6 months or 75 years?
Since the Oslo Accords, Palestinian land has continued to be occupied to the point that today, Israel occupies 90% of the territory of historic Palestine. In the West Bank, the Israeli population increased from 250,000 in 1993 to 700,000 in 2023. The resulting checkpoints separate families and make the daily lives of Palestinians unbearable. In Gaza, since 2007, there has been a total blockade in an open-air prison. For 30 years, there has been expropriation, confiscation of land, demolition of houses, diversion of water sources, a discriminatory system at all levels, the impossibility of return for Palestinian refugees while Jews around the world have the possibility of settling in the occupied territories, of having political rights and citizenship, etc. This policy has a name, “colonization” which is based on a racist foundation and which is a crime against Humanity.
For 75 years, Israel has flouted international law with complete impunity, and worse, has used all maneuvers to divide and silence Palestinian representation. Let us not forget that Hamas is an organization created by Israel against the Palestinian Authority and Fatah to prevent any two-state solution.
While in 1993 at the time of the Oslo Accords, Israel chose Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas torpedoed the agreements by carrying out particularly deadly terrorist attacks in 1995 and 1996. Israeli opinion shifted and elected Benjamin Netanyahu, another opponent of the two-state solution…”. Since then, both have outbid the Palestinian people
For 30 years, there has been expropriation, confiscation of land, demolition of houses, diversion of water sources, a discriminatory system at all levels, the impossibility of return for Palestinian refugees while Jews around the world have the possibility of settling in the occupied territories, of having political rights and citizenship, etc. This policy has a name, “colonization” which is based on a racist foundation and which is a crime against Humanity.
The Western media, but also all Western governments or not, ignored this until there was a significant response from the Palestinians. Yes, but there was October 7 and the Hamas attack which left a thousand victims: massacres, kidnappings, rapes, etc. In retaliation, Israel launched war against the population of Gaza and the West Bank, without any humanitarian consideration causing, in a few weeks, thousands of deaths. Between the violence of the Israeli army and that of Hamas, their executioners have no care for women's rights and Peace, they are once again paying a heavy price for war crimes.
It's almost 6 months that the Palestinian people have been living through hell: more than 30,000 dead, 70% of them women and children, and more than 70,000 injured, 1.5 million displaced people who survive in the most precarious conditions and still under the fire of the Israeli army, a totally destroyed territory, famine and infectious diseases.
6 months since the resistance of the Palestinian people has spread throughout the world.
6 months that people around the world stand together and denounce colonization, apartheid, repression, war and its crimes and demand an immediate ceasefire. 6 months that Western chancelleries have struggled to support their position on Israel's right to defend itself. This right does not exist in international law, but Israel has never respected international law. On the other hand, international law recognizes the right of peoples to liberate their land by all means, including armed struggle.
6 months that these same governments and pro-Israeli propaganda have tried to muzzle all forms of solidarity in favor of the struggle of the Palestinian people and for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
This is the case with the offensive launched against feminist organizations, women's rights organizations, anti-Zionist Jewish organizations and other organizations. By accusing them of not condemning the sexual assaults (rape) suffered by Israeli women and children during the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel and its apologists are attempting to silence the voices calling for an end to the genocidal massacre Palestinians.
This intimidation, particularly against organizations fighting for women's rights which denounce systemic violence against women and the complicity of governments.
Feminism is a fight for the emancipation of all women, against all forms of oppression. He reminds us that every life counts, that we must be outraged in exactly the same way when civilians; women, children, men, the elderly die on both sides, there is no need to prioritize the suffering.
The rape of women is a weapon of war, a crime against humanity, the massacre of women, pregnant women, children, famine, destruction of infrastructure, genocidal massacre are war crimes, crimes against humanity
In France particularly, the provocations and accusations of anti-Semitism against feminist organizations have only one objective, to exploit the feminist fight to orchestrate political provocations, to divide and discredit the feminist movement when it expresses its support for the Palestinian people.
This is also the case with the amalgamation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. It is nothing more and nothing less about limiting the right to criticize successive Israeli governments and questioning the very existence of the State of Israel.
Likewise, the demonization of the Palestinian resistance by Israel's supporters aims to cover up the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, to justify the occupation and to devalue all legitimate resistance.
What peace for tomorrow?
Only Peace can bring security: slogan of the feminist and peace organization Women Wage Peace, and other Israeli civil society organizations during the January 18, 2024 march, initially scheduled for January 11, 2024 and which was banned by the Ministry of National Security in Israel. Since its creation, this feminist organization has worked with the Palestinian women's organization Women of the Sun.
For years, feminists have led work at the global level to achieve UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Since 2000, she has recognized that women and girls suffer the damage of war in a different way from men. They need to be protected. This resolution 1325 concerns the participation of women in the negotiation process but women must be everywhere where decisions are made.
As we speak, we know that the process of an immediate ceasefire is far from being initiated and the path to Peace is still very far away. Before the war, WWP and Women of the Sun had called on all women and feminist organizations worldwide to support their call for Peace. We must hear their voice, this demand “Only Peace can bring security”.
We will not be silent because we are guarantors of the protection of the fundamental values and principles of freedom, justice, equality, human rights, protection of human life, rejection of fanaticism and racism. We are for peace, against colonization and the recognition of the right of people to self-determination and to live in a free and democratic State.
75 years of colonization means dehumanization, ethnic cleansing, dispossession, expulsion, repression, silencing of all resistance, manipulation of resistance organizations, etc.
This region will never succeed in making peace as long as the idea of superiority of the occupier in relation to the occupied persists. Palestinians have the right to equal rights in a democratic and secular state solution.
Chafia OUTERBAH
Soad BABA AISSA
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