Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Statement from the Provisional Organizing Committee (Europe)

World People’s Resistance Movement

Stop Israeli Aggression Against Lebanon!

End the Zionist/Imperialist Occupation – Free Palestine!


Once again the world is witnessing a wave of murderous aggression and destruction unleashed by the Zionist state of Israel with the support of the major imperialist powers, most especially the US and UK. This time not only are the people of Palestine the target, but those of Lebanon as well.

For the last two weeks Israel has waged a massive military offensive against Lebanon that has already resulted in over 400 dead and 1000 injured in that country – almost all of them civilians. Between 700,000 and a million Lebanese have been made refugees: almost 25% of the entire population. In addition to targeting civilian areas for massive aerial bombardment, including the use of cluster bombs forbidden by international law, the entire civilian infrastructure of Lebanon has been attacked and largely destroyed: airports, roads, bridges, power stations, radio and television stations, telephone facilities, factories and warehouses. Among the “terrorist targets” on Israel’s list was Lebanon’s largest milk producing facility.

Israel has instituted a sea, land and air blockade of Lebanon thus cutting it off from urgently needed supplies of food and medicine. Ambulances and emergency personal have been systematically attacked from the air. And in its typical arrogant fashion the Israeli forces have dropped leaflets on the villages of Southern Lebanon telling the population to leave the area or face attack. At the same time it has destroyed the very roads and bridges leading out of the region and then callously attacked the vehicles of those seeking to flee. In Kosovo the imperialists called such actions “ethnic cleansing”, in Lebanon they call it “war against terrorism” and “fight for democracy”. Or as US Secretary of State Rice has said, from the imperialist point of view this horror scenario represents the “birth pains” of a “new Middle East”.

There is more the enough pain for the people of the Middle East in this new offensive, but little that is new. For decades the have been subjected to imperialist and Zionist domination, occupation and oppression and the rule of feudal overlords who serve imperialist interests.

Israel claims that this offensive is an effort to get back two of its soldiers captured by Hezbollah and/or to stop the Hezbollah from firing rockets into Israel. These claims are a lie. As soon as Hezbollah captured the Israeli soldiers it offered to exchange them for prisoners held by the Zionists. It was only after Israel carried out its massive bombing of Beirut’s most densely populated neighbourhoods that Hezbollah launched its missiles in retaliation. In truth, this offensive was long planned by the US and Israel as part of the overall US-led imperialist offensive for world hegemony and in particular its “Greater Middle East Initiative” which aims to reorganize this strategically vital region firmly under US control. The goal is not just to hit at Hezbollah, but to establish Israel as the armed enforcer of imperialist interests, especially US-interests, in the Middle East – including its unrestricted right to attack any country in the region at will; to force Lebanon to accept US dictates and a foreign occupation force of 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers; and to “shape the battle space” – politically, diplomatically and militarily – for coming attacks in pursuit of the US’s larger goal of forcing regime change in Syria and Iran.

At the same time the attack on Lebanon has been accompanied by an almost total blackout in the Western media of news relating to the on-going Zionist offensive in Gaza and the West Bank. As in the case of Lebanon Israel used the capture of one of its soldiers as an excuse to launch a long planned offensive against the population of these areas in a bid to cement forever its occupation of Palestine. For weeks Gaza – the world’s most densely populated area – has been subjected to unrelenting aerial bombardment, artillery fire and ground invasion. Dozens of civilians have been killed and hundreds injured. Giving the whole world a lesson of what they mean when they talk of “democracy”, the Zionist forces have systematically destroyed the governmental facilities of the Palestinian Authority (PA) while arresting or driving into hiding two thirds of the elected PA-government. They have targeted vital sections of the civilian infrastructure including roads, bridges and Gaza’s only power station resulting in over half of Gaza having no electrical power for hospitals, water pumps and sewage treatment. Attacks on such targets are forbidden by international law and a number of well-known human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have classified them as war crimes and called on Israel to immediately cease such action. As usual and as in Lebanon, Israel has ignored these pleas. In an open demonstration of their complete contempt for civilian life, international law and public opinion the Israelis have also instituted a blockade of Gaza limiting and at times even completely stopping the import of food and medicines.

Collective punishment of the civilian population is a tactic of choice for Zionist occupiers. For all their talk of “democracy” and “the rule of law”, the only law these oppressors and their imperialist backers understand is the law of “might makes right”. Israel’s collective punishment tactics are exactly the same tactic that the US-imperialists and its allies are currently using in Iraq and Afghanistan and have used in literally dozens of other countries throughout modern history. And, as many have remarked, it is exactly the same tactic that Nazi Germany used during WWII against the people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as well as against the Jewish population of Germany itself.

The tactics are the same in all these instances because the basic interests that are being pursued are the same: the interests of imperialist capital. And the logic of these interests demands the most brutal and merciless subjugation of the great majority of people. Although the oppressors enforcing such collective punishment always call resistance to their rule “terrorism”, such resistance is fully justified – that is the logic of the people. The World People’s Resistance Movement is calling on its activists and supporters and on all people around the world who are opposed to the great injustices being done to the people of the Middle East by the great powers and their Zionist henchmen to turn the outrage and anger over these newest crimes into active and determined resistance to stop this latest wave of aggression and the entire offensive it is a part of.

North, South, East and West:

Unite the People’s Struggles!

Provisional Organizing Committee (Europe)

World People’s Resistance Movement

(July 24,2006)

Email: wprm@wprm.org

Local Contact:

www.wprm.org

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home