The European Left Party declares itself

worried about  the composition of the new Israeli’s government. The majority of this government is constituted by extreme right parties: Israel Beitanou, the party of the Foreign Affairs minister Avigdor Lieberman, according to which all the Palestinians having Israeli nationality must be expulsed from the territory of Israel (they represent 20% of the total population of the country); the Shas Party, advocating the “Big Israel”, and the Judaism Torah Party supporting the extension of the colonies to all the territory of the West Bank. These programs violate all the UN resolutions.

The European Left Party asks the European Union to put pressure on Israeli government in order to encourage negotiations with Palestinians for a pacific solution based on the UN resolutions. A solution that will end the occupation and provide for the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital, a state that will live peacefully alongside Israel to the benefit of peace throughout the Middle East.

We ask for

• the abolishment of the Gaza blockade: Significant measures must be urgently taken in order to eliminate all the restrictions to the circulation of  people and goods imposed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, to stop the  asphyxiation of the Palestinian economy and go against the Israeli policy of occupation and colonisation of the Palestinian territories.

• Given that Israel does not respect the international law and human rights, the suspension of the association agreements between the European Union and Israel represents the most important measure to take. This claim means that the stop of the building process of international relations between the EU and Israel, irresponsibly promoted by the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs some days before the lethal offensive launched by Israel during December 2008.

• The European Union must have a leading role inside the United Nations in promoting an international and independent investigation on allegations about war crimes and other violations of the international humanitarian law committed by Israel. This could be a way to do justice to the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The new Israeli government refuses to cooperate with the UN inquiry commission on this issue. This seems to us to be particularly worrying, for this reason the European Union must take a stand.

We reiterate our strong solidarity with the Palestinian people as well as with the left and peace forces of Israel.