Confronted with the news that Michael Pompeo, US Secretary of State, and Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime-Minister of Israel, will travel to and hold a meeting in Portugal, as well as the news that the Portuguese Government will be receiving them at the highest level, the Portuguese Communist Party considers that:
The presence of the Secretary of State in the Trump Administration and of the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister in Portugal are profoundly contrary to the national interest, to our Constitutional norms and to the values of peace and cooperation, and involve Portugal in the reiterated violations of International Law which both men have committed.
The decision of the Portuguese Government to host personalities that are compromised by criminal policies and actions is all the more serious and to be condemned, since it come shortly after yet another campaign of bombing and wave of repression by Israel against the Palestinian people, which resulted in over 30 deaths, and of which the Israeli Prime Minister is the chief culprit, as well as after the unacceptable statements by the US Secretary of State regarding the Palestinian question, which flagrantly violate International Law and United Nations resolutions, namely as regards the illegal Israeli settlements.
If the decision to host the US Secretary of State at the highest level was already a serious act of subordination of the Portuguese Government to the militarist and aggressive policy of the USA and NATO, the decision that has now been announced that Benjamin Netanyahu will also be received at the same level is an affront to the principles of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and stands in contradiction with repeated deliberations by the Assembly of the Republic [Parliament] relative to the Palestinian question, which have condemned Israel’s illegal policy and reiterated the Palestinian people’s national rights, in accordance with United Nations resolutions.
Nothing forces the Portuguese Government to provide its agreement to a meeting in Portugal, the content of which is predictable and profoundly negative, nor to welcome Benjamin Netanhyahu, all the more so since he is currently in a caretaker capacity and is confronted with legal proceedings.
If these announcements are confirmed, the Portuguese people will be confronted with a situation which, in the current international context, will severely affect Portugal’s prestige around the world.
Instead of welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu, the Portuguese Government should use the presence, in an unofficial visit to Portugal, of one of the chief culprits for the tragedy of the Palestinian people to condemn the Israeli Government’s criminal policies, to assert the Portuguese Government’s commitment to International Law and United Nations resolutions and to the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, proceeding to extend full recognition to the State of Palestine, as has been recommended by the Assembly of the Republic.
The PCP calls upon all democrats, patriots and cherishers of peace to, in the name of the sovereignty and the rights of peoples, proclaim that Michael Pompeo and Benjamin Netanyahu are not welcome in Portugal, namely by joining, and calling for participation in, the actions that have already been announced by the movements for peace and solidarity with the peoples, on December 4, in Oporto, and December 6, in Lisbon.
