It seems to be a step back into the colonial past. The map of the Middle East is increasingly marked in the colours of occupation troops. Troops of different countries, with or without a mandate of the United Nations, but always corresponding to one single design—the design of the so-called New Middle East envisaged by Washington in close alliance with Israel.
Different pretexts have been put forward in order to justify the invasion of Iraq, to continue the massacre against the Palestinian people, to attack Lebanon. But behind all this is the will to control the entire region, to loot its resources, to impede any autonomous development, to subjugate the people denying them their rights, to impose Western civilisation as the only one worth to exist which one has to accept willingly or by force.
The ongoing blood bath caused by the American and Israeli wars, the systematic use of torture against prisoners, the indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, the use of weapons of mass destruction (as demonstrated in Falluja) heralds a future of war and oppression which cannot be accepted by any human being.
Fortunately, important movements resisting these bleak prospective have emerged and put a brake to the imperialist offensive. The US is bogged down in Iraq by the resistance. In Palestine the resistance has scored a political victory and in Lebanon the Israeli military offensive was repealed.
Thanks to these resistance movements there is still hope to stop the war of civilisations waged by the United States and its allies—Israel and NATO.
The Western propaganda calls war peace and labels any resistance terrorist - like the Nazis did with the guerrilla movements. It is a serious problem that the liberation forces are still denied international political legitimacy.
One year ago the Italian government forestalled the International Conference scheduled in Chianciano close to Rome, denying visas to Iraqi representatives including even Haj Ali, the prisoner of Abu Ghraib who became a global symbol of torture.
Only dialogue can defeat the logic of the clash of civilisations. To achieve a just peace we must listen and recognise the arguments of the resistance. This requires the democratic right to free expression which so far has been negated under the guise of the "war on terror".
We have to fight for the full political recognition of the Iraqi and Lebanese resistance movements and we have to step up our support for the Palestinian cause, for the end of the Zionist occupation, for the defeat of Israeli colonialism which is the most reliable and most aggressive ally of the infinite US war and which controls an enormous arsenal of nuclear arms, demonstrating the double standards of the West.
We, the undersigned, responding also to the renewed interest expressed by different sectors of the Iraqi, Lebanese and Palestinian resistance, therefore call for another international conference, in early 2007 in Italy. The task of the conference is to re-launch the movement against the war, to affirm the idea of a peace based on the right to self-determination of the people, to give political support to whomever fights to liberate his country from foreign occupation.
Recognise and support the Resistance!
End the hunger embargo, recognise and support the Palestinian government!
For the unity of all anti-occupation forces , for a free and united Iraq!
All foreign troops out of Lebanon!
Against U.S. and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, for the victory of the Arab people!
Let's unite the voices of the anti-war movement and the resistance in the liberation struggle against war and imperialist oppression!
Free Iraq Committees Italy
Free Iraq Committee Germany
Free Iraq Committee Norway
Free Iraq Committee Malmö Sweden
Iraqi Communist Party (al Kader)
Dr. Hisham Bustani, Anti-Normalization Movement, Jordan
Democratic Patriot Communist Current Iraq
Anti-imperialist Camp
Hungarian Left Front
Iraqi Patriotic Alliance
Free Thought Association Özgür-Der Turkey
Arab Palestine Club Vienna, Austria
Resistant Arab People's Alliance
RAD-ATTAC, Tunisia
Communist Youth Union (KSM), Czech Republic
Communist Initiative (KI), Austria
KKE-ml, Greece
Klaus von Raussendorff, Vereinigung für Internationale Solidarität (VIS) e.V., Germany
Klaus Hartmann, Bundesvorsitzender des Deutschen Freidenker-Verbandes, Germany
Human Dignity and Rights HDR, Duisburg, Germany
Initiativ e.V. Duisburg, Germany
Left Radicals of Afghanistan
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Wilfred Dcosta, general secretary, Indian social action forum (INSAF)
Attac Mazowsze, Poland
Tunisian institute of the international relations, Paris
Loyalty to Man and Earth movement, Lebanon / Palestine
Irish Unity Committee, Huston, Texas, USA
Redaktion www.kommunisten-online.de
Daily Paper Arbejderen, Denmark
Communist Youth Austria (KJÖ)
Solidarity Commitee with Palestine Graz, Austria
Communist Workers-Peasant Party, Pakistan
Fatma Salah Uthman (spokeswoman) Makhmour Organization for Human Rights and Social Questions, Baghdad/Iraq
Communist Party of Iraq - People's Union
Irish Political Status Committee (IPSC), London
People United Bangladesh
Communist Party of Peru /ML
Benjamin Merhav, Melbourne, Australia
Communist Workers Peasants Party Pakistan
Hana Al Bayaty - member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee France/Iraq
Harsh Thakor, Mumbai, India
Albayaty Abdul Ilah, Iraq/France
Antiwar Network Egypt
Farman Ali, Islamabad Pakistan
Antiglobalist Resistance, Moscow
Afghanistan Socialist Association ASA
Khalid Mehboob, Lahore, Pakistan
Dr. Hussein Salari, USA
Communist Party of Denmark (DKP)
United Peoples www.unitedpeoples.net