May 31, 2010

Statement issued by Alexis Tsipras, President of the Parliamentary Group of SYRIZA on the murderous attack by Israel on citizens carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza

The government of Israel has committed an international crime. It is guilty of piracy in international waters. It committed premeditated and planned assassinations against people who carried pharmaceutical aid, against the freedom flotilla, against citizens expressing their solidarity.

We express our absolute and non-negotiable solidarity with the Palestinian people and its struggle for freedom and dignity; for an independent Palestinian State.

The international community ought to have intervened timely to safeguard the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.

It ought now to take all the necessary measures for the exemplary punishment of Israel.

The government of Israel must be brought before international justice.

The blockade of Gaza - which daily causes the death of civilians and small children- must be terminated immediately.

The Greek government has no right to keep equal distances between the murderers and the murdered. We want to remind the Greek government that a boat sailing under the Greek flag was attacked.

The Greek government should take all the necessary initiatives:

• Ask for an extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Ministers' Council of the European Union
• Cancel instantly the military cooperation agreement with Israel
• Denounce the Israeli government's murderous attack to all the international institutions.
• React decisively and not limit itself to appeals for information .

SYRIZA and the European Left will contribute with all the means at their disposal for the greatest possible international mobilization and solidarity to the Palestinian people.

SYRIZA Press Bureau
31.05.2010