Solidarity with Israeli Apartheid Week, free Palestine!

Statement by the International Commission, YCL

The Canadian government's position on Israel has gone from shamefully silent to actively supportive of violence, occupation and apartheid in the few short years of the Harper Conservative Party regime. The latest of the Harper government’s attack on the Palestinian people is voting against the UN’s recognition of Palestine as a state. The Canadian government, along with just a handful of other countries, including the US and Israel, voted against making Palestine a non-member observer state.Canada’s Minister of foreign affairs, John Baird, stated that official recognition of Palestine “will undermine the objective of reaching a comprehensive, lasting and just settlement for both sides”.

Harper’s blind support of this violent and racist government is in fact accomplishing the opposite. By actively supporting the Israeli government, Harper is supporting the recent war ("Operation Pillar of Defense") that saw hundreds of Palestinian murdered, including children. Israeli "strategic" targets included soccer stadiums, media stations, and bureaucratic offices. The Canadian government's support continues the degradation and oppression of Palestine, perpetuating the cycle of poverty, violence and racism against the Palestinian people, which increases violence. The Conservatives support contributes to Israel’s continued actions that do nothing but further escalate the conflict in the region, creating further bloodshed that is crippling the Palestinian people.

The Harper government’s position on the Zionist Israeli war machine is in line with the US, the Christian far-right, and the world’s largest multi-national corporations. This position undermines Palestinians, the Middle East, and the Canadian people; only 19% of Canadians believe that Canada should even support the state of Israel. Canadians have strongly supported the Freedom Flotilla and now the Gaza Ark project. Moreover, the vast majority of the world supports Palestinian statehood.

The Harper government continues to embarrass the Canadian people and further isolate Canada from the rest of the world. Harper’s continued support of Israel is yet another example of Canada becoming a 'rogue state' in the international community, where the government's persistent deviance on climate change action towards a self-serving policy of stalling world-wide climate change negotiations, cutting off all diplomatic ties with Iran and the backing of repressive regimes in the Middle East, are only a few.

We continue to stand in full solidarity with the sovereign Palestinian people in their demand for full statehood immediately with East Jerusalem as the capital. Swift and just peace can not be brought about until there is immediate cessation and withdrawal of all settlements and dismantlement of the Israeli Apartheid Wall, release of all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, guarantee of the right of return, and at a minimum respect of the 1967 Green Line boundaries.

We salute the thousands of Palestinian detainees who succeeded, by their hunger strike, in helping expose the occupation -- they had to hunger strike just to wing very basic humanitarian conditions inside the jails. We salute the Union of Palestinian Democratic Youth and their comrade Samer Issawi who is on hunger strike for 222 days, since he was re-arrested and held without a conviction (after being released in the 2011 Shalit’s Deal prisoner exchange after almost ten years in jail). We also express our solidarity with George Abdallah, a Lebanese left-wing militant in arbitrarily in jail in France for 29 years, since 1984, because of his opposition to the occupation. Abdallah has been denied parole requests since 1999 and, while granted release by French courts this decision has been twice over-ruled by the French foreign minister.

It’s important for the youth, student and other progressive forces in Canada to stay informed, engaged and pressure the Harper government on this issue. In this direction the YCL endorses with full support Israeli Aparthied Week being held on campuses across Canada and now around the world. The Young Communist League of Canada demands that the Harper Conservative government reverse its attack on the people of Palestine and their demand to become truly independent and sovereign, with full support both financially and diplomatically. Until this is won, the YCL will continue to mobilize in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.

On the recent murderous aggression against Gaza

The Young Communist League of Canada greets the announcement of a cease-fire in Gaza positively and the halt of the slaughter committed by Israel towards the Palestinian people over the past days.

We call on all youth and students who oppose war to remain vigilant less the aggression be restarted with a ground invasion. We urge youth and students to deny the Netanyahu government any credit or thanks for stopping the bombing, and re-double and continue our mobilization efforts to win a just peace in the Middle East.

Deliberately confusing the way forward to justice, imperialism and the corporate media has again tried to present the Israeli-Palestine conflict as a struggle of equals -- while the US government alone pours billions of dollars of military aid to maintain Apartheid Israel. This lie is wearing very thin. Youth should take note that the massive and rapid vocal support for the Palestinian cause in the streets of the world (including by pro-peace voices in Israel and the imperialist countries) was helpful and necessary to win this latest cease-fire.

We cannot have a repeat of 4 years ago where the Israeli state launched a 3 week massacre of 1,400 Palestinians (including over 300 children), targeted Palestinian civilians, destroyed civilian infrastructure and used weapons made illegal under international law.

This most recent attack could have also dangerously escalated into a broader regional conflict. We denounce the Harper Conservative government for immediately giving full diplomatic support for the bloodshed (and further note that, shamefully, the Mulcair New Democratic opposition did not even call for a cease-fire). In just a few days the bombing not only further shattered and wounded the social and economic fabric of Gaza -- which is already under siege like a giant prison-camp -- but also claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians, including children and babies.

The so-called 'Operation Pillar of Defense,' coming between the US and Israeli elections, cannot be viewed separately from the continuous occupation of Palestine and the genocidal strategy of Zionism with the full support of imperialism. Since 1948 the people of Palestine have been fighting for their right of self- determination. As long as there is occupation there will be resistance.

The Young Communist League of Canada repeats our full support for a viable and truly independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, respecting the Green-line boundaries and including the right of return for all displaced Palestinians, the removal of all the illegal settlements, the total dismantlement of the infrastructure of the occupation like the Apartheid wall, and the de-militarization / de-nuclearization of Israel including its occupation of the Lebanese Shebaa Farms and the Syrian Golan.

Until this is won, the YCL will continue to mobilize in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, including voicing our support for the Palestinian statehood recognition bid at the United Nations and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

November 22
YCL-LJC CEC