"While the Irish Republican Socialist Party has made no secret of its support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as the Palestinian revolutionaries most similar to itself in seeking to wed the national liberation struggle in Palestine with the struggle of the working class for socialism," said a spokesperson of the IRSP's international department, "and disagreed with Hamas on many programmatic issues, we nonetheless salute the resolve demonstrated by Sheikh Yassin consistently in resisting the Zionist occupation of Palestine.

"Sheikh Yassin sought a sectarian, religious state, whereas the IRSP remains strongly secularist and anti-sectarian. Sheikh Yassin was a life-long opponent of the secular, Pan-Arabist, and socialist views that once informed many anti-imperialist movements throughout the Arab Nation, beginning with his opposition to the anti-imperialist regime of Gamal Nasser. These are not views we share and we do not wish to misrepresent ourselves on these matters. That having been said, however, we recognise that the Zionist occupation of Palestine also represents a sectarian, religious state, one that exists to provide a surrogate for the imperialist powers of Europe and North America. The Israeli Zionists enslave and murder the people of Palestine, destablise the entire region, and help to perpetuate some of the most reactionary regimes existent today in the Middle East through their presence.

"Despite our differences, we salute the courage and determination of Sheikh Yassin in resisting the Zionist occupation, as well as resisting the false 'peace' talks though which Israel sought to entrap the Palestinian nation. There is only one kind of peace that Israel seeks for the nation of Palestine, and that is the peace of the dead. The wall they are presently constructing is intended to serve as a tomb for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian nation. This cannot and will not be allowed to happen.

"For many throughout Palestine, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was an incarnation of the militant resistance to the Zionist occupation." In closing, the spokesperson said, "The IRSP express our solidarity with them, in this hour of their grief and salute the unwavering resistance they and the whole of the Palestinian people have waged."

STATEMENTS ENDS