At its meeting on February 8-9, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada condemned US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” as a plan for war and occupation. The Communist Party encourages all labour, solidarity and progressive organizations to demand that the Canadian government oppose the deal.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concocted the plan based entirely on the narrow interests of US imperialism and ultra-right Zionism. The proposals are virtually identical to repeated Israeli demands that have continually been rejected by Palestine and Arab governments for failing to meet minimum standards for justice, equality and human rights. The complete exclusion of any representative of the Palestinian people demonstrates clearly that this is not a plan for peace, but a project to perpetuate Israeli apartheid.
The plan includes redrawing Israel’s borders to annex the Jordan Valley and West Bank; not one single illegal Israeli settlement will be moved. Arab-majority communities in the Triangle will be severed from Israel and transferred to Palestine, which the Communist Party of Israel has said will essentially deport hundreds of thousands of residents and deny their homeland and citizenship. The result is that Palestine will be left as several fractured “bantustans” with no territorial continuity, under Israeli control. Jerusalem is identified as ‘united and liberated under Israel’ in its entirety, with Palestine having none of the city that is its capital.
The longstanding and just demand for Palestine refugees’ right of return is completely rejected. This condemns over 5 million people to a life of statelessness, often spent in squalid refugee camps.
The Palestinian People’s Party has denounced the plan as “a new Balfour paving the way for a new catastrophe.” The PPP has warned that this is the start of an intensified effort to “liquidate” the Palestinian people’s struggle for the right of return, freedom and independence, and has called for deepened international solidarity.
Trump has made much of the economic package for Palestine that is contained within the plan. In fact, this is an economic package for racist profiteering. The $50 billion in investment money that is offered to Palestine would be placed in a fund and managed to maximize returns for investors. In order to receive disbursements from the fund, the Palestinian state would be required to implement neoliberal policies of privatization, tax cuts and deregulation.
The Canadian government is yet to comment publicly on the deal, with Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne only stating that he will “examine the details.”
History suggests that “the details” do not matter much to the Trudeau government, which has enthusiastically continued the imperialist, pro-US foreign policy priorities of the Harper Conservatives. The Canadian government’s ongoing attacks against the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and the Palestine solidarity movement generally, demonstrate very clearly where Champagne’s “examination” will lead.
The Communist Party reaffirms its solidarity with the Palestinian people, including through support for BDS.
This attack on the Palestinian people requires strong and united international solidarity. We call upon all peace and solidarity activists, as well as the trade union movement, to demand that the Canadian government oppose the Trump-Netanyahu deal.
Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, Feb 9, 2020