The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is heading towards a new war. But it is not the missiles which are being fired from the Gaza strip to Tel Aviv that are provoking the new escalation of violence, as most German media insinuate. It is the unchecked robbery of Palestinian land, which wants to destroy the livelihood of the last Palestinians in East Jerusalem. It is the refusal to grant Palestinians in East Jerusalem the right to vote, thus preventing the Palestinian elections. It is the Israeli security forces, which since the beginning of Ramadan have been restricting Muslims freedom of movement and worship at the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount – in violation of international law. It is the extreme right wing Zionist thugs, which have been provoking people in the old town with the toleration of the Israeli police. Who can expect Palestinians to remain calm during this latest stage of escalation of violence by the occupation force? When no state supports them, who can expect that they do not resort to their last impotent weapon – their missiles?
It is not acceptable to criticise these missiles as breaking international law without simultaneously condemning the war crime of Israel’s fresh plans to dispossess houses in Sheikh Jarrah and to banish their Palestinian occupants. Israel claims that before 1948 these houses belonged to Jewish families, who just want their property back. But after the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, East Jerusalem was in a different country – it should have been the capital city of an independent state of Palestine. After the war of 1967, the West Bank – together with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – were illegally occupied by Israel. Since then humanitarian and human rights have been disregarded.
There are no Jewish property rights there, and dispossessions from occupied territories are forbidden under the Geneva Convention, as are the settlements. The International Court of Justice has recently made this politics of dispossession and settlements the subject of its inquiries because of possible war crimes. This is why we call on the German government to accept its responsibility for the preservation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to call on the Israeli government to stop the illegal evictions.
The national working group Just Peace in the Middle East of the party DIE LINKE severely condemns the actions of the Israeli government and their security forces and demands the end of the illegal policy of occupation and settlements, which makes the life of Palestinians intolerable and repeatedly leads to violence and war. At the same time we demand that the government stops its one-sided support of Israeli politics, as was once more expressed in the statement of the German foreign minister of 10th May 2021. They must exercise serious pressure on the Israeli government with the aim of ending the occupation and expulsion of the Palestinian people, thus creating a basis for human rights.
The national working group Just Peace in the Middle East also calls for an end to the Israeli aggression against Palestinian demonstrators and against places of worship and for an end to the Israeli bomb attacks of the Gaza strip, as well as an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.
Reproduced with permission. Translation: Phil Butland
