The Marxist-Leninist Daily

- Statement of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist),
December 29, 2008 -

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) vigorously condemns the ongoing Israeli aerial bombings of the Gaza Strip that began Saturday, December 27 and calls for an immediate cessation of all aggression against the Gaza Strip and Palestinian people. The heinous Zionist crimes constitute a form of collective punishment by the Israeli State, backed by the U.S. imperialists, aimed at crushing the heroic resistance of the Palestinians to the unjust and illegal occupation. The Palestinians have rejected and repelled -- and continue to reject and repel -- all efforts and machinations to extinguish their national and historic right to self-determination and their lands.

CPC(M-L) also condemns the outrageous response of the Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon who attempts to blame the Palestinians for these Israeli crimes. Despite the fact that Israel was the first to break the ceasefire with Hamas, Cannon argues that Israel is defending itself and that the only onus on Israel is to try to avoid killing civilians! In this way, he seeks to legitimate crimes against humanity, the outright violation of the principles of the international rule of law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and the attempt to destroy the Palestinian nation.

CPC(M-L) calls n the Canadian working class and people to go all out in condemning this brutal Israeli aggression, demand its immediate cessation and participate in the actions organized on this occasion around the country.

No to Israeli War Crimes! Hands Off Gaza!
Long Live the Heroic Palestinian Resistance!

Letter to Prime Minister Harper

The vicious assault by the Israeli government on the people of Gaza, killing and injuring hundreds, including scores of innocent civilians, is a criminal act that defies international law and has been condemned by international human rights organisations. Taking that into consideration, we find the statement made by our government voiced by our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lawrence Cannon, incredible. He states: "Israel has a clear right to defend itself against the continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militant groups which have deliberately targeted civilians. First and foremost, those rocket attacks must stop. " This statement is clearly lacking in any human consideration and balanced judgement. Is Mr. Cannon aware of the genocidal siege that has been imposed, for months, on the 1.5 million people in Gaza, denying them food, water, medicines, fuel and all basic needs of human existence? Is our government aware of the state of affairs that has existed in Gaza for years enclosing its population, in an existence of an open prison, denied, by Israel, any access to the outside world? These appalling conditions, to which the people in Gaza have been subjected, have been condemned by UN observers and all international and Israeli human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem. Does Mr. Cannon consider the Palestinians have the right to defend themselves? It was Israel that first violated, on Nov. 4, the ceasefire that existed for six months, before any of the ineffective rockets that have been used by the people in Gaza. The rockets fired this week were again preceeded by Israeli bombing attacks that killed a number of Palestinians. Furthermore, is our government aware that Israel has been maintaining an oppressive illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip? This illegal occupation has been allowed to stand for over 40 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions. The practices adopted in this illegal occupation are in violation of virtually every article of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are considerd, by international law, as war crimes. Our country, has a reputation of peacekeeping and upholding the UN Charter and human rights. In this spirit, we call on our government to condemn these Israeli practices and demand a complete termination to this illegal occupation.

Yours sincerely,

Ismail Zayid, MD
President
Canada Palestine Association-Nova Scotia

1000 People March in Toronto:
Stop the Assault on Gaza, Free Palestine!

At least 1000 people poured into Toronto streets on Sunday to show their outrage at the Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza. Protesters rallied in front of the Israeli consulate for over an hour before spilling onto the street and spontaneously marching down University Avenue to the U.S Consulate. The demonstration was one of hundreds of rallies worldwide that expressed popular condemnation of Israel's violent and illegal military actions. The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), Palestine House, and other organizations in Toronto are following the situation in Gaza closely and will be planning further solidarity actions for the coming week.

The latest reports coming from Gaza are now placing the figure of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military at well over 300 with as many as 1,400 people injured in the last 48 hours. The people of Gaza are in the midst of the single worst massacre in the area since it was illegally occupied in 1967. The Israeli state shows no sign of halting its assault anytime soon as they have begun to amass tanks and ground assault military vehicles on the border with Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, has stated that "the operation will last as long as necessary."

The Israeli military is carrying out air strikes against a population that lives in the most densely populated area in the world. Gaza has been under an illegal and internationally condemned siege since April 2006. With little reprieve, this two-year siege has restricted all flow of aid, medical supplies, fuel and other necessities of life into the territory. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Gaza -- this latest military assault will only worsen the situation in an area where there is already insufficient medicine, food, or fuel for people to survive on.

The Canadian government has become an ardent supporter of Israel's policy of aggression and siege aimed at Gaza and has increasingly supported Israel's on-going regime of apartheid. Stephen Harper's government was the first to implement the siege on Gaza, which was most recently described by UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk as including "wide-ranging violations of the fundamental human right to life."

