Having taken office after his provocative stride across the Aqsa esplanade, Sharon stopped the withdrawal of the army and further increased the pace of settlement construction – or, to be more precise, racially segregated cities which inhabitants are armed to the teeth and operate as auxiliary militias of the Tsahal. As if this would not suffice, Sharon started the construction of the “security wall” resulting in the military annexation of a further 7% of the Palestinian land thus violating again the US resolutions.
Trying to crush the second Intifada, Israel pushed aside the Palestinian Authority (PA) and attacked the Occupied Territories by fire and sword. Thousands of Palestinians were killed or wounded, tens of thousands arrested and kept in prison without trial. Thousands of houses were razed to the ground. Dozens of leaders were murdered by so-called “targeted killings”. Even president Arafat, after he was once again declared a “terrorist”, was caught in his presidential palace, the Mukata’ah, which was bombarded and reduced to rubble.
Therefore the reasons for the landslide electoral victory of Hamas (which the U.S. and the E.U. meanwhile had included in their notorious black list of terrorist organisations) in January 2006 are evident. More than a protest against the endemic corruption in the ranks of Fatah, the Palestinians cried out to the world that they cannot be asked a humiliating “peace” imposed by lead and sealed with their own blood.
Instead of listening to this cry for help by the Palestinian people, the Western powers decided to punish them by imposing a total embargo on the West bank and Gaza. Following once again a cue from Israel (which immediately after the victory of Hamas unilaterally blocked the transfer of tax and duty proceeds of which the PA is the legitimate owner), the U.S. and the E.U. froze the financial aid, resulting in a veritable humanitarian disaster in order to force an entire people to its knees and abandon its resistance.
As its architects intended, this policy has caused, the most bitter of consequences: a fratricidal battle within the Palestinian camp. Those who lost the elections toppled the democratically elected government and replaced it with an illegitimate one – with the barefaced support of Israel and its Western allies. Together with the Zionists, they unleashed a hunt against their adversaries announcing the illegalisation of Hamas under the pretext of a new law according to which only those who recognise Israel can run for elections. The U.S. and the E.U. have justified this putsch and have come to the help of this illegitimate government, lifting the sanctions on the zones under their control but maintaining the stranglehold on Gaza.
1.5 million human beings thus remain under siege, surrounded by barbed wire and without being able either to leave or to enter. Locked up in Nazi-type concentration camp, they barely survive without food or water, deprived of electricity and the most basic sanitary services. As if this were not enough, the Israeli army continues to pound Gaza by nearly daily bombing raids and incursions resulting in countless innocent civilian victims.
Only one word can describe this slaughter house: genocide!
We call upon the Prodi government to demand:
1. End the embargo against Gaza and the policy according to which the one who supports Fata eats while who remains with Hamas dies;
2. Promote in all international institutions immediate humanitarian supplies to the population and an end to the military siege;
3. Annul the decision of the Berlusconi government to consider Hamas a terrorist organisation and recognise it as an integral part of the Palestinian people;
4. Cancel the military co-operation treaty with Israel signed by the previous government.
To view the signatories click www.gazavive.com and go to “adesioni”.
