Glory to the Heroic Palestinian Resistance!
Shame and Humiliation on the Collaborators!
To our steadfast people,
The Palestinian people in the occupied territories are being subjected to a humanitarian disaster as a result of the Zionist criminal escalation that has led to the deaths of dozens, the destruction of the vital infrastructure of electric power plants, bridges, roads, and homes of peaceful citizens on the excuse that this is aimed at securing the release of a Zionist soldier who was taken prisoner in a courageous operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance.
This Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people is not new. It has been a continuous reality since the establishment of the rapacious Zionist entity, which resulted in the uprooting and scattering of millions of people, the seizure of the land, and the transformation of the Palestinian territories into settlements and military bases.
News agencies have reported the commanders of the Israeli military establishment as saying that the decision to invade the Ghazza district was taken weeks before the Palestinian attack on Karam Salem (“Kerem Shalom”) [in which the Israeli soldier was captured], and Israel needed no excuse to commit a new crime in the ongoing series of its crimes in accordance with the arrogant Zionist mentality that has taken form in the context of expansionism and aggression.
As the Israeli blockade, destructive raids, and a campaign to starve our people in occupied Palestine went on for weeks, the Western world was wrapped in a suspicious silence over what was taking place in the occupied territories. The leaders of Western countries and some Arab rulers worked to put pressure on the Palestine Authority to release one Israeli prisoner all the while Israeli prisons are bursting with thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children, women, elderly, and sick people.
This latest Israeli aggression follows a long blockade of the Palestinian people that has failed. It follows the failure of Israel’s attempt to stir up internal discord and civil war among the Palestinians with the aim of bringing down the popularly elected government of Hamas. This was intended to create a vacuum into which the Olmert government hoped to step with its final plans of unilaterally drawing borders, killing the spirit of struggle and resistance among the Palestinians, and subjugating them completely to Israeli control.
Steadfast people,
The attempts of American imperialist and Zionist circles to take control of this region and plunder its natural resources are obvious. It has become clear that those circles are trying to perpetuate tension in our region in order to fulfill their so-called “Greater Middle East” plan. But that policy is meeting with ever increasing resistance by our Arab people in Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and among the Lebanese patriotic forces. Colonialist plans and ambitions have suffered painful blows in Palestine and Iraq. The peoples refuse to submit to the butchers; the hungry will claw with sharp nails at the flesh of those who surround and try to exterminate them.
Israel’s escalation, its policy of state terrorism, and its violation of international law constitute a dangerous and continuous threat to peace in the region and the world. Yet this Israeli policy receives unrestricted American cover and support militarily and politically.
To stand up to the plans of imperialism and Zionism requires vigilance on the part of the patriotic forces and the Arab masses. They, together with the forces of freedom in the world, take the side of the victimized Palestinian people and against the racist Zionist offensive and the leaders of the Western countries. Those leaders’ emotions and humanitarian sentiments have been aroused for the sake of one Zionist soldier yet they do not even bat an eyelid when faced with the killing of thousands of Palestinians and the destruction of their land and possessions by the Israeli war machine. Steadfastness is the only way to survive, and resistance is the only way to regain stolen rights.
Glory to the heroic martyrs of the resistance!
Let us unite our efforts and our guns in the face of racist Zionism!
Shame and humiliation on the forces of occupation and tyranny!
Damascus, 1 July 2006
Wisal Farha Bagdash
General Secretary
The Political Bureau of the Syrian Communist Party.
This declaration was first published in Arabic on the Web site of the Syrian Communist Party on 1 July 2006. The party that Wisal Farha Bagdash (the widow of the longtime General Secretary of the Syrian CP Khalid Bagdash) leads is one of the two main branches of the Syrian CP after its split, and it publishes the weekly Sawt ash-Sha’b [Voice of the People]. The other branch, led by Yusuf Faysal, publishes the weekly An-Nour [The Light]. Both parties are part of the united front government with the Syrian Baath. Translation by Muhammad Abu Nasr.