As such, several sectors within Canadian society are renewing their call and intensifying their efforts for a comprehensive campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel and its apartheid practices. This international campaign was recently endorsed by United Nations General Assembly President H.E. Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman: "More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations."

Halifax Rally Denounces Latest Zionist Assault
on Palestinians' Right to Be

Within hours of Saturday's horrific news from the Gaza Strip, about 150 concerned citizens and residents of Halifax assembled in a highly visible location in the centre of the downtown, at Victoria Park, for a vigorous rally organised by the newly-formed committee of Concerned Citizens and Residents of Halifax, the Palestine Solidarity Society and the Canada-Palestine Association.

While the crowd gathered, a statement from Concerned Citizens and Residents of Halifax entitled "Say No! to Israeli Bombing and Massacres in the Gaza Strip" was circulating and discussed.

The first speaker, from Concerned Citizens and Residents of Halifax, welcomed the turn out and denounced this latest Israeli attack on Palestinians. He exposed some of the disinformation being sown by the Israeli and Western media, and also elaborated the craven role of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon who, in step with the U.S., was wrist-slapping Israel not to expand the killing of civilians while saying nothing against the massacres of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip which were planned and unleashed by the Israeli Air Force F-16 squadrons from 30,000 feet above the earth.

Dr Ismail Zayid, founder of the Canada Palestine Association and well-known across Canada as an activist for the rights of Palestinians and other oppressed peoples, denounced the entire Zionist fraud of singling out Hamas as justification for its acts of collective punishment of the Palestinians and indicated that Foreign Minister Cannon's statement continued a rotten trend in the country's foreign policy that Canadians reject en masse.

A spokesperson for Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, brought news to the gathering of the numerous demonstrations and gatherings throughout Canada and the United States over the weekend in solidarity with the Palestinians. She identified the fact that for citizens and residents of our two countries, the heart of the problem has been and remains the anti-people position of the United States of unconditionally backing Israel and Zionism for its own imperial aims.

The Chairperson for the rally, from the Palestine Solidarity Society, a student organisation active on various university campuses across the city, announced an ongoing program of demonstrations and marches.

The march took place through one of the busiest restaurant districts of the city, with placards, Palestinian flags and was punctuated with lively slogans, such as "From Iraq to Palestine, occupation is the crime!" Hundreds of people stood watching while drivers and restaurant workers showed their support with honking and waving. The gathering concluded with fundraising appeals in support of Palestinian children orphaned by Israeli attacks and to alleviate other humanitarian tragedies unleashed by the so-called "only democracy in the Middle East."

Ottawa and Montreal

In Ottawa, the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians (APAC) called a demonstration for December 28 at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street to "protest the collective punishment and indiscriminate killings of Palestinians civilians by Israel" and "Israel's violations of international and humanitarian law. Support the rights of Palestinians to live free of Israel's terrorism." For nearly two hours, more than 350 people shouted slogans demanding the end of the killing of innocent people and end of the siege of Gaza and that the Canadian government take a stand against the occupation. (Photo at left courtesy yayacanada.com)

In Montreal on December 28, more than 500 hundred people participated in a demonstration called by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and Tadamon. Demonstrators denounced the support given to Israel by the Canadian government through its reinforcement of bilateral military, political and economic links. The September 22 agreement signed between Quebec and Israel was also denounced. Local Palestinian activist Rezeq Faraj condemned the complicity of Egypt, Canada, the U.S., EU and Fatah in the attacks, saying that aim is to replace Hamas with collaborators with Israel. "The problem is that the Palestinian People refuse to disappear. Sooner or later the occupation will disappear, the empires will disappear, but the Palestinian people will remain," he said.

Calendar of Events

Montreal
Sunday, January 4 -- 12:30 pm
Cabot Square, corner of St. Catherine and Atwater (metro Atwater)

Saturday, January 10 -- 1:00 pm
Corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve (metro Guy-Concordia)

Windsor
Saturday, January 3 -- 2:00-5:00 pm
City Hall

Hamilton
Candlelight Vigil and Rally
Wednesday, December 31 -- 6:00pm
In front of old City Hall, Main St. and MacNab St.

Winnipeg
Saturday, January 3 -- 2:00-3:30pm
Manitoba LegislatureStreet, 450 Broadway
For information: (204) 947-5093 / noiiwpg@mts.net

Calgary
Wednesday, December 31 -- 12:00 noon
Calgary Municipal Building

Vancouver
Saturday, January 3 -- 1:00 pm
Vanvouver Art Gallery (Robson side, corner of Hornby)

Israeli Attacks Rage on December 29,
345 Palestinians Killed, 1,450 Injured

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are unrelenting since the first bomb of this major operation was dropped on Saturday at 11:30 am. The death toll has reached 345 Palestinians with 1,450 injured at 6:00 pm Monday.

