THE Communist Party has strongly condemned what it called the “ethnic cleansing” of East Jerusalem and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

General secretary Robert Griffiths told the party’s executive committee on Sunday that the “murderous assault has exposed the brutal character of the Israeli state’s illegal occupation and incarceration of Palestinian lands.”

Britain’s communists also condemned the refusal of the US, British and European Union member state governments to take any meaningful action against the Israel’s “crimes against humanity.”

Mr Griffiths said: “This only underlines the need to renew and escalate the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in order to force Israel to respect United Nations resolutions and international law.”

He welcomed the mass protests across Britain and around the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

On May 24, the Communist Party of Britain will be hosting an online meeting for an independent Palestine and sanctions against Israel, with speakers from the Palestinian People’s Party and the Communist Party of Israel.     

In an analysis of the May 6 election results, the party criticised the Labour leadership for offering nothing except a policy vacuum.

But Britain’s communists said the removal of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour general secretary David Evans would not be enough to turn back the forthcoming ruling-class and Tory offensive. 

Democracy needs to be restored in the Labour Party and the labour movement must campaign for policies that challenge big-business market forces, including a new system of “progressive federalism,” with powerful parliaments and assemblies in the nations and regions of Britain.

The executive committee also congratulated its own party candidates, agents, activists and staff, who secured more than 13,000 votes on May 6, for “promoting class politics, winning new members and friends and raising high the red banner of socialism.”