In 1948, Israel initiated the Nakba – an Arab expression for catastrophe – the occupation, repression and genocide of the Palestinian people. The first steps taken for the creation of the state of Israel were the expulsion of 750 thousand Palestinians from their land and homes and the destruction of 500 of their villages, replacing the Palestinians by new Jewish occupiers and acting as if the Palestinian people and their motherland – Palestine – had never existed.
In order to mark this process, the Palestinians started, in April, the Great March of Return. A very large mobilisation to which Israel has been responding with brutal repression, causing hundreds of deaths and thousands of wounded. Only yesterday, they made a true slaughter, killing indiscriminately defenceless men and women, who were only peacefully demanding the withdrawal of Israel from Palestine’s historic territory and defending the inalienable right of returning to a land which is theirs, to live in freedom, to be entitled to their independent and sovereign motherland, with its capital in East Jerusalem – a right recognised by successive UN resolutions.
The CGTP-IN condemns the massacre of the Palestinian people perpetrated by Israel with the coverage of the USA.
The class nature of the Israeli occupation is one of the most striking traces. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), many Palestinian workers are forced to seek jobs in the occupied territories or in the Israeli settlements (constructions in Palestinian land) and are subject to daily discrimination and arbitrariness from the occupying forces. In this way, they pave the way for brutal exploitation, with 50% cuts in wages, extremely precarious jobs and all types of employer haughtiness, corruption and brokers who steal a large share of their salaries.
Even in the non-occupied territories, Israel prevents or conditions the access of the population to jobs and to means of subsistence, destroying production or curbing the access to essential raw materials, leading many Palestinian companies and workers to being under-utilised or idle.
Palestinian farmers living on the Eastern part of the Israeli wall ( which divides Palestine) need a “visitors” permit to have access to their own land situated in the so-called “interface” zone, and have to go across these passages and face enormous restrictions to the transport of farm equipment or farming inputs – seeds, fertilisers,etc.
Israeli settlements use as they please crucial resources like: soil, especially the most fertile ground; water (a growingly precious and scarce resource, particularly in the region); or land for industrial premises, denied to the Palestinians.
Brutal exploitation and violent occupation was aggravated throughout these 70 years. The everyday life of the Palestinians is living in increasingly smaller pieces of land, in total dependence from Israel to meet their daily and basic needs – particularly serious in the Gaza Strip, rightly considered as an open air prison for over 1 million people. Millions of Palestinians are refugees, especially in neighbouring countries and there are thousands of political prisoners kept in Israeli jails who suffer from the most barbaric violations of their rights, freedoms and guarantees.
A real catastrophe now aggravated with the USA decision of moving – in violation of international law – their Embassy to Jerusalem, showing the hypocrisy of their position in relation to the problem solution. This provocation of the USA reveals the role of Israel in the Middle East as a tool of imperialism and as an active agent of the continued violation of the UN Charter, of international law and of its resolutions; of the aggression and illegal occupation of neighbouring countries, violating their sovereignty and independence; of support to terrorism in Syria and aggression against this country and its people; of the USA retreat from the Nuclear Deal with Iran, thus creating an atmosphere of direct confrontation with this country and threatening to launch the Middle East into a sectarian war of dramatic proportions; in the division of the peoples of the Middle East, so that big capital seizes its huge oil and natural gas reserves.
The decision of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a gross provocation to the Palestinian people and to all peoples of the Middle East; it means an intolerable support to Israeli policies – increasingly rejected by the international community – which was translated into the absence of many countries from the act of transfer.
The UN must urgently fulfil its mandate by stopping the genocide committed by Israel and enforce its decisions.
In compliance with the Constitution of the Republic, the Portuguese government must assume a position of unequivocal condemnation of these atrocities and adopt measures that lead to the immediate suspension of all economic and political ties with the Israeli government: It is not enough to be absent from the act that marked the transfer of the American Embassy. The Portuguese state must adopt a clear stand, by condemning the Israeli actions and by recognising the Palestinian State.
The CGTP-IN reaffirms its unequivocal solidarity with the Palestinian workers and people, a position which was yesterday, 14 May, clearly demonstrated in the Public Action of exposure and protest organised by us and supported by more than 50 organizations and over 100 personalities, with hundreds of people gathering in the Camões Square in Lisbon.
The CGTP-IN calls on all workers and peace loving forces to increase their actions of exposure and protest, as well as of solidarity with this martyr people. Israel has one of the most powerful armies in the world: it is an undeclared nuclear power that did not subscribe to the Treaty on the non- proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and it benefits from USA funding and military aid. In the face of this might and of the web of complicities, stands a people that has no more than its strength, its unity, its struggle and international solidarity.
The Palestinian people, workers and their representative organisations can count on the firm and active solidarity of the CGTP-IN and of the Portuguese workers.
