PALESTINIAN President, Mahmud Abbas yesterday belatedly suspended the ‘peace negotiations’ and other contacts with Israel until the Israeli ‘criminal aggression on Gaza stops’.
With 95 Palestinian people killed on the Gaza Strip and hundreds injured since last Wednesday, President Abbas, and the Fatah leadership were left with no alternative but to break off contacts with Israel, or else see their remaining Palestinian base of support ebb away to nothing.
As for the Israelis – they say they are going to continue with the holocaust tactics of the last week.
In fact, the Zionists are making no secret of the fact that they are preparing a major military offensive against the Gaza Strip to crush the Hamas movement.
They consider that crushing Hamas is crucial, and that without this, they will not be able to impose the kind of imperialist settlement that they want onto the Palestinian people, or get the Abbas leadership of Fatah to be their partner to the deal.
Yesterday, the PLO gave its support to the Abbas decision, and condemned the ‘declared intentions’ of the Israeli occupation’s leaders to turn the Gaza Strip into a ‘holocaust’ reminiscent of the crimes of the Nazis.
It also called on the United Nations ‘to put an end for good to the tragedies, massacres and suffering’ of the Palestinian people.
In fact, the Palestinian masses are demanding that the Bush-Olmert fake peace talks be completely abandoned by the Abbas leadership, and that Abbas and Fatah immediately open talks with Hamas to reconstitute the national unity government.
This is the only way forward, and the only way for Abbas to avoid becoming an accomplice of the Bush-Olmert plan to establish a Greater Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, and their right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with all Palestinians having the right to return.
The ‘peace talks’ taking place in the midst of massacres must be ended, the national unity government be re-established and an appeal made to the entire Arab world to see that Palestine is supplied with all the necessary oil, food stuffs and finances to break the cruel blockade.
The worldwide trade union movement cannot just continue to stand by and watch the Palestinian people being massacred.
When trade unions were considering a boycott of Israel, last summer, they were told that they must give peace a chance.
Now, they have given peace every chance only to see rivers of Palestinian blood shed, and Zionist ministers warning the Gazans about a holocaust to come.
The British trade unions must immediately clamp a trade and cultural boycott on Israel, and see that not a single Israeli ship or plane is serviced in the UK, and that all exports to Israel, including military exports are stopped.
In the face of the ongoing massacre, the TUC must take this action at once, and use its influence to spread a trade boycott of Israel worldwide.
A boycott must be imposed and kept on until a viable Palestinian state is established with east Jerusalem as its capital, and including the entire Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with all Palestinians enjoying the right to return.
The massacre in Gaza shows what a mistake it was to accept the Bush-Blair-Olmert talk of ‘peace’ as being on the level.
The trade unions must organise for a huge turnout on the March 15th demonstration that will mark the fifth anniversary of the March 2003 war with Iraq.
The trade unions must demand that all imperialist troops are withdrawn from Iraq, that there be no war with Iran and that there must be a complete global TU boycott of Israel to bring the Zionist entity to its knees.
