SACP Welcomes NAM Meeting on Palestinian Struggle

03 May 2001

The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) discussing the struggle for a free Palestine which started in Pretoria today.

This meeting is in line with the SACP call for increased international attention and pressure on Israeli aggression against Palestine. It has been seven months now since the Palestinian Intifada started. Since then the Israeli army has martyred more than 500 Palestinians under the pretext of self-defence.

Israeli has been able to behave in this manner partly because of the role played by the United States of America in the Israeli-Palestine negotiations process. Recently, the US government vetoed a draft resolution tabled to the Security Council of the United Nations which would have enabled an international observer force to be sent to protect civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories. In this regard, the SACP sent a protest letter to the US Embassy in South Africa on 05 April. To this day the US Embassy has not replied.

The SACP calls on the NAM meeting to adopt a Programme of Action which will:

• Expose and draw the attention of the world to atrocities committed by Israeli against Palestinians
• Ensure that an international observer force is sent to Israel as a matter of urgency
• Ensure that the monopoly of the US in the Israeli-Palestine negotiations is ended through a neutral international mediating body
• Ensure the speedy implementation of long-standing UN resolutions on ending Israeli occupation, the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel

The SACP calls on all South Africans and all democrats in the world to support such a Programme of Action from this NAM.

CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity South African Communist Party
Tel - 011 339-3621/2
Fax: 27 11 339-4244
Cell - 083 651 0271
Email: sacp1@wn.apc.org