People's Democracy

Stop This Massacre In Gaza

HUNDREDS of workers of the Left and democratic parties - CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, JD(S), TDP and concerned citizens along with students, teachers and women activists demonstrated in front of the Israeli embassy in the capital on Friday, the January 9, 2009. They were protesting against the Israeli attacks on Gaza strip and urging the government of India to scrap the military pact and all ties with Israel.

The protestors marched from Shahjahan Road towards Aurangazeb Road where the Israeli embassy is located shouting slogans against the Israeli government, US government and their supporters in India. Police stopped them near the embassy where a meeting was held which was addressed by the CPI(M) leaders Rupchand Pal, MP and Dipankar Mukherjee, ex-MP; CPI leaders A B Bardhan, general secretary and Amarjit Kaur, Janata Dal (Secular) secretary general Danish Ali, RSP secretary and MP Abani Roy, Forward Bloc leader Dharmendra Verma.

Vijender Sharma, CPI(M) Delhi secretariat member, placed a resolution condemning the inhuman aggression launched by Israel and called for an immediate end to the ongoing massacres. The resolution noted that �The US and other countries stand complicit in Israel's invasion of Gaza. While the US has blocked any attempts to call for an immediate cease fire in Gaza, the European Union is still trying to equate the ongoing Israeli massacres in Gaza with Hamas launching a few rockets. The Indian government, while giving lip-service to the Palestinian cause, is also complicit in Israel's occupation: it is the biggest buyer of Israeli arms today and is therefore subsidising the Israeli armed forces.�

The following demands were included in the resolution:

• An immediate stop to Israel's attacks on Gaza and pulling back its forces,

• Lifting of the siege of Gaza,

• An end to Israel's occupation of Palestine,

• The Indian government break all military and security ties with Israel,

• The Indian government suspend diplomatic relations with Israel as long as Israeli occupation of Palestine continues,

• The Indian government take an urgent diplomatic initiative to end Israel's brutal aggression,

• The boycott of all Israeli goods and Israeli companies in India.

BENGAL CONDEMNS  ISRAELI AGGRESSION

Meetings, rallies, and marches marked January 10 when lakhs upon lakhs of people from all strata of the society came out onto the streets and the roads, the lanes and the by-lanes, the rural areas and the urban stretches to condemn Israeli barbarism in the name of �defence� on the Gaza strip in particular and in Palestine in general.

The photo of a young boy swinging a sling-shot containing a small fragment of brick as the Israeli-flown US-made Apache helicopters rained down death on men, women, and children was carried by the marchers. The attack of the Gaza strip was preceded by the deathly assault on the sovereignty of Lebanon in the name of Hezbollah in 2006 just as Hamas is being cited to �justify� slaughter of the innocent in Palestine.

Marches were taken out by all the Left Front-affiliated units of mass organisation, the workers, the kisans, the youth, the women, the students, and the intellectuals and artistes. Kolkata with its great anti-imperialist tradition witnessed some of the largest rallies in recent times in front of the US information centre in the heart of the metropolis.