PFLP salutes the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people in Britain

PFLP salutes the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people in Britain
Oct 15 2014


 House of Commons vote needs meaningful action in order to render it more than symbolic.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised the growth and escalation of the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people in Britain, including the growth of the boycott movement, the large and increasing trade union support for Palestine, and the popular pressure on the British government to change its policy of adherence and support for the Zionist entity.

The Front considers that the vote in the House of Commons, which calls for the British government to recognize Palestine as a state, reflects the growing weight and power of the solidarity movement in Britain. However, the vote itself is, on the part of the British state, at best merely symbolic and lacking in meaningful action to change the situation in Palestine.

Britain as a colonial power is directly responsible for the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people, through its major historical crime of the colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the Zionist entity in Palestine. To this day, Britain continues to provide political, military and financial support for the Zionist entity and provides cover for its crimes in international forums.

The Front pointed out that the parliamentary vote came in response to the escalating popular movement of rejection of the occupation’s crimes, in Europe and around the world, especially those committed by the occupation army in the Gaza Strip during the recent aggression.

The PFLP noted that the British state has an obligation to recognize not only the state of Palestine, but all of the rights of the Palestinian people, boycott and sanction the occupation state, apologize to the Palestinian people for the Balfour Declaration, colonization and the ensuing crimes, and provide material and moral reparations and compensation, in addition to acting to ensure the implementation of Palestinian rights, including the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

This is what is necessary if the British state wants to begin to atone for part of its historical crime of the Balfour Declaration. This British statement endorsing the establishment of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine resulted in the displacement of the Palestinian people around the world in al-Nakba, the catastrophe which is still ongoing today.

Further, the Popular Front extended its salutes and appreciation to the Palestinian and Arab communities and all progressive forces, trade unions and student movements who lead the boycott campaigns in Britain, for their sustained and dedicated efforts which have played the major role in placing significant pressure on the Parliament and demanding meaningful change and support for Palestinian rights.

பாலஸ்தீன அரசியல் கைதிகள் விடுதலைப் பிரச்சார இயக்கத்தில் பங்கேற்போம்!

PFLP calls for broad participation in days of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Abdallah
Oct 12 2014

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls upon all to participate in the activities and campaigns that have been launched to support the Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons and demand their freedom. Events, organized by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, and organizations around the world supporting Palestine, will take place on October 17-25, demanding freedom for Palestinian prisoners and focusing on the case of imprisoned General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, denied family visits by occupation forces, and imprisoned Arab struggler Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, held in French prisons for 30 years.

The Front praised Sa’adat for rejecting the denial of family visits, refusing to sign the order denying him visits with his family, and noted that he is planning to launch an open hunger strike if the prison authorities do not cancel the order denying family visits and end the ongoing policy of depriving hundreds and thousands of prisoners of their most basic human rights. It urged all to raise their action and commitment to meet this challenge and stand with Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian political prisoners as they demand their rights, especially the most basic right to family visits.

The Front said that the denial of family visits is being imposed in order to isolate Palestinian prisoners from the national movement, and a desperate measure aimed at breaking the will of the leadership of the prisoners’ movement. It noted that this is a new form of isolation, recalling that Sa’adat has been denied access to most of his family members since being kidnapped from Jericho prison on March 14, 2006 by invading occupation forces, and was held in isolation with no family visits at all for three years. It noted also that there are a large number of prisoners who are suffering from these unjust orders which escalated against them during the Zionist aggression against Gaza.

The Front demanded that Palestinian official institutions, especially embassies and missions around the world, uphold their responsibilities to their people on the issue of the prisoners, and called on international human rights bodies to take responsibility and expose and act against these violations of prisoners’ rights, saying that there is a need for concerted effort to “bang on the walls of the tank” and expose the struggles of the prisoners’ and their oppression inside the enemy prisons, in particular the orders of occupation authorities prohibiting family visits.

The Front also saluted and urged additional events in solidarity with Arab struggler Comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, held in French prisons for 30 years, to put pressure on French authorities for his release. The struggle to free him is an extension of the struggle against the policy of imprisonment and isolation by the Zionist occupation against our Palestinian and Arab prisoners.