Palestinian medical sources report that among the injured are 850 still in overflowing Gaza hospitals. As the sun set another seven passersby were killed in the northern Strip's Beit Lahia when Israeli forces shelled the home of Al Qassam leader Maher Zakout.

Just before that Israeli forces killed a police officer and an employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in an attack on Khan Younis in the southern Strip.

Five sisters were among those killed during the predawn hours Monday, among them a four year old. Later today Israeli forces killed five more people, including a leader in Saraya Al Quds, Ziad Abu Tair and an eight year old from the same family in Abassan near an eastern Khan Younis mosque this afternoon.

In the second death due to projectiles an Israeli was killed in Askelon late Monday morning, where 14 others are reported injured.

Palestinian security sources and witnesses report this morning that after last night's shelling of Islamic University Israeli warplanes returned for further destruction hitting a women's dormitory. The Gaza university that was targeted is in the center of the city, heavily populated. Ambulances and rescuers rushed to the area and began searching for victims.

An eyewitness said, "F16 warplanes bombed academic buildings and the laboratories building. The university is on fire."

Israeli war ships shelled the presidential offices in western Gaza City, Al Muntada, after sunrise this morning. At approximately 2:00 am Israeli forces killed two Palestinians and injured 11 in an air strike that targeted a house in the southern Strip's Rafah. Palestinian medical sources report that the house belonged to a leader in Hamas who was killed along with his children. A source in Rafah's Abu Yousef Najjar Hospital said, "We have two children killed in an Israeli air strike on the city of Rafah and at least 11 others wounded." Another Hamas member's home was hit near that of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. The Ministry of Interior said that 180 employees have been killed. Among the initial targets of the first air raid was a graduating class of traffic police.

About half an hour prior to that bombardment, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in an air raid that targeted a mosque in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp northeast of Gaza City. Palestinian medical sources report that in addition to killing four people, the Israeli attack on the mosque injured 15. Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, Director General of Ambulances and Emergency at the Ministry of Health, said that "the number increased to four martyrs in the air raid on a mosque in Jabaliya Refugee Camp after the evacuation of two more bodies." The doctor added that those killed were five sisters from the Balousha family, one of them four years old. Eyewitnesses reported that the F16 aircraft bombed Imad Akel mosque with one missile at least. Large numbers of people from the camp had sought refuge there. The mother of the girls was transporting other children to a safer area when her daughters were hit. Israeli F16s and Apaches continue to target government offices in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, including the Rafah Municipality. Also being hit are "metal workshops and the port of fishermen in Gaza," witnesses said. A 14 month old was also killed in Jabaliya.

The Israeli aircraft and warships are continuing for third consecutive day the bombing in the Gaza Strip. The death toll was at 307 as of Monday at 10:30 am, with the number of critical injuries between 180 and 200. The number of other wounded has exceeded 1,000. The Israeli administration continues to say that this is only the beginning of the attack that has a great deal of international support. The United States and Britain continue to claim that the Israeli attack is in response to "rocket fire," while failing to note that projectile launches cause little damage and few injuries. One Israeli was killed from projectiles launched in response to the month and a half of complete closure which followed a year and a half of siege.

Israeli warplanes also bombed the southern Rafah area that was once home to thousands of Palestinians. Israeli bulldozers leveled the neighborhoods in 2003 and now refer to it as the "Philadelphi" route. Tens of tunnels were dug as a source for smuggling goods during the siege that left fuel and food scarce. Last night's bombing killed two people and injured 22. Hundreds of citizens attempted to flee the southern Gaza Strip city by rushing the border with Egypt. Many got through while Egyptian border guards killed one Palestinian.

Eyewitnesses reported that hundreds of workers from the tunnels and ordinary citizens flocked toward the border wall in an attempt to maneuver around to Egyptian territory. However, Egyptian security forces opened fire "in the air" as they claim, but nonetheless killed one Palestinian and injured several others. Israeli forces say they destroyed 40 tunnels in the four minute attack carried out by a large number of warplanes.

The witnesses said that about 20 missiles were fired towards the positions of the Palestinian national security and the tunnels that "provide the fuel to the Strip caught fire along the border."

In Gaza City warplanes fired three missiles into a government building downtown that housed the city jail. Smoke billowed from the site after the Israeli attack killed four detainees and guards.

