Monday, October 7, 2024, marks one year since the attack against Israel. We are compelled to name the actions of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank that have led to the deaths of nearly 50,000 Palestinian people. The body count does not lie; we accuse the state of Israel of carrying out acts of terror and genocide against the Palestinian people.
Genocide is when a government uses its resources (money, laws, military, etc.) to exterminate another group of people. Hitler and the Nazi Holocaust of the Jewish people during WWII represent the most recognized example of a genocide. The current genocide in Gaza also began on October 7, 2023, and during the past year, the Israeli military has:
- Killed at least 42,000 Palestinians and injured another 97,166 others. Among the dead, there are at least:
- 16,891 children, and
- 11,346 women.
- Killed at least
- 500 medical workers (doctors, nurses…etc.),
- 721 Palestinians in the West Bank,
- 280 aid workers,
- 174 journalists/media workers, and
- 222 UN staff members.
- Bombed EVERY SINGLE hospital, university, and school in Gaza.
- Intentionally starved the Palestinian population and blocked access to potable water.
- Illegally detained/imprisoned over 11,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.
On September 17 and 18, 2024, the Israeli military used pagers packed with explosives to kill people throughout Lebanon. This led to the deaths of at least 42 Lebanese people, including civilians and several children. On September 27, 2024, Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. Clearly, these elements seek to provoke a broader war that will result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the region. We denounce the Zionist state of Israel and its reactionary 2-party enablers within the U.S. government. We hold them responsible for this year-long genocide against the Palestinian people and for the provocative attacks against the people of Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria.
We must be clear that not all Jewish people or Israelis support this genocidal war-mongering. In fact, tens of thousands of people in Israel have been participating in protests against their government and demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine. In the United States and across the world, many Jewish people participate in and lead protests against genocide and the escalation of a regional war. As is the case across the majority of the world, many Jewish people recognize the history of more than 75 years of Israeli settler colonial violence against the Palestinian people as the historical basis that led to the October 7th attacks.
Since the 1948 illegal invasion and occupation of Palestine by Zionist settlers, Palestinians have been subjected to a colonial project that has displaced millions from their homeland. For three-quarters of a century, Palestinians have suffered arbitrary arrest, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, daily harassment, and a whole array of containment measures imposed by the Israeli state that has erected border barriers, militarized checkpoints, armed settler mobs who establish illegal settlements, and have made life for Palestinians a daily struggle of life and death.
As Raza, why should we care about what’s happening in Palestine? We must remember that we (Indigenous peoples, Mexicanos, and Centroamericanos) have been the victims of settler colonial genocide and warmongering. Spain and the United States attacked us, stole our land, and tried to destroy our culture. Throughout Nuestra America, the U.S. has directed/funded civil wars and coups. They have propped up right-wing puppet lackeys who have killed our people. Like Palestinians today, we are treated as foreigners or illegals in our historic homeland. Republicans AND Democrats use our hard-earned tax dollars to finance this horrific settler-colonial genocide. During the last year, billions have been directed to the Israeli military: $3.7 billion in annual funding; after October 7, 2023, Biden sent an additional $14.3 billion. In one year, $22.76 billion of our tax dollars were used to finance a genocide, while that money should have been used to end homelessness, improve our schools, cover child care, improve healthcare, and so much more.
As a matter of political principle, Unión de Barrio will never support actions that intentionally cause the deaths of innocent civilians anywhere in the world. Simultaneously, we support resistance and liberation movements against settler-colonial occupation anywhere in the world. We will continue to inform our community and organize in our barrios to do what we can to denounce and oppose the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
¡Que viva el pueblo heroico Palestino! ¡Que viva Palestina libre y soberana!
¡Abajo con el colonialismo! ¡Alto al genocidio!
– Statement updated on 10/10/2024 to reflect our political line.