PFLP:Evo's victory, victory for freedom and social justice

PFLP: Victory of President Evo Morales in Bolivia is a victory for the values of freedom and social justice
Oct 13  2014

On behalf of the General Secretary, Ahmad Sa’adat, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine expresses its sincere congratulations to the people of Bolivia, the popular movements of Bolivia, and the progressive forces of the world on the occasion of the victory of internationalist Bolivian President Evo Morales for a third term. This victory is a victory for the values of freedom and social justice, confrontation of imperialism and its policies on a global level, and for the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation.

The victory of President Morales, who is of the indigenous people of Bolivia, is a clear demonstration of the Bolivian people’s support for his policies in the direction of the country, the escalation of the struggle for socialism, building support for the popular classes and Bolivian masses, and confronting the capitalists and wealthy forces who were defeated in this election.

These election results provide further support to the Palestinian people in their just struggle against the Zionist occupation, noting in particular the clear and bold positions taken by Bolivia upholding the rights of our people, including the statements of President Evo Morales during the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip, including his statement that the occupier is a terrorist state.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

தர்மபுரி: மோடி அரசு எதிர்ப்பு கழகப் பொதுக்கூட்டம்

Mideast crisis widens as Turkey bombs PKK militants

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 14, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS

Mideast crisis widens as Turkey bombs Kurdish militants
BY DAREN BUTLER AND HUMEYRA PAMUK
ISTANBUL/SURUC Turkey Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:13am EDT

(Reuters) - War against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq threatened on Tuesday to unravel the delicate peace in neighbouring Turkey after the Turkish air force bombed Kurdish fighters furious over Ankara's refusal to help protect their kin in Syria.

Turkey's banned PKK Kurdish militant group accused Ankara of violating a two-year-old cease-fire with the air strikes, on the eve of a deadline set by the group's jailed leader to salvage a peace process aimed at halting a three-decades-long insurgency.

At least 35 people were killed in riots last week when members of Turkey's 15-million-strong Kurdish minority rose up in anger at the government for refusing to help defend the Syrian border town of Kobani from an Islamic State assault.

"For the first time in nearly two years, an air operation was carried out against our forces by the occupying Turkish Republic army," the PKK said. "These attacks against two guerrilla bases at Daglica violated the ceasefire," the PKK said, referring to an area near the border with Iraq.

The unrest in Turkey raised serious concerns that a peace process between Turkey and its Kurds could be in danger of collapse, a new source of turmoil in a region consumed by Iraqi and Syrian civil wars and an international campaign against Islamic State fighters.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered a bombing campaign against Islamic State fighters that started in August, was to discuss the strategy on Tuesday with military leaders from 20 countries, including Turkey, Arab states and Western allies.

Washington has faced the difficult task of building a coalition to intervene in Syria and Iraq, two countries with complex multi-sided civil wars in which most of the nations of the Middle East have enemies and clients on the ground.

In particular, U.S. officials have expressed frustration at Turkey's refusal to help them fight against Islamic State. Washington has said Turkey has agreed to let it strike from Turkish air base; Ankara says this is still under discussion.

NATO-member Turkey has refused to join the coalition unless it also confronts Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a demand that Washington, which flies its air missions over Syria without objection from Assad, has so far rejected.

Meanwhile, Islamic State fighters have been fighting their way into the mainly Kurdish Syrian border town of Kobani, where the United Nations says thousands could be massacred within full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene.

The fate of Kobani could wreck efforts by the Turkish government to end the insurgency by PKK militants, a conflict that killed 40,000 people but largely ended with the start of a peace process in 2012.

The peace process with the Kurds is one of the main initiatives of President Tayyip Erdogan's decade in power, during which Turkey has enjoyed an economic boom underpinned by investor confidence in future stability.

The unrest shows the difficulty Turkey has had in designing a Syria policy. Turkey has already taken in some 1.2 million refugees from Syria's three-year civil war, including 200,000 Kurds who fled the area around Kobani in recent weeks.

"PROVOCATIONS COULD BRING MASSACRE"

Jailed PKK co-founder Abdullah Ocalan has said peace talks between his group and the Turkish state could come to an end by Wednesday. After visiting him in jail last week, Ocalan's brother Mehmet quoted him as saying: "We will wait until October 15 ... After that there will be nothing we can do."

