What is going on in Israel? Far-Right Government in Crisis, General Strike and Mass Protests

Beset by three months of unprecedented protests against his nationalist-religious coalition's signature plan to overhaul the judiciary, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hit the pause button and called for compromise negotiations.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Israel in a spontaneous outburst of anger on Sunday after Netanyahu fired his defense minister for challenging his judicial overhaul plan.

Israel: Communists protested against new Gaza attack

Photo: Zo Haderech.

Protests were held in several locations across Israel last Saturday 6 August against the Israel Defense Forces’ deadly operation ongoing in Gaza, launched a day earlier. 

 

Protests were held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Shefa-amr, Umm el-Fahm, Sakhnin, Rahat, Kufr Yasif, Jaffa, Taibe and opposite the house of Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Tel Aviv.

At a protest in Haifa, Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) said: “A round [of fighting] brings another round, more killing and more resistance. The circle of horror needs to stop. We came out to protest together for the only way that will benefit both nations – real negotiations to end the occupation, founding a Palestinian state alongside Israel and a just peace.”

Joint statement of Communist Parties on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

Joint statement by the Palestinian People's Party (PPP) and the Communist Party of Israel, co-signed by many Communist and Workers' Parties, on the International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian People:

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers parties on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 

Israel's Communist Party re-elects Adel Amer as its leader

Adel Amer, CPI General Secretary. Photo: Al-Ittihad

During last month’s 28th Congress of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), the delegates unanimously reelected Adel Amer as the party’s General Secretary. 

 

Having in 2015 initially succeeded the previous General Secretary Mohammed Nafa’h (1940-2021), the renowned Arab-Palestinian Druze writer from the Galilee, Amer is a well known educator and journalist from Kafr Kassem in the center of the country.

Communists back Tel Aviv SlutWalk against sexual violence

About 2,000 participants marched in a SlutWalk in Tel Aviv on Friday, October 15, protesting sexual violence, discrimination and victim-blaming.  

 

Participants, among them members of the Young Communist League of Israel, shouted slogans such as: “I believe you,” while carrying signs with pictures of sex offenders and major streets across the city were blocked as demonstrators made their way to the main rally at Habima Square.

Israel's Communist Party to hold its 28th Congress

The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) is currently winding up its preparations for the party’s 28th Congress to be held between October 7th and 9th in the Arab city of Shefa-Amr (Shfar’am) in the Galilee.

The Congress will be taking place during a period of turbulent developments in the Middle East, with popular movements protesting for democracy and social justice in countries throughout the region, while the forces of Imperialism maneuver to take advantage of events for their own interests. Israel’s new Bennet government, which enjoys the backing of US Imperialism, repeatedly threatens to launch a new war of aggression, in particular against Iran. Such aggression would have grave consequences for the peoples of the region, with especially disastrous results for the people in Israel.

Irish communists: The hypocrisy of Western governments knows no bounds

Photo: idcommunism.com

In a statement issued on May 24, 2021, the Communist Party of Ireland (Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann) points out the following:

"The outrage being expressed by the Government and the minister for foreign affairs is all hot air and downright hypocritical, as is the blustering by the European Union, in regard to the Ryanair flight being forced to land in Belarus and the arrest of Roman Protasevich, a passenger on that Ryanair flight.

Nothing about Belarus can be separated from the aggressive political and military strategy of both the European Union and NATO towards that country and towards Russia.

KKE MEPs to EU Commission: What is your position towards Israeli state's aggression?

With a question of the MEPs of the Party, Kostas Papadakis and Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, to the High Representative of Foreign Affairs J. Borrell, the Delegation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in the European Parliament denounces the murderous attack of the Israeli state in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people, while especially underlining the responsibilities of both the US and the EU.

Livorno port workers refuse to load arms shipment destined for Israel

Dock workers in the Italian port of Livorno refused to load a shipment of weapons and explosives after discovering it was destined for the Israeli port of Ashdod.

L’Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), Italy's independent, class-oriented trade union,  pointed out that the ship contained weapons and explosives that will serve to kill the Palestinian civilians, already hit by a severe attack that has killed hundreds of civilian victims, including many children.

Communist Parties from all over the world express solidarity with the Palestinian people

Communist and Workers' Parties from every corner of the world condemn the criminal Israeli aggression in Gaza and Jerusalem and express their solidarity with the Palestinian people. 

Israeli communists and leftists: STOP THE WAR IN GAZA

Following a call by Hadash - the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality - as well as other pro-peace groups and organizations, hundreds of people demonstrated on Tuesday and Wednesday across Israel, demanding an end to the bombing of Gaza. 

