Likud’s Declaration of Genocide against Palestinian People

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

Likud’s Declaration of Genocide against Palestinian People
Thousands March in Europe to Demand Just and Peaceful Solution in Middle East
Additional $70 million Needed to Meet Palestinians’ Emergency Needs

Postal Workers National Strike Called Off

Reference Material on Israel and Palestine

The Likud Party central committee, the party of the Israeli Prime Minister, butcher Ariel Sharon, voted against the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rallied the party, calling for on-going military assaults against autonomous areas of the West Bank, for the physical separation of Israelis and Palestinians under terms dictated by Israel, for the complete destruction of the Palestine National Authority and for the expulsion of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It was described as a death blow to the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is nothing but a declaration of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Ariel Sharon meanwhile agreed with George W Bush that Yasser Arafat is to be pushed to one side, that the CIA is to establish a single Palestinian security agency and that a Palestinian government is to be formed that will collaborate with Israel and establish a state, subordinate to Israel, on that basis. Arafat said the vote "is the destruction of the Oslo Accords" signed by the Likud Party. Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdainah said, "Peace, stability and security will not be achieved except by the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

The vote coincided with a huge peace rally in Tel Aviv over the weekend calling for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories. Police estimated the crowd at close to 60,000, while organisers put the figure at above 150,000 – calling it the biggest peace rally since the current wave of violence broke out in October 2000.

Opposition politicians and artists addressed a throng waving a sea of banners saying "Leave the territories for the sake of Israel" and "Two states for two peoples". Some carried signs saying: "Get out of the territories – and save the economy" and "Conscientious objectors for the country". One of the highlights of the evening was the appearance and warm reception of singer Yaffa Yarkoni, who had been sharply criticised for her remarks against the Israeli incursions into and occupation of the territories, and whose appearances had been cancelled in some places.

Israel's Betselem Human Rights Centre has charged that a regime of apartheid discrimination exists in Palestinian territories aimed at preventing the construction of an independent Palestinian state, noting that there are two different legal systems – one for Israelis and another for Palestinians. Betselem charged that this type of system exists no where else in the world following the demise of apartheid in South Africa.

Yasser Arafat toured West Bank cities for the first time in five months on Monday and reassured Palestinians they would win their own state, brushing aside the Likud party vote. "To Jerusalem we are headed. Jerusalem is the capital of our independent state of Palestine, never mind who agrees or does not," he told Palestinians in Nablus in the northern West Bank.

The Likud party vote has aroused condemnation from concerned people and governments around the world. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Likud vote showed Israel's true intentions and would increase Palestinians' frustration in their 19-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation. European officials also said it would harm the search for peace and the United States reiterated that it supported an eventual Palestinian state. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Brussels that he regretted the Likud decision. "Everybody has recognised that the only way to peace is through a (Palestinian) state. It is a pity that internal politics can make this process more difficult," Javier Solana said.

The working class and all peace- and justice-loving people must speak out in favour of an independent sovereign state of Palestine with the 1967 boundaries and East Jerusalem as its capital, the ending of the Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

They must condemn the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, carried out with the military and diplomatic backing of US imperialism and the support of the British government given under its bankrupt position of condemning the "violence of both sides" and seeking a "political solution". They must demand that the British government end all arms sales to Israel, and call for a suspension of diplomatic relations with Israel and a boycott of all Israeli goods and services. The elimination of the Palestinians as a people must not be allowed to succeed.

On Sunday, May 12, thousands of people took part in a march for Middle East peace from Perugia to Assisi, two "cities of peace" in the Umbria region of Italy.

The march was led by Jews and Palestinians calling for a just and peaceful solution under the banner of Two States for Two Peoples.

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on Sunday said in a message to the special peace march, "Our most immediately hope is for an end to the terrorist attacks in Israel and the military action in the Palestinian territories in order to allow for an international initiative to replace the logic of senseless violence with the logic of negotiations for a just peace."

Numerous politicians and union representatives including Palestinian representative to Rome Nemer Hammad also took part in the march. The Speaker of the Italian parliament, Pier Ferdinando Casini, also sent a message to the peace march. On the same afternoon, 3,000 people marched through the neighbourhood of Brussels where most Arab embassies are located in order to demand that Arab regimes adopt a strong stand against Israel. The rally was organised by the Arab-European League (AEL). The demonstration ended on the steps of the Arab League mission in Brussels where Dyab Abou Jahjah, AEL president, addressed the crowd. "No honest Arab or Muslim can condemn the legitimate right of our people to fight for its freedom," he said. "We welcome solidarity and sympathy from other peoples but solidarity and sympathy will not liberate Palestine. Resistance is the only way to liberate Palestine and this is the responsibility of the Arab people".