A pro-Kurdish party leader read out a statement from Ocalan in parliament on Tuesday in which the PKK leader said Kurdish parties should work with the government to end street violence.

"Otherwise we will open the way to provocations that could bring about a massacre," Ocalan said in the statement, which the party said he wrote last week.

There was no immediate comment from the military on the report that it bombed Kurdish positions, once a regular occurrence in southeast Turkey but something that had not taken place for two years. The PKK said the strikes took place on Monday, although some Turkish news reports said they happened on Sunday. There was no immediate explanation of the discrepancy.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Turkish military had retaliated against a PKK attack in the border area. "Yesterday there was very serious harassing fire around the Daglica military outpost. Naturally it is impossible for us to tolerate this. Hence the Turkish armed forces took the necessary measures," he told a news conference, without referring specifically to air strikes.

Hurriyet newspaper said the air strikes caused "major damage" to the PKK. "F-16 and F-4 warplanes which took off from (bases in the southeastern provinces of) Diyarbakir and Malatya rained down bombs on PKK targets after they attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region," Hurriyet said.

The general staff said in a statement it had "opened fired immediately in retaliation in the strongest terms" after PKK attacks in the area, but did not mention air strikes.

"TOO LATE FOR US"

The battle for Kobani has grinded on for nearly a month, with Islamic State slowly advancing and now in control of much of the town. Kurdish fighters known as Popular Protection Units (YPG) want Turkey to allow them to bring arms across the border.

"There are fierce clashes, with no retreat or progress (by Islamic State). Yesterday, (IS) detonated three suicide car bombs in eastern Kobani," said Ocalan Iso, deputy head of the Kobani defence council.

In the Turkish town of Suruc, 10 km (6 miles) from the Syrian frontier, a funeral for four female YPG fighters was being held. Hundreds at the cemetery chanted "Murderer Erdogan" in Turkish and also "long live YPG" in Kurdish.

Sehahmed, 42, at the cemetery to visit the grave of his son who was a YPG fighter and died only a few days ago, said if Turkey had intervened in Kobani, the town would have been saved.

"For days now they are just watching our people get killed. Obama is too late too. (Islamic State) is now inside the city, they're on the streets. The air strikes won't work, it will only delay the inevitable. Its too late for us. Our poor people, we face one disaster after another."

The U.S.-led coalition has hit Islamic State positions in and around the town but failed to halt the advance. At least six air strikes were heard from the Turkish side of the border on Tuesday. Gunfire and shelling were audible from the Turkish side, where Kurds, many with relatives fighting in Kobani, have maintained a vigil, watching the fighting from hillsides.

"I hear that people say (Islamic State) control the east and southeast but in fact they are scattered all across the city. That is why clashes are taking place pretty much everywhere," Adil Selmo, 28, said on the Turkish side. His brother-in-law in Kobani had told him no weapons or ammunition had made it.

Kurds complain that hundreds of refugees were detained after crossing into Turkey, and that wounded fighters died at the frontier because Turkish border guards would not let them in.

"If they had received help, even up to one hour before their deaths, they could have lived," said Omar, 34, a Kurdish activist who brought three wounded fighters to the frontier last week and watched them die. "Once the (Turkish) soldiers realised they were dead, they said, 'Now you can cross with the bodies.' I cannot forget that. It was total chaos, it was a catastrophe."

Kurds in neighbouring Iraq, who are also fighting hard against Islamic State, said they had sent ammunition to help their Syrian brethren in Kobani. Syrian Kurds said the shipment could not get to Kobani without Turkey opening a supply route.

In Iraq, Kurdish forces and government troops have rolled back some Islamic State gains in the north of the country in recent weeks, but the fighters have advanced in the west, seizing territory in the Euphrates valley within striking distance of the capital Baghdad.

The United States used helicopter gunships against the militants last week for the first time to prevent what Washington described as a threat to Baghdad's airport.

