The PCP strongly condemns the seizure by Israeli military forces of vessels belonging to the international flotillas of solidarity with Palestine, which took place in international waters, as well as the detention of their crew members and activists, among which Portuguese citizen, who were subjected to aggressions, ill-treatment and degrading treatment by Israeli security forces and political officials.
Such acts constitute an intolerable attack on activists who were participating in a humanitarian action in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the illegal and criminal blockade that Israel maintains over the Gaza Strip and represent further and clear provocations and violations of international law by Israel.
Israel’s repeated and criminal actions against citizens of various countries who express their solidarity with the Palestinian people are yet another facet of the criminal policy of occupation, colonisation, blockade, violence and genocide against the Palestinian people, and are inseparable from the growing repression, first and foremost in Israel but also in other countries, against citizens and organisations that oppose and fight against such Israeli policy, which enjoys the support and complicity of the US and the European Union, and the resulting impunity with which Israel continues its various crimes and acts of aggression in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and against Iran.
Demanding that the Portuguese Government put an end to its complicity with the Israeli regime and take firm action against the repeated violations of international law and the rights of the Palestinian people, the PCP stresses that recent events cannot result solely in the obligatory note of protest to the Israeli Government.
Reaffirming its solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people, the PCP demands an end to the European Union’s complicity and political, economic and military cooperation with the Zionist regime of Israel, at the outset with the total and immediate suspension of the EU’s cooperation agreement with Israel; an end to bilateral cooperation between the Portuguese State and the State of Israel in all areas constituting direct or indirect support for the ongoing occupation and genocide against the Palestinian people; the immediate lifting of the genocidal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip; the release of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails; an end to Israel’s policy of occupation and colonisation, and respect for the national rights of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of an independent and sovereign State of Palestine, with the borders of June 1967 and East Jerusalem as its capital, as well as the right of return for Palestinian refugees, as determined for decades by the relevant UN resolutions.
