Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the speech of US President George Bush on West Asia. He has made an outrageous suggestion that the Palestinians must change their leadership in return for Washington’s support for a Palestinian state within 18 months. This is pure and simple blackmail. US imperialism’s partisanship with Israel could not have been more blatant. Even while Mr. Bush was making this proposal, Israeli tanks were railing into Ramallah and encircling Yasser Arafat’s headquarters. This, after days of annexation of Palestinian territories and untold atrocities on innocent Palestinians committed by the Israeli army. Not strangely, President Bush has not issued a stricture, leave alone a condemnation of the Israeli atrocities being committed on the Palestinians.
Yasser Arafat is the legitimate elected president of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian state. US imperialism’s aggressiveness and blatant support to Israeli military attacks against the Palestinians cannot be tolerated by the peace loving progressive sections of the world community.
The PB of the CPI(M) calls upon the international community and the United Nations to immediately intervene to deescalate the situation and stop further innocent lives from being lost. The inalienable right of the Palestinians for their homeland can no longer be denied by such imperialist conspiracies. The PB of the CPI(M) calls upon the Indian government to take a firm initiative in this direction.