1 - The PCP expresses its deep concern over the recent escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and firmly condemns the Israeli government for the bombing of the population of Gaza which led to the death of 29 Palestinians, including three children and two pregnant women, more than 200 injured and the destruction of residential buildings. These figures add to the more than 200 Palestinians killed and more than 20,000 injured by Israeli forces of repression over fourteen months of popular protests on the Great March of Return, as documented in the recently approved Report of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
2 - The escalation of violence is entirely the responsibility of the Israeli Government and its policy of oppression, systematic disregard for international law and the relentless blockade against the two million people who live in that Palestinian territory illegally occupied in 1967. These events are inseparable from the violation by Israel of the terms of previous cease-fire agreements concerning the Gaza Strip and the options of the Israeli government and of the US Administration to abandon any prospect of a political solution to the Palestinian question, namely the two-state solution, and to carry out continuous violations of international agreements, resolutions and peace plans.
3 - The PCP stresses the seriousness of the recent statements by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, threatening to annex parts of the illegally occupied West Bank, as well as the implicit support given by officials of the US Trump Administration to these statements. In this context, the PCP considers unacceptable the unilateral condemnations of the Palestinian side by the UN Secretary-General's spokesperson and by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, only accompanied by mere calls for containment by both sides.
It is unacceptable to speak of “security'” and silence that the population of the Gaza Strip is denied even the “right” to flee the repeated bombings by Israel, due to the relentless blockade to which it is subject and that has already brought that territory to the brink of humanitarian disaster, as underlined by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Those who are colluding with the continuing violation of international law by Israel are also jointly responsible for the worsening situation in the region.
4. On the eve of yet another anniversary of the “Nakba”, the catastrophe of the expulsion of the Palestinian population that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the PCP reiterates its long-standing solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for their inalienable national rights and stresses that the right to resist occupation is recognized by international law and by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic. The PCP calls for a stronger expression of solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people.
