[DEBATE] : Socialist Party of Malaysia: Stop Mass Murder in Gaza! Hands Off Gaza! Free Palestine! | Links

[glparramatta]

[Just posted at http://links.org.au/node/836]


    Stop Mass Murder in Gaza! Hands Off Gaza! Free Palestine!

Statement by the *Socialist Party of Malaysia* in solidarity with the 
People of Palestine

January 6, 2009

1. The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) condemns Israel for its latest 
massive assault on the Palestinian people.

2. Israel began its latest round of barbaric assaults on December 27, 
2008, by launching air strikes followed by land offensives, which aimed 
to destroy every aspect of civilised life in Gaza. The death toll in 
Gaza has reached over 500, while thousands have been wounded in the 
barbaric attacks of the Israeli armed forces.

3. The latest massacre has been carefully planned by the Zionist regime 
of Israel, attempting to destroy Hamas, the organisation that leads the 
struggle of the Palestinian people against its oppression. Hamas won the 
Palestinian election in January 2006. The recent assault is not a 
response to Hamas' rocket attacks as Israel claims, but rather a 
pre-planned ethnic cleansing to purge Arab Palestinians, and overthrow a 
democratically elected Hamas administration, with backing from 
imperialist powers like the United States.

4. This is not the first time the Zionist apartheid regime of Israel has 
committed an act of genocide, but this time it has been far more 
ruthless than before.

5. Israel's economic blockade of Gaza since June 2007 has cut off 
supplies of the most basic needs, such as food, water and medicine. The 
continuous blockade has turned Gaza Strip into the largest concentration 
camp in the world with a 1.5 million starving population imprisoned 
within its border.

6. Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire with Israel in June 2008 to try to 
bring humanitarian relief to the population of Gaza. But Israel's 
refusal to allow sufficient aid into Gaza, along with its continued 
attacks on Palestinians, have hampered the process.

7. Israel's new round of slaughter of the Palestinian people has 
deepened the humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip.

8. Fewer than 20 Israelis have been killed by Qassam rockets fired from 
Gaza since 2001. Nearly 500 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli 
state violence in just a week, and the death toll is expected to 
increase as the Israeli offensive continues. Palestinians have chosen to 
resist with largely home-made rockets, their occupiers who practise 
apartheid, while the Israeli Zionist state, well equipped with 
imperialist [-supplied] killing machines, has responded by collectively 
punishing the impoverished population of Gaza. Collective punishment is 
a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention (GCIV), which Israel has 
become part of 60 years ago upon its formation.

9. Besides the Zionist Israeli state -– a racist state founded on the 
mass expulsion of the Palestinians, its imperialist ally –- the US and 
other Western imperialist powers, are equally responsible for the 
ongoing slaughter of the Palestinian people. The US government has 
supplied Israel with the world's most modern weapons including F-16 
fighter jets, Apache attack helicopters, missiles and bombs which have 
been used by the Israeli armed forces during the attacks on the people 
in Gaza. The US government has planned to provide Israel with an average 
US$3 billion a year in military aid for the next decade.

10. US support for Israel is part of the imperialist desire to dominate 
the Middle East region. In the midst of defeats of the US in both Iraq 
and Afghanistan, as well as its failure to contain Iran, US under the 
outgoing Bush administration has chosen to back Israel. The recent 
assault on Gaza would show both Israel and US still possessing the power 
to bully weaker governments in the region and to warn disobedient 
governments like Iran and Syria.

11. The question is why does the US president-elect Barack Obama, who 
will be inaugurated on January 20, 2009, seem to be keeping a low 
profile on the recent slaughter in Gaza. Will the Obama administration 
make a difference in the Middle East by breaking away from the US 
imperialist strategy embraced by previous presidents?

12. The PSM extends its solidarity to the people of Palestine in their 
struggle against Israel's apartheid regime and imperialism.

13. The PSM demands the following:

    i. Israel must immediately end the siege of Gaza, stop its
    aggression and pull out all its troops from territories of the
    Palestinian Authority

    ii. The US must stop all its military aid to Israel and impose an
    arms embargo against Israel

    iii. The US needs to end its "War on Terror" by immediately
    withdrawing its military from Iraq and Afghanistan.

14. The people of Palestine have the rights to determine their future 
through democratic process from below.

15. The resistance of the ordinary people of Palestine against the 
Zionist regime of Israel is a resistance against the barbaric system of 
global capitalism and a struggle against imperialism. The struggle of 
the Palestinian people is our struggle.

16. A lasting peace in the Middle East will only prevail if justice is 
upheld for the Palestinian people and imperialism is defeated. It is 
only a global mass movement of ordinary people from below that can 
defeat imperialism.

Down with racism and imperialism!

Hands off Gaza!

Long live resistance!

Released by,

Choo Chon Kai, International Bureau,

Socialist Party of Malaysia/Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)

Phone: +60-19-5669518

* * *

The PSM is calling for candlelight vigils in solidarity with the people 
of Palestine on January 10, 2009, at Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Penang and Johor.

For more information, please contact Kuala Lumpur (Sevan 016-9708370) , 
Perak (Sugu 012-5061357), Penang (Kris 016-3337678) and Johor (Choo 
012-7097721).