Offer aid to Hamas government, Left tells Manmohan

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) The Left parties today urged the government to offer help to the cash-starved Palestinian Authority, which is reeling under a financial blockade by the US, European Union and Israel.

Expressing the blockade as ''immoral and illegal'', the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc said the Manmohan Singh government should condemn the withdrawal of assistance to the newly-elected Hamas government.

''The Left parties urge the UPA government to immediately come out against the financial blockade of the Palestinian people and extend assistance to the Palestinian Authority,'' said a statement issued by the Left parties.

It was surprising that the UPA government had kept mum on this ''new onslaught'' on the Palestinian people, the statement said adding the ties with Israel should not be allowed to come in the way of India's longstanding and firm commitment to the Palestinian cause.

''This diabolocal policy of blockading and starving an entire people into submission is immoral and illegal and the Palestinian people are being punished for exercising their democratic right to elect their representatives,'' the Left parties said.

''There can be differences with the Hamas on its ideology and platform, but to inflict sufferings on the Palestinian people makes a mockery of the United States and European Union's claim to uphold democracy,'' the statement said.

The US and the European Union have stopped financial assistance running into millions of dollars after the Hamas, which they brand as a terrorist organisation, formed the government in March. Israel also halted the transfer of taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority every month.

Meanwhile, the state secretary of the CPI(M) Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami in Srinagar has also expressed resentment over stopping of all funds to the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Tarigami urged upon the UPA government to immediately come out against the financial blockade and extend assistance to the Palestinian people.

UNI FZ HS RS2005