The undersigned parties and international organizations convened in Larnaka, Cyprus on the 24th and 25 of November 2014 under the slogan “Towards a Just and Lasting Peace & for Solidarity with the Palestinian People” and after thorough deliberations and discussions have agreed on the following statement:
The GUE/NGL European Parliament Group in solidarity with the Palestinian people (Photo: AKEL)
They call to:
-Recognize an independent viable state of Palestine on the borders of June 4/1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital and work to force Israel to accept a final and comprehensive settlement accordingly.
-Support the Palestinian position to accede to the International criminal court to hold Israel responsible for its war crimes.
– Use all efforts in order to force Israel to end, immediately and unconditionally, its brutal blockade on Gaza and completely stop, all its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, as a preliminary step to dismantle all the settlements.
– Demand the immediate release of Palestinian political prisoners, who should have been recognized and treated as POWs in the first place.
-Support the popular and legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation.
– Ban arms trade with Israel.
– Support the international campaign to boycott all products from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
– Freeze the EU – Israel Association Agreement due to the violation of Article 2 on human rights.
– Condemn targeting and harming innocent civilians.
-Express the highest solidarity with the Palestinian people in ending the internal division and achieving unity. The unity of the Palestinian people is a basic and vital step for the Palestinians to accomplish their goals and to rehabilitate and reconstruct Gaza.
– Support to all organizations and movements in Israel that oppose the Israeli occupation, racism and militarism, and struggle for just peace, equality and justice.
– Support for the Palestinian citizens in Israel in their campaign against discrimination and exclusion.
– Condemn the imperialist aggression against the peoples of the region especially in Syria and Iraq and using the pretext of fighting ISIS to escalate its hegemony and marginalizing the main subjects of concern mainly the Palestinian problem.
All the convened parties express their full and firm solidarity with the Palestinian People against the Israeli third aggression against Gaza in five years. The scale of this third aggression is larger, and the list of martyrs, especially children, is longer, as well as lists of the wounded and disabled. Dozens of families have been completely decimated. Half a million people were displaced from their homes, and the number of homes, schools, hospitals, public buildings, residential buildings, mosques, factories and even cemeteries destroyed is unprecedented. The devastation caused by this recent aggression is unmatched in modern times, as confirmed by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
We have witnessed throughout the years, settlement construction, land confiscations, home demolitions, killing and arrest campaigns. Forced displacement in the West Bank continued unabated and the unjust blockade on the Gaza Strip was tightened. The occupation’s campaign specifically targeted the City of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, attempting to artificially alter the spirit, identity and character of the Holy City, focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening grave consequences. At the same time, racist and armed gangs of settlers persisted with their crimes against the Palestinian people, the land, mosques, churches, properties and olive trees.
The current situation in the Middle East now put the Palestinian People at a crossroads for the focus has been centered on the so called war against ISIS (Daesh) and other terrorist organizations and not on the ever prevalent problems which will be pushed to the margins. The main beneficiaries of such policy is the US and Israel.
In order to put an end to all these challenges it is necessary to emphasize on the fundamental issue and starting point which is ending the occupation, achieving the independence of the State of Palestine and reaching a just solution for the Palestinian refugees according to the International resolution 194.
That requires much more than condemnations and only none-enforceable declarations. It needs the United Nations and its Security Council, global organizations and general public opinion to pressure Israel to comply with an international resolution which entails specific timeframe to end its brutal occupation. Such campaign aspires to correct the deficiencies of the previous efforts by affirming the goal of ending the Israeli occupation with a precise time bond.
Our parties affirm their commitment to play an active and consistent role in this massive international Campaign.
Towards achieving this goal, we call for a larger meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties and progressive movements in Europe and the Middle East to discuss their positions and steps in this direction
At the end, the convened parties convey their appreciation and gratitude to the hosting party AKEL and its Secretary General and Leadership for their contribution and everything they have done to make this regional meeting successful. Also we thank the Palestinian People’s party & the Communist Party of Israel for the initiative to hold this meeting.
Democratic Progressive Tribune (Bahrain), AKEL (Cyprus), Egyptian Communist Party, Communist Party of Greece, Tudeh Party of Iran, Iraqi Communist Party, Communist Party of Israel, Jordanean Communist Party, Palestinian People’s Party, Communist Party of Turkey and GUE/NGL European Parliament Group.
Related:
Regional meeting of Communist and Workers parties of the Middle East: Statement on Kobani
Regional meeting of Communist parties of the East-Mediterranean on the Palestinian problem