In Tel Aviv, under the slogan "Stop the fire", anti-war demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of Likud party and demanded an immediate ceasefire. In Jerusalem, the protesters marched to Zion Square where police forces forcibly dispersed them and a young woman was arrested. Similar demonstrations took place in Haifa's Ben Gurion boulevard. 

KKE condemns criminal Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

In a statement issued today the Communist Party of Greece calls Mitsotakis' ND government to stop the military cooperation with Israel and to proceed to the immediate recognition of the Palestinian state. 

In face of the recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza strip and the escalation of aggression against Palestinians, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas made the following statement (here in Greek):

Hadash, Communist Party of Israel condemn attacks against Palestinians in East Jerusalem

Israeli police injured 90 Palestinians on Saturday night, May 8, outside the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, 16 of whom were hospitalized, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, after protesters hurled bottles and rocks at occupation forces and the police responded with stun grenades and water cannon.

Arab-Palestinians protested throughout the country on Saturday over the far-right government’s actions in Jerusalem, including its handling of violent clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday and the pending eviction of dozens of Palestinians from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. 

Palestinians Land Day: Statement by the WFTU

On the occasion of the 45th Palestinians Land Day, the Secretariat of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) issued the following statement: 

 

"The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 105 million workers in 132 countries around the globe, commemorates the Palestinians Land Day and the heroic resistance of the People of Palestine on March 30th 1976 against the Israeli expropriation of Palestinian land. 

 

Shministiyot Letter — 80 Israeli teens refuse to serve in the army, denounce the policy of occupation and apartheid

Eighty Israeli teenagers in their final year of high school published an open letter on Tuesday morning, December 5, addressed to ministers in the far-right government, in which they declared their refusal to serve in the army to protest the state’s policies of occupation and apartheid. 

 

The new “Shministim Letter” reported on in Zo Haderech, the Hebrew-language website of the Communist Party of Israel, decries Israel’s military control of Palestinians in the occupied territories, referring to the regime in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem as an “apartheid system.”

Israel-UAE-Bahrain agreement: Palestinian and Lebanese parties condemn the deal

In a joint statement issued in Beirut on September 14th, the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and three political parties from Palestine condemn the recent normalisation deal signed by Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Washington DC. 

As the statement points out the Lebanese Communist Party, the  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) "condemn the normalization of relationships between the Zionist entity from one side, and UAE and Bahrain from the other side".

Serbian communists denounce government's intention to relocate embassy in Jerusalem

The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) denounces the announcement made by the government of Aleksandar Vučić on the possible relocation of the Serbian embassy in Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 

In a statement under the title "Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel", the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia points out the following:

In response to the shameful announcement and agreement signed by the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, together with US president Donald Trump and the so-called president of the so-called state of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, about Serbia’s intention to move its embassy out of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) should like to point out a few facts to demonstrate why this intention may not be acted upon under any circumstances. 

Netanyahu resign! Thousands of demonstrators attend anti-governmental rallies in Israel

Hadash and Communist Party of Israel activists participated in the
demonstration at Jerusalem’s Paris Square. The Arabic and Hebrew banner
reads, “We are the Revolution.” (Photo: Zu Haderech).

Protests against Israel's far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued nationwide on Saturday evening, August 8, with tens of thousands of people gathering outside the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. 

In addition, approximately 1,000 demonstrators stationed themselves at a main intersection exiting Caesarea, site of Netanyahu’s private residence, to assure that he would have to pass them as he was driven back to Jerusalem on Saturday night. 

Among the protestors in Jerusalem was Joint List MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) and numerous activists from Hadash, the Communist Party of Israel, and members of the Young Communist League.

Young Israeli Communists against occupation and annexation of Palestinian land

"A nation that occupies other nations cannot be free" says the Young Communist League of Israel (YCLI) on the occasion of the 53rd anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War which resulted to the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel. 

In the following interesting interview, the Young Communist League of Israel gives its perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, the warmongering policy of the right-wing Netanyahu government, the fight against fascism and imperialism and the common struggle with the Palestinian people and youth for a lasting peace:

Occupation is Terror, Annexation is Apartheid: Joint Statement by Communist Parties

The following statement, signed by numerous Communist and Workers' Parties, was issued after an initiative by the Palestinian People's Party and the Communist Party of Israel. 

Occupation is Terror, Annexation is Apartheid

On June 5th 2020 it is the 53rd anniversary of the 1967 aggressive war, where Israel had occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza strip, the Syrian Golan and Sinai peninsula.