The White House says it will not send U.S. forces back into ground combat in Iraq, where Obama withdrew all troops in 2011 after an eight-year occupation. U.S. commanders have spoken of increasing U.S. advice and support for Iraqi ground forces.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff and Oliver Holmes; Editing by Peter Millership)

Iraqi Shia militias accused of murder spree

Amnesty International says sectarian groups have abducted and killed scores of Sunnis during war against ISIL.
Last updated: 14 Oct 2014 02:54

 Shia fighters allegedly have carried out abductions and killings in retribution for crimes committed by ISIL [AFP]
Shia militias have abducted and murdered scores of Sunni civilians in Iraq in crimes committed in retribution against the actions of ISIL, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

The London-based rights group on Tuesday published what it said was evidence that Shia militias abducted civilians in Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk, and killed them even if families paid tens of thousands of dollars in ransom.

The Amnesty report, Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq, said scores of unidentified bodies had been discovered handcuffed and with gunshot wounds, indicating a pattern of deliberate killings.

The group called on the Iraqi government, which has armed and encouraged militias including the Badr brigades and the Mehdi army, to fight ISIL, to hold them to account.

Militias operate outside any legal framework and without official oversight, and had contributed to a deterioration in security and to the increasing lawlessness in Iraq, Amnesty said.

"Shia militias are ruthlessly targeting Sunni civilians on a sectarian basis under the guise of fighting terrorism, in an apparent bid to punish Sunnis for the rise of ISIL and for its heinous crimes," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, said.

"By failing to hold militias accountable for war crimes and other gross human rights abuses the Iraqi authorities have effectively granted them free rein to go on the rampage against Sunnis. The new Iraqi government of prime minister Haider al-Abbadi must act now to rein in the militias and establish the rule of law."

The Amnesty document included evidence from relatives of those who had gone missing or were killed.

It reported that one family had paid $60,000 to have a family member released, only to find his body two weeks later in a Baghdad morge, his head crushed and his hands cuffed.

Amnesty also accused Iraqi government forces of serious human rights violations, presenting what it said was evidence of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, and deaths in custody of Sunni men held under the 2005 anti-terrorism law.

It cited one example of a 33-year-old lawyer who died in custody, his body showing open wounds and burns consistent with the application of electric shocks.

Another man was held for five months and tortured with electric shocks and threatened with rape before being released without charge.

"Successive Iraqi governments have displayed a callous disregard for fundamental human rights principles," Rovera said.

"The new government must now change course and put in place effective mechanisms to investigate abuses by Shi’a militias and Iraqi forces and hold accountable those responsible."

PFLP calls for unified revolutionary front of solidarity with the struggle of people of Kobane against ISIS

PFLP calls for unified revolutionary front of solidarity with the struggle of people of Kobane against ISIS
Oct 13 2014

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine expresses its solidarity with the Kurdish resistance in Kobane struggling to defend themselves and their community from the reactionary armed group, ISIS, whose entry into our region has been facilitated and supported by imperialist powers and their lackeys.

Comrade Khaled Barakat said that “All Palestinian and Arab revolutionary forces should unify their efforts to support the struggle of the Kurdish resistance in Kobane against ISIS and their imperialist supporters.”

People in Syria, Iraq and everywhere in the region have been under attack by imperialism – an attack that comes not only through air strikes and occupation, but through the support of reactionary regional powers, through the promotion of sectarianism, and through reactionary armed groups carrying out a program of sectarian chaos. They have sought to replace the central conflict in the region: that of the people with Zionism and imperialism, with sectarianism and the imposition of massive, reactionary violence against minority groups who are an integral part of the region, while these same reactionary armed groups leave the Zionist state and imperialist forces untouched. These attacks have been taking place simultaneously with the latest Zionist genocidal assault against the Palestinian people in Gaza.  “We stand with the people of Syria who are defending their unity against all attempts to partition the country and plunder its resources for the benefit of imperialism. This is the goal of ISIS and its allies,” Barakat said.

“Today, Kurdish fighters, women and men, struggle for their freedom and their lives against these reactionary groups whose presence in the region has been furnished, armed and supported by imperialism and its allies and agents in the region. It is no accident and not mere symbolism that ISIS is attacking Kobane today with U.S. weaponry,” said Barakat. “In particular, the role of women fighters in the Kurdish resistance at all levels of struggle and leadership present a heroic example of sacrifice.”

