Below we publish the text of the speech delivered by Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) leader in Rajya Sabha on July 21, 2014.

I RISE here with a great degree of anguish and concern. I share the opinion of everybody who said that there are also atrocities elsewhere in the world, so, we should condemn them. I fully agree. Please come forward and condemn the US aggression that has happened in Iraq, please come forward and condemn what has happened in Libya, please come forward and condemn what has happened in Syria. I appeal to my friend, Dr Maitreyan, to condemn all that, including the question of Tamils in Sri Lanka; and condemn every atrocity against humanity. We are for that. But what we are discussing today is simply the unacceptable and inhuman atrocity in the Gaza Strip. There is only an Urdu word that can explain it and that is called insaniyat. This is something against insaniyat, completely anything concerning basic elementary human values.

As we have discussed this morning, 476 people were killed, more than 3,000 injured, one-third of them were women and children. According to the United Nations, seventy seven per cent of them were civilians. This sort of 'genocide' is taking place today. I use this word deliberately. It has been condemned by the United Nations Security Council saying that it is violative of the international humanitarian laws.

It is being termed by the UN secretary-general as atrocious, and this is something where we cannot remain silent to continuous violations of international law, the accepted UN Security Council resolutions. Therefore, I demand two things, in addition to the demand that has been raised here, namely, a resolution condemning this a la the Resolution where we have condemned the US aggression, the military aggression against Iraq in the past. Yes, it was the NDA government at that point of time headed by Vajpayee, and I know for a fact, – it is on record and a history now  that Vajpayee used this on a number of occasions to India’s advantage by telling them, “We have a democracy and my Parliament in India has condemned it. Therefore, I will have to take this and use this for our advantage in international fora.” And this is what has been done by various democracies. The US president repeatedly uses the Congress’s Resolutions whenever he doesn’t want to agree to anything. And here, when you have this august House demanding a resolution, please accept that. This is my first point.

The second point which I want to make is, immediately suspend all military purchases from Israel. India is the largest military purchaser from Israel in the world. We are paying Israel the profits which they are using to do this genocide in the Gaza Strip. India cannot be a party for this genocide to continue. And what is the basic issue here? People here said, “You go to the basic issue.” The basic issue is, Ram Gopal Yadav, referred to the Balfour Declaration. But, I am saying, the basic issue is, even after that, if you take from 1947, for 66 years-plus, the Palestinians are being denied their legitimate right to a homeland. And it is this that we must oppose. Everybody has their legitimate right to a homeland. Denial of a homeland to Palestinians is the cause that is dear to all of us and until that demand is fully met, -- even the prime minister of India today has endorsed in the BRICS Declaration of a two-nation concept, through peaceful talks, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine and he has signed that Declaration -- until that is accepted, India must suspend all military purchases from Israel and that is the only way by which pressure can be put on them. Now the argument that is being given is that Israel officially has said, and I quote: “They are targeting those affiliated with Hamas terrorists.” Whatever be my personal opinion or my Party’s opinion about Hamas, and I may consider many of their activities objectionable, but they have been democratically elected in their country to rule there as a democratically elected government. I may have my hundreds of disagreements with the BJP today. They have been elected by the people of this country, and I will be the first one to honour this and protect this government as Indian government, wherever I am, in case, I think, my country is under attack or under danger. My political disagreements remain. But a government of India is a government of India. Here is a government of Palestine which, in spite of whatever one may say, has been elected by Palestinians. The world recognised it. An international team of observers went there during elections and said that it was a democratically conducted election. Then, how are you saying that anybody affiliated with Hamas are terrorists? How is this being allowed? And the defence minister there goes on to say, “What is this affiliation?” He says, “We are destroying arms, terror infrastructures, command system, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, terrorist houses and killing terrorists of various ranks of command.” Countries can go to wars. There have been three wars with Pakistan. But has there ever been a demand here saying that we are against an elected government there? Can anybody say that we are going to unsettle an elected government in another country and go to war? And that is exactly what is happening here. Can we accept that? Is that India’s tradition? Now, if at all you want to go into the genesis, there is only one thing that I want to state very clearly in this house, which is my Party’s position, and I am very sure that a very large number of people would agree to this.

Let Israel today vacate all the illegally occupied territories of Palestine and after that if there is one terrorist attack against Israel, I will be the first one to stand up here and condemn it and will ask the Indian parliament to condemn it. As long as they occupy illegal Palestinian lands, there is no justification of terrorism involved. They are the biggest official terrorists occupying genuine lands of Palestine; that cannot be allowed and that is our tradition. You have heard Mahatma Gandhi’s quotation here. We have grown up with that quotation. France is for France. England is for English speaking and Palestine is for the Palestinians. We have gone through that. We have got innumerable resolutions. Remember, before this august house became the august house of an independent India, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru convened the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi, India, in 1947 and in that conference, one of the earliest resolutions to be passed was on the question of Palestine. Remember, India is the only non-Arab country in the world that opposed the partition of Palestine in 1947. Please remember our history. Every one of us is part of that history. All that we are saying today is that India must exercise its force. India must exercise its basic moral force and the little economic force it has. Stop your arms’ purchases from Israel and you will cripple Israel profits of attacking the Palestinians. At least suspend them now till the violence in Gaza Strip is over. And remember, we recognise Israel. The P V Narasimha Rao’s government recognised Israel. We were critical even then, but there was a point then. That is when Yasser Arafat said, ‘For the first time Israel has accepted in the Oslo talks that were going on that Israel has agreed to a two-State solution, a State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as the Capital.’ That is when India recognised that. Otherwise, I have travelled, you must have travelled, all of us have travelled on passports that were printed. It is not valid for Israel and South Africa. That is exactly what Narendra Modi, as the prime minister of India today, in the BRICS Declaration has endorsed and signed saying, a two nation solution with East Jerusalem as the capital. He signs it, in the BRICS Summit. Why are we afraid of today moving this resolution? Therefore, finally what I would like to say is that do not reduce this. Please do not reduce this. I heard the ruling party members speaking here. But I am pained to hear this. Don’t reduce this as though it is some sort of a communal relationship between various issues. You don’t need an Abdul Gaffer Khan type of person. Of course, we need an Abdul Gaffer Khan type of personalities always. We want such personalities. But don’t have those imputations. Like once it happened, we were very unfortunate, that a former external affairs minister of India, when he actually talked of saying that we are today supporting the Palestine cause because we are appeasing the Muslims in India.

I am thankful to Mani Shankar Aiyar, for pointing this out. Finally, therefore, I am saying that there are also a lot of evidences. Just one reference I will make before I end, – here I have references of Israeli members of parliament who actually say that the civilians have to die, they are producing the terrorists of the future; therefore, all the mothers have to be killed. This sort of a thing comes and, then, Israeli historians who have gone on record, Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says and I quote, “Israel thought it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the PLO. And they, therefore, supported Hamas in the initial stages.” Whatever be those facts, here is an elected government. You negotiate; you have a two-State solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital and stop this genocide.

Therefore, I reiterate, finally, two demands. The first one is that we pass a resolution like we passed when the US invaded Iraq. And the second one is, the government should be urged immediately by the house to suspend all military purchases from Israel and that is the only way in which we can express our solidarity.