A Communist Party of Israel (CPI) delegation will participate in the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties to be held in Moscow in commemoration of the centenary of the October Revolution. Three members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee will take part in the delegation: Dr. Afo Agbarieh, head of the International Dept., Dr. Shukri Awaude, Deputy Mayor of Nazareth Illit and Eli Gozansky, secretary of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa branch of the party.
According to the statement of the delegation: “The CPI and its partners in Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) salute the delegations in the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. It is one hundred years since the defining event of the twentieth century: the October Revolution of 1917. Workers, soldiers and peasants – the vast majority of ordinary people – shook off a centuries-old monarchy at the start of the year. A few months later, they seized power. From the start, the October Revolution inspired controversy. Mainstream historians and capitalist politicians continue to rubbish the revolution’s achievements. The CPI emphasizes once again the historical achievements of the Russian Revolution.”
“Now, in Israel, the rightist factions in the government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are exploiting the disgrace of social polarization and economic hardship on the one hand and the still unresolved national conflict on the other to exacerbate racist and anti-democratic tensions and to pave the way for a regime having fascist-like characteristics. Towards this end the government makes use of racist and anti-democratic legislation passed by the Knesset; the forcing of Arab residents off their lands (like the repeated demolitions of the Bedouin village of Al-Araqib in the Negev); the use of violence to break up demonstrations; the conducting of intimidating investigations of social activists; and destruction of homes and threats to transfer the Arab population in the Negev.”
“Netanyahu’s racist policy is also part of the fascist deterioration of Israeli society – a trend that demands a united front of the Arab public and all democratic forces – but which we only expect will intensify with the increasing investigations into and the accusations made against Netanyahu’s corruption and bribery.”
“The CPI warns that continuation of the occupation, the perpetuation of discrimination and fueling of national hatred against Arab citizens, and the directing of racism towards migrant workers and refugees, whose fruits – increased racists attitudes and behavior among Jewish youth – intensify the dangers to the democratic space in Israel. The CPI calls for the strengthening of the Jewish-Arab nature of the struggle for peace and social justice. Partnership in the struggle between Jews and Arabs, between women and men is vital for the campaigns for social justice and the defense of democracy, for equality of civil rights, for national rights for the Arab-Palestinian national minority in Israel, for equality of women and against any manifestation of racism or discrimination.”
“The only basis for a just peace are the end of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories it conquered in June 1967; the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside the State of Israel; and a just solution to the issue of the Palestinian refugees.” “The latest developments in Syria and Lebanon ‒ the liberation of territories from the control of the ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra criminal organizations ‒ demonstrate the failure of imperialism, the reactionary Arab regimes and their unholy lackeys, and prove that the struggle of the Arab peoples against their enemies’ attempts to disunite and break them apart is indeed bearing fruit. At any moment will come the collapse of the gamble by the United States and its allies to exhaust the peoples and states of the region in order to further their own military hegemony and economic interests. In this context, the CPI sounds a grave warning about a possible military adventure by Israeli leaders that could push the region into yet a more destructive and bloodier war.”
