It is pointless to look for a strategy on the Palestinian issue behind the US President’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The US imperialism has generated a plethora of “projects” from outright occupation to “moderate Islam”, from the so-called “Arab Spring” to the “fight against terror”, which all fizzled out and caused the major imperialist power to lose ground. On top of such unhindered descension, the ongoing fratricide among the dominant powers of the US has added insult to injury. Trump’s Jerusalem initiative is an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to allow the US take initiative in the region on the one hand and to provoke the region in order to save his own skin on the other.
This attempt is doomed to failure; it can result in nothing but another fiasco.
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Jerusalem has a status specified by international agreements and United Nations documents. The “two-state solution” prescribed for the Palestinian issue identifies East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent state of Palestine.
The United States and Israel have sabotaged all attempts to proceed in this direction for many years. These interceptions meant planting bombs on the road to a solution. Now, these bombs will explode in the hands of those who have planted them.
First of all, declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not a decision that can gain recognition in the present state of world affairs. It is impossible to assemble a coalition with other imperialist powers, global and regional powers to legitimize such decision.
Secondly, the forces of peace are not as weak as they are supposed to be. Imperialism, which miscalculated the resistance against occupation in the Middle East, the secular and patriotic background of the region in recent years, is engaged in an attempt doomed to failure once again. The people of Palestine will resist. The forces of peace in Israel will resist. Peoples of the region who live in countries which are friendly to Israel and adherents and pawns of the US, will stand by the resistance.
Trump’s fantasy to kill many birds with one stone will certainly backfire; the illegitimate policies of the state of Israel will meet with the reaction and abomination of all humanity.
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Communist Party of Turkey strongly condemns the US President’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and highlights that this is an utterly provocative attempt. Provocations can be circumvented only through the joint political action of peoples.
Enemies of the people have no place in this fight. The reactionary political powers in the region, firs and foremost the AKP, have no legitimacy whatsoever to take part in it. Tayyip Erdoğan is not embracing the seemingly anti-Israeli demagogy today for the first time. Erdoğan’s defiance is nothing but an empty threat. Just as it was years ago in Davos, during Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
The continuation of military cooperation between Turkey and Israel proved that this old demagogy was nothing but empty words. It became obvious as imperialism unleashed Turkey and Israel against Syria right off the bat. It became obvious as the massacres perpetrated by ISIS, which wreaked havoc on the region, gained the support of these countries. The fact that reactionism employs Islamist bigotry in Turkey and Jewish bigotry in Israel does not make any difference.
The fake reactions of the AKP and similar regimes in the region complement Trump’s sinister attempt. Provocation is welcomed with more provocation, and battle cries rang all around. Reactionism supposes that it can sustain its power by provoking peoples against each other.
In this very day, Communist Party of Turkey feels the necessity to underline the fact that reactionism is neither on the side of the Palestinian people, nor on the side of peace.
It is not impossible to make Jerusalem a center where peoples of diverse cultures, faiths and languages can and do live in peace side by side. Yet, it is time to remind ourselves that this objective can be attained only under socialism. The last assault of imperialism and Zionism shall not be an excuse to put other demands in front of the fight for peace and socialism. On the contrary, the fact that the threat of war could not be staved off so far proves that putting off the fight for socialism is a profound fallacy.
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Communist Party of Turkey proclaims that the provocative decision about Jerusalem cannot gain validity in the face of the peoples’ will, and demands this dismal attempt to be revoked at once.
On this occasion, we once again demand to put an end to the occupation, to have an independent and sovereign state of Palestine to be established within 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, to have the Palestinian state accepted as a full member to the United Nations, to have Israeli military stop its invasion on Syrian and Lebanese territories, to have the blockade of Gaza lifted unconditionally and immediately, to have illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian territories abolished at once, to have the Jewish settlers leave Palestine, to have the wall of shame surrounding Palestine torn down, to have Palestinian refugees who have been forced to leave their homes to be able to return their lands, and to have all political prisoners in Israeli prisons to be released.
We repeat our solidarity with the toiling masses of Palestine, the forces of peace in Israel, and all oppressed, patriotic peoples of our region, and we hail the working classes of Israel and Palestine and the revolutionary, communist and peace loving forces of resistance who represent them.