Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland
The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the Israeli state’s murder of hundreds of Palestinian people in the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. Blood is on the hands not just of the Israeli occupying forces and leadership but also on the hands of those states and institutions that provide cover for these atrocities.
The unfolding events now under way in Gaza and the wider repression of the Palestinian people in the West Bank pose grave dangers to stability in the Middle East and beyond, with possible huge consequences for working people in that region.
The CPI expresses its profound and steadfast solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people in the onslaught of barbaric Israeli aggression. We salute the steadfast resistance shown by the Palestinian people over many decades of Israeli repression and violence—violence that has not stopped and will not stop the Palestinian people achieving their right to a homeland, their right to live in peace in a sovereign and independent Palestine.
The nature of the Israeli state as a violent apartheid entity, one with a growing influence of fascism by key members of the current regime governing that state, was best reflected in the comments of the Israeli Minister of Defence that Palestinians are “human animals,” reinforced by the apartheid regime cutting off water, food and fuel supplies to Gaza, the carpet-bombing of residential areas, the deliberate murder of children, the forced displacement of over one million people that amounts to ethnic cleansing, and the maintenance of an apartheid state. This by a regime that in the past week has attacked the territory of Syria and Lebanon and is proving to be the main enemy of peace in the Middle East, a regime that has acted in this way since its inception, not just in recent years.
Israel would not be able to exist if not for the support of imperialism, particularly the United States, the European Union, and Britain. While the US is anxious to avoid a regional war, lest it lead to the weakening of its influence, its military, economic and political support for Israel makes this possibility ever more likely. China’s peace initiatives in the Middle East, such as recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, show that it is the US and its allies that are creating instability in the region.
The peoples of the world reject and oppose in their millions the actions of the Israeli regime; they have also rejected the false presentation that the “international community” supports Israel. This is a myth and a lie perpetrated by the Western imperial powers. The majority of the world’s peoples support the just and democratic demands of the Palestinian people.
Additionally, the real nature of the European Union as an imperialist entity, devoid of accountability to the people in its member-states, has been exposed. The pro-Israel declarations by Ursula von der Leyen are not the statements of an individual but the real position of the EU, independent of which individual sits as president of the Commission.
Across the world, working people have demonstrated in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine, including in Ireland. Due to our people’s own history at the hands of colonialism, the Irish working class have made a solid stand in support of the people of Palestine, a stance that has put pressure on the Irish ruling class, who are puppets of the imperialist masters in Brussels, Washington, and London.
The Irish government has come under pressure to take up a position somewhat different from the other EU member-states due to the widespread opposition to the actions of the Israeli regime among the Irish people. Clearly, democratic forces in Ireland need to push harder and get the political establishment to recognise the Palestinian right to self-determination and sovereignty, to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, and the breaking of all diplomatic relations with Israel.
In the words of one of our country’s heroes, Terence MacSwiney, “it is not those who inflict the most but those who endure the most who will win.”
Victory to the people of Palestine!
