaction which are ruining the Arab world, especially Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and other countries in order to strengthen neo- colonialism in the region and exploit its energy resources.
We come to this meeting from a country most loyal to colonialism and imperialism, a country that has recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the US for a period of five years. In fact, this is a military settlement which guarantees Israel’s military and economic superiority in the Middle East. The agreement does not include any stipulations on the part of the US government regarding the advancement of the peace process with the Palestinian people.
We come to this meeting from Israel, the only remaining country in the world occupying another people, denying it its primary and essential right of freedom and independence. This coming year we will commemorate 50 years of Israeli occupation over Arab lands in the West Bank and the Syrian Golan.
Israel practices the most brutal and ugly oppression through confiscation of Palestinian lands and the building of settlements, while disregarding all international treaties in order to abolish the Palestinian right of independence.
The daily oppression and killings; occupation and extrajudicial death sentences for Palestinian youth in the streets of Jerusalem, Hebron and others West Bank towns and villages; the repeated assaults on Islamic and Christian holy places; all are criminal acts that must be brought to justice before the International Law. These acts show Israel’s insistence on continuing its abhorrent occupation of Palestinian lands while providing no peaceful solution for this crisis between the two peoples.
The solution proposed by our party remains the most practical and applicable solution, despite the settlements, the killings, the Apartheid Wall, the political, social and economic persecution of the Palestinian people, and the theft of Palestinian resources such as water and land. This solution is the “Two State” solution, based on the borders on June 4th, 1967, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and a just solution for the refugees according to the resolutions of International Law.
The attempts of the occupation government and its prime minister, the radical right-wing, Benyamin Netanyahu, to annihilate the Palestinian dream will ultimately fail, as this people will continue its national struggle for freedom and independence.
An occupying nation can never itself be free. The extension of the occupation has led to the exacerbation of a moral and political crisis in Israeli society and has caused an increase in racist and fascist developments against other minorities living in Israel, not just the Palestinians, but towards Ethiopian Jews, foreign immigrants and others.
The perpetuation of a racist policy against the occupied Palestinian people and the Palestinian population who are citizens of Israel can only lead to a situation that will ultimately explode. This policy extends to all areas of life for the Palestinians in Israel: the inadequate funding of our educational system, our infrastructure, the hampering of issuing construction permits for Arab cities and villages, and the absence of industrial areas providing job opportunities. This policy is a showcase for the racist approach inherent in the Zionist mentality of the Israeli rulers.
The fascist right-wing lash in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel proper derives its legitimacy from the official acts of the Israeli government, enacted by its ministers and at their head the state’s prime minister, who don’t hesitate to incite against the state’s Arab citizens.
The racist statements made by the government leads to fascist assaults against the Palestinian people, including those who are citizens of Israel, and against progressive Jewish groups supporting real peace. The most recent of these statements is one made against the General Director of the NGO B’Tselem, so allow us to applaud all conscientious objectors who refuse to be part of Palestinian blood letting and who pay the price for their stance in by being imprisoned in military jails.
In our party, we remain committed to internationalist values, since we see these as constituting the right path for both peoples, and ensure that our unity is built on joint work and clear principles of resistance.
The Zionist movement, represented by the ruling parties, attempts to remove Israel from the historical continuum, as if the class struggle does not apply to Israeli society as if it were a homogeneous society facing a single destiny. Yet, this is a lie refuted by the socioeconomic reality in which unemployment stands at 5.5%, and is now up to 25% among the Arab citizens. 1,7000,000 people in Israel live in poverty, 60% of them are Arab children and 50% are members of Arab families.
The Israeli economy is controlled by ten families who dominate all walks of life. This is why the principle goal of our class struggle today is to raise the awareness among the working class in Israeli society regarding the basic link between the daily struggle for bread and social justice, and the fight for a just peace, the end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. This link is not an easy one to draw, not merely because of the politically and socio-economically right-wing government headed by Netanyahu, but also because of the inaction of the opposition parties represented by [Labor Party leader Yitzhak] Herzog. We witnessed this during the Israeli aggression against Gaza two years ago and yet earlier when the struggle of hundreds of thousands of protestors for social justice and against the high cost of living in the streets of Tel-Aviv was dismissed. We are also witnessing this during the current Palestinian Intifada, with the frightening racist mood in the Israeli public sphere and in places of work.
Our party is also working within the Israeli labor unions to strengthen the link between politics, the economy and social justice, manifested on a minimal program calling for:
- Uniting the working class and all other persons negatively affected by the policy of the right-wing government; its catastrophic policy of occupation and its devastating blows against weakened groups. In this way we struggle against privatization, contractual labor, private work agreements, and the continuing discrimination of weakened communities, especially Palestinian workers who are citizens of the state.
- Strengthening the professional unions as a social movement with the power to influence social change, bridge economic gaps and protect workers’ rights.
- Protecting the rights in Israel of Palestinian workers from the occupied territories who are employed in Israel. Officially they number 45,000, but in fact they are more than 80,000.
- Protecting the rights of foreign workers, especially from China, Thailand, the Philippians and Sudan. These amount to around 120,000 workers, yet a state document admits to an additional 20,000 workers from China (brought in to replace the Palestinian labor).
- Fighting unemployment and poverty both of which have a national character, because unemployment among Arab citizens is five times higher than in Jewish society. 55% of Arab families live in poverty (compared to 13% of Jewish families).
- Organizing labor; only 30% of the labor force in Israel is currently organized in unions.
- Fighting against national and racist division among workers due to politics.
We are facing an apartheid government and the working class – especially Palestinian-Arab workers – is its largest victim.
Greetings to the communist movement and its parties!
Greetings to the Communist Party of Vietnam and the heroic Vietnamese people!
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CPI Delegation Attends 18th International Meeting of Communist & Workers’ Parties
