The concluding statement from the Arab Communist Parties meeting regarding Palestine on 20th of December 2023
The communist parties of the Arab countries (the Jordanian Communist Party, the Iraqi Communist Party, the Lebanese Communist Party, the Palestinian People's Party, the Communist Party of Egypt, the unified Syrian Communist Party, the Sudanese Communist Party, the Kuwaiti Progressive Movement, the Party of Progress and Socialism in Morocco, the Bahraini Progressive Tribune) held a meeting on Wednesday, 20th of December, 2023.
The meeting dealt with the continuation of the bloody and comprehensive Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian territories, especially the crimes of genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip, the objectives of this aggression, including plans to displace Palestinians and efforts to liquidate their national cause, and defining the tasks of joint action of these parties in order to continue to address the current serious risks of liquidating the Palestinian cause, the threat to the security and integrity of the region and our Arab peoples, and the great challenges that exist as a result of this.
The meeting of the communist parties in the Arab countries paid high tribute and appreciation to the heroic resistance in all the Occupied Palestinian territories, and to the legendary steadfastness of the Gaza Strip in the face of aggression and the unprecedented war of extermination to which the Palestinian people have been subjected since the seventh of last October, and more than 20 thousand martyrs, most of them children and women, have died so far.
The meeting reaffirmed the legitimate right of the Palestinian people and its national forces to resist the occupation and settler gangs, and to resort to all forms of struggle, including popular and armed resistance, to curb aggression, end the occupation, and take away full national and human rights, foremost of which is the right to liberate its homeland, return, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent national state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The meeting also welcomed the mass Arab and international protest movements and activities, the overwhelming popular anger at the aggression and heinous crimes of the Zionist occupation, and the unprecedented solidarity all over the world with the struggle of the Palestinian people and their legitimate and just human and national rights. The meeting also hailed the role of communist, leftist and progressive forces in these protest and solidarity movements.
After an extensive and in-depth discussion, the communist parties of the Arab countries participating in this meeting unanimously reaffirmed the following:
The state of silence of the international community regarding the Zionist - American aggression against the Palestinian people, the genocide and various other war crimes that it has committed and continues to commit, its complete inability to shoulder its responsibilities and take practical and concrete measures to curb this aggression and its practices, which constitute a gross and flagrant violation of all international laws and charters, and its failure to help and rescue Palestinian civilians, has always been and continues to be a factor encouraging America and its ally, the Zionist occupation - the settlement occupation, the substitution and racism - to continue their aggression and their terrible crimes; it was a cover for all of that.
This is in addition to the continuing state of official Arab impotence (and complicity) that prevented the adoption of a unified Arab position, which rises to the level of dealing with the scale of the aggression and the massacres to which the Palestinian people are exposed and the risks to their national cause, and to the security and sovereignty of the Arab states, even to the extent of providing adequate humanitarian aid to the victims of the aggression in the Gaza Strip and ensuring its delivery to them.
In this context, the meeting expressed its condemnation of some political regimes’ identification with the forces of Zionist-American aggression and cooperation with their military allies in the region.
The continuation of the Zionist occupation, and the continuation of its crimes against the Palestinian people, with the support of American imperialism, NATO and the Arab reactionary forces, is the root of the suffering of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region and their problems, and the source of insecurity and stability in them. As a result, conflicts continue, people are deprived of living in peace, and they will remain in danger of falling into a spiral of all-out war.
The international community (represented by the UN Security Council, the United Nations and its organizations and agencies) must bear its actual responsibilities in a concrete way to oblige the Zionist occupation to adhere to international laws and conventions, foremost among which is the “Fourth Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Civilians in the Occupied Territories and in Times of War and Armed Conflict,” as well as guaranteeing the rights of the Palestinian people.
Also, some of our historical Friends countries are called upon to make more effective use of their regional and international standing to intervene and exert maximum international pressure to curb the practices of the Zionist occupation and to support the legitimate national and human rights of the Palestinian people.