Lisbon, 15 May 2018
João Barreiros
CGTP-IN National Council
In 1948, Israel initiated the Nakba – an Arab expression for catastrophe – the occupation, repression and genocide of the Palestinian people. The first steps taken for the creation of the state of Israel were the expulsion of 750 thousand Palestinians from their land and homes and the destruction of 500 of their villages, replacing the Palestinians by new Jewish occupiers and acting as if the Palestinian people and their motherland – Palestine – had never existed.
In order to mark this process, the Palestinians started, in April, the Great March of Return. A very large mobilisation to which Israel has been responding with brutal repression, causing hundreds of deaths and thousands of wounded. Only yesterday, they made a true slaughter, killing indiscriminately defenceless men and women, who were only peacefully demanding the withdrawal of Israel from Palestine’s historic territory and defending the inalienable right of returning to a land which is theirs, to live in freedom, to be entitled to their independent and sovereign motherland, with its capital in East Jerusalem – a right recognised by successive UN resolutions.
The CGTP-IN condemns the massacre of the Palestinian people perpetrated by Israel with the coverage of the USA.
The class nature of the Israeli occupation is one of the most striking traces. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), many Palestinian workers are forced to seek jobs in the occupied territories or in the Israeli settlements (constructions in Palestinian land) and are subject to daily discrimination and arbitrariness from the occupying forces. In this way, they pave the way for brutal exploitation, with 50% cuts in wages, extremely precarious jobs and all types of employer haughtiness, corruption and brokers who steal a large share of their salaries.
Even in the non-occupied territories, Israel prevents or conditions the access of the population to jobs and to means of subsistence, destroying production or curbing the access to essential raw materials, leading many Palestinian companies and workers to being under-utilised or idle.
Palestinian farmers living on the Eastern part of the Israeli wall ( which divides Palestine) need a “visitors” permit to have access to their own land situated in the so-called “interface” zone, and have to go across these passages and face enormous restrictions to the transport of farm equipment or farming inputs – seeds, fertilisers,etc.
Israeli settlements use as they please crucial resources like: soil, especially the most fertile ground; water (a growingly precious and scarce resource, particularly in the region); or land for industrial premises, denied to the Palestinians.
Brutal exploitation and violent occupation was aggravated throughout these 70 years. The everyday life of the Palestinians is living in increasingly smaller pieces of land, in total dependence from Israel to meet their daily and basic needs – particularly serious in the Gaza Strip, rightly considered as an open air prison for over 1 million people. Millions of Palestinians are refugees, especially in neighbouring countries and there are thousands of political prisoners kept in Israeli jails who suffer from the most barbaric violations of their rights, freedoms and guarantees.
A real catastrophe now aggravated with the USA decision of moving – in violation of international law – their Embassy to Jerusalem, showing the hypocrisy of their position in relation to the problem solution. This provocation of the USA reveals the role of Israel in the Middle East as a tool of imperialism and as an active agent of the continued violation of the UN Charter, of international law and of its resolutions; of the aggression and illegal occupation of neighbouring countries, violating their sovereignty and independence; of support to terrorism in Syria and aggression against this country and its people; of the USA retreat from the Nuclear Deal with Iran, thus creating an atmosphere of direct confrontation with this country and threatening to launch the Middle East into a sectarian war of dramatic proportions; in the division of the peoples of the Middle East, so that big capital seizes its huge oil and natural gas reserves.
The decision of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a gross provocation to the Palestinian people and to all peoples of the Middle East; it means an intolerable support to Israeli policies – increasingly rejected by the international community – which was translated into the absence of many countries from the act of transfer.
The UN must urgently fulfil its mandate by stopping the genocide committed by Israel and enforce its decisions.
In compliance with the Constitution of the Republic, the Portuguese government must assume a position of unequivocal condemnation of these atrocities and adopt measures that lead to the immediate suspension of all economic and political ties with the Israeli government: It is not enough to be absent from the act that marked the transfer of the American Embassy. The Portuguese state must adopt a clear stand, by condemning the Israeli actions and by recognising the Palestinian State.
The CGTP-IN reaffirms its unequivocal solidarity with the Palestinian workers and people, a position which was yesterday, 14 May, clearly demonstrated in the Public Action of exposure and protest organised by us and supported by more than 50 organizations and over 100 personalities, with hundreds of people gathering in the Camões Square in Lisbon.
The CGTP-IN calls on all workers and peace loving forces to increase their actions of exposure and protest, as well as of solidarity with this martyr people. Israel has one of the most powerful armies in the world: it is an undeclared nuclear power that did not subscribe to the Treaty on the non- proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and it benefits from USA funding and military aid. In the face of this might and of the web of complicities, stands a people that has no more than its strength, its unity, its struggle and international solidarity.
The Palestinian people, workers and their representative organisations can count on the firm and active solidarity of the CGTP-IN and of the Portuguese workers.
Lisbon, 15 May 2018
João Barreiros
CGTP-IN National Council
