End the brutal massacre against the Palestinians!
End the occupation!
The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) condemns the acts of war being carried out by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people.
The current uprising by Palestinians is a product of pent up frustration with a fundamentally flawed peace process, and decades of occupation, dispossession, exile and daily humiliation, and the deliberate provocation of terrorist politician Ariel Sharon.
The one-sided nature of the Israeli violence in the latest massacre of Palestinians is reflected by the fact that all but five of the 94 people killed as of October 13 were Palestinians.
The Israeli army is using tanks, assault rifles, bazookas, hand grenades, snipers and launched rocket attacks from combat helicopters against the demonstrators. Doctors who are treating the wounded have noticed that most of the injuries are to the upper parts of people's bodies, indicating that Israeli snipers are following a shoot-to-kill policy.
Ambulance vehicles have been targeted by Israeli snipers and Israeli soldiers even entered the Augusta Victoria Hospital and began shooting without warning.
Jewish citizens have stoned and firebombed Palestinian homes within Israel. When the Israeli army has been called to protect the Palestinian civilians, it has taken no action to stop the Jewish violence, but instead fired upon the Palestinians defending their homes.
Many Palestinians hoped that the Oslo Accord would establish a Palestinian state in a liberated West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, this is not written in the agreements.
Since the Oslo Accord was signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Israeli government in 1993, it has become clear that Israel would retain its control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip by continuing a system of apartheid-like physical separation. Israel will retain control over the West Bank's economy, land and natural resources without having to exercise direct military control over the bulk of the Palestinian population.
Israel's annexation of three major Jewish settlements in the north, centre and south of the West Bank divides the West Bank into three Palestinian enclaves. The Jewish settlements are connected to Israel with highways which only Israelis are allowed to travel on.
In order to travel between parts of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have to pass Israeli checkpoints and cross these highways. This means the Israeli government can seal off Palestinian areas at any time.
After annexation of the Israeli settlements, the Palestinians would be left with just 65% of the West Bank.
The Israeli government is attempting to ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem of Palestinians with the widespread confiscation of identity cards and the refusal of building permits to Palestinians.
Although Israeli settlers are only a small fraction of the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, they control 60% of the land. For example, in Gaza, a mere 6000 Jewish settlers control 42% of the land, as against 1 million Palestinians.
Under the Accord, Israel would have the final say on all critical issues. For example: Israel would retain the right to enter any area if it deems its security to be at risk; any law passed by the Palestinian Authority could be vetoed by Israel; export and import of any goods could be vetoed by Israel; and, Israel could not be held legally responsible for any act during the last 30 years of occupation.
With Israel controlling the vast majority of aquifers in the West Bank, the Palestinian population relies on Israel for its water supply. Israel would continue to control all of the resources under the ground and in the airspace of the West Bank, as well as all borders.
Because Israel was created by expelling more than 850,000 Palestinians from their homes, the right of return for the refugees is central to the conflict. There are currently more than 6 million Palestinian refugees (including children of the refugees) scattered around makeshift refugee camps in Arab countries.
Most of these refugees still aspire to return to their villages. This desire was evident from the touching scenes at the Lebanon-Israeli border earlier this year when Palestinian refugees from camps in Lebanon made their first contact in more than 50 years with relatives living in Israel.
Denial of the right of refugees to return is especially galling when any Jew from any part of the world is automatically guaranteed the right to live in Israel. The Israeli government has ruled out allowing refugees to return.
For Palestinians living in Israel, the religious nature of the Israeli state means that Jews have privileges which are denied to non-Jews. For example, between 1948 and 1967, 90% of Arab lands in Israel were confiscated from their owners and given to Jews. Only Jews are allowed to own or lease land. Palestinians are also denied welfare benefits which accrue from military service. Palestinians are second-class citizens.
An immediate end to the attacks!
While the creation of a democratic, secular state, over all of historic Palestine, for Jews, Muslims, Christians and others is the only long-term solution to the conflict, the DSP believes that some immediate actions must be taken to end the violence:
1) Israeli troops should be withdrawn immediately from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
2) A United Nations international inquiry into the deaths of Palestinian civilians needs to be carried out immediately.
3) The Israeli government should charge the Israeli citizens who have initiated the recent pogroms against Palestinians living in Israel.
4) An immediate halt to the Israeli state's expropriation of Palestinian land and expansion of Israeli settlements. A plan to dismantle the settlements must be set in place. There can be no peace until the Israeli settlements are dismantled.
5) Australian Liberal and Labor governments have a long history of giving strong diplomatic support to the Zionist regime in Israel. The DSP calls on the Australian government to: condemn the acts of war being carried out by the Israeli state against the Palestinians; to demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza; and to demand that the US cancel all military aid to Israel.
The DSP extends its full solidarity to the Palestinian people in this latest stage in their decades-long struggle for justice and freedom.
[For more information about the Democratic Socialist Party's activities, visit the party's web site at <http://www.dsp.org.au>.]