“It must also be noted that the role of the Turkish state and government, one of Israel’s largest trading partners and a key military ally of the United States, has been to encourage the entry of these reactionary armed groups (ISIS and others) now attacking Kobane into Syria. At the same time, in the past several days, dozens of Kurdish protesters have been killed by the armed force of the Turkish state. The so-called ‘security zone’ being pushed by France and Turkey, and the airstrikes of the US and its allies, are nothing more than a cover for the entry of imperialism in the region. The only real security can be established by popular struggle and resistance, not imperialist armies and air forces,” Barakat said.

For many years, Palestinian fighters seeking freedom have struggled in the same trench as Kurdish strugglers. “There is a long history of support by Palestinian revolutionaries for Kurdish freedom fighters. We share a common enemy: imperialism. And we also share the common enemy of reactionary sectarian armed groups, like ISIS, who are, at their heart, a creation and a result of imperialism and its occupations and hegemony over the region. Reactionary Arab regimes, in particular Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have played a major role in encouraging, arming and spreading this threat to the people of the region,” said Barakat.

“No solution or assistance for our region will come from imperialist armies or imperialist airstrikes. These forces have only brought terror, sectarianism, reaction, and death wherever they go. It is the struggle of our united peoples that can confront and achieve victory over imperialism and Zionism, the primary sources of terror in the region, and over the vicious reactionary forces that seek to sustain their hegemony and plunder the resources of our people,” Barakat said.

Bolivia's Morales pledges no major nationalizations in new term

Evo Morales

Bolivia's Morales pledges no major nationalizations in new term
BY ENRIQUE ANDRES PRETEL
LA PAZ Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:22pm EDT

(Reuters) - President Evo Morales on Monday ruled out any major new nationalizations in Bolivia following his re-election victory and said he would be "realistic" as he pursued socialist policies in his third term.

Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca grower who became Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006, comfortably won the election on Sunday with an estimated 60 percent support and he will now lead the country until early 2020.

Morales' anti-poverty programs and prudent spending of funds from the nationalization of natural gas and oil businesses have earned him wide support in a country long dogged by political instability.

Some business leaders worried there might now be a new round of nationalizations, especially in the mining and banking industries, but he moved to ease those fears on Monday.

"There are no more owners left," he told Reuters in an interview in the presidential palace in capital La Paz, adding that only a few foreign mining companies who acted as partners in state-led projects remained and that he did not see them as an issue.

He also ruled out a wave of nationalizations in the banking industry.

"We have negotiated with the private banking sector. There were some groups (in the government) who said that we had to nationalize, but it's better to negotiate. As they are earning well, let them pay more taxes," he said.

Only a trickle of official results had been published by Monday evening, with the delay apparently due to technical issues, but a TV exit poll said Morales won about 60 percent of the vote and his main opposition rival, cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina, conceded defeat.

Exit polls showed that Morales' Movement towards Socialism party won the vote in eight of Bolivia's nine regions, including Santa Cruz, which is the country's most affluent region and traditionally an opposition stronghold.

WINNING FORMULA

During his first two terms, Morales delivered economic growth averaging more than 5 percent a year and ran fiscal surpluses even as he spent heavily on anti-poverty programs.

Although he is part of a bloc of socialist and anti-U.S. leaders in Latin America and he dedicated his re-election victory to Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, Morales has been more pragmatic than some of his closest allies on economic policy at home.

"We are never going to abandon our principles and values. Within that, we are realistic, practical," he told Reuters. "If that means strengthening trade bodies and private businesses, fine."

Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue think-tank, said Morales' approach is unlikely to change much over the next five years.

"He seems to have found a winning formula in his second term and he will see how far he can take it in the third," he said.

Nonetheless, the socialist leader has been helped by a period of high natural gas prices, allowing him to spend on social programs without undermining fiscal stability.

Shifter said there are questions about how long such conditions will last and whether Morales is willing to develop a more diversified economy.

Bolivia remains one of the poorest countries in the Americas, and critics say Morales is autocratic, using his power to exert control over the judiciary.

But working-class voters see the ex-union leader as a symbol of the country's progress in the last decade.

