SACP condemns the ongoing genocide on Palestinians and escalation of aggression in West Asia by the apartheid Israeli settler regime

1 August 2024 

The South African Communist Party (SACP) strongly condemns the United States-backed escalated apartheid Israeli settler regime’s aggression in West Asia.

We reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people’s pursuit of self-determination and justice and express our message of sincere condolences to the relatives, friends and comrades of all those who the apartheid Israeli settler regime has killed.

Since 7 October 2023, the apartheid Israeli settler regime has killed nearly 50,000 Palestinian people in Gaza, of whom about 10,000 are under the rubble. Women, children and elderly people make about 75 per cent of the victims of the genocide, which the apartheid Israeli regime continues unabated.

Given those who have not been accounted for, it is reasonably believed that the apartheid Israeli settler regime has killed a greater number of Palestinian people. Those the regime has injured in Gaza now exceed 90,400.

In the West Bank, the apartheid Israeli settler regime has killed about 590 Palestinian people, including 142 children, and has injured over 5,400 Palestinian people, since 7 October 2023.

In addition, the apartheid Israeli settler regime has detained thousands of Palestinians without trial.

The genocide on the Palestinian people by the apartheid Israeli settler regime has turned Palestine into its Auschwitz death chamber.

The illegal home, land and property seizures that spanned over 500 Palestinian villages in just under two years from 1947 to 1948 should remind us that the imperialist-backed apartheid Israeli settler regime started its war against the Palestinian people many years ago. The Israeli colonial occupation of Palestinian lands has been ongoing for over 70 years.

The SACP is also concerned about the increasing aggression by the United States-backed apartheid Israeli settler regime into neighbouring areas. The regime’s frequent attacks on Syria and southern Lebanon have now extended to strikes on the capital of Lebanon.

On 30 July 2024, for instance, the apartheid Israeli settler regime launched a missile assault on Beirut, killing a woman and two children, and injuring at least 80 people.

The apartheid Israeli settler regime conducted an extra-judicial execution, in Iran, of the Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh. The regime is supposedly negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Palestinians. Haniyeh was one of the key negotiators for Palestine. Notably, the apartheid Israeli regime carried out the extra-judicial execution in a context of a calculated United States attack on their own-engineered ISIS in Iraq.

The apartheid Israeli settler regime has consistently demonstrated that it has no interest in pursuing peace. Its leaders have turned down several peace agreements during the ongoing negotiations and have disregarded the United Nations’ call for a ceasefire and judgments by the International Court of Justice.

The United States recently hosted Netanyahu, leader of the genocide on Palestinian people. Committed to its draconian code of domination, the United States continues to encourage, arm and direct the apartheid Israeli settler regime, whilst pretending publicly to be advocating for peace and de-escalation.

We reiterate our support for the freedom of historical Palestine and call for an immediate ceasefire!

The SACP reiterates its call to the world working class to intensify the struggle against imperialism, the struggle for world peace and justice, in terms of which the leaders of the apartheid settler regime and their United States backers shall be held to account.

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, National Spokesperson, SACP, 1 August 2024