Exposing Israel's war crimes isn't anti-Semitism!

Call for Solidarity / Solidaritätserklärung

Please sign now - bitte unterschreibe jetztPlease send your signatures to pakos@online.de

(name, organisation/intitiative, profession, place of residence.)

Dear friends of Palestine

It has been a few days since the dispute between David Sheen, Max Blumenthal and Gregor Gysi (parliamentary leader of the left party -- DIE LINKE) in Berlin and the press campaign against the two journalists is over for now. But this does not mean one should pretend it never happened. 

Thanks to extraordinarily offensive behaviour from leaders of the DIE LINKE, the debate with Max and David in Berlin about the war crimes during the Gaza war in the summer this year, as well as the dangerous shifting of Israeli society towards the right, were effectively pushed into the background.

A prominent member of the DIE LINKE parliamentary party faction, Petra Pau, insulted Max and David, calling them anti-Semites and was in the forefront of the attempts to obstruct any discussion with them. Gregor Gysi refused to talk to them, when they tried.

We witnessed not only a press campaign against the Jewish journalists, but also a defamation campaign by the leadership of DIE LINKE. Extreme pressure were exerted against the members of parliament Annette Groth, Inge Höger, Heike Hänsel and Claudia Haydt, who had invited Max Blumenthal and David Sheen to the discussion.

The leadership of DIE LINKE have already betrayed their own aims of overcoming militarism and war during the Gaza war this summer. They failed to take a firm stand supporting the people in Gaza, who were subjected to war crimes. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have proof of this.

We can not accept this. If we keep silent DIE LINKE could well snuggle up further to an ever more rightwing Israeli government taking their betrayal of human rights in their stride, in order to gain favour with the other parties within the German parliament and to offer themselves as potential coalition partners.

We, the Palestine Solidarity Committee (Palästinakomitee) Stuttgart, have made a declaration of solidarity, which some members of DIE LINKE have signed (even some office holders). We urge you to also sign our declaration as quickly as possible (name, organisation/intitiative, profession, place of residence.) We intend to forward our declaration to the leaders of the party. You find the text of the declaration attached.  

The declaration with the signatures will also be published on our website palaestinakomitee-stuttgart.de and facebook.com/PaKo.Stuttgart.

Please send your signatures in the next few days to pakos@online.de

If you have received this message more than once, please excuse the error.

In solidarity,

Attia Rajab, Palästinakomitee Stuttgart

Verena Rajab, Palästinakomitee Stuttgart, member of  DIE LINKE