AKEL statement on Palestinian “Land Day”

AKEL on the side of the Palestinian people

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 29^th March 2020, Nicosia

In these difficult times the peoples are going through due to the coronavirus pandemic, we must forget that the struggle of the Palestinian people is continuing. On 30^th March, Palestinians – wherever they may be – commemorate “Land Day”, the day established in honor of all those who struggled and sacrificed their lives on this day in 1976 resisting the Israeli authorities illegal seizure of their land and the discriminations against the Arab citizens of Israel.

The international community is witness to Israel’s expansionist policy, which with the full support of the US, is building and expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. They have transferred more than 700,000 settlers to the land belonging to the Palestinians. The colonisation and transfer of settlers to the occupied territories, as we know very well in Cyprus, constitutes a gross violation of international law and the 4th Geneva Convention, and has been repeatedly condemned by UN resolutions. This policy is destroying every possibility for an independent and viable Palestinian state.

We once again denounce the US Government, which in culmination of its actions, in violation of international law and the resolutions of the UN, has recognised Jerusalem as the indivisible capital of Israel, recognising  Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the legality of the settlements, has put forth the parody called “Deal of the Century”. All these actions fuel Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians and destroy the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital and for peace. The international community, including the European Union, must put an end to the equidistance policy and stop Israel’s impunity for the crimes it is committing against the Palestinian people.

AKEL reaffirms its solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for its land, against the illegal colonisation, for an end to the 13 year blockade of Gaza, for the termination of the Israeli occupation, for the establishment of its own state, for peace. This struggle is part of the common struggle of those who oppose war, imperialist aggression, the abuse of human rights, and who struggle for international law to prevail.