A gesture of support toward the murderers

ABSTRACT: The PLO states that the fact that the Radical Party holds its Council in Jerusalem is a gesture of support toward the repressive policy of the Israeli government in the occupied territories. Pannella replies that the question is that of the presence of a non-violent party, a party inspired by Ghandi, which defends the human and political rights of everyone. And he wonders if the PLO, who accuses the Radical Party of "complicity" with the Israelis in the murder of the Palestinians, is equally concerned about the murders committed between Arabs in Lebanon.

(Notizie Radicali n. 6 - October 1988)

"We cannot consider the summons of the Federal Council of the Radical Party in Jerusalem other than a gesture of support toward the repressive policy of the Israeli government on the part of the Radical Party, a gesture of support toward the occupation troops, toward the daily murders perpetrated by the Israeli soldiers in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is surprising that the Radical Party summons its Council in our occupied country, while it continues to talk about economic crisis".

Marco Pannella's reply

"The interference" of the representative of the PLO in Italy as regards the summons of the Federal Council of the Radical Party is welcome, and shows the path its military and political organization must still travel to be acknowledged as a legitimate and democratic representative of a country and a population.

The PLO accuses us of supporting and being accomplices of the murders of children carried out by the Israeli soldiers. I reply that its accusation is a senseless insult, and hides dishonest motivations. I can only hope that this is also a sign, for the PLO, of an acquired respect "for the life of the children" and of the people, an attitude which in the past I didn't give out for certain, and still don't. When hundreds of even thousands of men and women, children and old people are massacred in Lebanon or elsewhere, in the course of criminal fratricide wars between different Arab factions, or when thousands of people fall victims to the regimes of the Middle-East, the PLO seems to be looking elsewhere and to connive at all times.

We will be present in Jerusalem in spite of our financial difficulties, and our safes will certainly not be full of money obtained thanks to the exploitation of the peoples of the Middle East on the part of inhuman regimes, allies and financiers of the PLO, or thanks to the contributions of this or that "Western" lobby. We will be there as a non-violent party inspired by Ghandi's ideals, as a party that wants to defend the human and political rights of everyone, as defenders of the life and the democratic rights of all the Palestinians and all the Arabs, and not just when they are faced with mistakes or even crimes on the part of Israel, but at all times.