The Israeli occupation of Palestine is ever more isolated, politically and diplomatically. It is clear that the US imperialism is nothing else but an ally of the racist, colonialist and criminal occupying power, which is Israel. It is up to the international movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people to strengthen the struggle for its liberation, driving the US away, once and for all, from the role of mediator. This is also the position defended by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), in a statement released this Monday (15th of January).

By Socorro Gomes*

Ever since he proclaimed Jerusalem the capital of Israel, against the opinion of most UN members and against the position of a broad movement for peace and international solidarity regarding the situation in occupied Palestine, and, before that, when his government decided for the closure of the PLO office in Washington, President Donald Trump has prompted a situation that leads to the intensification of confrontation.

To the Palestinian leadership and the world’s peoples, it was the definitive prove that we cannot count on the US mediation, since this imperialist power’s interests coincide with the deepening of Zionist and racist colonization, a regime of apartheid and a genocidal policy promoted by the Israeli leadership.

The Palestinian leadership’s opinion was expressed in the statement of the PLO Central Council gathered in Ramallah on the 14th and 15th of January. It was also expressed in the speech, given during the same meeting, of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian authorities and the people are contesting a peace process that, mediated mainly by the US, for over 20 years has been systematically violated. All the promises in the agreements were either ignored or disrespected by Israel.

The Palestinian people cannot wait longer while watching the occupation gain roots as a permanent situation, facing arbitrary and massive incarceration, massacres, the expropriation of their resources, expulsion and genocide.

The World Peace Council has strengthened its activities in this which is an important front in humanity’s struggle, corresponding to the commitment of all peace-loving peoples with the end of the catastrophe imposed on the Palestinian people.

Reaffirm our demand for respect to the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the end of the Israeli occupation, with the establishment of a free and independent state, the liberation of all political prisoners and the return of the refugees that were obligated to this condition for seven decades, we have also affirmed the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to resist.

President Trump, on the other hand, has imposed on the world a shameful foreign policy that is chauvinistic, xenophobic, racist and warmongering, causing world reaction to phrases such as the one uttered last week, in which he classified in vile terms some of the brave African nations and Haiti, which were all victims of horrifying martyrdom and exploitation by the colonial and imperialist powers.

The US policy, especially in Palestine’s case, was always of unconditional support to war criminals leading the Israeli government, unconditional allies in the imperialism’s plans for the world and the Middle East in particular. At the top of this escalation, Trump has decided to strike the holiest interests of the Palestinian people, who is already facing the consequences of five decades of military occupation and seven decades since the catastrophe that, since the occupation, has become a daily fact of life.

US imperialism is completely rejected and cannot maintain the farce of mediation. Therefore, it is up to the international movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people to support the strengthening of their struggle and demand an immediate and definite solution that guarantees their liberation. US imperialism has been the guarantor of this unsustainable situation, a shame to humanity.

The Palestinian people reaffirms their openness to dialogue, but also their sovereign and legitimate resolution of not submitting anymore to the arbitrariness of a false peace process continuously redrawn to maintain them subdued. The heroic Palestinian people cannot wait longer. The solution for the Palestinian question, with its people’s independence and the achievement of their national state, is indispensable to world peace.

*Socorro Gomes is the President of the World Peace Council