(fwd from CSVI / GPDI ) Statement of the Israeli Communist Forum (October 6, 2003)

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Statement of the Israeli Communist Forum (October 6, 2003)
No to the Fence of Bloodshed!
Hands off Arafat!

The Israeli Communist Forum calls for an immediate cessation to the
construction of the so-called "Separation Fence". In reality, this fence is
aimed at perpetuating Israeli rule over the great majority of the Occupied
Territories and preserving most of the colonialist settlements created in
these territories. For the sake of this fence, many further lands are
confiscated from the Palestinian inhabitants, and many new and severe
restrictions placed on the daily life of the inhabitants. The building of
the "Separation Fence" is causing a further exacerbation of the situation
in the region and an increase of the bloodshed. The only necessary
separation is the separation of  the occupying Israeli army from the
Occupied Territories and its withdrawal to the borders of June 1967. Only
this kind of separation would make it possible to break the cycle of
bloodshed and reach a just peace between the State of Israel and an
independent Palestinian state which will arise in the West Bank, including
East-Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, alongside Israel.

The Israeli Communist Forum condemns the renewed threats of the government
of Israel to remove the elected Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Senior
ministers in the government even threatened explicitly with assassination.
We strongly condemn these threats and warn of disastrous results if there
will be any attempt to implement them. We also condemn all the attempts to
define for the Palestinian people its leadership and to impose on it from
the outside political dictates, thus harming Palestinian sovereignty and
the basic interest of the Palestinian people.

The Israeli Communist Forum condemns the attack carried out by Israel on
Syrian territory a few days ago, which constitutes a new stage in the
aggressive and warmongering policies of the government of Israel - a policy
which threatens to drown in blood the entire region. The attack on Syrian
territory was escalation  planned long ago - with the terrorist act in
Haifa nothing but a pretext for carrying it out. We condemn the suicide
bombing in the Haifa restaurant in which were targeted many innocent
civilians, Jewish and Arab. This kind of attack severely damages the just
cause of the Palestinians and serves the Sharon government. Nevertheless,
the more fundamental source of the bloodshed was and remains the Israeli
occupation and the lethal campaign of oppression carried out by the
occupation authorities against the Palestinian-Arab people.

The Israeli Communist Forum condemns the United States for the backing it
gives to the new threats of the Israeli government. The United States is
also backing the ongoing committing of crimes in the Occupied Territories,
among them the continuation of the campaign of assassinating Palestinian
leaders which entails many innocent civilian victims,  as well as the
continued confiscation of land and the accelerated  building of
settlements. All that, in addition to the closures, sieges, humiliations at
checkpoints and all the other "routine" ways of mistreating the Palestinian
population of the Occupied Territories.

The Israeli Communist Forum welcomes the increase in protest actions
against the policies of the Sharon government, such as the demonstration by
thousands which took place recently in Tel-Aviv, and the string of protest
vigils and solidarity actions in the Occupied Territories. 
We express our special appreciation for all conscripts and reserve soldiers
who refuse to take part in the criminal act of oppression and killing in
the Occupied Territories. We note the special importance of the completely
unprecedented letter by pilots and Air Force staff in which they announce
their refusal to undertake any further action causing the death of
innocents, and call for an end to the occupation.  The letter of the Air
Force officers aroused an enormous controversy and put once again on the
public agenda the crimes committed in the Occupied Territories, and in
particular the outrageous harming of many innocent civilians in the course
of the so-called "targeted killings."

The Israeli Communist Forum calls for continuation and acceleration of the
protest actions against the crimes committed in the Occupied Territories
and the actions demanding  withdrawal of these territories. We also call
for increase of the protests against the anti-democratic policy of the
government, which is systematically undermining the basic rights of the
citizens of  Israel, in particular those of Israel's Arab citizens,  and
recently even curtailing the right of workers to conduct struggles.

We express solidarity with the public sector workers and with all workers
who strike and protest against the unprecedently severe economic measures
which the Sharon government enacts against workers and against all
economically weak layers of society. In these days we express our special
solidarity with the port workers who are on strike against government plans
to privatize the ports and lay off many of the workers.

 We denounce the severe anti-democratic measures which the government is
implementing against the port workers, including the threat to use the
ports of Egypt and Jordan to bypass the Israeli ports and in that way - to
break the strike. All of the above is highlighting the long-standing
attempt to break organized labor and the trade-unions in Israel, thereby
denying the workers any possibility of conducting struggles in defense of
their rights. We call upon the World Federation of Trade Unions and the
unions in the neighboring countries to take no part in breaking the
struggle of the Israeli port workers. We welcome the decisions already
taken along these lines in Egypt and Jordan.

We call for increasing the protests against the Sharon government in Israel
and all over the world, and for continuation of the actions of solidarity
with the Palestinian people, with the peace forces and workers and with
anybody in Israel who is struggling against the criminal policy of the
present Israeli government.

The Israeli Communist Forum
POB 4406
Tel-Aviv 61043
ISRAEL
Tel-Fax number: 972-3-5168032
E mail: info@xxxxxxxxxx
WEB-SITE: http://www.icf.org.il/indexen.htm

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CSVI/ GPDI
Coördinationgroup for Support the People's Resistance in INDONESIA/ Support
Movement for Democratization in INDONESIA
http://www.xs4all.nl/~peace
peace@xxxxxxxxx

BOYCOTT OF ARMS TRADE TO INDONESIAN REGIME!
SUPPORT PEOPLES DEMOCATIC MOVEMENTS!
ABOLISHING THE RULES OF THE NEW ORDER MILITARY REGIME IN INDONESIA NOW!
INVESTIGATES OF ALL OWNERSHIPS OF SUHARTO'S FAMILY,AND OTHERS NOW!
REPEAL OF GOVERNMENT CORRUPTIONS, COLLOSIONS AND CONGLOMERATION!
DECREASE OF PRIMARY PEOPLE'S NEEDS PRICES!
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