IN a telephone conversation yesterday, President Mahmoud Abbas and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the latest developments in Palestine, especially in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Abbas emphasised the urgent need to halt the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. He called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire to spare civilians from the woes of the Israeli genocidal war and the destruction carried out by Israeli occupation forces.
During the call, President Abbas reiterated the importance of swift humanitarian assistance, reinforced delivery of relief, medical, and food supplies, as well as the provision of water, electricity, fuel, and aid to prevent displacement of Palestinians.
The President expressed gratitude to President Putin for Russia’s political support on the international stage and its humanitarian aid to Gaza, including the approval to send a Russian field hospital.
The President underscored the necessity of intervening to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. This includes invasions of cities and Palestinian refugee camps, civilian casualties, infrastructure destruction, assaults on Islamic and Christian holy sites, and acts of ethnic cleansing.
President Abbas insisted that Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine and cannot be separated or subjected to the Israeli occupation’s plans for division. He also called for the formation of a Palestinian government to manage affairs in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
President Abbas stressed that all security and military solutions have proven to be failures, and true security and stability for the region will not be achieved through such means.
In response, President Putin reiterated Russia’s support for the Palestinian people to achieve their freedom and independence in their independent Palestinian state according to international legitimacy.
Meanwhile the participants in the Central Council session of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), held in the Belgian capital Brussels, have called for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.
In their concluding statement, the attendees called upon the United Nations to promptly and urgently recognise the State of Palestine as a full UN member. They further appealed to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to grant Palestine equal status as a full member until the United Nations officially recognises it as a full member state.
The ITUC participants demanded the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from all Arab territories occupied since 1967, in compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 and Article 2 of the UN Charter, as well as Resolution 338 of the year 1973.
The Zionists are murdering hundreds of Palestinians after bombing and burning thousands of homes and they have made it clear that they will not halt until all the Palestinians are either dead or in exile in Egypt, or somewhere else.
The time has come for action.
It is good that Putin, and the ITUC have called for a ceasefire, yet this will not halt the slaughter of the Palestinian men, women and children.
The time has come for action. Russia must arm the Palestinian masses, and the ITUC and the British TUC must get off their knees and call General Strikes to bring down their bourgeois regimes and bring in Workers Governments, that will expropriate the bosses and the bankers and aid the masses of Palestine to smash the Zionist gangsters and bring in a government of workers and small farmers.
A few weeks ago, the British TUC called a special congress to discuss the fight against the anti-union laws and to their shame they ignored the crisis in Palestine.
They must recall their Special Congress at once, and have, as the only item on the agenda, assisting the masses of Palestine to smash the regime of the Zionist gangsters and bring in a workers and small farmers government that will pave the way for the socialist revolution. This is the only way forward!
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