The Communist Party USA denounces the plans announced by the government of Israel to annex up to 30 percent of the land the Palestinian people hope to include in a future Palestinian state—an annexation which Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition allies had threatened to carry out as early as July 1 but is expected in the coming days. This annexation would not be possible without the full backing of the Trump administration, and without the extremely weak response of the Democratic Party opposition in the U.S. Congress.

The Netanyahu annexation plan appears designed to eliminate forever the possibility of a two-state solution, because the rump “Palestine” which it would permit would not be viable and, in fact, would exist only by the sufferance and permission of the Israeli government. This is why all sectors of Palestinian public opinion and political life have roundly rejected the whole “deal.” They see it, correctly, as merely a continuation of the decades-old Israeli policy of pushing the Palestinian people off their land, first by military action at the founding of Israel and then by the illegal building of Jewish settlements on land that was supposed to be the core of the new Palestinian state, the refusal to issue building permits to Palestinians, allowing settlers to attack Palestinian farmers and destroy their crops, and the jailing and violent repression of Palestinians who actively oppose such oppressive measures. This is why neither the U.S. nor the Israeli government has even bothered to take the Palestinians into account or hear their arguments on this matter which affects them so profoundly.

The proposed annexation also violates a crucial principle of international law, namely, that nations may not annex territories that they have taken over by force; this sets a very bad precedent for other conflicts the world over. The support of the Trump administration for all this is of a piece with the fact that of all the nations in the world, only Israel and the United States regard the settlement building as being illegal.

The weak Democratic Party response to the annexation threat has no teeth, since it threatens no consequences, such as a cut-off of massive U.S. aid to Israel. The great majority of the Democrats in Congress, unfortunately, continue to turn a blind eye to both the injustice done to the Palestinian people and the danger of war in the Middle East which the Trump-Netanyahu policy entails. We must demand something much stronger.

Over a thousand European parliamentarians from at least 25 European countries have called for the European Union to take action to oppose the annexation. Meanwhile in Israel the Joint List, the coalition of Arab and left-wing parties that holds the third highest number of seats in the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), has sent a letter to the Democratic Party in the United States calling for it to come out in opposition to the annexation. World public opinion is strongly opposed; only the United States continues to be uncritical.

The Communist Party USA demands:

*An end to the annexation plans and to other measures by the Israeli government that oppress the Palestinian people.

*An end to the building of the settlements.

*Action in Congress to make it clear that the proposed annexation will trigger efforts to cut off U.S. aid to Israel.

We call on our members and friends to contact their congressional representatives, the White House, the State Department, and the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to denounce the proposed annexation, and to demand an end to U.S. support for Israeli oppression of the people of Palestine.

Image:  rpb1001, Creative Commons (BY-NC 2.0).

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