Further north another bombing targeted the headquarters of the municipality of Beit Hanoun. Back in the south's Rafah Israeli warplanes hit the provisional headquarters of the province where six people were killed. In eastern Gaza City's Al Zeitoun neighborhood Israeli forces then targeted a jeep before a raid on the Jabaliya market where three people were killed. The Israeli forces then targeted the neighborhood police station in eastern Gaza City destroying three houses belonging to the Hassouna family before targeting the Khalil Al Wazir mosque in western Gaza's Tel Al Hawa. The next air raid was on Jabaliya's steel plant near Abu Shbak oil where a fire was ignited.

Ten people were injured, including Nabil Abu Toaima in a shelling that targeted greenhouses in Al Qarrara Village just northeast of Khan Younis. Another Israeli bombardment of a Jabaliya club led to more injuries, as did a hit on police headquarters in Kfar Darom. The bombing of eastern Gaza City's Al Shejaiyeh neighborhood police station killed 10 people while targeted hit on Sa'ed Sayel police barracks in Rafah led to injuries.

Prior to that Israeli forces targeted a supply of medicines, gasoline and diesel. According to Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, Director of Ambulance and Emergency, the raid killed three people and injured a large number. The medical warehouse was in Al Geneina while a store of petrol and diesel was near the police station in Rafah's Tel Al Sultan neighborhood. A number of fires broke out. In an attack on a police station in eastern Gaza's Shejaiyeh, a number of people were injured as the building was full.

Night before last Israeli warplanes attacked with several missiles the Shifa mosque in Gaza City adjacent to the hospital. Two people were killed and seven injured in addition to hospital emergency room windows being shattered.

The doctor added that three people were killed in a targeted air strike on eastern Gaza City's Mansurah neighborhood. Four were injured there. Attacks on government buildings in the Al Zeitoun neighborhood and Jabaliya left four dead.

Dr. Muawiya Hassanein said that there were 15 unidentified bodies in the hospital that had been found under the rubble of a government building, stressing that 80 martyrs that arrived at the hospital are in pieces. He said that there are dozens of victims still under the rubble of the bombed police headquarters.

He noted that there was an acute shortage of medicines and first aid supplies and all treatments for surgical emergency. He appealed to Arab countries to send medicine and doctors. "The majority of the wounded are not stable enough to be transferred to any Arab country." He appealed for helicopters to be sent after Egypt offered to open its borders to the wounded.

Metal workshops in Al Zeitoun neighborhood, Al Shejaiyeh, Sheikh Zayed and Beit Hanoun were targeted.

The bodies of the dead are in hospital corridors due to the small size of refrigeration units. Only critical injuries are being allowed to stay in the hospitals due to a severe lack of space. Moderate injuries are being quickly treated and then sent away.

As the stated reason for the Israeli attack, 80 projectiles landed outside the Gaza Strip according to Army Radio which also reported that the situation in the towns surrounding the Gaza Strip was calm. The Israelis estimate that in the past two days approximately 200 projectiles have been launched from the Strip.

The Israelis also report three light injuries yesterdays during the fall of two projectiles in Askelon.

Thirteen projectiles landed in the western Al Naqab Desert where a state of emergency was declared. A hotline is open for Israelis to deal with "trauma." A projectile launched from Gaza landed in an Israeli's yard in Ashdod.

The leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine armed resistance wing, the National Resistance Brigades, said it launched four projectiles at the Sofa Israeli military installation and at Sderot since yesterday morning.

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the launches of two projectiles from Khan Younis at Ashdod.

Saraya Al Quds, the armed resistance wing of Islamic Jihad, launched two projectiles at Askelon while the Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, the armed resistance wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, fired three at Sderot.

It remains unclear whether the Israelis will use the tanks that are now surrounding the Strip, but they do continue to say that this attack is still in its early stages.

Palestinian Resistance Calls for
Third Intifada in Defence of Gaza

On December 28, Al Jazeera reported that Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, has called for Palestinians to wage a new, third intifada against Israel. In an interview on Al Jazeera, Meshaal said, "We call for a military intifada against the enemy. Resistance will continue through suicide missions."

Meshaal's call came after Israel hammered Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict. He continued, saying that Hamas had accepted "all the peaceful options, but without results." He said that for there to be any talks with the people of Gaza, "the blockade must be lifted and the crossings [from Israel] opened ... notably that in Rafah," which leads to Egypt. Meshaal was referring to a blockade imposed on Gaza after Hamas was elected to government and assumed power in the Gaza Strip from the Abbas's Palestinian Authority (PA) in June 2007.

