Photo by Michael Varcas/Philippine Star
October 18, 2023
Karapatan stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and particularly with the people in Gaza, who are currently besieged with the Israeli government’s aerial bombardment of homes, hospitals, and schools, killing thousands of civilians including children and women, and its deliberate denial of food, water, and medicines of the civilian population.
The recent bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital resulting in at least 500 deaths is the latest example of the Israeli government’s blatant disregard of human rights and international humanitarian law, as it had done in the past in repeatedly violating the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and right to return for decades. A humanitarian catastrophe besets Gaza as thousands are affected by the Israeli government’s bombings and offensives in a region where a 16-year old blockade and military attacks are imposed.
While the Zionist regime should be made to account for its widespread human rights violations against the people of Palestine, US imperialism and its allied States should likewise be held accountable for instigating and driving the policies that result in the genocidal war against Palestinians throughout the years as well as their green-lighting of renewed offensives and attacks against the Palestinian people. US naval forces have gathered in the Mediterranean, vowing to assist Israel in pummeling Gaza and its civilian population, further escalating the conflict and potentially making this global region another flashpoint in the US’ bid to foment proxy wars.
Billions of US military aid and armaments have paved the way and enabled Israel’s settler-colonialism, apartheid, and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, as well as the continuous denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination.
Palestinians have every right to resist, given the decades of genocide and displacement they have suffered in the hands of Zionist Israel. It is a right recognized by UN Resolutions 2625 and 3236 reaffirming the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty, and the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and property illegally seized by Zionist Israel.
Karapatan calls on all peace-loving peoples of the world to denounce and oppose plans by the US, Israel and their cohorts to inflict more death and destruction on Palestine. We must push for a just resolution of the deep-seated and long-festering roots of unpeace in Palestine stemming from US-instigated Israeli oppression and encroachment on Palestinian territory through its policy of settler colonialism.