New Delhi: Calling on the people of India to express solidarity with Palestine, five Left parties demanded on Wednesday that the government cancel all export licences and permissions to various Indian companies for the supply of arms and ammunition to Israel.
In a joint statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation [CPI(ML)] demanded an immediate ceasefire and recognition of a Palestinian state, with the pre-1947 borders and East Jerusalem as capital, and sanctions on Israel.
“In the light of the brazen violations of UN (United Nations) resolution, the ICJ (International Court of Justice) rulings against the genocide by Israel in Gaza and the escalation of such genocide against the people of Palestine, the Left parties in India — CPI(M), CPI, RSP AIFB and CPI-ML — call upon the Indian people to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the genocide and atrocities being carried out by Israel backed by the United States of America,” the parties said in a joint statement.
They also demanded a military embargo on Israel and on the import and export of weapons and military equipment to the country, and stopping all forms of military cooperation.
The parties demanded that sanctions be imposed on cooperation and movement of Indian labour for industrial activity in Israel; legal sanctions on Israel, including diplomatic, financial and economic; and invoking the UN’s special committee against apartheid to “terminate the apartheid regime of Israel and hold the perpetrators accountable”.
The demands from the government included cancelling all export licences and permissions to various Indian companies for the supply of military arms and ammunition to Israel; halting all arms imports from Israel; and ending “all forms of complicity with Israel’s illegal military occupation and genocide, based on principles of colonial apartheid”.
“The Left parties also urge the people to ensure political and diplomatic resistance by the Indian government, in keeping with our legacy since before Independence. The Left parties believe that the situation in West Asia has reached a stage where global democratic opinion must assert itself to defend peace and dignity,” they said.
They also urged all party units to “jointly and independently unite the Indian people effectively on August 3”.
