On Saturday, August 21, 1999, a forum of Communist activists from all over the country - Jews and Arabs, young and veteran - took place at Be'er Sheba in southern Israel. After a prolonged discussion and exchange of views, it was decided to start working for the creation of a new Communist Party in Israel.

This decision was taken after the failure of all efforts made during the past years to stop the ideological, political and organizational deterioration of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) under its present leadership.

This year's parliamentary elections have seen a sharp decline for our electoral list. In 1996 we had garnered (with "Balad") 129,455 votes; in 1999, we got only 87,000 - in terms of Knesset seats, a decline from five to three. Yet even this manifest failure did not cause the party leadership to draw the necessary conclusions. On the contrary, the leadership intensified the same reprehensible behavior, which had pushed the party into decline and caused the electoral defeat in the Knesset elections as well as the earlier failure in the municipal elections of 1998. These failures are all the more painful, considering that the political conditions are at present favourable for the party: more Israelis than ever admit that the party's position was correct, especially with regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict and the ways to solve it.

The initiative for convening that forum was taken as a reaction to the deterioration of the situation inside the party, its accelerating deviation from the ideals for whose sake a Communist Party was created in this country, as well as the total and systematic violation of all Communist organizational norms by the present leadership.

Already for some time, the participants in the forum had held similar positions about the party situation. Nevertheless, over a considerable period they have acted mainly on the local level and did their best within the local organs - branches and districts - to try to save the party from deterioration and rehabilitate it.

 The situation after the elections led the participants in the forum - among them many former leaders, national and local, of CPI - to the conclusion that the step of working for a new party was inevitable. It is absolutely indispensable, if a true Communist party is to continue existing in Israel - a party which is Marxist-Leninist, democratic and principled, a party which continues to renew itself on that basis, a party which constantly learns from the experiences of the Communist movement in our country and of fraternal parties, and which takes account of new developments in the country, in the region and in the world.

Participants in the forum regard the new party as the true successor to the Communist Party of Israel and of its glorious history in this country. They will act to make the party members, its sympathizers and the general public aware of that history, and to intensively make Communist education and values available to members. At the same time, they will continue to take the most intensive part in ongoing struggles, primarily the struggle against the occupation and for achieving a just peace; the struggle for equality of the Arab population in Israel; the struggle in defence of workers' rights and those of the poor; as well as in campaigns to defend democratic rights, for equal rights to women, for protection of the environment and against religious coercion.

We will promote Jewish-Arab brotherhood in our own ranks and in the society at large, via political and social activity - at the same time opposing the abuse of that brotherhood in order to promote the personal career of one leader or another.

The founders of the forum are well-aware that quite a few members in the party organs, and many of its cadres, hold dear the Communist ideals and are completely devoted to them. However, these members have no practical possibility of influencing the ever-deteriorating opportunistic and anti-democratic line of the forces that are now dominant in the leadership. Many members - including those who had been for years very active and devoted to the party work - already despaired of the deteriorating party situation and stopped their activity, seeing no alternative and especially no Communist alternative. Upon all of these we call to join us at the new Communist Party, which will constitute a true Communist alternative. We are building this party in a democratic and pluralist spirit, with the support of those who share our way.

The Forum will promote cooperation with individuals and bodies in ongoing struggles on any common issue where a principled basis of a minimum political agreement can be achieved. Such cooperation should be conducted while on the one hand maintaining the forum's identity and uniqueness, and on the other behaving with true respect for the positions and opinions of any potential partner.