"We have seen the president take Bolivia to where it deserves to be," said 50-year-old newspaper vendor Guillermo Mansilla in La Paz on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Monica Machicao; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Kieran Murray)

A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State

EUROPE

ENB: Snap shot BBC Parliament TV

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A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State
By STEPHEN CASTLE and JODI RUDORENOCT. 13, 2014 NYT

LONDON — Against a backdrop of growing impatience across Europe with Israeli policy, Britain’s Parliament overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution Monday night to give diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state. The vote was a symbolic but potent indication of how public opinion has shifted since the breakdown of American-sponsored peace negotiations and the conflict in Gaza this summer.

Though the outcome of the 274-to-12 parliamentary vote was not binding on the British government, the debate was the latest evidence of how support for Israeli policies, even among staunch allies of Israel, is giving way to more calibrated positions and in some cases frustrated expressions of opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance toward the Palestinians.

Opening the debate, Grahame Morris, the Labour Party lawmaker who promoted it, said Britain had a “historic opportunity” to take “this small but symbolically important step” of recognition.

“To make our recognition of Palestine dependent on Israel’s agreement would be to grant Israel a veto over Palestinian self-determination,” said Mr. Morris, who leads a group called Labour Friends of Palestine.

Richard Ottaway, a Conservative lawmaker and chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said that he had “stood by Israel through thick and thin, through the good years and the bad,” but now realized “in truth, looking back over the past 20 years, that Israel has been slowly drifting away from world public opinion.”

“Under normal circumstances,” he said, “I would oppose the motion tonight; but such is my anger over Israel’s behavior in recent months that I will not oppose the motion. I have to say to the government of Israel that if they are losing people like me, they will be losing a lot of people.”

The breakdown of negotiations over a two-state solution, continued Israeli settlement building and the bloody conflict in Gaza all appear to have jolted Europe’s politicians, including Sweden’s new prime minister, Stefan Lofven, who this month pledged to recognize Palestine, the first time a major Western European nation had done so.

The conflict in Gaza also gave new impetus to efforts to pressure Israel through a campaign to boycott some goods made in West Bank settlements. And it helped fuel a surge in anti-Semitic episodes across Europe this year amid concerns that opposition to Israeli policies was allowing anti-Jewish bias to take root in the European mainstream.

Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said that moves like the British resolution and Sweden’s recent statement “make conflict resolution much more difficult” by sending Palestinians the message that “they can achieve things” outside negotiations. Israel, the United States and most of Europe have long insisted that the only path to Palestinian statehood is through bilateral negotiations.

Mr. Hirschson said “there’s no legal weight behind” the British resolution and that it “contravenes the policy of all three” British political parties, including Labour, but acknowledged that it “sours” relations with a longtime and staunch ally.

“I don’t know how much of it is about Britain-Israel relations, or various different Israel-Europe relations, and how much of it is about Britain-Arab relations,” Mr. Hirschson said in a telephone interview. “Europe is in a way playing to the Arab world. Europe is in terrible economic condition, and they have to trade with the Arab world.”

Prime Minister David Cameron’s government opposes recognizing a Palestinian state at this point, and the parliamentary debate and vote are not likely to change British policy. But the issue is being debated in a growing number of capitals.

Romain Nadal, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Monday that France “will have to recognize Palestine,” but he did not specify when the official recognition would take place.

The last conflict in Gaza “has been a triggering factor,” Mr. Nadal said. “It made us realize that we had to change methods.”

The European Union recently condemned Israel’s decision to expand settlements and on Sunday the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, pledged 450 million euros, or about $568 million, for the reconstruction of Gaza. The European Union has spent more than €1.3 billion in the Gaza Strip in the last decade.

Britain’s parliamentary debate comes amid pressure for a boycott of goods from Israeli companies operating in the occupied West Bank. One Labour Party lawmaker, Shabana Mahmood, recently joined protesters in lying down outside a supermarket in Birmingham selling such goods, forcing it to close temporarily.

“The problem is that we are drastically losing public opinion,” Avi Primor, the director of European studies at Tel Aviv University and a former Israeli ambassador to the European Union, told Israel Radio on Monday. “This has been going on for many years, and became particularly serious after the talks failed between us and the Palestinians after nine months of negotiations under Kerry, and even more so after Operation Protective Edge.”

