In light of their latest military incursion into Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 8 Palestinians and the wounding of a further 60, Solidarity reaffirms its condemnation of Israel's brutal and barbaric treatment of the Palestinian people.

The state of Israel, founded upon the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, and existing since at their negation, has violated UN resolution after UN resolution with regard to its continued, illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, has invaded its neighbours with impunity, and yet continues to receive the unquestioning support of the British government and the active sponsorship of successive US administrations.

People all over the world are now campaigning for Palestinian human rights, and Solidarity pays tribute to all those who attended a demonstration against the Israeli football team, Maccabi Haifa, in Glasgow last night.

Mick Napier, Chairman of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), was at the demonstration:

"One of the main elements in ending apartheid in South Africa was the international campaign to boycott and isolate it economically and culturally. Most of these football players are also serving soldiers in the IDF, and when they're not on tour playing football they are brutalising Palestinian civilians at Israeli checkpoints all over the occupied territories."

Solidarity MSP, Tommy Sheridan, recently travelled to Lebanon as part of a delegation to view firsthand the damage wrought by Israeli aggression there.

"The scale of the destruction I saw in Lebanon, and the heartrending accounts of the people we met, has left me in no doubt that Israel is intent on terrorising its neighbours using weapons supplied by the US and our own government. The Palestinians and the Lebanese cannot be allowed to stand alone in the face of this terror any longer."

Solidarity demands that Israel abide by UN resolution 242, passed in 1967, demanding that it withdraw from the occupied territories of Palestine and from the Golan Heights. We also take this opportunity to applaud the continued fortitude and resilience of the Palestinians, who refuse to be ethnically cleansed from their land.