[This press release was issued by a coalition of Palestinian women’s groups including the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development, Hedaya Shamon-Gaza; Al-Tajamu’ al-Nasawi al-Maqdasi, the Women’s Legal Aid and Counseling Center, the Women Studies Center, YWCA, the Gender Studies Program-Mada al-Carmel and many others on 13 August 2014.]
“Let Gaza Live” - “End Gaza Genocide!” -“We Are All Gaza”
Act to end complicity with Israel’s massacre of Gaza. Wear black to show your sympathy and support for the people of Gaza. Wear black to show your opposition to those who aid Israel’s accumulative genocide against the Palestinian people.
To turn a blind eye to Israel’s massacres in Gaza today is to be complicit in Israel’s genocidal attacks against the Palestinian people. As of 2 PM on August 9th, an estimated 1,922 Palestinians have been killed -- of whom 448 are children and 235 women -- and 7,469 wounded by the Israel since July 7, 2014. At least 86% of casualties are civilians. An estimated 200,000 people are still displaced, of whom 10,000 are pregnant women. 373,000 children are estimated to require psychosocial support. A conservative estimate of homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair is 65,000. Nineteen ambulance drivers and other medics, nine UNRWA workers and nineteen journalists are among the dead. Israel has targeted hospitals, schools, shelters, NGO offices, fishing boats, universities and mosques. It has destroyed Gaza’s only power plant and only sewage treatment system, and there is fear that sewage may contaminate drinking water. Among recorded war crimes are shooting at children and at fleeing civilians. This is not a war in which civilians are ‘collateral damage’. This is a war in which civilians are the targets.
This war was launched by Israel after provoking Hamas through a reign of terror in the West Bank and, on June 30, killing a Hamas militant. This war was launched after Israel had systematically besieged Gaza for eight years by land, sea and air, using drones to deliver ‘targeted killings’. During the attack, Israeli forces have shot dead 18 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, kidnapped many others, arrested over 1,000, and held 268 under administrative detention. This reign of terror must end. We call for the right to life including ending the siege of Gaza, and prosecuting war criminals. To be silent amidst these continuous criminalities is to accept Israeli colonial violence, and to deny Palestinians the right to life.
In the name of a coalition of Palestinian women’s groups including the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development, Hedaya Shamon-Gaza; Al-Tajamu’ al-Nasawi al-Maqdasi, the Women’s Legal Aid and Counseling Center, the Women Studies Center, YWCA, the Gender Studies Program-Mada al-Carmel and many others, we write to convey our deep condemnation of the continuous loss of lives, and to express our rejection of the support given by most governments to Israeli violence. We refuse to accept violence as part of the daily lives of Palestinians in occupied Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and elsewhere. We are outraged by the terrorism of the Zionist settler colonial regime that positions us as disposable objects, non-human Others, a laboratory for testing new technologies of killing.
Today in Gaza and throughout historic Palestine, we re-experience the annihilation of our future, our right to self-determination and right to life. The United States Senate supports the attack and the U.S. government re-supplies Israel with arms in the midst of the massacre. Several Arab governments – notably Egypt and Saudi Arabia – are complicit in the attack. Even UN president Ban Ki Moon reflects the lie of equal blame. We commend the few governments such as Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Nicaragua that have reacted with anger at Israel’s 3rd Gaza war. We insist on our right to resist the settler colonial regime, and assert our inherent right of self defense for our children, families and communities.
Our hope for the future and love of life fuel our struggle against continuous injustice. We call upon the people of the world to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Gaza and their outrage at the complicity of governments. Wear black for Gaza on public occasions such as demonstrations, sit-ins, teach-ins, lectures, local and national election campaigns. Make your support and anger visible. Speak back, write, educate, build coalitions, activate potential resources, and support life and freedom. Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Act against world powers to secure a future of security and dignity for the Palestinian of Gaza and for all Palestinians.