That referred to failed efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to revive the peace process and Israel’s military operations in Gaza in the summer.

If Sweden does recognize Palestine — and there is no timetable as yet — it will become the first big nation in the European Union to do so, although some East European countries did so during the Cold War, before they joined the union.

In 2011 a motion calling for recognition of Palestine won the support of Spanish lawmakers, though the government has not followed through on that vote.

In that same year the “State of Palestine” applied to become a member of the United Nations and, although that effort failed, in 2012 it successfully obtained the lesser status of nonmember observer state. The Palestinians leveraged their new status in April to join 15 international treaties and conventions, which helped bring about the breakdown of the latest round of peace talks.

Separately, 134 of 193 United Nations member states have extended diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine.

Since the Aug. 26 cease-fire that halted the summer’s hostilities, the Palestinians have stepped up these diplomatic efforts, pursuing a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a deadline for Israel’s occupation; threatening with renewed intensity to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court; and lobbying for recognition in European capitals.

In Britain, where elections loom next year, Israel’s policies have become politically sensitive. In 2011, Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, laid down official policy saying that Britain reserved the right “to recognize a Palestinian state at a moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace.”

But over the summer, the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Ed Miliband, said that Mr. Cameron was “wrong not to have opposed Israel’s incursion into Gaza” and rebuked him for his “silence on the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians caused by Israel’s military action.”

And while pro-Palestinian sentiment is clearest within the Labour Party, frustration with Israeli policy has surfaced in all three main political parties.

In August, Sayeeda Warsi, a Conservative Party politician, quit her post as a Foreign Office minister over the issue, describing government policy on Gaza as “morally indefensible.”

Martin Linton, a former Labour Party lawmaker who is editor of Palestinian Briefing, an online publication, said that the view in Parliament had shifted significantly in favor of recognition in recent years and was catching up with public opinion.

Stephen Castle reported from London, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem. Maïa de la Baume contributed reporting from Paris.

வடக்கில் இழுவை படகு மீன்பிடிக்கு தடை

வடமாகாண சபைக்கு முன்பாக ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்

வியாழக்கிழமை, 09 ஒக்டோபர் 2014 10:47

-பொ.சோபிகா, எம்.றொசாந்த்

வல்வெட்டித்துறை கிழக்கு பகுதியை சேர்ந்த இழுவை படகுகளில் மீன்பிடியில் ஈடுபடும் மீனவர்கள் வடமாகாண சபையின் முன்பாக வியாழக்கிழமை (9) போராட்டமொன்றை முன்னெடுத்து வருகின்றனர்.

வடமாகாண காணி பிரச்சினைகள் தொடர்பிலான அமர்வு வியாழக்கிழமை (9) வடமாகாண சபையில் நடைபெற்று வருகிறது.

இந்நிலையில், மீண்டும் இழுவை படகு மீன்பிடியில் ஈடுபடுவதற்கு அனுமதிக்க வேண்டும் என்று கூறி மீனவர்கள் இப்போராட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டு வருகின்றனர்.

மேற்படி பகுதியில் 23 பேர் இழுவை படகு மீன்பிடியில் ஈடுபட்டு வருகின்றனர். இழுவை படகு மீன்பிடியால் கடல்வளம் முற்றாக அழிக்கப்படுவதை கருத்திற்கொண்டு இலங்கை கடற்றொழில் நீரியல் வளத்துறை அமைச்சு இழுவை படகு மீன்பிடிக்கு தடை விதித்திருந்து.

அந்த அடிப்படையில், மேற்படி 23 மீனவர்களும் இழுவை படகு மீன்பிடியில் ஈடுபட வடமாகாண மீன்பிடி அமைச்சு தடை விதித்திருந்தது.

தமது மீன்பிடி முறைமைக்கு தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டமையால் தங்களின் வாழ்வாதாரம்  பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக கூறி இம்  மீனவர்கள் கடந்த 6 ஆம் திகதி உண்ணாவிரத போராட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டனர்.

தொடர்ந்து, வியாழக்கிழமை (09) வடமாகாண சபை முன்பாக போராட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டு வருகின்றனர்.