JOINT PRESS RELEASE

An official delegation of the European Left Party met with Mohammed Naffa Secretary General of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Aida Touma, Head of the International Relations Department of the CPI. Both delegations discussed and agreed on:

1. Firmly condemning the escalation of attacks in West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli Army.  Both called for ending the siege imposed by the Israeli government to the Gaza Strip, that is collectively punishing Gaza’s civilian population and breaching the 4th Geneva Convention and the International Law.

2. Both delegations declared clearly that no viable peace negotiation can be conducted if the Israeli government doesn’t freeze its activity of settlement enlargement and expansion, aimed to create irreversible facts on the ground. After the Annapolis conference, announced by the US administration as a concrete step toward peace,  settlements have been enlarged, among others the one of East Jerusalem, which is every time more and more isolated by its Palestinian sphere. 

3. Both delegations decided to strength its relations through different channels of communication and solidarity. From the joint meeting it clearly appeared the need of strengthening the cooperation among left forces of Europe and Israel in order to offer an alternative path to the ongoing militarization of the region, to preventive war, to NATO’s plan of a “Great Middle East”, to neo liberal policies and lack of social cohesion, to the current economic crisis. Both delegations agreed that in order to achieve these goals is necessary to re-stimulate the relations with social and pacifist movements, with civil society, to struggle for equal social justice for all, for a peaceful solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, able to lead to a just and viable Palestinian State as defined by the United Nations Resolutions, on 67’ borders with East Jerusalem as its capital alongside the State of Israel.

4. The European Left Delegation expressed its solidarity for the struggle of equal rights that many Israeli-Palestinians are conducting in order to end discriminations and injustice inside the Israeli society, and appreciate the fact that Israeli-Palestinians actions are starting to be more effective inside Israeli society. A special mention was done concerning the Right to Return (ruled by the UN resolution 194) of the Palestinian Refugees.

5. Finally both delegations agreed to call as soon as possible, in order to end the conflict, an International Conference under the auspices of the UN with all the actors involved in order to achieve a final settlement based on the United Nations Resolutions.