The leaders of Greece’s four left-wing opposition parties signed a joint statement on Sunday, concerning the tragic plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza, so as to urge Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to take action.
Following an initiative launched by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the statement was co-signed by SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Sokratis Famellos, New Left leader Alexis Charitsis, and Plefsi Eleftherias party leader Zoi Konstantopoulou.
The letter requests that the government undertake initiatives in its capacity as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on the following issues:
- Stop all military operations by the state of Israel in Gaza
- Immediately open all humanitarian aid corridors so that aid, water, food, medicine, and doctors can be sent in to address the famine among Palestinians
- Condemn crimes by the state of Israel
- Immediately implement the unanimous decision of the Hellenic Parliament of 2015 for the recognition of the Palestinian State with the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital
The joint statement of Greece’s opposition on Gaza in full
The joint statement addressed Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Gerapetritis and reads:
“The people of Palestine are experiencing dramatic moments. The state and government of Israel are escalating military operations in the Gaza Strip with the declared aim of clearing it of the Palestinian population. In this context, they are even refusing to provide humanitarian aid, confronting the Palestinian people with the threat of famine. The partial or total extermination of a population constitutes genocide. The UN has warned that thousands of babies in Gaza are at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of medicine. In Gaza, and before the eyes of all humanity, a real genocide is taking place that to date has resulted in over 61,000 deaths, 119,000 injuries and hundreds of thousands of uprooted people, the vast majority of whom are civilians.
Every day and on a large scale, individual acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are being committed, in violation of every concept and provision of international law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law and in complete contradiction to the feelings of the peoples of the whole world, including the Greek people, who have consistently expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people. The International Criminal Court, of which Greece is a founding member, has issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu for international crimes.
In view of all these critical developments, the Greek government has no political, legal or moral right to justify and ultimately support these crimes. It must—also in its capacity as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council—take active, urgent and clear initiatives to stop the genocide against the Palestinian people, to address the humanitarian crisis, to [recognize] a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The undersigned Parliamentary Groups, through their Chairmen, send a statement to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece in order to take initiatives in the following directions:
— The cessation of all military operations of the state of Israel in Gaza and a ceasefire.
— All humanitarian aid corridors should be opened now so that aid, water, food, medicine, medical supplies and doctors can be sent immediately to address the famine among the Palestinians.
— The Greek government should explicitly and unequivocally condemn the crimes of the state of Israel against the Palestinian people, against workers and volunteers, doctors and nurses, against humanitarian [organizations] and missions trying to bring aid and against UN humanitarian aid personnel.
— The Greek government should cease military cooperation with the state of Israel.
— The unanimous decision of the Parliament of 2015 should be immediately implemented and the Palestinian state should be [recognized] with the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital.
— To invite, via the President of the Parliament, the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to the Hellenic Parliament in order to inform the Greek people about the situation in the Gaza Strip and in the Palestinian territories as a whole.”
Related: Greece Calls on Israel to Halt Gaza Strikes, Allow Aid Through
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