PRESS RELEASE Against the Massacre of Unarmed Peace Activists by Israeli Army

The Bi-Communal Peace Initiative “United Cyprus” after evaluating the sitution following the massacre of civilian activists on 31.05.2010 notes the following:

1. The indiscriminate and unprovoked violence by the Israeli army against the civilian fleet which aimed to break the illegal Israeli blockade in order to provide 10000 tones of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people of Gaza is without reservation condemned.
2. This is an act of aggression by Israel which cannot but receive our strongest condemnation and expression of outrage: it targets only the rights of the activists from Europe and the Mediterranean and amounts to act of aggression against all those who believe in freedom, justice, peace, social progress in the region.

3. The democratic-minded and peace-loving people of Cyprus, Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots and others who reside in Cyprus cannot sit back and watch such unacceptable acts of aggression in our neighbourhood.

4. The creation of a united front and Peace Initiative of all the democratic forces in Palestine and Israel that see no way out of this vicious cycle of national/ethnic confrontation and violence is a necessity. Unity on the grass root of society, all the organized democratic forces of the people, unions and civic organizations in order to achieve a just and lasting peace in the area.

The Bi-Communal Peace Initiative “United Cyprus” resolves the following:
1. We demand that the Israeli state respect the rights of the activists to deliver the humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people who need it.

2. We demand that Israel lifts the blockade of the Gaza and allow humanitarian aid so desperately need for the county.

3. We demand that Israel peacefully resolve the Palestinian issue with the right of the Palestinians to have their own state.

4. We call upon the democratic and progressive people of Palestine and Israel to unite their forces for the resolution of the Palestinian problem based on the mutual respect, peace and equal treatment of all the people irrespective ethnic or national origin. This can take the form of a two state solution of two democratic states which respect each another and provide for the right of their citizens (Israel and Palestine) or a single democratic secular state of Jews and Arabs. It is up to the two peoples to decide.