The lead United Nations agency helping Palestinian refugees said on May 9 that an additional $70 million would be required to meet the emergency humanitarian needs of people in the West Bank and Gaza resulting from the recent incursions by the Israeli military into the occupied Palestinian territory.

The request by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at a donor meeting in Amman, Jordan, comes on top of the $117 million the Agency said in January it needed just to fund its emergency programmes for this year. So far, only $46 million has been pledged for that earlier appeal.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen told donor representatives that the challenges facing the refugees were immense.

"After 18 months of closure and hardship the recent Israeli invasion has led to large-scale destruction of shelters, water supplies, electricity lines and sewage lines," he said. "There has been a wholesale destruction of civic infrastructure with the result that a large portion of the refugee population finds itself without the basic services and means of support for the minimum standards of life. The refugees urgently need the support of the international community."

UNRWA confirmed that the United Arab Emirates had pledged to fund the rebuilding of the 800 shelters and camp infrastructure destroyed in the centre of the Jenin refugee camp.

Meanwhile, the Agency said that it was forced to draw on existing, overstretched, resources to tend to the wounded and supply food, medicine and water to areas affected by the recent Middle East strife. Extra funds were now needed to replenish its food and medicines stocks and to cater to the longer-term needs of the Palestine refugees. UNRWA also described to donors the extreme difficulties it faced in carrying out humanitarian work because of the access restrictions imposed by Israel’s military authorities.

According to estimates released on May 7 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Israeli incursions in Palestinian towns in the West Bank have caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage.

The total damage in the West Bank could range between $300 million and $400 million. The total damage to Nablus is estimated at $110 million, while the agency said Qalqilya suffered some $3.5 million worth of damage.

UNDP said the Palestinian Authority's central institutions in Ramallah suffered approximately $16 million in damages. This figure does not include invaluable public records from various ministries, including the Ministries of Health, Education and Public Works.

A detailed damage assessment for the entire West Bank and Gaza is being carried out by UNDP and other UN bodies, the World Bank, the European Union and the Governments of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States. The results are expected to be made public on 15 May.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) released the preliminary results of its own assessment mission in the Middle East. Reporting on the food situation in Jenin, the agency said that 35,000 people there were in urgent need of food assistance. Around 90 per cent of all commerce with Israel has been lost due to recent closures, and a total of 4,320 people in the Jenin area are now homeless, WFP said.

The postal workers’ union said it had called off a national strike planned for May 8 after reaching a pay deal with Consignia and a breakthrough on talks to cut costs by changing deliveries.

The agreement, brokered by the government arbitration service ACAS, means members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will receive a 2.2 per cent pay rise backdated to October 2001 and a further 2.3 per cent from this October, a CWU spokesman said. The agreement reaffirms the intention of both sides to get a minimum wage of £300 a week for postal workers, the CWU spokesman said.

ACAS ruled that delivery changes will be dealt with separately from pay negotiations, the CWU said. "This is a major victory for common sense," John Keggie, CWU deputy general secretary, said in a statement. A spokesman for Consignia said pilot schemes to try the new single delivery programme would still be launched as soon as possible.

Consignia said the strike would have been "financial suicide". Consignia has already announced it will make 15,000 workers redundant and close 3,000 post offices.

The plans to shut post offices and lay off workers have met with condemnation from the postal workers and their union. Workers were defending their annual pay claim as part of their resistance to Consignia management’s drive to change delivery arrangements and close post offices, and intended to take action on May 8 for what would have been the first national action since 1996.

It is clear that the Post Office workers must persist in defending their right to a livelihood. But the dispute also highlights the need for a modern postal service that meets the needs of a modern society and renovated national economy. Consignia’s drive to compete in the globalised economy, as set by the government and the EU, is bringing disaster to the Post Office workers and to the needs of the economy. The struggle of the workers to defend their interests and against the plans of Consignia is very just in these circumstances.

The scale of the proposed job losses is a major issueand the opposition to the motive of making Consignia a globally competitive company in terms of profit-making rather than providing a public service is a uniting factor in the struggle of the workers and in society at large against these job losses. The situation is demanding that the workers take the initiative in that the anti-social programme being offered by Consignia, the government and the EU is nothing but a programme for further wrecking society. There is nothing for it but for the workers to come forward and end their marginalisation from decision-making in society at whatever level.

On May 14, 1948, British forces left Palestine and the State of Israel was declared in the midst of an intensifying Arab-Jewish conflict. That day also marked the start of the war between the new state and its Arab neighbours. WDIE is printing reference material on the history of the conflict herewith.

The origin of the Palestine-Israeli conflict

A People Dispossessed

Beyond Oslo: The New Uprising – International Law and the al-Aqsa Intifada

Ariel Sharon