The Party of the European Left, which was in the Gaza Strip last June with a delegation headed by its vice-president Maite Mola, already denounced during their visit the "genocide" that Israel is exercising systematically to finish with the Palestinians siege in the biggest jail of the world, an open air jail surrounded by sea (for the patrol boats of the army) by ground (tanks) and by air with the continuous flight of drones and of F-16.

The Party of the European Left questions the Israeli government if when last week, the Israeli army killed Al Awda Jehad Hamada a Palestinian of 27-year-old Palestinian scrap seller, working in a rubbish dumb just 800m from the fence where it was shot, it was also a "response" against terrorism, as they said with the dead of a 3 year-old killed in a camp of refugees these days. And if it is also a “response” when shooting against the fishermen who work near the coast and the farmers who grow and pick up their lands in order to survive.

The EL reminds that this latest military operation that has just killed a 3-year-old girl is not isolated and that 5 years ago, in full Christmas, as now, the Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip during 25 days killing 1.400 Gazans, mostly minors, using, as they had to recognize, white phosphorus in the bombing against the UN Centre for refugees in Gaza City.

Thus, the Party of the European Left requests the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, guest of honour these days in Jerusalem, to stops the institutional complicity that the EU has with Israel, ending with the preferential trade agreement with this country, to make a clear and forceful denunciation of the siege which Israel subjected the Palestinian population and, on behalf of the peoples of Europe, intercede for the political solution of the conflict listening to the demands of the Palestinian people.

The EL requests to ensure compliance with international law to run the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area, the total opening of the Rafah passage 24 hours a day and to fulfill the mandates of the UN for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Party of the European Left,
26 December 2013