Communist Party Statement on Recent Crisis in Palestine

"The Communist Party, USA strongly condemns the latest
acts of aggression by the Israeli government against
the Palestinian people. In the past days, the Israeli
Army has launched a series of attacks on civilian
infrastructure including bridges, water supply
facilities and Gazas only power station. Coupled with
the ongoing withholding of humanitarian aid, Palestine
faces a humanitarian crisis.

Then Israel abducted leading members of Palestines
ruling Hamas, including 9 cabinet members, 20 members
of Parliament, and dozens of others. Israeli planes
also bombarded the Palestinian Ministry of the
Interior, setting it aflame and destroyed the offices
of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh with
missiles. These actions are a total denial of the
democratic will of the Palestinian people and a
violation of UN decisions and international law.

Israeli tanks are awaiting a full-scale invasion of
Gaza.

Israels Olmert government justifies these aggressive
and illegal actions as an attempt to recover an
Israeli Defense Force soldier who was abducted by a
small Palestinian militant group earlier last week
Apparently waiting for an excuse to try and overthrow
the Hamas Government, Israels aggressive acts have
moved events further from a peaceful settlement.

While Egypt and several European countries attempted
to intervene diplomatically, Israeli jets flew into
Syrian air space on Thursday, flying low over the
residence of President Assad while he was in the
building. Syrian ground forces fired at the aircraft.
Israels total disregard for international law and
national sovereignty is a threat to the peace and
stability of the whole region.

This lawless aggression would not be possible without
the support of the Bush Administration and continued
U.S. military aid to Israel.

The past weeks escalation by Israel follows a bloody
month of attacks into Gaza including several
extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinians and
missile attacks that killed over twenty civilians.

The only real solution to the cycle of violence and
humanitarian crisis is for the immediate an
unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces back to the
borders of 1967, the full independence and sovereignty
of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem and
the resolution of the refugee problem according to the
relevant UN resolutions. Only the mutual recognition
of Israel and Palestine as two independent, equal
states can end the catastrophe.

In recent weeks, leaders of Hamas and Fatah have
discussed a new proposal in Palestine. This proposal,
the National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners,
was developed by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
jails, and called for limiting Palestinian resistance
to the land Palestine occupied in 1967, and the
reestablishment of a united Palestinian coalition
within the Palestine Liberation Organization. While
this proposal did not address all the important issues
of the occupation, it is an important step toward
ending attacks on civilians by Palestinian factions
and was endorsed by Hamas and Fatah on June 27. The
latest round of provocations is clearly aimed at
derailing the peace process on the eve of adoption of
the Prisoners Document.

We call on all parties to cease escalations and move
to a negotiated settlement of the current crisis.

We call on peace-loving people in the U.S. to join
this weeks protests against Israeli aggression and
against U.S. aid and corporate support for the
continued occupation of the West bank and Gaza.

We, with other groups, call on every person of
conscience to call their representatives in Congress
and the White House to exert pressure on Israel to end
the invasion of Gaza.

We also call for withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq,
whose presence is escalating tensions in the whole
Middle East and emboldening the Israeli government.

We condemn all attacks on civilians, Palestinian or
Israeli.

We especially condemn the Israeli government, which
controls the conditions of life in the West Bank and
Gaza and continually limits the ability of the
legitimately elected Palestinian government to
function. It seeks to impose its own terms
unilaterally and avoids negotiations. There can be no
solution of peace and security on such a basis.

Communist Party, USA
www.cpusa.org"