In the past week, Israeli military forces have escalated their offensive on the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted houses, civilian-populated areas and civilian facilities in the Gaza strip. Israeli warplanes have destroyed a number of houses while their residents were inside, without any prior warnings, 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 the Hamas government in Gaza. It has done this without producing any evidence about who was responsible for those killings. A campaign of indiscriminate violence against Palestinians has been incited and one Palestinian boy has been tortured and burnt to death. Now even more indiscriminate retribution has been inflicted on the civilian residents of Gaza. Collective punishment is a violation of international humanitarian law.

The ruthless military offensive conducted by Israeli forces has nothing to do with “self-defence”, but a genocidal aggression on Gaza and intensification of bloody repression against Palestinians, who have been constantly denied their right to self-determination by the Zionist regime.

The undersigned organisations:

• Strongly condemn Israel’s latest attack on Gaza, Palestine and demand that it stop its attacks on Gaza and respect international law including the UN resolution 242 which demands Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967.

• Call upon all governments to immediately withdraw their ambassadors from Israel, cut diplomatic ties and end all military and defence ties with Israel.

• Call for the intensification of the economic boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

Signed by:

Socialist Alliance, Australia

Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), Malaysia

Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM), Philippines

Socialist Aotearoa (NZ)

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) – Liberation

Partai Rakyat Pekerja (PRP), Indonesia

Socialist Alternative, Australia

Partai Rakyat Demokratik (PRD), Indonesia

Solidarity, Australia

Awami Workers Party, Pakistan

Fightback, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Left 21, Hongkong

Social Action for Change, Cambodia

Committee for a Workers Party, South Korea

Partido Manggagawa, Philippines

Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), Sri Lanka

Left Voice, Sri Lanka

Radical Socialist, India

Japanese Revolutionary Communist League (JRCL)

International Socialist Organisation Aotearoa,New Zealand

Revolutionary Workers’ Party-Mindanao, Philippines

Politik Rakyat, Indonesia

Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India

Communist Party of Bangladesh(ML)

United Kashmir People’S National Party (UKPNP) Kashmir

Pioneer, Hong Kong

Signatures updated July 26, 2014

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