Communist Party Executive Committee Meeting urges action against Israeli war crimes

Britain’s Communists have welcomed the ongoing mass protests across Britain against the ‘moral bankruptcy’ of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer and other politicians who refuse to condemn Israeli war crimes in Gaza. At its first meeting, the Communist Party’s executive committee (EC) welcomed the initiative of the South African government to refer Israel to the International Court of Justice at The Hague and called for the intensification of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. ‘Prime Minister Netanyahu’s criminal regime should be condemned and confronted as much of the world once confronted South African Apartheid’, Robert Griffiths told the party’s EC at the weekend. He listed some of history’s most infamous massacres of innocent civilians, from Drogheda, Glencoe, Wounded Knee and Jallianwaga Bhag (Amritsar) to Guernica, Oradour, Lidice, My Lai and Sharpeville. ‘Count up the dead bodies, multiply that number by four and you have the scale of the mass murder of defenceless women, men and children in Gaza since October 7’, he remarked. ‘But instead of condemnation, the Israeli regime is supported, armed and financed by the US, Britain and other Western states and corporations. We send warships to the Middle East not to rescue the Palestinian people from slaughter, disease and starvation, but to ensure safe passage for Israel’s shipping trade’, he remarked. Mr Griffiths also warned  of the growing danger of a wider conflagration. ‘With logistical and surveillance support from British military bases in Cyprus, the American and Israeli bombing of targets in Lebanon, Syria and Iran threatens to spread bloodshed across the region’, he pointed out. The CP executive called for the biggest possible turnout for the national Palestine solidarity demonstration in London next Saturday, January 13, and also urged support on the following Saturday for the TUC ‘right to strike’ demonstration in Cheltenham and the Latin America Solidarity conference in London. The new EC elected its senior officers for the next two years including Ruth Styles (chair), Tony Conway and Helen O’Connor (vice-chairs), Robert Griffiths (general secretary) and Kevan Nelson (international). The Communist Party’s political committee will comprise the chair, general secretary, international secretary, Young Communist League general secretary Georgina Andrews, CP central organiser Judith Cazorla, Morning Star editor Ben Chacko, Lorraine Douglas, Alex Gordon, Johnnie Hunter, Liz Payne and women’s organiser Carol Stavris.