Accordingly, the meeting of the communist parties of the Arab countries calls on the UN Security Council, all UN bodies and international organizations, as well as all countries that are friends of our peoples and supporters of international peace and security, to intervene urgently and to start using their regional and international standing and all their capabilities, to speed up action and pressure to curb the Zionist-fascist aggression against the Palestinian people, a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, the complete lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip and to ensure the arrival of supplies, needs and relief assistance to it. It is also necessary to put an end to the terrorist and racist practices of the Zionist occupation against the Palestinian people, its expansionist ambitions and its constant threats to the security, capabilities and national sovereignty of the peoples and states of the Arab region, including the repeated military assaults on Syria and Lebanon.
The meeting also addresses to the general public of communist and leftist parties, progressive and Democratic Forces, the Peoples, solidarity movements, supporters of national liberation, and all believers in the values of freedom and justice and free people all over the world, calling for the need to continue to take to the streets and squares, expand and escalate protest movements through all possible means, to put pressure on the governments of their countries and the international community, and to organize Popular Mobilization for the struggle against occupation and Zionist aggression.
Henceforth, the communist parties of the Arab countries participating in the meeting stressed the urgent tasks of their joint work and struggle, in accordance with the following current priorities:
First: to work on expanding and intensifying the political and militant movement, officially and popularly, by all possible means and forms, to put pressure on all levels – in the region and every country of the world - in order to speed up:
A) confronting and curbing the Zionist - American war aggression against the Palestinian people and the campaign of genocide to which it is subjected and thwarting its goals, and obliging the Zionist occupation to a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire.
B) breaking the blockade imposed on the Palestinian people, foremost of which is the Gaza Strip, and securing the entry of all humanitarian supplies, assistance and basic needs for the Strip and all its institutions, and for the general besieged Palestinians.
C) move globally to expose the crimes of the Zionist occupation, which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity, end its impunity, demand the International Criminal Court to open an immediate investigation into these crimes, and prosecute and prosecute the leaders of the Zionist occupation and the leaders of the countries supporting its crimes.
Second: to provide all kinds of concrete support to the Palestinian people and their valiant resistance, politically, morally, materially, media, culturally and other possible types of support, and to strengthen the Palestinian national narrative in the face of the Zionist narrative and the disinformation machine of the American - Zionist - Western alliance all over the world... Etc. In addition to penetrating the political circles misleading or ambiguous positions, especially in Western Europe and America.
Third: to expand and escalate all forms of official, popular and institutional solidarity with the Palestinian people in each of the Arab countries, at the regional and world levels, and to constantly strive to put the Palestinian cause and the achievement of the national and human rights of the Palestinian people at the top of the agenda of coordination meetings of communist, leftist and progressive parties at all levels in the world.
Fourth: to exert every possible effort to press tirelessly to support the achievement and strengthening of Palestinian national unity, based on the unity of the Palestinian people, their steadfastness and resistance to the occupation, and the commitment to defend their national and Human Rights in full.
Fifth: affirming the right of the Palestinian people to resist, liberate their homeland, and obtain all their national rights, foremost of which are: their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent, Fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of all Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN Resolution 194 issued in 1948.
Sixth: to start organizing various activities and pressing events to expand and strengthen the comprehensive boycott of the Zionist occupation entity and all its products, institutions and media at all levels, withdraw investments from it and impose sanctions on it, as an entity of occupation, settlement and terrorism.
Seventh: to Resist Normalization with the Zionist occupation entity, and to demand the cancellation of the humiliating normalization agreements with it, permanently and not only in connection with the issue of aggression and ceasefire.
Eighth: the meeting condemns the expansion of the Zionist aggression against Lebanon and Syria and targeting their territories, and affirms their right to liberate the occupied territories in northern and eastern Syria, the Golan Heights, the Shab'a farms and the Kafr Shuba Hills in Lebanon, and condemns the continuation of economic sanctions and the unjust siege on the Syrian people. It also condemns all attempts to displace the Palestinian people to Egypt and Jordan and calls for addressing this dangerous criminal project.
Ninth: the meeting stressed the need to follow up on its outputs, put them into practice, continue coordination between its parties, and follow up on urgent work tasks at the level of common priority issues contained in this statement.
Communist parties in Arab countries
20th of December, 2023