The June 1999 elections did bring about the change of government, which we hoped for. The Netanyahu Government has fallen - one of the worst in Israel's history, a government that totally halted the peace process, which caused a sharp deterioration in the social and economic situation and which was a total failure in all fields. Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister by a large majority.

However, from the beginning of Barak's term we could see worrying signs in both the political and the socio-economic spheres. In contradiction to his promises, Barak carried out various maneuvers to avoid full and immediate implementation of the Wye River Agreement with the Palestinians. As to the Permanent Agreement, on which negotiations are soon to open, Barak repeated the traditional positions of previous Israeli governments, including the famous series of "No's" which had hitherto prevented the achievement of peace, and which - unless they are abolished - will also prevent its achievement in the future.

We call upon the Barak Government to implement without further delay the Wye and Sharm A Sheikh Agreements - as regards the military redeployment (withdrawal), the release of Palestinian prisoners and all other commitments included in these agreements.

We reject the attempt to avoid implementing some parts of these agreements under the pretext of "including them in the permanent agreement" - all the more since, with Barak's present positions, it is doubtful if such an agreement will ever be achieved.

We condemn the practice of non-implementation of previous agreements and of renegotiating issues that were already agreed upon and signed. The Sharm Agreement is a further precedent of this kind, one more attempt to squeeze out of the Palestinians further concessions such as delaying the third stage of withdrawal. Under such conditions, true negotiations on the permanent solution cannot even start - much less, be successfully concluded. Any attempt to channel the negotiations into such conditions and methods - which imply a systematic attempt to impose on the Palestinian side unreasonable conditions and force them to give up their basic rights - would make it impossible to achieve a just and lasting peace agreement, an agreement which would be accepted by this and future generations of all peoples in the region.

A permanent agreement, a just and lasting peace, will only be achieved on the basis of Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since the June 1967 War, including the Golan Heights and South Lebanon, and the creation of an independent Palestinian state, side by side with Israel, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Problem is the core of the Israeli-Arab Conflict, and only its just solution, which centers upon the creation of an independent Palestate, can ensure the achievement of a just and lasting peace in our region.

In the socio-economic sphere, too, the Barak Government proved highly disappointing from its inception. Immediately upon the commencement of the new government's term, a series of draconian decrees were prepared at the Finance Ministry - designed to severely damage the weaker sections of Israeli society, the old, the poor, the inhabitants of the slums and undeveloped towns and in particular the Arab communities, as well as the youth and women.

Under pressure of public criticism, and since some of these planned decrees were also opposed within the governing coalition, some - but not all - were suspended. The aims of those who prepared these plans are still dominant among those who define the Barak Government's economic policies. These circles prepare for further privatizations, which will severely hurt both the workers and society at large. The public health system is facing total collapse.

A shocking and ever-increasing phenomenon is the mass employment of foreign migrant workers at inhuman conditions, verging upon actual slavery. Manpower companies and many employers make use of these workers' special situation - being denied any kind of civil, legal or union defence - in order to pay them what can only be termed starvation wages; and in many cases, the employers avoid paying even these wages. The employment of the migrant workers is also used in order to pressure the local workers and intimidate them not to demand any pay raise or improvement of working conditions.

We call for an immediate end to the cruel exploitation of the migrant workers, and the granting to them of all the rights which working people deserve (such as adequate medical attention). They should also get trade-union protection - first of all, from the Histadrut (Union Federation) and all its organs and institutes.

We demand full respect for the specific needs of all sectors, on the basis of preserving the rights of working people, of women, of handicapped people, of the old, of the unemployed, of the poor and of the homeless. We will give our support only to an economic policy based upon respect for human beings and care for their welfare and their physical and spiritual health, a policy forming part of a comprehensive program of supportive welfare. Such a policy must include government-initiated development of industrial projects in the weaker regions of the country - first of all, in the communities of the Arab population and in the impoverished towns.

We demand the total abolition of all the planned draconian economic decrees. The revenue which these decrees are supposed to ensure can be obtained instead by cutting the enormous military budgets and the allotments for settlements in the Occupied Territories, as well as by imposing taxation upon the capitalists and the corporations - who at present get more and more tax exemptions and benefits, while the workers and society at large are the target of ever new economic decrees and cuts in their most basic needs.