Workers, farmers, and all those who support justice should stand in protest against the brutal massacre of Palestinians being carried out by the government of Israel. Nearly 70 Palestinians have been killed and the death toll rises daily. More than 1,300 have been injured to date. The full blame for the assault rests with the Israeli regime and its powerful backers in Washington, which continues its decades-long denial of self-determination to the Palestinian people through force and violence.

I urge all working people and our organizations, defenders of democratic rights, and supporters of the Palestinian struggle for a homeland to demand Washington break all ties to the Israeli government now. Similar demands should be placed on London, Paris, and other imperialist powers on which the Zionist regime depends.

The response by the government of Ehud Barak--turning on Palestinian demonstrations with live ammunition and rockets--is to instill fear in the Palestinian people and teach them that any attempts they make to fight for their national sovereignty will be crushed with ruthless violence. The courageous resistance of the Palestinian workers and youth, confronting fully armed contingents of Israeli solders backed up by tanks and helicopters, shows they will not succeed.

The visit by Likud party leader Ariel Sharon to the Haram al Sharif compound, which houses Islamic holy sites, was an intentional provocation. Sharon is particularly hated by Arab people because of his leading role in the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in 1982. Sharon came to the compound flanked by six other members of parliament and 1,000 Israeli police. His purpose was to demonstrate that Israel was in control of Jerusalem.

The posturing of the Clinton administration as "peacemaker" should be condemned for the fraud that it is. Washington continues to provide massive military and economic aid to the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv--as it has for decades--while seeking to force a "solution" to the Palestinian national question, that is, to force the Palestinian people to give up their struggle for self-determination. For the U.S. rulers, "peace" in the Middle East means deepening their domination of the oil-rich region and establishing stable, profitable relations with the major capitalist regimes in the region, whose populations are predominantly Arab.

My campaign joins our Palestinian brothers and sisters in demanding that Washington break all ties to Israel. We demand a halt to the Israeli aggression and the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. We demand the right of the Palestinian people to national self-determination be upheld.