Statements on Israel and Palestine Violence

October 11th, 2023 - by A Statement from RootsAction & United National Antiwar Coalition

To Stop the Cycle of Violence, the US Must
Quit Supporting Israel’s Occupation
A Statement from RootsAction

(October 8, 2023) —We condemn the attacks by Hamas deliberately targeting Israeli civilians for killing and kidnapping. And we condemn Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza, which is again killing large numbers of Palestinian civilians. We grieve for all the lives lost and for all those injured and traumatized.

The root of today’s violence is the oppression and abuses suffered daily by Palestinian people as a whole under decades of cruel Israeli occupation and expansionism. Leading human rights groups — from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch to Israel’s B’Tselem — have concluded that Israel’s occupation policies amount to a form of apartheid.

Until Israel’s military occupation is ended, these cycles of terror and war and trauma will repeat.

A huge obstacle to bringing an end to the Israeli occupation is the US government. Under Democratic and Republican administrations, it has steadfastly made excuses for Israel as ever more Palestinian homes and villages have been destroyed or seized by right-wing settlers, as settlements have expanded, as Israeli soldiers have stormed Muslim holy sites, as Palestinian children have been militarily detained. And the violence from soldiers and extremist settlers toward Palestinians has worsened in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with the rise of the most openly racist, far-right government in Israel’s history.

We agree with Jewish Voice for Peace when it traces today’s bloodshed to US complicity with Israel’s never-ending occupation: “The US government consistently enables Israeli violence and bears blame for this moment. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the US enables and empowers Israel’s apartheid regime. Those who continue calling for ‘ironclad’ US support for the Israeli military are only paving the path to more violence.”

ACTION: Email your Representative and Senators, and President Biden.

Background:
• Amnesty International: “Crime of Apartheid: The Government of Israel’s System of Oppression Against Palestinians”
• Human Rights Watch: “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution”
• B’Tselem: “This Is Apartheid”
• United Nations: “Israel’s 55-year Occupation of Palestinian Territory is Apartheid – UN Human Rights Expert”
• New York Times: “Israel’s Push to Expand West Bank Settlements, Explained”

Resistance Is Justified When People Are Occupied! *
United National Antiwar Coalition

The United National Antiwar Coalition stands firmly behind the people of Palestine as they resist over 75 years of brutal and illegal occupation by the Israelis.

We call on people and organizations across the United States to take to the streets to support the cause of a free Palestine and to demand an end to all US military and economic aid to Israel.

While the mainstream media will tell people this war began with rockets from Hamas on October 7, 2023, we know that the Palestinian people have been living in a constant state of war since the Israeli state was conceived in 1948 when historic Palestine was divided to create the current Zionist, Apartheid state and hundreds of thousands of dispossessed Palestinians were driven off their lands into internal and external exile.

Violence against Palestinians by Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) and settlers has increased under the new Netanyahu government. This constant violence and oppression against a people and the failure of nonviolent methods of holding the Israeli state accountable lead to one, logical outcome: resistance.

For over seven decades, the Palestinian people have been subjugated to not only theft and occupation of their land, but constant violence, arbitrary detention and dehumanization. In the West Bank, multiple checkpoints restrict their movements and access to medical resources. Palestinians are denied basic necessities such as clean water, and the people face violent raids by the Israeli Occupying Force and murderous Israeli settlers, who constantly encroach on Palestinian land.

Thousands of men, women, and children are locked inside of Israeli jails for years without charges or trials, Palestinians face legalized discrimination, and for two years in a row, the IOF and right-wing Israeli nationalists have attacked Palestinians worshiping at the Al Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian deaths.

The people of Gaza, in particular, have been subject to some of the worst living conditions and indiscriminate Israeli bombings. Within the 140 square mile Gaza Strip, the largest open-air prison in the world, two million people live trapped and vulnerable to unannounced Israeli strikes.Their human rights to water, food, electricity and movement are violated.

According to the Euro-Med Monitor report, Pulling the Trigger is the First Resort, there was a “dramatic surge” in the number of Palestinians murdered in 2022 and more than 60% of those killed by the IOF were civilians who were not involved in any sort of conflict.

All of this violence perpetrated by the Israeli State is only possible with the political, financial, and military backing of the United States. Every year, the United States sends $3 billion in military aid to Israel, which is used to fund the occupation and constant bombardments of Palestinian territories. With that money, Israel also purchases equipment and technology from US weapons manufacturers. Israel is the largest recipient of US aid globally.

UNAC condemns US wars for occupation, greed and resources. We recognize that under international law, Palestinians have the legal right to resist the Israeli occupation. The present violence between Palestinians and Israelis represents a decades-long struggle by an oppressed people for liberation. UNAC’s second point of unity states:

“We support the right of all oppressed peoples, including colonized and formerly colonized countries, to determine their own road to liberation… We do not have to agree with a targeted country’s leaders in order to oppose US aggression against that country. As political activists in the heart of the Empire, we have a responsibility to oppose US imperialism. In the particular case of Palestine, we support the right of the Palestinian people to determine their own future and we oppose any US aid to the colonial apartheid state of Israel.”

The Palestinian people demand and deserve freedom from Israeli apartheid, settler colonialism, and genocidal tactics. How they go about achieving victory in their struggle for liberation is for them to determine.

UNAC demands an end to all US military and economic aid to Israel. We call on all members to express their support for a free Palestine through solidarity actions. Please send us any pictures and descriptions of actions in your city, so that we may circulate them.

Free Palestine!

  • EAW notes that, while injustice and repression generate resistance, this is not an excuse to respond with acts of criminal violence. War is not a solution for war.

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