NINETEEN members of the six ship ‘Freedom Flotilla’ were yesterday murdered by Israeli special forces in a major war crime, and a larger number were wounded.
The special forces boarded the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, in international waters, while it was on its way to Gaza, and carried out a murderous attack on some of the 500 protesters from all over the world who were on the ship.
With typical mind-boggling Zionist arrogance the representatives of the Israeli government are unrepentant over the 19 murders, and in fact blamed the victims of the Israeli act of high seas piracy for the deaths of those protesters who were shot dead by Israeli troops.
The boats have now been towed to an Israeli port with a number of protesters locking themselves into the holds of the ships and refusing to surrender to the Israeli brigands.
This crime must not be allowed to pass. There must be an immediate response to the latest Zionist killings by the trade unions and the working people of the world.
The TUC general council must meet at once and demand that all of the hundreds of ‘Freedom Flotilla’ members must be released at once.
They must demand that the British government sees that this is done, and that the Israeli ambassador be thrown out of the UK.
In fact, the TUC must demand that the government shuts down the Israeli embassy, as well as seeking the issuance of a warrant from the Hague for the arrest of the members of the Israeli government to face war crimes charges.
The TUC must demand that Israel be made to pay massive compensation to the families of all those who have been killed, and to those campaigners who have been wounded or injured, or confined against their will.
The TUC must also take action itself. It must immediately impose a complete cultural and economic boycott of Israel, from the universities to its goods and services. The TUC’s constituent trade unions must refuse to load or service Israeli ships or planes.
This boycott must be kept clamped on, until the establishment of a viable sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, with the settlements abandoned, and with all Palestinian refugees having the right to return.
The TUC must also set out – in alliance with the trade unions of the world – to organise a massive armada of boats to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza once and for all this summer, and put an end to the state of siege that has been imposed on Gaza to try to starve its people into submission.
Internationally, the Arab states must also take action to end the blockade and establish a state of Palestine.
The least that Jordan and Egypt can do is to end their treaties with Israel, and along with the rest of the Arab states end their trading relationships with Israel.
Zionist Israel with its killing of 19 protesters in international waters has thrown down the gauntlet to the whole of the planet.
There has to be a strong and immediate reply.
The Palestinian people have lived in fear and abject poverty since the catastrophe in 1948, when the state of Israel was imposed by force, that turned millions of Palestinians both in 1948 and 1967 into refugees living in tents in the Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and other countries.
The Zionist leadership has shown time and time again that it is not interested in peace and that its real programme is that all the Palestinian people should be evicted from Palestine.
The Palestinian masses are determined to establish their state along the 1967 ceasefire lines, with East Jerusalem as their capital, with the settlements evacuated and with all refugees having the right to return.
Their struggle must have our complete support.
This is why every worker in the UK must see to it that the TUC takes action to boycott Israel completely and to break the siege of Gaza, in order to go forward to Palestine.
