The adoption by the Israeli Parliament of the new Basic Law on the State of Israel - of a Constitutional nature - enshrines the principles of a racist and segregationist State, which denies citizenship rights to its Palestinian Arab citizens and which confirms previously existing discrimination in Israeli legislation, represents a very serious qualitative step that institutionalizes the principles of a Zionist State of apartheid.
By stating that the entire city of Jerusalem is the capital of Israel - a State whose borders are not defined -, the new Law explicitly points to the increase of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, which represents not only a new frontal violation of international law, but also the formal proof that the Israeli Government is determined to destroy the viability of the two-State solution promised seven decades ago by several UN resolutions that have never been materialised.
This escalation by Israel's far-right government is inseparable from the US/Trump Administration's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to transfer its embassy to that city, as well as the cuts in US funding to UNRWA, the UN agency which provides humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinian refugees spread around the world, including in Gaza. This is an escalation inseparable from the ongoing manoeuvres by the US, Israel and its allies in the region to impose a new pseudo “peace plan” on the Palestinian people, in fact a new step towards the Zionist ambition of “Greater Israel” and a new betrayal of the martyred Palestinian people. It is inseparable from the connivance of a European Union which, despite some verbal demarcations, maintains a strong cooperation with Israel, in particular through its Association Agreement.
This decision by the Israeli parliament is accompanied by an escalation of repression, demolitions (such as that of the Palestinian village of Kan al-Ahmar), continuing criminal bombings and assassinations by the Israeli army of demonstrators in the Gaza Strip and the worsening of the brutal siege of its approximately two million inhabitants, as well as arbitrary detentions by Israel in the West Bank. An escalation that also includes plans of aggression and war against Iran, which is notably represented by the US violation of the nuclear agreement with that country and the announcement by the US/Trump of violent sanctions not only against Iran but also against any companies that do business with that country.
The PCP considers that it is a constitutional duty of the Portuguese Government to take a firm stand against the affronts, illegalities and crimes by Israel, namely with the immediate recognition by Portugal of the State of Palestine, as well as the initiative of condemning Israel in the international bodies where our Country is present.
The PCP expresses its solidarity with the democratic and progressive forces in Israel, in particular with the Communist Party of Israel, which have strongly opposed this new racist, colonialist and anti-democratic Law and renews its solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people and with their struggle for inalienable national rights, including its right to an independent and sovereign State, in the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital and ensuring the right of return for refugees. The PCP calls for strengthening the solidarity of the Portuguese workers and people with the long-suffering Palestinian people.
