Workers Party of Ireland Statement on Developments in Palestine and Israel

The Workers Party of Ireland notes the serious escalation of violence between Hamas and the state of Israel. While the US and the EU have been quick to condemn Hamas they have failed to condemn the long-standing criminal attacks by the Zionist state against the Palestinian people. In response to the current situation Israeli warplanes have launched attacks and fired multiple missiles at residential buildings in Gaza, killing and injuring civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure and medical personnel assisting wounded Palestinians have been assaulted by the Israeli forces.

On 15 May 1948, the newly established state of Israel engaged in the mass killings and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land. The Nakba is not only an historic event, it remains an ongoing reality for the people of Palestine. Israel’s militarised occupation and settlement building in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are part of a 75-year history of dispossession and denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

During that time Israel has engaged in a strategy to steal more Palestinian land and to displace more Palestinians. These actions are carried out with the full support of US imperialism which unconditionally supports Israel. Palestine is being annexed piece by piece and the Palestinians confined to ever decreasing pockets of land in which Palestinians are isolated, imprisoned and contained.

More recently, the positions of the far-right government and violent settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in the Occupied Territories has escalated tensions. Although Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories are illegal, Israeli state forces stand aside while these attacks take place or actively assist them.

In the past Israel has engaged in murderously disproportionate responses against Gaza, an enclave under constant siege and attack. Israel’s systematic colonisation and usurpation of Palestinian land, the eviction of Palestinians, the destruction of their homes and properties and the attempt to erase the name, history and culture of Palestine and the daily killing of Palestinians, including children, continues to this day.  Palestinians are subjected to daily provocations and attacks.

The US support for Israeli policies, its strategic co-operation, the massive economic and military assistance, the promotion of Israel and the collusion in Israel’s expansionism, aggression and crimes against humanity, the persistent attempts to block and prevent any criticism of Israeli terrorism and grotesque violations of human rights, has been and remains a major impediment to peace and progress in the Middle East. The EU has adopted the hypocritical policy of so-called “equal distance” from the aggressors and the victims. The approach by Israel and the imperialist powers which support them is designed to remove the question of Palestinian national rights from the agenda and to attempt to legitimise illegal acts of colonisation and expansionism.

As long as these actions, and the continued disregard for UN resolutions on Palestine continue, violent confrontation is inevitable. There can be no lasting peace until the just demands of the Palestinians are met.

The Palestinian people have the right to defend their rights and to resist Israeli occupation. The Workers Party of Ireland rejects racism and xenophobia whether directed against Palestinians or Israelis and salutes the peace-loving forces inside Israel who struggle side by side with the Palestinians for their just cause.

The Workers Party of Ireland stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for their legitimate rights, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, the immediate release of Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli jails, the right to self-determination and the establishment of a free, independent, united and sovereign state of Palestine.

8^th October 2023

Gerry Grainger

International Secretary

Workers Party of Ireland

(Email: wpi.international@gmail.com)