Assassination condemned

In a statement on Tuesday, March 23, the Secretariat of the 
Communist Party of Australia said:

We condemn in the strongest terms the assassination of the 
Islamic and Palestinian leader, Sheik Yassin. This act of state 
terrorism is a clear indication, if any is needed, that the 
Israeli Government and its Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon have no 
intention of working towards a peaceful settlement with the 
Palestinian people. Palestinians are being systematically driven 
off their homelands into exile or killed.

The assassination is yet another act of provocation and 
incitement inviting retaliation from the Palestinian side which 
will then be used for more repression, a wider war in the Middle 
East and to incite religious and racially based responses.

It could also be used by the US and Israel, who are working hand 
in hand, to justify an invitation to station US troops in Israel 
and to establish bases on Israeli territory to be used against 
Lebanon, Syria, Jordon, Iran and Egypt.

The Israeli and US leaderships have no policy other than 
oppression, war and occupation. State terrorism and war are their 
weapons of choice while condemning others who dare to resist a 
new colonialism and call for peaceful solutions.

It is also clear from its responses that the Australian Howard 
Government supports the criminal policy of deliberate 
assassinations now being systematically used by the Israeli 
leadership, policies which will fuel hatred, endless conflict and 
do not serve the long-term interests of the Jewish people.

We call on the United Nations to not only condemn this latest 
assassination but immediately send a peacekeeping force to 
protect the rights of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and 
Gaza Strip territories. A separate Palestinian state should be 
proclaimed as a matter of extreme urgency. Lands seized from the 
Palestinian people must be restored to their rightful owners and 
Israeli military forces and occupiers withdrawn to Israel's pre-
1967 war borders as has been demanded in numerous UN resolutions.

For far too long Israeli and United States leaders have conspired 
to thwart any and every attempt to achieve a just settlement of 
this Middle East conflict. It is time for member nations of the 
United Nations to collectively stand up against the criminal 
policies of these two governments and take the necessary steps to 
bring an end to what will otherwise be a continuing cycle of 
violence and killings and a possible wider war.