Boycott Israel!

Palestinian campaigners are calling on artists and broadcasters to withdraw from the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest that is scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv in May. They are calling on the BBC, songwriters and performers to withdraw from the contest hosted by Israel, to avoid being complicit in the Zionist state's ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights.

The call is part of a wider campaign to pressurise Israel to comply with international law and restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel was launched in July 2005. Inspired by the world-wide anti-apartheid movement that did so much to isolate the hated racist regime in South Africa, the Palestinian campaign upholds the basic principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations and grassroots movements across the world. The boycott campaign is challenging effectively international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.

Sporting, cultural and academic boycotts are acts of concrete solidarity with the Palestinian people, and the targeted consumer boycotts have convinced retailers across the world to stop selling products from companies profiting from Israel’s crimes.

Every day the news bears witness to the monstrous crimes of the Zionists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. But within the labour movement the frenzied efforts of the Blairite and Zionist factions to hound and silence anyone who stands up for Palestinian rights relentlessly continues despite constant appeals from the rank-and-file for the Corbyn leadership to stand up to Zionist intimidation.

Many leading left Labour activists have long supported the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and the Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) movement that says Labour must listen to a range of Jewish voices including those that support Palestinian rights and oppose witch hunts. Some have now set up the Labour and Palestine platform to provide resources and support to Labour Party members who stand in solidarity with Palestinians.

Much more still needs to be done to build solidarity with the Palestinians within the labour movement and across the country as a whole.

Imperialism believes it can call all the shots in the Middle East today. The imperialists believe that all resistance can be crushed by brute force with the support of the feudal Arab oil princes and their other Arab lackeys. But imperialist violence always leads to an equally violent resistance. Imperialism’s refusal to recognise this has led to the spiral of violence and terror in the region that began in 1948 as a regional war, to a conflict that now spans the whole world.

The New Communist Party (NCP) calls for the immediate and unconditional end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and for a comprehensive peace treaty to end the conflict in the Middle East based on past United Nations resolutions. These resolutions provide the basis for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

First of all Israel must withdraw totally from all the occupied territories seized in 1967, including Arab East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan Heights. The Palestinians must be allowed to establish a state of their own on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian refugees whose homes are now in Israel must be allowed to return or, if they so wish, be paid appropriate compensation in exchange. All states in the region, including Israel, should have internationally agreed and recognised frontiers guaranteed by all the ‘Great Powers’. A lasting solution must be based on the right of return of refugees and an independent Palestinian state, with Israel giving up all territories seized since 1967.