The Hamas leader, who lives in exile in Syria, said he was open to reconciliation with Abbas, but demanded that the Palestinian President cease negotiations with Israel. "Neither rockets nor suicide operations are absurd, but negotiations are," he said. Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack on Israel since January 2005.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported on December 28 that a PA official in Ramallah said they were prepared to assume control over the Gaza Strip if Israel succeeds in overthrowing the Hamas government. Another PA official said Fatah had instructed all its members in the Gaza Strip to be prepared for the possibility of returning to power.

"We have enough men in the Gaza Strip who are ready to fill the vacuum," he said. "But of course all this depends on whether Israel manages to get rid of the Hamas regime."

The two officials voiced hope that the current IDF operation would end Hamas rule in Gaza. They said that the PA was also prepared to dispatch security forces from the West Bank to replace the Hamas militiamen. However, they denied Hamas allegations that the PA had urged Israel to launch a massive attack to overthrow the Hamas government.

Further statements by Hamas were reported by the Palestine Information Centre on December 29, where Hamas stressed that it would be the one to determine the end of military operations in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) chose the date of starting those hostilities. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, told a press conference held jointly with Hamas political leader Dr. Ismail Radwan that the IOF military adventure was meant to liquidate the resistance program and Hamas after securing regional approval. He emphasized that Gaza would not surrender and the Palestinian people's determination would not weaken. The spokesman said that the declared war on Gaza would only "boost our insistence on resisting occupation in defense of our people using all means available."

He hailed the Arab and Islamic masses that expressed solidarity with Gaza and appreciated the Arab and Islamic countries that sent urgent aid topped by Qatar. Barhoum called on the Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority to immediately halt normalization of relations with Israel, break the siege on Gaza and open the Rafah crossing.

Also reported by the Palestine Information Centre on that same day were comments by Dr. Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, the Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, who charged that the Israeli occupation forces' ferocious attacks on Gaza Strip were the tools of a regional, Arab and international plot to liquidate resistance. In turn, Shallah told the Al-Jazeera TV network in a statement from Damascus on Sunday night that Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni talked during her visit to Cairo about a regional axis to dissect Gaza hoping to change the "rules of the game." Shallah said that the Palestinian Authority along with a number of Arab countries had given the green light to Israel to carry out its genocide in Gaza. He asserted, however, that IOF tanks would not succeed in changing the situation in Gaza. He stressed that Israel was the one that breached and ended the truce and not the resistance factions and underlined that ending the Zionist aggression and lifting the siege on Gaza were basic conditions before discussing any new calm.

Worldwide Demonstrations
Condemn Zionist War Crimes

Massive demonstrations have taken place internationally to condemn the Zionists' war crimes against the people of Gaza and give their support to just struggle of the Palestinian people.

Middle East

In Yemen, tens of thousands of people gathered in and around a stadium in the capital, Sanaa, chanting anti-Israeli slogans and criticzing Arab leaders for failing to act. "How long will the silence last? Arabs wake up!" read one banner. The demonstration was backed by the ruling party, opposition groups and other organisations.

A few members of Jordan's parliament burned the Israeli flag under the parliament dome while in session on Sunday, after calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Amman.

Yemen; Amman, Jordan

In Lebanon, hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian refugees staged a sit-in near the United Nations office in central Beirut. The protesters held banners calling on the global body to put pressure on Israel to end the attacks that have killed more than 280 people.

The protest was organised by the Lebanese-branch of the Muslim Gamaa group, along with Hamas and other groups. Lebanon is host to more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps across the country.

Al Jazeera reported that people were demanding more decisive action from their leaders: "From the people we have heard very critical remarks, not only against Israel, but also against Arab governments. Many were angry at the Egyptian government, they feel they needed to do more."

The Hezbollah movement, which fought a 33-day war with Israel in 2006, has condemned the attacks as a "war crime and genocide that requires immediate action from the international community and its institutions." Hezbollah organized a large rally in Beirut on December 29. In a statement, the Hezbollah called on Arab countries to "take a firm stand and exert its utmost efforts against the Israeli barbarism -- which is covered by the U.S. -- and the international community to stop this ongoing massacre." Demonstrations also took place in Sidon, Lebanon and across Iraq.

Beirut, Lebanon

Sidon, Lebanon

Left: Baghdad, signs read: "Palestine and Iraq are the same wound and same blood." Right: Najaf.

Dozens of Palestinian refugees gathered in Baghdad's eastern Baladiyad neighbourhood chanting anti-Israeli slogans and waving messages of support for Gaza.

Dalil al-Qasoos, the Palestinian Ambassador to Iraq, said: "I'd like to say to my relatives and to my people in Gaza that Gaza will remain steadfast in the face of Americans and Zionists whatever the plots and conspiracies hatched by tyrants and arrogant enemies."