Address by the member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL Chrysanthos Zannettou at the event for the International Day for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian Citizens of Israel
Saturday 4th February 2017, Larnaca
Your Excellency Mr. Ambassador of the State of Palestine,
Dear friends and comrades,
On behalf of the Central Committee of AKEL, we welcome all those present today at the event dedicated to the International Day for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian Citizens of Israel. We express our special thanks for the honor you have done to us by extending us as AKEL an invitation to attend and address today’s event. On this opportunity, we address a warm greeting to all Palestinians living in Cyprus, but also to the whole of the heroic Palestinian people who for decades has become a universal symbol of resistance, struggle and dignity. You can rest assured that in Cyprus AKEL, with all the forces at its disposal, will always be on the side of the Palestinian people.
Dear friends and comrades,
A lot of people in the world know about Israel’s aggressive militarist policy as an occupying power and a force of colonization, but also as imperialism’s regional police force. But this is one side of the coin…
The other side of the coin is expressed internally in the country itself. It is the reactionary and racist state policy implemented against the Arab community in Israel, which makes up approximately 20% of the population.
The Palestinian citizens of Israel have always suffered from a manifold institutional racism pursued by the State of Israel through a web of draconian laws which make them second-class citizens.
They suffer repression and their freedoms are restricted.
They face the systematic demolitions of their homes and the confiscation of their land.
They are confronted with hate and Islamophobia that is promoted in Israeli society by the government and ruling forces.
The growth of the most right-wing and conservative forces of Israel in the governance of the country in recent years is well-known, a fact which has triggered the intensity and scale of discriminatory policies and the political oppression of Israel’s Palestinian citizens in all spheres of public life.
Just recently, the Arab community in Israel was again the victim of the mounting political discrimination against it. Recent events in the Arab town of Qalansawe in central Israel and the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev desert in the south have resulted in deaths and injuries due to the brutal violence unleashed by the Israeli police.
Our Party condemned publicly and unequivocally the new outbreak of violence against the Palestinians of Israel, as we do in any such circumstances so that we demonstrate our solidarity, but also to inform the Cypriot people about what is happening just a few dozen kilometers from our own homeland. AKEL also denounced the injuries suffered by the Knesset Members of Parliament from the “Joint List”, including its leader, Ayman Odeh.
On this occasion I would like to express our appreciation and unwavering solidarity towards the progressive and democratic forces inside Israel, namely the heroic Communist Party of Israel and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (“HADASH”), the peace movement, the conscientious objectors who refuse to be integrated into their country’s war machine, the forces opposed to the oppression of the country’s Arab Palestinian community who are defending the friendship between Arabs and Jews, who are standing up and resisting chauvinist extremism being fostered by the Israeli government, who dare in the very heart of Israel to defend the right of the Palestinians to an independent and sovereign state.
Dear friends and comrades,
In other cases where violations of human rights and democratic freedoms are observed – though of much less intensity and range – the West doesn’t fail to condemn severely, impose sanctions and even to openly intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
However in the case of Israel, the West turns a blind eye and continues to maintain excellent economic, commercial and political relations with Israel. This hypocrisy of the Western powers and Israel’s impunity is absolutely outrageous. There is no other country in the world that receives such political, diplomatic, economic and military support from the US as Israel.
The first actions of the new US President are equally alarming when one takes into account all that he said before the elections. More specifically, his reference to the possibility of transferring the American embassy to Jerusalem will represent another blunt provocation not only to the Palestinians, but to humanity as a whole. This policy, which serves the policy of the Netanyahu government and the country’s most reactionary forces must be strongly denounced by the democratic and peace-loving forces all over the world.
Dear friends and comrades,
With these thoughts in mind, we again express AKEL’s support and solidarity towards the struggle of the Palestinian citizens of Israel for equality, democracy, prosperity and peace.
We again express AKEL’s readiness to continue to work for the rights of the Palestinians living in Cyprus.
We express our desire to continue and develop our cooperation and joint actions with the Palestinian community in Cyprus and its organized groups.
Long live the friendship between the Cypriot and Palestinian people!
