The killing fields of Gaza

Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland 
16 May 2018

The Communist Party of Ireland condemns in the strongest terms the murder of more than sixty Palestinians and the wounding of thousands more. Many more are sure to die, as the poor medical structure within Gaza will be unable to care for so many casualties. 
     The Israeli Zionist government has turned Gaza into a free-fire zone, a killing field. No-one is safe: women, children, disabled people, teenagers, farmers working in their fields, or fishermen in their boats. 
     Their solution appears to be to murder all Palestinians, and they are doing this with impunity. The time for more weaselly words from western governments has passed. The Zionist state knows that none of these government will do anything or take action. The Europeans, in particular, have for decades done little, because to their very limited actions when the Nazis murdered millions of Jews in Europe. The Zionists use this guilt to marginalise those who oppose their actions. 
     The oil-rich Arab states will do nothing. They will issue words—just like their European counterparts. They care little for the Palestinian people. 
     This is a time for action. Israel now needs to be isolated: economically, politically, culturally, and diplomatically, as well as militarily. 
     The Irish state must break off all diplomatic ties. The Government must actively pursue a campaign to establish an international boycott of Israel. 
     We, as citizens, must boycott all Israeli goods. Academic institutions must end all links with Israeli institutions; and artists and other cultural workers must end their collaboration with Israel. The blood of Palestinians is on the money they receive from the Israeli state and cultural bodies. 
     All Irish political parties and trade unions, and their international affiliates, should cease to have links with political parties or bodies that in any way support these criminal policies and actions of the Zionist state. 
     It is no longer a question of whether we should move the Irish or any embassy to Jerusalem but rather that we should be closing them down.