In the past week, Israeli military forces have escalated their offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted houses, civilian-populated areas and civilian facilities without any prior warning, thus killing and wounding many Palestinian civilians.
The Israeli government has cynically exploited the killing of three Israeli youth and used this to whip up a racist hysteria against Palestinians and Hamas in Gaza. It has done this without producing any evidence as to who was responsible for those killings.
A campaign of indiscriminate violence against Palestinians has been incited and one Palestinian boy has been tortured and burned to death. Now even more indiscriminate retribution has been inflicted on the civilian-residents of Gaza.
Israeli occupation forces have also targeted the campuses of Birzeit University near Ramallah and the Arab American University in Jenin, resulting in the detention and arrest of students and staff and greatly infringing the Palestinians’ right to education.
Israel’s actions are designed to terrorize and impose a collective punishment on the Palestinian people in blatant violation of international humanitarian laws.
The Partido Lakas ng Masa strongly condemns Israel’s latest attack on Gaza, Palestine, and demands that it stop its attacks on Gaza and respect international law, including UN Resolution 242 which demands that Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967.
We also call on the Philippine government to immediately withdraw its ambassador from Israel, cut diplomatic ties and end any military and defense ties with Israel.
Lastly, we support the calls for the intensification of the economic boycott, dis-investment and sanctions against Israel.
—SONNY MELENCIO,
chair, Partido Lakas ng Masa,
partidolakasngmasa@gmail.com