The withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from south Lebanon has just been completed. It was accompanied by the swift and total collapse of Israel's Lebanese mercenary force, known as "The South Lebanon Army"; the return of civilians to their homes, in villages just liberated from Israeli occupation in what had been designated "The Security Zone"; and the release of Lebanese freedom fighters, long incarcerated in the notorious Al-Khiam Prison.

At the same time, leading Israeli politicians - including Prime Minister Barak in person - continue their repeated threats of a severe attack on Lebanon in the aftermath of the withdrawal. Moreover, the threats to attack Syria as well, which were hitherto veiled, are now becoming more and more bald and explicit.

The Israeli Army's precipitous and humiliating withdrawal from South Lebanon is yet another proof that military superiority, however great, is incapable of defeating a people which is determined to carry on a justified struggle to liberate its homeland from foreign occupation, and whose sons and daughters persist in the struggle even when faced with enormous sacrifice. Some of the victims were Lebanese fighters - but most of them were civilians who were wounded or killed in the countless Israeli bombings and bombardments launched from sky, sea and land alike. Also the Israeli inhabitants in some of the Lebanese border communities suffered from the effects of the ongoing occupation of South Lebanon and specifically of the criminal attacks on the Lebanese civilian population as part of that occupation - attacks which entailed the retaliatory shooting of Katyusha missiles, which harmed the persons and property of Israelis.

At this crucial time it is important to mention that the Communist Party of Israel and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality were the only ones in the Israeli Parliament to oppose the Lebanon War from its first day in June 1982, and warned of its dire consequences which we still experience. No other party supported the motion of no confidence in the government presented by the then CPI Secretary-General Meir Vilner, on behalf of the DFPE parliamentary faction with the outbreak of the war on June 8, 1982. Nearly all members of the Knesset voted against that motion and in favor of the war; some escaped from the hall and were not present at the vote. Later, attempts were made to obscure these facts - but they are part of history. In this war, as in the ones of 1956 and 1967, the true Communists were the only ones to stand the test. (In 1967 there had been a party headed by Shmuel Mikunis and calling itself "Communist Party of Israel" which supported in the Parliament the war of aggression launched that year).

The Barak Government bears full responsibility for the outbreak of severe violent confrontations in the Palestinian Territories in the second half of May, in the course of which hundreds of Palestinians were wounded and more than ten killed - the highest number of casualties in years. The main causes of the escalation were the non-implementation of previous Israeli obligations - specifically, the obligation to release a large number of Palestinian prisoners - and the presentation of intransigent, grossly annexationist Israeli positions which precluded any possibility of significant advance in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

We call upon the Barak Government to release all Palestinian prisoners; to cease all construction activities at settlements in the Occupied Territories; to refrain from any further land confiscation and house demolition; to immediately implement the Knesset decision to transfer to full Palestinian control the town of Abu Dis and two other towns and villages in its vicinity; and to conduct the negotiations in a completely different manner than hitherto.

Only full withdrawal from the Occupied territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem, can bring peace and security and put an end to the prolonged cycle of bloodshed. And in order to achieve comprehensive peace in the region, the Syrian Golan Heights must be fully evacuated as well - which is the key to an agreement with Syria and the achievement of a stable and lasting peace throughout the region.