India should stop all military cooperation with Israel: CPI-M

New Delhi, Jan 8: Condemning Israel's assault in Gaza, the Indian Marxists Thursday said the Manmohan Singh government must cease all military cooperation with Israel and urged the people to rise in support of the Palestinian cause.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) also criticised the US and Israel for refusing to accept the democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza and said it was the "root cause" of the present crisis in Palestine.

"Having asked for elections (in Gaza) and overseeing them, US imperialism and Israel now refuse to accept the democratic verdict of the Palestinian people. It is this blatant refusal to accept the popular mandate of the people by US and Israel that is the root cause for the current hostilities that Israel is unleashing against the Palestinians," the central committee of the CPI-M, now in session at Kochi, said in a resolution adopted to "Condemn Israeli Military Aggression on Gaza".

"The US and Israel list Hamas as a terrorist organisation. It was the same US that had insisted upon democratic elections to be held within Palestinian territories as a precondition for taking forward the peace process. In these elections, universally acknowledged by western observers to be free and fair, the Hamas won.

"For US imperialism and Israel, however, democratic elections must always throw up those whom they want elected and not those whom the Palestinian people want," the CPI-M resolution said.

Strongly condemning the killing of 40 civilian refugees on Jan 6 in a United Nations school and three others in another school, the resolution said: "If the US had not blocked a UN-sponsored ceasefire, at least these 43 civilians, many of them women and children, would have been alive."

"This is the real nature of US imperialism's support to Israeli aggressiveness," it added.

The party reiterated that the Manmohan Singh government must "immediately cease all military cooperation with Israel."

"The Manmohan Singh government has identified itself as an ally of Israel which is harmful for the country's interests and spoilt India's traditional support to the Palestinian cause. Under these circumstances, it is incumbent upon the Congress-led government to immediately cease all military cooperation with Israel."

"India cannot be a party to finance the inhuman Israeli juggernaut. India must exercise its influence amongst the developing countries to mobilise for an effective implementation of an immediate ceasefire and for eventual realization of the Palestinian nation," the resolution said.

The party also called on people to "mount pressure on the Indian government to take firm measures in mobilising world opinion to halt this military attack against the Palestinians immediately."

"The Indian people, who have always stood by the Palestinians in their genuine struggle for a homeland since the days of our independence struggle, must today rise in protest against this inhuman Israeli attack. This expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people must be accompanied by much-required humanitarian assistance," the resolution added.