The Israeli Communist Forum congratulates all its members for their important contribution to its foundation and development. The forum regards as a major achievement the big impact - among members and sympathizers of the CPI, as well as in the general public - caused by the news of the forum's creation and of its initiative to bring about the formation of a new Communist party, based on the preliminary program of which excerpts appear above. The forum congratulates the new adherents from all over the country; from some of them we heard that they had long been waiting for such a body to appear, a body in which they could continue their Communist activity which had been cut off due to the crisis in the CPI and to their finding no suitable alternative.

The Israeli Communist Forum supports the renewal of the negotiations with Syria. At the same time we like to mention again that the Palestinian Problem was and remains the core of the Israel-Arab Conflict, and only its just solution will ensure the achievement of a just and lasting peace in our region.

The Israeli Communist Forum sharply condemns the policies of the Barak Government, which places ever-new obstacles on the way of the peace process with the Palestinian People.

The most prominent recent examples are Barak's statement that his starting position in the "final status" negotiations would be to give the Palestinian Authority a mere 18% of the occupied West Bank; the government's failing to remove the illegal "hilltop settlements" established in the last months of its predecessor's term; the further extension of settlements carried out under the new government's own authority; and the renewal of the demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and also in the Gaza Strip.

To this should be added an anti-social economic policy, manifested in the projected government budget for 2000. Moreover, the Barak Government rejects the just demand of the Arab population to abolish the long-standing discrimination to which it is subjected, and to grant budgets for solution of its most urgent problems. We condemn the continuing brutal use of police force against the legitimate expressions of protest by the Arab population, a force that is also aimed at the Arab population's representatives including against Mayors and Knesset Members.

The Forum calls upon its members to take an active part in the struggles against these policies - against the occupation and discrimination and for a just peace and equal rights for the Arab national minority in Israel.

The forum expresses satisfaction with the important successes of Communist parties in the recent elections held in several countries, especially in the Ukraine, in Russia and also in Portugal, Greece and other countries. The Forum will strive to establish ties of friendship and cooperation with fraternal Communist parties, as well as with other progressive forces in different countries.

The Israeli Communist Forum declares that the hysterical reaction of the CPI leadership at its formation is still another sign of this leadership's bankruptcy. The leadership was astonished at the Forum's impressive successes, achieved within such a short time, with all its activities carried out by volunteer work.

In all their reactions, the PCI leaders did not make a concrete answer to any of the Forum's arguments, which were enumerated in its publications and its initial program. They gave no convincing explanation for the steady weakening of the CPI and specifically for its sharp decline in the last elections.

The mainstream Israeli media certainly could not ignore the split in the CPI and the creation of the Forum - but most of the press reports did not include the Forum's own reaction.

Moreover, in some cases the only opinion presented was that of the present CPI leadership. It is hardly surprising that - in our country as in others, now as in the past - the media supports the opportunist and liquidationist side of the Communist movement. This was, by the way, evident long before the announcement of the Forum's creation. The present leaders of the CPI get opportunities to appear in the state radio and TV nearly every day, while in the past such appearances occurred only in few special occasions. several years. Still, the CPI leaders used their access to the media in order to make attacks on the Forum which were full of unprecedented hatred, and were characterized by an obvious lack of credibility and by internal contradictions.

This aroused many questions among the party members, its sympathizers and all those who are interested in what is happening in it, and also caused criticism from more than one impartial journalist.

The CPI leadership has been spreading, inside and outside the country, a statement including many falsehoods concerning the Forum, its members and their motivations in creating it. For example, it is ridiculous to claim that the Forum is being formed now because somebody among its members was not elected to a party organ, back at the "Twenty-Third Congress" more than two years ago. The truth is that those of the Forum leaders, who had in the past been members of the CPI Central Committee, had not presented their candidature to any party organ during the Twenty-Third Congress. This was a deliberate decision, due - among other things - to their protest at the manifest illegality of that congress.

It had been a congress convened and conducted on the basis of manipulation in the delegates' lists (about which the outgoing Head of the Party Control Commission talked in detail at the congress itself) and of a systematic violation of all party statutes and Communist norms, in all stages of its preparation and its conduct. Therefore, it can be said that the process of the party split was already well under way in the period before and during that congress, and after the congress it further accelerated to its inevitable conclusion.

In the CPI International Section's message, sent to parties abroad, it was claimed that there are in fact no ideological differences, and that the founders of the Forum are motivated by purely personal considerations. On the other hand, in statements published inside the country the opportunist CPI leadership dubs the Forum members as being "Stalinists" and similar appellations, still without entering into any concrete debate with their positions.

The Forum will not be deterred from the incitement of the current CPI leadership, and will continue to reveal the truth about the developments that took place in the party in recent years. The new communist party will be further strengthen, and will continue to play its active role in the most important political struggles in our country, and for the communist ideals.