On the day of the General Strike of the Palestinians Citizens of Israel, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) expresses our support for your ongoing campaign for human, civil, political and national rights.
For background to the call for a General Strike, please see this statement - http://www.arabhra.org/hra/SecondaryArticles/SecondaryA...=1793
To: The High Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens of Israel
Dear friends,
On the day of the General Strike of the Palestinians Citizens of Israel, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) expresses our support for your ongoing campaign for human, civil, political and national rights.
We have noted with grave concern the racism and discrimination – physical, intellectual and rhetorical – faced by the Palestinian minority in Israel. We are also extremely concerned by, and utterly condemn, the upsurge in State repression against Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jewish-Israeli peace activists. In particular we read with dismay the recent Adalah report detailing the ways in which the Israeli State suppressed legal demonstrations in opposition to the winter slaughter in Gaza. (Background: http://www.adalah.org/eng/pressreleases/pr.php?file=09_...09_22)
We also recognise that today you are commemorating the ninth anniversary of the murder of 13 Palestinians in Israel during the opening weeks of the al-Aqsa Intifada. That no one has been brought to justice for these murders is an outrage, and yet another example of the impunity of the Israeli State with regard to atrocities carried out against Palestinians, both within the ‘Green Line’ and beyond it. It is also extremely worrying that Palestinians in Israel feel that they may soon face “another October 2000” – of course it is all of our hopes that such brutal events will never again occur! (Background: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9329.shtml)
The IPSC reaffirms our solidarity with the Palestinian people the world over, be they in the Occupied Territories, within Israel or in the Diaspora and express our continued support for the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people. Your courage and sacrifice is an inspiration to us all.
Our thoughts will be with you.
In Solidarity
IPSC